Adobe InDesign vs ibisPaint
Adobe InDesign
adobe.com
ibisPaint
ibispaint.comSide by side
| Figure | Adobe InDesign | ibisPaint |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $19.99/mo | $2.33/mo |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| iOS | — | Yes |
| Android | — | Yes |
| API | Yes | — |
| Self-hosted | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 9 | 15 |
| Spec score · Graphic Design Software | 9.2 (#10) | 9.3 (#5) |
| Spec score · Design tools | 9.2 (#10) | 9.3 (#5) |
| Free plan | No | Yes |
| Limit: performance | Reviewers report occasional slowness, high RAM use, freezes, crashes and slow exports, particularly with complex documents. | Capterra reviews report lag, glitches or resource demands on older devices and with large or complex artwork. |
| Rating on Capterra | 4.8 out of 5 from 344 reviews. | 4.7 out of 5 from 23 reviews |
| Rating on GetApp | 4.8 out of 5 from 344 reviews. | 4.7 out of 5 from 24 reviews |
| System requirements | InDesign 21.x requires Windows 10 or 11 64-bit, at least 8GB RAM, AVX2 and an internet connection; macOS 12 or newer is required for current versions. | Official minimums are Windows 10 version 2004 or newer, Windows 11 version 21H2 or newer, macOS 11 or newer, iOS/iPadOS 15 or newer and Android 7 or newer. |
| What it does | InDesign creates and publishes books, digital magazines, posters, brochures, eBooks, presentations and other print or digital layouts. | ibisPaint is a drawing, painting, illustration, manga and animation app with a social artwork-sharing community. |
Plans
Adobe InDesign
- Creative Cloud Pro for students and teachers$19.99 a month
- InDesign$22.99 a month
- InDesign$22.99 a month
- Creative Cloud Pro$34.99 a month
- Creative Cloud Pro$34.99 a month
- InDesign for teams$37.99 a month
- InDesign for teams$37.99 a month
- Creative Cloud Pro for teams$99.99 a month
- InDesign annual prepaid$263.88 a year
ibisPaint
- Free versionFree
- Premium Membership$4.49 a month
- Premium Membership annual$27.99 a year
- Ad Removal Upgrade$15.99 a month
- Pro Upgrade$62.99 a month
- ibisPaint XFree
- Windows Free trial / Demo ModeFree
- Premium Membership$4.49 a month
- Windows Premium Membership$4.49 a month
- Mac Premium Membership$4.99 a month
In their own words
Adobe InDesign
Adobe InDesign is a professional page-layout application for designing, preflighting, and publishing content for print, web, and tablet apps. It can produce brochures, digital magazines, eBooks, posters, and presentations, with precise typography controls and access to Adobe Fonts. Adobe describes layout and AI features including Flex Layout, layout-aware Rewrite, PDF-to-InDesign conversion, generated alt text, and Generative Expand. InDesign integrates with Photoshop, Illustrator, and Acrobat, and includes tools for sharing assets, receiving feedback, and collaborating with stakeholders. It runs on macOS and Windows as a desktop app, not a mobile app, and is available only through a membership plan. A seven-day trial provides the full version but converts to a paid Creative Cloud membership unless canceled before it ends. The InDesign plan includes 100GB cloud storage and 25 monthly generative credits; Creative Cloud Pro plans include access to 20+ apps. For versions 21.3 and later, Adobe lists at least 8GB RAM and an internet connection for activation, subscription validation, and online services.
ibisPaint
ibisPaint is a social drawing app for smartphones, tablets, and other devices, available for Android, iOS, macOS, and Windows. Its drawing tools include over 47,000 brush types and more than 23,000 color and monochrome materials, along with over 80 filters such as background removal and watercolor-style conversion. Manga features include 46 screen tones, frame division, speech bubbles, and ruler tools. Animation tools support frame copying and onion-skin display for drawing successive frames. Cloud Storage syncs artwork across smartphones, tablets, and PCs; Premium Membership includes 20GB. The free version includes 64MB of cloud storage and advertisements. Premium Membership removes ads and includes premium features, with listed prices of $4.49 a month or $27.99 a year. AI Disturbance adds noise intended to prevent fine-tuning by image-generating AI, while AI Super-resolution improves small-canvas image quality. Drawing-process videos can be posted to ibispaint.com or shared through LINE, X, and Facebook. Listed system requirements include Android 7 or later, iOS/iPadOS 15 or later, macOS 11 Big Sur or newer, and specified Windows 10 and 11 versions.