Free vs Premium Procreate Brushes: Which Should You Choose?

One of the most common questions digital artists ask when starting with Procreate is whether they should invest in premium brushes or stick with free options. With thousands of brushes available at every price point, making this decision can feel overwhelming. The truth is, both free and premium brushes have their place in a digital artist's toolkit—the key is understanding which serves your specific needs and creative goals.

In this comprehensive comparison, we'll break down the real differences between free and premium Procreate brushes, help you determine which option makes sense for your current skill level and budget, and show you how to get maximum value regardless of which path you choose.

What You Get With Free Procreate Brushes

Let's start by acknowledging something important: Procreate comes with over 200 excellent brushes right out of the box. Many professional artists create stunning work using only these default brushes, proving that the tools don't make the artist—skill and vision do.

Procreate's Default Brush Library

Procreate's included brushes cover all fundamental needs: sketching, inking, painting, airbrushing, and texture work. The default library includes carefully crafted tools like the HB Pencil for sketching, Technical Pen for clean linework, Round Brush for painting, and specialized tools for calligraphy, spray paint effects, and more.

These brushes are professionally designed, fully customizable, and more than capable of producing portfolio-quality work. If you're a beginner, these brushes provide everything you need to learn digital art fundamentals without spending a single dollar beyond Procreate's one-time purchase price.

Community-Created Free Brushes

Beyond Procreate's defaults, the creative community shares thousands of free brushes. Artists create brush sets and offer them free as portfolio pieces, marketing for their paid products, or simply to contribute to the community. These free brushes range from basic to highly specialized, covering every style and technique imaginable.

Quality Considerations for Free Brushes

Free brushes vary dramatically in quality. Some rival the best premium offerings, while others are poorly optimized, causing lag or producing inconsistent results. Without quality control or support, free brushes require trial and error to find worthwhile additions to your toolkit.

What Premium Brushes Offer

Premium Procreate brushes aren't just expensive versions of free tools—they offer distinct advantages that can significantly impact your workflow and artistic capabilities.

Specialized Tools for Specific Styles

Premium brush sets often target specific artistic styles or techniques with laser focus. Want to create watercolor illustrations that look traditionally painted? Premium watercolor sets include multiple brushes for wet-on-wet techniques, dry brush effects, granulation, and bleeding—nuances that generic free brushes don't capture.

Similarly, premium sets for oil painting, pencil sketching, or tattoo design include variations and specialty tools that replicate traditional media with remarkable fidelity. This specialization saves you countless hours of manual brush customization and experimentation.

Professional Optimization and Testing

Quality premium brushes undergo extensive testing and optimization. Creators ensure they perform smoothly across different iPad models, respond predictably to Apple Pencil pressure and tilt, and produce consistent results at various sizes and opacities.

This professional polish means fewer frustrations, better performance, and more time spent creating instead of troubleshooting. When you're on deadline or in creative flow, this reliability becomes invaluable.

Support and Updates

Premium brush purchases often include ongoing support from creators. Have questions about optimal settings? Need help achieving specific effects? Premium brush creators typically offer guidance through documentation, video tutorials, or direct support.

Additionally, premium sets receive updates when Procreate introduces new features or when creators refine their offerings based on user feedback. This ensures your investment remains valuable over time rather than becoming obsolete.

Time Savings Through Curation

Perhaps the most underrated benefit of premium brushes is curation. Instead of downloading 50 free brush packs and testing hundreds of brushes to find 10 you'll actually use, premium sets provide carefully selected, complementary tools designed to work together cohesively.

For professional artists, this time savings alone often justifies the investment. Time spent testing and organizing brushes is time not spent on paid client work or personal projects.

Price Breakdown: What to Expect

Understanding typical pricing helps set realistic expectations and budget appropriately.

Premium Brush Pricing Tiers

Budget Premium ($3-10): Small, focused sets with 5-15 brushes targeting specific needs. Perfect for adding specialized tools without major investment. Example: a texture pack for adding grain and noise to digital paintings.

Mid-Range Premium ($10-25): Comprehensive sets with 20-50 brushes covering a complete workflow. Example: a complete watercolor painting set with wet, dry, splatter, and detail brushes plus texture papers.

Professional Premium ($25-50+): Extensive libraries with 50-200+ brushes, often including multiple style variations, bonus content, and extensive documentation. Example: a master illustration bundle covering sketching, inking, painting, and special effects.

Subscription Models ($5-15/month): Some services offer subscription access to regularly updated brush libraries, providing continuous new content for a monthly fee.

When Free Brushes Are the Right Choice

Free brushes aren't inferior—they're simply appropriate for different situations and skill levels. Here's when free brushes make perfect sense.

You're Just Starting Out

If you're new to digital art or Procreate specifically, start with the default brushes and free community offerings. This allows you to learn fundamentals, discover your preferred style, and identify specific needs before investing money.

Beginners often don't yet know which tools they'll use most. Spending money on premium portrait brushes only to discover you prefer landscape painting wastes resources. Free exploration prevents this.

You're Experimenting With New Styles

Trying a new artistic style or technique? Free brushes let you experiment without financial commitment. If you fall in love with the style, you can upgrade to premium tools. If it's not for you, you've lost nothing but time.

You're on a Tight Budget

Not everyone can afford premium tools, especially students, hobbyists, or artists in developing economies. Free brushes ensure financial constraints don't prevent creative expression. The artistic community's generosity means quality tools are available regardless of budget.

Procreate's Defaults Meet Your Needs

Many artists find Procreate's default brushes fully sufficient for their work. If the included tools do everything you need, premium brushes offer no practical advantage. Don't buy tools for the sake of having them—buy them to solve specific creative challenges.

When Premium Brushes Are Worth the Investment

Premium brushes become valuable when they solve specific problems or unlock new capabilities. Here's when investing makes sense.

You Have a Defined Style and Workflow

Once you know your preferred artistic style and workflow, targeted premium purchases amplify your strengths. A portrait artist working in a realistic style benefits enormously from premium skin texture brushes, hair detail brushes, and subtle shading tools that generic brushes can't replicate.

You're Creating Client Work or Commercial Art

Professional artists working on deadline or selling their art should view premium brushes as business investments. The time saved and quality improvements directly impact your earning potential. A $20 brush set that saves 2 hours per project pays for itself immediately.

You've Maxed Out Free Options in Your Niche

If you've exhausted high-quality free options in your specialty and need more sophisticated tools, premium brushes become the logical next step. Advanced techniques often require specialized tools that only dedicated brush creators have developed.

You Value Time Over Money

Curated premium sets eliminate hours of searching, testing, and organizing free brushes. If your time is valuable—whether monetarily or simply personally—premium brushes offer excellent return on investment through efficiency gains.

The Hybrid Approach: Best of Both Worlds

Most successful digital artists use a combination of free and premium brushes, creating a custom toolkit optimized for their specific needs and budget.

Building a Hybrid Brush Library

Start with Procreate's defaults and explore high-quality free offerings. Identify gaps in your workflow—specific effects you can't achieve, styles that require manual effort, or frequently needed tools that don't exist in your current collection.

Fill these gaps with targeted premium purchases. This focused approach ensures every dollar spent addresses a real need rather than accumulating unused tools. Your library grows organically based on actual creative challenges rather than impulse purchases.

Strategic Premium Investments

When buying premium brushes, prioritize tools you'll use constantly over novelty effects you might use occasionally. A versatile sketching brush set you'll use in every project delivers more value than a specialty glitter effects pack you'll use twice a year.

Quality Indicators: Evaluating Brushes Before Buying

Whether downloading free brushes or purchasing premium sets, look for these quality indicators.

For Free Brushes

• Creator reputation: Brushes from established artists or popular creators tend to be higher quality
• Documentation: Brushes with usage examples and settings recommendations show creator investment
• Recent updates: Actively maintained brushes indicate ongoing quality control
• Community feedback: Check reviews or comments from other users about performance and usability

For Premium Brushes

• Preview images and videos: Quality creators show extensive examples of brush capabilities
• Brush count and variety: Ensure the set includes sufficient variations for your needs
• Return policy or satisfaction guarantee: Reputable sellers stand behind their products
• Creator portfolio: Review the creator's artwork to assess if their style aligns with yours
• Update history: Regular updates indicate ongoing support and refinement

Common Myths About Brush Quality

Myth 1: More Brushes Equal Better Art

Artists with 1,000 brushes aren't necessarily better than artists with 20. In fact, many professionals use fewer than 10 brushes for 90% of their work. Focus on mastering versatile tools rather than collecting every available brush.

Myth 2: Expensive Brushes Guarantee Professional Results

Premium brushes are tools, not magic wands. They amplify existing skills but can't replace practice and fundamentals. An experienced artist creates better work with free brushes than a beginner produces with premium tools.

Myth 3: Free Brushes Are Always Lower Quality

Some free brushes rival or exceed premium offerings. Talented creators share exceptional tools freely, whether for portfolio building, community contribution, or marketing. Never assume price correlates directly with quality.

Making Your Decision: A Practical Framework

Use this decision framework when considering brush purchases:

1. Identify the specific need: What can't you currently achieve with your existing brushes?
2. Search free options first: Can free brushes solve this problem adequately?
3. Evaluate time vs. money: Will premium brushes save more time than they cost?
4. Consider long-term use: Will you use these brushes in multiple projects?
5. Check your budget: Can you afford this investment without stress?

If free options exist and you have more time than money, choose free. If premium brushes solve specific problems and you have budget available, invest strategically. There's no universal right answer—only the right answer for your current situation.

Conclusion: It's Not Either/Or

The free versus premium brush debate presents a false dichotomy. Successful digital artists use both, choosing tools based on specific needs rather than arbitrary rules. Free brushes provide foundation and experimentation opportunities, while targeted premium purchases fill specialized needs and save time.

Start with excellent free tools, develop your skills and style, identify genuine gaps in your toolkit, then invest strategically in premium brushes that address those specific needs. This balanced approach maximizes value regardless of budget while ensuring your tools genuinely serve your creative vision.

Ready to build your perfect brush collection? Our app offers both free and premium brushes, all carefully curated to ensure quality and usability. Explore thousands of options, read detailed descriptions, and install brushes with a single tap—making it easy to find exactly what your art needs.