Astropad is an application that turns your iPad into a graphics tablet for your Mac. I first heard about it on The Creative Pep Talk Podcast a few years ago, and, after buying an iPad Pro, I decided to give it a try. At the time I was using a Wacom Intuos 4, a pro-level graphics tablet. While it had many great qualities, it lacked what I feel is the most important part of a tablet — a screen that allows you to see what you’re drawing on! I had been thinking about getting a Cintiq but they were so expensive. With a thirty day free trial available for Astropad Studio, I decided to give that a whirl. To my surprise and delight, it worked perfectly. There was no turning back, and the name Wacom scarcely crossed my mind again.
Astropad Studio is the ultimate wireless drawing tablet, designed for the most demanding creative work. With complete workspace customization, Studio allows artists to work faster and more efficiently, with the freedom to work in the studio, at home, or on-the-go. Used by leading companies. Astropad Standard vs. Choose the best plan for you. There’s no wrong answer! Try our free 30-day trial to figure out if Studio is right for you. If you’re a teacher or student, learn more about our Education Discount.
Now, one of the most unanswered questions about Astropad at the time was, really, what was the difference between their Studio and Standard versions, and given these, which ones did I truly need?
Astropad Studio Download
Astropad Studio Mac
Studio is a $79 US subscription, while Standard is a one-time purchase of $29.99 US. I had hoped the Standard version would be everything I needed, but not having used a screen based graphics tablet before, I couldn’t tell at the time.
I can’t remember, but I recall not really being able to find out, what, really, do you get with the steep increase in cost going up to Studio. Thankfully, today, they’ve delineated the differences quite neatly on their site. In any event, I thought I’d take it on myself to find out and summarize it for you as best I can.
Now before I get into the comparison, I will say what I ended up with and why. Because Astropad Studio has a 30 day free trial and Standard doesn’t, it was simply less risky to try the pro version. In order to try the Standard version, I would have had to buy it. Buy to try does not line up with my philosophy, so, admittedly, I have never used it. Everything I know about Standard comes from my research — which I mostly conduced on the App Store, reading the details on the Astropad Studio and Astropad Standard pages there.
So what is the difference between Astropad Studio and Astropad Standard?
As you might have guessed, the main differences are in features, performance, and pricing. Studio has more customizability and faster performance, and is optimized to meet the demands of professional illustrators. As mentioned, Studio is a $79/year subscription, but you can try it for 30 days for free. Standard does almost everything Studio can do but has less customizability and fewer features that may matter to pros, including speed/performance and colour correction. Astropad Studio costs a one time price of $29.99, but there is no trial period available.
Astropad Studio For Mac
ASTROPAD STUDIO FEATURES
US $79 per year, subscription based
30 day free trial period
Crystal clear and ultra fast
Gesture shortcut customization
Keyboard support
Customizable pressure curves
Magic Gestures - create your own gesture shortcuts with touch-pencil combinations
Shortcut Sets
Unlimited upgrades
Wifi and USB connection
Pressure sensitive
Designed exclusively for Apple Pencil
Color Corrected - true to your source material
iPad iOS 91. Or later; iPad mini 2(2013+), iPad Air (2013+), iPad Pro (2016+), iPad 5th gen (2017+) - Need Mac OS X 10.11 or later
Windows Support Coming Soon
Optimized for iPad Pro and Apple Pencil
Priority creative pro support
Unlimited updates
Syncing of settings across devices
ASTROPAD STANDARD FEATURES
US $29.99 one time purchase
No trial period — you have to buy to try
Wifi and USB connection
Pressure sensitive
Supports Apple Pencil
Customizable shortcuts
Works with iPad iOS 9.1 or later, iPad mini 2 (2013+), iPad Air (2013+), iPad 5th gen (2017+)
Need Mac OS X 10.11 or later
Windows Support Coming Soon
Continual updates to improve performance
The Verdict
Ultimately, the main advantages of Studio over Standard seem to be in the customizability, performance and colour correction. As a professional illustrator, you will likely use this tool for hours every day. That means you will eventually become a “power user”, relying on quick shortcuts and magic gestures to perform repetitive tasks. It never occurred to me until doing this research that Astropad Studio also creates colour consistency between your Mac and iPad, which, when you think about it, is pretty important!
If price alone is getting you hung up, then it might help to remember that, as a pro, you can write off your app subscriptions for tax purposes. It also might help to remember that it’s hard to put a price tag on tools that make your job easier and the quality of your work better (both of which are true for me). For the price of a monthly Netflix subscription, this tool pays for itself many times each day.
If you just want to play around with the essential features of a visual graphics tablet, and you are not a professional (getting paid to illustrate) just yet, it may be better to just go with Standard. It’s a bit of a toss-up. One one side, it might be all you need, and you dodge having yet another expensive subscription. On the other side, perhaps you end up wanting to try Studio after a while anyway, and you’ve “wasted” your thirty bucks. That being said, if you are in no hurry and can endure trying Standard for 3 months, and then upgrade to the subscription based Pro after that, your initial investment will have been less than what it would have cost to subscribe to Studio in that same time. That’s one way of looking at it.
Either way, after 3 years of subscribing, my overall cost still doesn’t even amount to half of what it would cost me to get a Cintiq. So there’s that!
Astropad has been a HUGE game-changer for me, and I’m grateful to the company for providing such a helpful app. They didn’t have to, and so far, no one else has stepped up to the plate.
Except Apple themselves, but that’s a different story! If you’re wondering how Sidecar compares to Astropad, this article from Astropad themselves gives some insight.
Astropad Studio Mac Download
For more on how I use Astropad, please check out my YouTube video on the topic.
Astropad Studio Download