Is there a drawing app like Photoshop without a subscription?

Rindraw is a one-time $12.99 purchase in the US for iPad, iPhone and Mac. It opens Photoshop files with their layers, imports Photoshop brushes and saves layered PSD files. It's made for drawing and painting, not for editing photos.

Does Photoshop on iPad need a subscription?

Photoshop for iPhone and iPad is a free download with in-app subscriptions. In the US, the Photoshop Mobile & Web plan is $7.99 a month or $69.99 a year, as listed on the App Store in October 2026. Photoshop on a computer comes with a Creative Cloud plan.

Rindraw vs Photoshop

Q: Can Rindraw open PSD files?

Yes. Rindraw opens .psd and .psb files with each layer's pixels, name, opacity, blend mode, visibility, clipping and mask, in their groups. It also saves drawings as layered PSD files and imports Photoshop brushes (.abr).

Compared in October 2026. Both apps change. If something here is out of date, tell us and we'll fix it.

Photoshop is the standard for editing photos, and it does far more than draw. Choose Rindraw if drawing and painting are what you do, and you'd rather pay once than keep a subscription. Stay with Photoshop if you retouch or combine photos, need generative fill, work on Windows, or your studio's pipeline runs on Adobe.

The main difference

Photoshop is a raster image editor⁴: a brush stroke becomes pixels on its layer, the same as a photo. Rindraw keeps each stroke as the path your Pencil took, with its pressure and tilt. When you recolor a line, bend it or export the drawing bigger, Rindraw paints the stroke again at the new size, so it stays sharp instead of being stretched.

Photoshop is also many tools in one: photo retouching, compositing, design and generative AI³. Rindraw does one thing, drawing and painting, so there's less to learn before you start.

Side by side

	Rindraw	Photoshop
iPad and iPhone	Yes	Yes, one app for both¹
Mac	Yes, in the same purchase	Yes, with a Creative Cloud plan²
Windows	No	Yes²
Price in the US	$12.99 once, for all three	iPhone and iPad: free with basic tools, or $7.99 a month or $69.99 a year for the full app¹. Computer: a Creative Cloud plan²
Account	None	An Adobe account²
A stroke after it's drawn	Stays a stroke you can recolor, bend or scale up	Pixels on its layer⁴
Photo editing	Basic: adjustment layers, filters and masks	The industry standard⁴
Animation	Frames, onion skins and playback, out as GIF, animated PNG or video	Frame and timeline animation on the desktop⁵
Generative AI	None	Generative Fill and more, using monthly generative credits^{2, 3}
PSD files	Opens and saves them, with layers	Its own format
Since	2026	1990⁴

Where Photoshop is better

Photos. Retouching, compositing, camera raw and selections made for photographs. Rindraw has adjustment layers and filters for finishing a painting, not for editing photos.
Windows and the rest of Adobe. Photoshop runs on Windows, and it works with Illustrator, Lightroom and the other Creative Cloud apps². If your studio or client sends PSDs with smart objects and layer styles, Photoshop opens them as they were made.
Generative AI. If you want to fill or extend an image from a text prompt, Photoshop does it³. Rindraw has no generative AI.
Years of use. Photoshop came out in 1990⁴, and nearly every digital art course mentions it. Rindraw 1.0 came out in 2026.

Where Rindraw is different

Paid for once. $12.99 covers iPad, iPhone and Mac, with no subscription and no account. If you stop drawing for a year, you don't pay for that year.
Lines you can still change. Recolor finished lineart, warp a pose or export poster-size from a sketch drawn at screen size, without redrawing it.
Made for a pencil. Pressure, tilt and barrel roll on Apple Pencil, wet paint that mixes on the canvas, and Procreate's gestures, such as two-finger tap to undo. On a Mac, a pen tablet's tilt and eraser end work too.
Built not to lose work. Every stroke is saved as you draw it, and your undo history is still there after you close the app.
Nothing collected. No account, no analytics and no tracking. See the privacy policy.

Working with Photoshop files

Rindraw opens .psd and .psb files with each layer's pixels, name, opacity, blend mode, visibility, clipping and mask, in their groups, in RGB, grayscale or CMYK. It saves drawings as layered PSD files the same way, so you can finish a piece in Photoshop or hand it to someone who uses it. It also imports Photoshop brushes (.abr), reading each brush's tip, spacing, scattering, jitter and dual brush.

Some things don't carry over. Rindraw brings smart objects and text in as pixels, and leaves out layer styles. Its own adjustment layers are saved in the merged picture only, because Photoshop's adjustment layers work differently. Step by step: moving from Photoshop.

Moving from another app? See how to bring your work over from Procreate, Clip Studio Paint, ibisPaint, MediBang Paint, Infinite Painter, Sketchbook, Adobe Fresco, Tayasui Sketches, ArtRage, Rebelle, Corel Painter, PaintTool SAI, or Krita.

Get Rindraw on the App Store

Sources

Checked on October 15, 2026.

Adobe Photoshop on the App Store (US): free, for iPhone and iPad; in-app purchases include Photoshop Mobile & Web, $7.99 a month or $69.99 a year.
Adobe Photoshop plans: Photoshop on desktop, web and mobile with a Creative Cloud plan, billed monthly or yearly, with monthly generative credits.
Generative Fill in Photoshop, Adobe.
Adobe Photoshop, Wikipedia: a raster graphics editor, first released February 19, 1990.
Create frame-based animations in Photoshop, Adobe Help.

Adobe and Photoshop are trademarks of Adobe Inc. Rindraw is made by Sawir Studio and isn't affiliated with Adobe.