Peyo: First Look at the iOS App That Turns Finger Sketches Into Peyote Stitch Bead Patterns
Some links in this guide are affiliate links. If you sign up through them, Day Zero Guides may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. This never affects which products we cover or what we say about them. See our affiliate disclosure for details.
What Peyo Actually Does
Peyo is a narrow, single-purpose iOS app: you draw on a canvas shaped like a peyote stitch bead grid (the offset, brick-like grid that peyote and brick stitch beaders use), and the app translates your finger strokes into a cell-by-cell bead pattern. As you draw, Peyo tracks how many beads of each color your design requires, so you're not manually counting seed beads in a spreadsheet after the fact. Finished patterns can be exported and shared as static images, which is really the only export format right now — there's no PDF pattern sheet with a materials list, no CSV, no vector file.
This is not a general illustration app that happens to support bead grids. It's built around one workflow: sketch, get a color-coded peyote grid, get a bead count, save the image, go bead it. If you're a beadwork hobbyist or someone who sells patterns on Etsy, that narrowness is the appeal, not a limitation.
Pricing
Peyo uses a simple freemium model with no subscription:
- Free tier: Full drawing and pattern functionality, but with banner ads displayed in the app.
- Ad removal: A one-time in-app purchase of ¥300 (roughly $2 USD) removes the banner ads permanently.
There's no tiered feature-gating — the ¥300 purchase is purely cosmetic/UX (no ads), not an unlock for extra tools, colors, or export options. That's worth knowing going in: if you're fine with a banner ad while you design, you get the entire feature set for free.
Who This Is Actually For
- Peyote and brick stitch beaders who currently sketch patterns on graph paper or in a general drawing app and then manually count beads by color — Peyo automates the count.
- Pattern sellers on Etsy or similar marketplaces who need a quick way to mock up a new design and generate a shareable preview image for a listing.
- Beading class instructors who want to sketch a pattern idea on an iPad or iPhone during a session and immediately show students the bead breakdown.
- Hobbyists prototyping color combinations — since the grid is peyote-specific, you can test how a color transition will actually look in the offset stitch pattern rather than guessing from a regular square grid.
It is not for anyone needing a general-purpose vector or raster design tool, and it's not for beadwork styles outside peyote/brick stitch (loom work, right-angle weave, etc. aren't the target grid).
Where It Falls Short
- iOS only — no iPad-optimized layout mentioned beyond the phone canvas, no Android, no web version.
- Export is limited to images. If you want a printable PDF pattern with a bead legend and yardage estimate, you'll still be assembling that yourself afterward.
- No cloud sync or account system apparent — patterns appear to live on-device, so cross-device work or backup is on you.
- It's a 1.0 product from a new listing on Product Hunt, so expect rough edges and a small but not necessarily fast-moving update cadence.
How It Compares
| Peyo | Adobe Illustrator | Procreate | Beadaholique Design Tools | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Free (ads) / ¥300 (~$2) one-time to remove ads | $22.99/month (Creative Cloud single app) or bundled plans | $12.99 one-time (iPad only) | Free online graph-paper generators; some paid pattern kits |
| Peyote-specific grid | Yes, built-in offset bead grid | No — you'd build a custom grid template manually | No — same manual template problem | Yes, but static printable graph paper, not interactive |
| Automatic bead count by color | Yes, built-in | No | No | No |
| Learning curve | Minutes — single-purpose UI | Steep — full vector suite | Moderate — full illustration app | None — just printable grids |
| Export options | Image only | Full vector/raster export (AI, SVG, PNG, PDF, etc.) | Full raster export, layers, PSD | PDF/PNG graph paper only |
| Best for | Quick peyote pattern sketching + bead counting on the go | Professional pattern sheets, print-ready vector work | General digital illustration, can be adapted for beading with manual grids | Free static graph paper for hand-drawn patterns |
The Bottom Line
If you already own Illustrator or Procreate and are comfortable building a custom peyote grid template, Peyo won't replace the flexibility of those tools — it can't touch vector precision or layered artwork. But that's the wrong comparison for most beaders. The realistic alternative to Peyo isn't Illustrator, it's graph paper and a calculator, or a general drawing app with a manually-built grid overlay and a lot of manual counting. Against that baseline, Peyo's automatic bead-count-by-color feature alone justifies the two-minute install, especially at a $2 (or free) price point. Try the free version first; if the banner ads bug you during design sessions, the ad removal purchase is cheap enough to not think twice about.