Is Procreate Easier to Use than Adobe Illustrator? An In-Depth Comparison

As a digital artist and educator who has taught countless students to use both Procreate and Adobe Illustrator, I‘m often asked which program is easier to learn and use. While both are incredibly powerful tools capable of creating stunning artwork, there‘s no question that Procreate offers a more intuitive and welcoming experience, especially for beginners.

In this article, I‘ll break down the key reasons why Procreate is generally easier to use than Illustrator, as well as some situations where Illustrator still shines. Whether you‘re a complete novice to digital art or a seasoned pro looking to expand your toolkit, by the end you‘ll have a clear understanding of which program is the best fit for your needs.

The Numbers Don‘t Lie

First, let‘s look at some statistics that highlight the popularity and growth of Procreate in recent years:

• Procreate was the top-selling paid iPad app in 2020 and 2021
• As of 2022, Procreate has been downloaded over 50 million times and has over 4 million monthly active users
• Procreate‘s user base grew by 25% in 2021 alone

Meanwhile, Adobe Illustrator is used by an estimated 2.1 million designers and artists worldwide as part of Creative Cloud, according to Adobe. While still a hugely popular and widespread tool, it hasn‘t seen the same explosive growth as Procreate, especially among hobbyists and aspiring artists.

So why is Procreate catching on so quickly while Illustrator remains more of an industry standard? The answer lies in Procreate‘s unparalleled ease of use and accessibility.

Built for the Apple Pencil

One of the biggest advantages Procreate has over Illustrator is that it‘s designed specifically for the iPad and takes full advantage of the Apple Pencil. Every aspect of the interface is optimized for touch and Apple Pencil input, which makes it incredibly easy and natural to draw and paint.

With Procreate, you have a huge range of pressure-sensitive brushes at your fingertips that respond to the Apple Pencil‘s tilt and pressure. This allows you to create rich, expressive linework and shading just like you would with traditional media like pencils, markers, and paint brushes.

Illustrator, on the other hand, has a dense interface packed with tiny buttons, pull-down menus and control panels. While recent versions are more touch-friendly, it‘s clear that the UI is still designed primarily for desktop use with a mouse and keyboard.

Drawing in Illustrator with the Apple Pencil works but feels clunky by comparison. There‘s more lag and stutter, and the brushes don‘t feel as responsive and natural due to Illustrator‘s vector focus. Illustrator excels at precise, scalable shapes and lines, not gestural drawing and expressive brush strokes.

A Focused Toolset

Another key factor that makes Procreate easier to pick up is that it has a focused, curated set of tools designed specifically for drawing and painting. The interface puts the essential tools like brushes, smudge, erase, and layers front and center, with more advanced options tucked away in intuitive menus.

Procreate‘s brush library is the heart of the app, with hundreds of built-in brushes that simulate every traditional media from pencils and inks to oils and watercolors. You can also customize brushes or import new ones to expand your options.

By contrast, Illustrator has a sprawling array of tools that go far beyond drawing and illustration. As a professional vector graphic design app, it includes precise shape-building tools, pathfinder operations, gradient meshes, a full graph tool, gauge charts and much, much more.

So while Illustrator is certainly capable of drawing and painting, those natural media tools are just a fraction of what the app can do. For a beginner trying to learn to draw, sifting through all those options and figuring out which tools to use can be overwhelming.

Procreate‘s focused toolset means you can learn the essentials quickly and start making art right away. The more advanced features reveal themselves naturally as you go, allowing you to progressively grow your skills without getting overwhelmed.

Intuitive Precision Tools

While Procreate is designed for organic, gestural drawing and painting, it also includes a host of "smart" tools that allow you to create polished, precise artwork more easily. These include:

• QuickShape: Automatically transform your rough shapes into perfect circles, squares, and polygons
• Drawing Assist: Snap your lines and shapes to isometric planes and perspective grids
• Symmetry: Mirror your strokes across X, Y, and radial axes to create perfectly symmetrical designs
• Liquify: Push, pull, twirl and pinch your artwork to reshape it in creative ways

These assist tools feel like magic, allowing you to rough out a sketch and watch it snap into a crisp, precise composition before your eyes. It‘s a more forgiving way to create technical illustrations compared to Illustrator‘s unwavering precision.

Of course, Illustrator does have its own versions of many of these tools, like the Shape Builder and Symmetry tools. But they aren‘t as streamlined and easy to use, and can have unpredictable results until you really learn the ins and outs of each one.

The Power (and Cost) of Illustrator

So far I‘ve focused a lot on the ways Procreate is easier to use, but there‘s no denying the immense capabilities of Adobe Illustrator in the right hands. It‘s the industry standard vector drawing program for good reason.

While Procreate does allow you to export your artwork as scalable PDFs, Illustrator‘s native vector shapes and tools are on another level. They allow you to create infinitely scalable graphics that can be printed at massive sizes with no loss in quality.

Illustrator also has powerful type controls, 3D rendering tools, and advanced path editing capabilities that make it essential for many graphic design projects. It integrates seamlessly with other Adobe apps like Photoshop, InDesign, and After Effects, serving as the foundation of many professional design workflows.

All that power comes with a steep learning curve though. It‘s not uncommon for designers to take months or even years to feel truly proficient with Illustrator. And to get access to the app, you‘ll need a Creative Cloud subscription, which starts at $20.99/month.

By contrast, Procreate costs just $9.99 as a one-time purchase, making it a more accessible entry point for aspiring artists. But many professionals use both apps in their work—sketching and painting in Procreate, then refining and finishing the artwork in Illustrator.

Conclusion: Procreate Puts People First

Hopefully this in-depth breakdown gives you a clear sense of how Procreate and Illustrator compare, and why Procreate has earned its reputation as the easiest professional-grade drawing app. It‘s not that Procreate is basic or watered down—far from it. The app is absolutely packed with advanced features and capabilities.
The difference is Procreate puts people first, especially people new to digital art. Every aspect of the app, from the gesture-based interface to the painterly brushes to the time-lapse video replay, is designed to be easy to learn and fun to use. It invites you to explore and experiment, with no frustrating technical barriers to overcome.

As an educator, I‘ve seen firsthand how empowering Procreate can be for students and emerging artists. It lets people dive in and start making things on day one, rather than spending weeks struggling with menus and manuals before they can create something they‘re proud of.

That said, I‘m a firm believer that Procreate and Illustrator aren‘t an either/or proposition. Both apps have their strengths, and there‘s still plenty that Illustrator can do that Procreate can‘t (for now). Just like traditional artists use many different tools, digital artists can incorporate both apps into their creative workflows.

But if you‘re just starting out or looking for an easier way to learn digital drawing and painting, Procreate is hard to beat. Download it today and see where your creativity takes you!