Astropad
Review & Alternatives (2026 Guide)

Astropad is a wonderful piece of software. It's well-designed, performant, and does exactly what I need it to do and does it well. That's especially great because I can't even find any other apps that actually let me use my iPad and Pencil as a drawing tablet (except for Apple's built-in Sidecar), so I'd still pretty much have to use it even if it weren't as good as it is.

I don't consider Sidecar a real alternative because it doesn't work on Windows, which is where I have to run all my 3D software since Apple's break-up with NVIDIA. But I still use Astropad on the Mac since, so far, I usually get lower latency and better responsiveness with it than with Sidecar.

What a contrast! Duet Display wreaked havoc in my house of apple. But it took 2 years to find out it was upsetting Hand Off, the universal clipboard, AirDrop etc!! Pretty crucial features when you have 2 separate machines.

Even after giving up on it after a month.....

The Luna Display was up and running in minutes. I can even still listen to the music on my secondary machine with the keyboard still controlling the tunes while working on the display !! how do they do that!!??
Support's great as well, they even sent me a freeby when I received the wrong one. Maybe I'm not meant to say that..... thanks Astropad. Having my 2 27's working together is finally happening! and really well too