If you own one of the best iPads (or even an older model), a compatible stylus is a must-have accessory, but you don’t need to spend silly money to unlock your Apple tablet’s creative potential. As slick and feature-packed as the official Apple Pencil appears (in both its USB-C and Pro forms), there are plenty of decent alternatives out there that can give you a comparable experience for a much lower price.
Below, we’ve rounded up the best Apple Pencil alternatives we’ve tested to date. Some, like the ESR Geo Digital iPad Pencil, offer Pro-level features including palm rejection, tilt sensitivity, and tap gestures, while others, like the Metapen Pencil Air8, are more basic in their functionality.
You can read our verdicts on the Metapen Pencil A8, MEKO iPad Pencil, Yunju Stylus Pen, TQQ Pencil, and AUZOSL Stylus Pen in our dedicated Apple Pencil alternatives roundup, and our impressions of the ESR Geo Digital Pencil and Metapen Pencil Air8 elsewhere on TechRadar. All seven of those options are available in the UK, but not all are sold in the US, so we've split this page into US and UK-based collections.
We encourage you to check the item description for each product to ensure it’s compatible with your specific iPad model, but for the most part, the options we’ve included will work with every iPad released since 2018. And the best part? Plenty of our favorite Apple Pencil alternatives are on sale now.
