Every few years someone at Polygon writes another wistful column asking Nintendo to bring Mario Paint back, and Switch 2 owners keep waiting. If you grew up hitting the SNES mouse against the desk to make a stamp fart, the appeal of Mario Paint alternatives on a phone or tablet is obvious: the same silly, forgiving canvas, minus the twenty-year wait. We rounded up seven Android drawing apps that keep the playful spirit and add layers, undo, and pressure sensitivity along the way.
We focused on apps that open fast, do not require signup to doodle, and give you enough tools to make something worth screenshotting in five minutes. Some are proper illustration studios that a professional would use for finished art. Others are closer to the original spirit of Mario Paint, where the fun comes from the stamps and the sounds, not the output.
Quick comparison
| App | Best for | Free plan | Starting price | Standout feature |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ibis Paint X | The Mario Paint spirit | Yes, with ads | $2.99 lifetime remove ads | 15,000+ brushes and stamps |
| Autodesk SketchBook | Clean drawing on any device | Fully free | Free | Predictive stroke smoothing |
| MediBang Paint | Manga and comic panels | Fully free | Free | Cloud sync across phone, tablet, PC |
| Adobe Fresco | Watercolor and oil that behave like paint | Yes, limited brushes | $9.99/month with Creative Cloud Photography | Live watercolor and oil simulation |
| Infinite Painter | Serious illustrators on tablet | 7-day trial | $9.99 one-time | Perspective guides and symmetry tools |
| Concepts | Sketching with an infinite canvas | Yes, with basic brushes | $9.99/year Essentials | Vector strokes you can restyle later |
| Shattered Pixel Dungeon | Pure pixel-art creativity in a game | Fully free | Free | Free-form pixel monsters in a roguelike |
Why the Mario Paint itch still exists
The original had three things going for it: a canvas that never punished you for messing up, stamps that made anything look intentional, and a music editor that turned drawings into songs. Nothing on Switch or Switch 2 has offered all three since. Nintendo has come close with Mario Maker and with the drawing app on the DS, but neither replaces the pure playground feel.
Android tablets and phones with a decent stylus (or a finger) can get most of the way there. The apps below trade the goofy sound effects for professional tooling, and a couple keep enough weirdness to make you forget you are supposed to be drawing seriously.
The alternatives
ibis Paint X, best for the Mario Paint spirit
ibis Paint X ships with more than 15,000 stamps and brushes, most of them free, and its stroke stabilizer means kids and adults alike can draw a clean line without practice. The community share feed feels like the closest thing on mobile to the “look what I made” moment Mario Paint invented.
Where it falls short: The free version runs ads between tools, and unlocking the pro brush pack means either a subscription or the $2.99 remove-ads purchase.
Pricing:
- Free: Full app with ads and time-limited pro brush access.
- Paid: $2.99 lifetime to remove ads, or a Prime subscription for the full brush library.
- vs Mario Paint: Deeper toolset, no music editor, no SNES nostalgia hit.
Migrating from Mario Paint: No importer needed. Anything you doodled on paper can be scanned in as a base layer and traced over.
Download: Aptoide · Google Play
Bottom line: Pick ibis Paint X if you want the closest Mario Paint feel with modern layers and a huge brush library.
Autodesk SketchBook, best free option
Autodesk SketchBook went fully free in 2018 and has stayed that way, which is rare for pro-tier software. The stroke engine feels natural on a stylus, and the interface hides its complexity behind a single radial menu. Predictive smoothing turns shaky lines into clean ones without erasing your intent.
Where it falls short: No community feed, no music, no play elements. This is a drawing app, not a playground.
Pricing:
- Free: The full desktop-grade feature set on Android.
- Paid: None.
Migrating from Mario Paint: Import a photo of your original SNES sketch as a layer and redraw over it. Export as PNG or PSD.
Download: Aptoide · Google Play
Bottom line: Pick SketchBook if the price of ibis Paint X annoys you and you value a clean canvas over stamps.
MediBang Paint, best for comics and manga panels
MediBang Paint built its reputation on manga tools: pre-drawn panel templates, screen tones, and speech balloons that resize with your text. The cloud sync moves your work between an Android tablet, a phone, and the desktop app without extra setup, which is useful if you sketch on the phone and finish on a laptop.
Where it falls short: The default brush pack is smaller than ibis Paint X. You need a free MediBang account to sync between devices.
Pricing:
- Free: Full features, ad-supported.
- Paid: Premium subscription removes ads and adds cloud storage.
Migrating from Mario Paint: No official importer. Bring in old sketches as reference layers.
Download: Google Play
Bottom line: Pick MediBang if your Mario Paint memories are really about the four-panel comics you drew on the SNES canvas.
Adobe Fresco, best for paint that behaves like paint
Adobe Fresco simulates watercolor and oil paint at a level nothing else on Android matches. Colors bleed on wet layers, dry over minutes, and stack like real paint. If Mario Paint made you fall in love with the tactile side of drawing, Fresco is the grown-up version of that feeling.
Where it falls short: The best brushes are locked behind a Creative Cloud subscription. Performance is smoothest on tablets with high refresh rates.
Pricing:
- Free: Basic brush set and 2 GB cloud storage.
- Paid: $9.99 per month as part of the Creative Cloud Photography plan.
Migrating from Mario Paint: No importer. Recreate favorite stamps as custom brushes.
Download: Google Play
Bottom line: Pick Fresco if you already pay Adobe for anything, and you want paint that actually mixes.
Infinite Painter, best for tablet illustrators
Infinite Painter is what Android artists reach for when they want a Procreate-style workflow. Perspective guides, radial symmetry, and a natural media brush engine make it the app most illustrators mention when someone asks for “the good one” on Android.
Where it falls short: The learning curve is steeper than ibis Paint X. Some features feel wasted on a phone screen.
Pricing:
- Free: 7-day trial with all features.
- Paid: $9.99 one-time unlock for the full app.
Migrating from Mario Paint: Trace scanned SNES doodles on a new layer using low-opacity mode.
Download: Aptoide · Google Play
Bottom line: Pick Infinite Painter if you have a real tablet, a real stylus, and you want to make finished art.
Concepts, best for infinite-canvas sketching
Concepts treats every stroke as a vector, which means you can grab, restyle, and rescale anything you drew hours later. The infinite canvas is more like a whiteboard than a page, and the pressure-sensitive brushes handle both loose sketches and technical drawings.
Where it falls short: The vector model can confuse users coming from raster apps like ibis Paint X. Fills work differently than expected.
Pricing:
- Free: Core brushes and one export format.
- Paid: $9.99 per year Essentials, or $19.99 per year Everything.
Migrating from Mario Paint: Import scanned sketches as static objects on the infinite canvas.
Download: Aptoide · Google Play
Bottom line: Pick Concepts if you want to keep every idea live and editable forever.
Shattered Pixel Dungeon, the weird pick
Shattered Pixel Dungeon is a free, open-source roguelike, but it earns its spot here because playing it feels the way drawing in Mario Paint felt. Every enemy is a hand-crafted pixel monster, every dungeon a canvas someone drew for you. If the Mario Paint craving is really about being surprised by hand-made pixels, this scratches that itch differently.
Where it falls short: Not actually a drawing app. If you want to make things instead of exploring them, look elsewhere.
Pricing:
- Free: Full game, open-source, no ads.
- Paid: Optional donation on Google Play.
Migrating from Mario Paint: Not applicable. Just play.
Download: Aptoide · Google Play · F-Droid
Bottom line: Pick this when you realize you miss Mario Paint less than you miss the playful pixel style it introduced you to.
How to choose
Pick ibis Paint X if you want the closest Mario Paint feeling on Android with the deepest free feature set. Pick Autodesk SketchBook if the ads bother you and you want the same class of tools for free. Pick MediBang Paint if your childhood Mario Paint memories are really about the comic-panel side. Pick Adobe Fresco if you already have Creative Cloud and want realistic paint. Pick Infinite Painter or Concepts if you have graduated to a tablet-first workflow. Stay on the Switch 2 waitlist only if you specifically need the SNES nostalgia hit.
FAQ
Is there a Mario Paint app for Android?
No official port exists. Nintendo has never released Mario Paint on Android. The closest experience comes from creative drawing apps like ibis Paint X, MediBang Paint, or Autodesk SketchBook, which give you a similar tap-to-create canvas with modern layers and tools.
What is the best free drawing app on Android?
Autodesk SketchBook is fully free with no ads and offers a professional feature set. ibis Paint X is free with ads and has more stamps and brushes. Pick SketchBook for a clean canvas, ibis Paint X for more variety.
Can you use ibis Paint X without an account?
Yes. Open the app and start drawing. An account is only needed if you want to publish to the community feed or sync between devices.
What is the closest thing to Mario Paint on mobile?
ibis Paint X comes closest because of its huge stamp and brush library, forgiving canvas, and one-tap sharing. MediBang Paint is a strong second if you care about panels and comic layouts.
Are these apps safe for kids?
ibis Paint X and MediBang Paint have community feeds that expose kids to other users’ art, some of which is not moderated well. Autodesk SketchBook and Infinite Painter have no social features and are safer for younger children.
Do any of these support pressure-sensitive styluses?
Yes. ibis Paint X, Autodesk SketchBook, MediBang Paint, Adobe Fresco, Infinite Painter, and Concepts all support pressure-sensitive input on tablets that have compatible styluses, including the S Pen on Samsung Galaxy Tab devices.
