The whole point of coloring is to relax and calm your mind. A lot of people associate stress with electronic devices, that’s why the idea of coloring apps may seem counterproductive at first. However, after comparing it with more traditional coloring methods, like using good old printed books or even the newest trend – downloadable coloring pages, it’s clear that an adult coloring app is really a nice alternative for those who are well-familiar and comfortable with electronic devices and prefer to pass their time in a creative way when they are out, waiting in line or simply don’t have access to their coloring supplies.
So coloring apps may really become your next creative obsession. Or you may choose to stay true to printed coloring books. Dive deeper into the world of coloring apps together with us, weigh up pros and cons and figure out for yourself if maybe adult coloring app is actually something right up your street.
1. COLORFY
One of the most popular coloring apps on the market with more than 25 million users in Apple Store and over 10 million users in Google Market. They offer 1000+ coloring designs, featuring mandalas, animals, cats, florals, famous paintings and more.
Free Features:
- The first image that you color in each category is free;
- Some of the color pallets are also free;
- Get inspired section featuring works of other colorists;
- Social share options for sharing your own artworks;
- Opportunity to draw and color your mandalas or your personalized message;
- Works offline;
- Nice benefit: you can actually take a picture of your paper drawing and color within the app.
Premium Subscription:
- Offers a free 7-day trial;
- After that, subscription prices start at $2.99
- Unlocks images in all categories, access to special color palettes, brushes, gradients.
Ads:
Unfortunately for those who are registered for free, the ads are all over there. They pop up randomly and from our experience, we find them actually quite annoying.
Final Thoughts:
It’s a nice and definitely very popular coloring app, with a large variety of drawings (over 1000) and possibility to create from your imagination. However, it does have its downside. Lots of colorists are disappointed that the app offers only a very limited number of free designs and features. For a proper coloring experience, one must be a Colorfy Plus subscriber.
2. COLORING BOOK FOR ME & MANDALA
Another quite popular adult coloring app with 15+ categories of drawings (Animals, Mandalas, Fantasy, Kids, Nature and etc) and 30+ preset color palettes.
Free Features:
- Coloring page of the day is free just as a few pictures in some categories;
- Some color palettes, tools, and editing effects are also available for free;
- Social sharing is available only with a watermark of an app;
- Coloring a photo or your drawing within the app;
- Nice benefit: listen to relaxing sounds while coloring. This is truly fun and besides a few sounds are totally free.
Premium Subscription:
- Offers a free 7-day trial;
- After that, subscription prices start at $2.99
- Allows to share your artworks without watermarks;
- Grants an unlimited access to the entire collection of coloring designs and relaxing sounds.
Ads:
Another coloring app which is definitely overloaded with different kinds of ads. For a free user, they’ll appear here and there all the time.
Final Thoughts:
In overall, the app looks fun and seems to be more functional when it comes to coloring tools and possibilities than the previous one. Here you can find a paint bucket, a marker, a pen and an eraser, plus apply different textures as the final effect. Also, it looks like this app offers a bit more designs that you can actually color for free. In addition, the extra feature with relaxing sounds that you can listen on the background is really nice and calming.
3. COLORFLOW: ADULT COLORING & MANDALA
This app is described as an easy and addicting adult coloring book. They offer a variety of designs featuring mandala, animal, floral, messages, nature, zodiac, etc.
Free Features:
- Just like the previous app they offer a few coloring designs in each category for free, plus the free image of the day;
- Some color palettes are free;
- Social sharing is available;
- Nice benefit: you actually don’t have to pay at all. It’s possible to unlock some content just after watching an ad.
Premium Subscription:
- Offers a free 7-day trial;
- After that, subscription prices start at $2.99
- Unlocks all color palettes and drawings.
Ads:
Yes, there are ads within this ap too. BUT the difference is that they actually give you a choice to watch an ad to unlock a color palette or a design for a one time use.
Final Thoughts:
Comparing to other coloring apps, this one looks pretty simple. It lacks coloring tools and effects, just color palettes are available even for premium users. Although the designs are pretty interesting and fun.
4. PIGMENT
They claim to offer “the largest artwork collection available in an app with over 2,200 professionally illustrated pages to color”, also describing their app as the only one that simulates pencil, markers, and paintbrush strokes.
Free Features:
- 1 image in each category is free;
- Some fills, brushes, and palettes are free as well;
- Social sharing with watermarks is available;
- Nice benefit: they offer you to color within or outside the lines with a freehand tool. Also, supports finger, Apple Pencil, and third-party stylus inputs.
Premium Subscription:
- Offers a free 7-day trial;
- After that, subscription prices start at $3.99
- Unlocks all color palettes, designs, brushes, and fills.
Ads:
Interesting enough there didn’t appear to be any adds while we were testing the app.
Final Thoughts:
Though the app itself is fairly simple, it does give you more opportunity when it comes to brushes and strokes. This partially contributes to a more realistic coloring experience. The variety of drawings is also very nice. The prices for a premium subscription are a bit higher, comparing to the other coloring apps above, but the best thing is that you don’t see all those annoying ads while coloring.
5. COLORFIL
They claim to offer over 500 images and fresh daily updates, featuring animals, flowers, mandalas and etc.
Free Features:
- They have a section of free images, however, those images are pretty basic and a little bit boring;
- The free palettes are quite good and more than enough;
- Social sharing is available;
- Nice benefit: final effects such as filters and textures are also available for free.
Premium Subscription:
- Offers a free 7-day trial;
- After that, subscription prices start at $2.99
- Unlocks all color palettes and designs.
Ads:
There are ads, however during the test they didn’t really pop up here and there, just were shown in some places on the screen.
Final Thoughts:
This is a rather simple app, easy to use and navigate. The variety of free drawings is not impressive, but the paid ones are pretty good. Some may find this app quite appealing, considering that you don’t have to pay for it and just watch some ads to unlock any design.
6. RECOLOR
Just like their competitors, Recolor offers a variety of designs (over 2000) featuring portraits, mandalas, animals, flowers, ornates, mortes and etc.
Free Features:
- Some of the images in their collection are free;
- Some color palettes, effects, and filters are also free;
- Nice benefit: social networking works great. Under a special section, you can discover inspiring artworks and follow your favorite colorists.
Premium Subscription:
- Offers a free 7-day trial;
- After that, the prices are: subscription prices start at $3.99
- Unlocks all color palettes, designs, and filters.
Ads:
While testing, we didn’t see any ads popping up.
Final Thoughts:
This is an interesting, while simple app. The main advantage is that their coloring designs are really fresh and unique. Though you may first try it out to see if you personally like the style of drawings. Plus there are no ads, as far as we managed to find out. In overall, the app looks great with all the nice color palettes and interesting designs. Despite the fact that the subscription prices are a bit higher than for most coloring apps, you can still enjoy it and some of its features for free.
7. COLORING
They offer around 500+ coloring designs featuring animals, sea creatures, floral patterns. And also claim to have over 60 free drawings.
Free Features:
- Over 60 free coloring pictures;
- Different color palettes and adjustable brush widths and modes;
- Eraser tool;
- Nice benefit: watch ads and earn coins to pay for drawings.
Premium Subscription:
- Subscription prices start at $2.99
Ads:
No ads are popping up however you have a choice to watch them if you want to earn coins and pay for premium drawings.
Final Thoughts:
This app is appreciated by many colorists because it’s really easy to use and most importantly it offers lots of unlocked content and features. Fans of this app love it for the free opportunities and variety of unlocked color palettes. A nice perk is that you can really avoid paying any money at all. If you want to access premium content, just watch an ad, earn coins and use them to pay for the drawing you liked.
In Conclusion
Now that we reviewed 7 most popular adult coloring apps you probably understand why many colorists use them nowadays. While they are definitely not the same thing as traditional coloring, you can still enjoy some of their benefits. If you are one of those people who often take out their phone or tablet to pass the time, you should definitely consider trying an adult coloring app.
All of the reviewed coloring apps are free to download and install, plus many offer great free features and drawings (Pigment, Coloring, Recolor) which are quite enough, so you don’t even have to pay anything in the end. In case you are after a premium coloring experience with unlimited functions, you may consider such apps as Colorfy and Coloring Book For Me & Mandala. With the latter, you can color and relax listening to calming sounds.
