Top Rated PaintTool SAI Alternatives
61 PaintTool SAI Reviews

Easy to use, great for artists. The layer system makes it so that you don't have to worry about messing up the lines you already did. It works with tablets, and has multiple ways that you can input the colors you want, from an eyedropper, to RGB, HSV, and a color wheel. There are a lot of different brushes available to use for different stroke types.
Layeres can be changed in Opacity, as well as style. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
The layers are fairly simple and - unlike Photoshop - you cannot apply a function styling to them, to add embossing, stroked outline, glow, etc. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Sai is by far the most comfortable program to work in. Sketching, inking and painting in it feels like a dream compared to Photoshop and Clip Studio Paint. It offers stabilization and some lovely blending tools you'll be hard-pressed to find elsewhere. The simple interface makes it a delight to work in as well. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
This is maybe the least supported program I've ever used. It is 32 bit, and will only use up to 4GB of RAM. You also cannot exceed a certain size canvas, which is extremely frustrating in many cases. The RAM thing might be the biggest problem - I very frequently get trapped in SAI and cannot save or export my work due to this problem. The toolset is also very limited - no gradients, no text, and brush sizes cap at 500px. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

- one of the best color blending visually,
- light software size,
- psd compatible,
- 2 window options,
- really easy to use,
- line correction stabilizer,
- really easy interface,
- ease of creating and saving new brushes,
- compatible with most systems and tablets,
- there are lots and lots of sai tutorials and brush settings, and the community is really welcoming and helpful,
- it can me copied on a pendrive and moved between machines - no need for reinstall. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
- no shape brushes,
- the line tool doesn't have the "close/connect" option for making closed shapes,
- no text function,
- can bug out from time to time, but most of the things are easy to fix (like restarting the software, or cleaning the drivers). Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
Stabilizer is great, making your line smoother and more elegant.
LineWork Layer is my fav. It's very easy to modify the pen pressure, thickness of the line, and very easy to change shape, 10 times better than Photoshop bezier based pen. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
doesn't really support Mac. That's the biggest draw back.
The brush setting is a bit confusing. I am so used to photoshop brush settings, it's little hard to get my head around with so much options. I guess the several good preset with LESS options are better. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I know a lot of artists use Photoshop or Illustrator to draw digitally, but since SAI is specifically geared towards drawing, it's a lot more user-friendly and direct. Also, it takes up much less RAM and is portable, so I can use it whenever and wherever I want. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
There isn't much to dislike with such a cheap and efficient product. It's a much more affordable alternative to many of the other programs out there. However, I do wish that there were more brush or editing options. Also, the vector functions aren't as sophisticated as in the Adobe Suite. One problem that I often have is getting the pen pressure to work. Sometimes, the program doesn't respond to the drawing tablet that I'm using. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The brushes on paint tool sai are definitelly it's stronger point, The default brushes are amazing and you can create your own. the other thing amazing about paint tool sai it's the color scheme visualitation, the sample menu and the color mix tool. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
It lack of vectors and few blending modes limits Paint tool sai to be just a sketch software. A sad thing since Paint tool sai has one of the most beautifull brushes i've ever used on a ilustration software before. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
Paint Tool SAI is a painting tool. Mainly for drawing and painting, and not editing. Paint Tool SAI experience is just like the real pen and paper experience. the drawing is fluid and if you use pen tablet, you can customize the speed of your pointer so you can make it more accurate just like using real pen.
You can customize brushes, see other people setting or make your own. brushes setting is very complex yet simple. you can even customize the effect of your pressure pen, is it more size of your brush, or even the thickness of your paint.
You can even have layers just like other photo editing program. what makes it more to liking is that you can have two kinds of layer. Vector layer and normal layer. for mouse user is easier to use vector layer, because the vector making is very simple to use, you can even add pressure pen effect for the lines that you make in vector layer. You can even save the file in various format, such as .PSD or .AI. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
Paint Tool SAI so far is the best drawing program that I ever use. but for some reason, searching for it n the internet is much harder than the other app. You can easily find the trial on the internet, but physically finding the physic product is hard. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The smoothness , realistic of strokes and pen pressure when using with graphics tablet.
It responds well to the pen without strokes delay or also know as 'Brush Lag'.
I love personally the Pen, Brush and Watercolor because it feels similar to traditional medium.
The blending is great.
It can save to different formats like PSD, JPEG, PNG and SAI.
The software is not memory hungry or very light that you can open other software. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
Has limited features and lack of layer order functionality. Layers in a folder cannot be moved.
Some bugs and crashes sometimes when the file is very large or working on a very high resolution.
Not much community and no big improvements in every new version. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Paint Tool is a simple tool, it's almost like doing it all in the traditional way, only paper and pencil. Touch with pencils are superbly correct graphics tablet, it is more sensitive than more advanced programs such as Photoshop and allows you different types of lines and strokes. When you save any file it is very light and you can export it to almost any format and you respect your strokes and effects. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
What we do not like about this program is that many things are not as automated as is the union between coats, I think they have potential but have lagged a bit behind with respect to new versions but if that version is the one that has found it for the time then it is good to remain so for a while. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

There are two features in Sai I prefer the most:
1. Brushes. I don't know why, but I really can't make coloring as soft and smooth in Photoshop as I do in Sai. Their brush settings really simple and obvious and to change them is really handy and quickly.
2. Stabilizer. This function helps me A LOT when I have to create very accurate and neat lineart. How I understand it, it is a speed of how your tablet pen draws the line. And again, it's so handy and you can go through speeds (0 - 22) easily.
3. I adore Flip Horisontally in SAI
4. I do like SAI has the variety of how to view color palette: color wheel, RGB slider, scratchpad, user palette and other. You can switch on two a more at once. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
Again, there are several things that make SAI not ideal program))
1. You can't work in CMYK color model, only RGB. It's a HUGE minus.
2. It's a bit complicated to work with layers. For example, you can't select several of them to change together - to put them higher/lower in the layers list. It has a "link translation/deformation/filtering to working layer " and this mark allows you to work with several layers, but it's less convenient as in Photoshop.
3. I'm not sure, but my version of program (or system because I don't know what influences on it) doesn't allow me to make a brush in any size - it has like a limit size and usually it's not big enough. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.