Unlike a few years back when it was a pain to find Posca pens in North America or Europe, more and more people have started to import the markers directly from Japan making them much easier to source and for a much lower price than they once retailed for. Just like all of the popular marker pens that start to get a cult following, we have noticed more and more people reaching out and asking for the best Posca pen alternative on the market.
Our regular readers will already be fully aware that we are huge fans of the Posca pen range and there is no doubt in our mind that they are the best option for paint markers currently on the market. That said though, there are two alternatives to Posca pens that do offer some solid competition as well as a number of cheap alternatives to posca pens that we will also cover in our article.
We hope that this article will be able to help any of our readers who are looking for an alternative to the Posca pen range and help you get a marker that is able to meet your needs. We know that some locations can still struggle to get Posca pens where as some of the alternative options featured in this article are easy to find and can perform pretty well.
Sharpie Paint Markers
Although we feel that actual Posca pens are still a better option, we know that the Sharpie paint marker range is widely available in both North America and Europe. If you are living in an area where sourcing Posca pens is still a pain, we feel that the Sharpie paint marker range is probably going to be your best option.
Sharpie have rightfully earned a great reputation for themselves amongst the arts and crafts community due to their low prices and great performance with their paint marker range being no different. These pens do offer you solid performance for their price tag and they have a number of different color options within the range including a metallic option that can be hard to find.
The Sharpie paint marker range has proven itself to be a great option for customising gadgets, clothing, and shoes with them proving to be almost as versatile as the Posca pen range. They should easily be able to meet the needs of the majority of our readers when it comes to standard tasks for a paint marker pen and help you reach your goals with your arts and crafts.
Arteza Paint Markers
In our opinion, the Arteza paint marker range is the closest challenger to the Posca pen range when it comes to performance and versatility with the Arteza range being almost as good in all aspects. That said though, their price tag does tend to be a little high and they can be an absolute nightmare to source in some areas and this is why we chose the Sharpie range as our primary Posca alternative.
That said though, if you are able to find Arteza paint markers in your local arts and crafts store or online that will deliver to your location while also having the budget available for them, they can be a solid alternative to the Posca pen range. They are also available in a huge range of colors while performing very well on various electronics and clothing items too.
Artcy Paint Markers
In our opinion, the best cheap alternative to Posca pens has to be the Artcy paint marker range they are much cheaper than some of the other featured markers in on our list and can offer decent performance relative to their price tag. If you are on a tight budget or you are just looking to customise your clothing and gadgets for fun rather than for a serious project they can be a solid choice.
They are an excellent option for cheap paint markers if you just want something to mess around with and try your hand at tasks such as rock painting or customizing your sneakers. Although there are some competing paint marker pens from other brands at this price point in the market, they tend to not perform as well as the Artcy markers while the Artcy range also tends to hold their color better whereas some compeating pens seem to fade very fast.
Asani Paint Markers
Although the Asani marker range do have a solid reputation, they can be an absolute pain to find in North America and even online vendors sometimes struggle to keep them in stock. Although they can be used as an alternative to the Posca pen range, the Sharpie or Arteza paint markers usually out perform the Asani markers and offer better performance.
Depending on where you find them, the Asani paint marker range can also have an inflated price tag as some vendors add a small premium to them due to them being so difficult to find. This is another factor that goes against them in our opinion as they underperform for their regular price tag, never mind price tags with a premium on top. Although some people so use the Asani marker range to great effect in their arts and crafts, we would always recommend that our readers look elsewhere and go with any other alternative to the Posca range on our list.
Emooqi Paint Markers
Although they are more of a general-purpose paint marker brand, the Emooqi paint marker range have a number of different types of paint markers at different price points in the market to cover all budgets. Relative to their price points, they do tend to offer solid performance and this has managed to earn them a great reputation amongst the community.
They do have some very budget-friendly alternatives to Posca pens in their range but if you are looking for a cheap alternative then the Artcy paint marker range that we touched on above will be a better option. Although the Emooqi marker range do seem to do well in the intermediate paint marker price point, it is usually only around $5 more to just go with the Posca pen range after their prices fell due to more people importing them from Japan.
Due to this, although the Emooqi range of markers is pretty solid, it is difficult to recommend them to our readers as there are alternative options that offer better performance on the market with very similar price tags. If you are unable to find Posca pens or Artcy pens in your local area though, the Emooqi range is a great substitute for them.
Zeyar Paint Markers
Although the Zeyar marker pen range is a cheaper Chinese knock-off of the Posca pen range, they actually offer decent performance for their price tag and have managed to earn a solid reputation for arts and crafts. That said though, if you are looking to use your paint markers to customize something expensive such as your airpods, smartphone, or sneakers then we would recommend you either go with the Posca pen range or any of the first two alternatives featured in our article.
If you are looking for a more budget-friendly paint marker that can let you practice your skills using a paint marker without having to break the bank then the Zeyar marker range can serve as a decent intermediate price point option. That said though, if you are on a budget or just want to keep your costs as low as possible, we would recommend that you just go with the Artcy paint marker range as they are our primary recommendation for cheap paint markers.
Artistro Paint Markers
The Artistro paint marker range seems to have been somewhat of a one hit wonder or fad that saw rapid growth in their popularity within the first few months of being released and gain a great reputation only to fade just as rapidly as they grew. Although their marker pens do tend to perform well, they are extremely difficult to find in North America and Europe these days making it difficult to find them.
We are not sure if this is due to problems with production or if the parent company have gone bankrupt or if the Artistro marker pens were only ever intended to be a short term product. Due to the rapid popularity and the strong sales of the markers, we would have expected them to keep being produced though rather than drop their market share for a competing brand.
Wotek Paint Markers
The No products found. is another Chinese alternative to the more established paint markers such as Posca that has seen solid sales. Although the general reputation of the Wotek marker pen range does initially seem very good, this tends to be amongst people who are using the pens for one off tasks rather than serious arts and crafts.
Wotek markers seem to have a number of issues that hold them back ranging from early fading to inconsistent ink flow that make them close to useless for anyone looking for a Posca pen substitute for serious artwork. Due to this, we would recommend that our readers go with any of the competing substitute options on our list to get more consistent results from your paint marker pens.
Aroic Paint Markers
Although the Aroic paint marker range is commonly touted as a cheap alternative to the Posca pen range, their reputation is usually from the rock art community where the pens perform very well and gained their initial popularity. Although the pens do offer some solid versatility into a few other areas where they are able to perform well, they tend not to be as versatile as actual Posca pens or perform as well in many areas.
If you are specifically looking for an cheaper alternative marker pen option for just rock art then the Aroic marker range is worth considering. If you are wanting to use your marker pens for a wider range of tasks and are on a budget then going with the Artcy paint marker range is probably your better option.
TFive Paint Markers
We were actually considering not including the TFive paint marker range due to their more controversial reputation as well as it being difficult to find the markers for sale in North America. That said though, a decent number of people do seem to prefer the TFive range and use them as a cheaper Posca pen substitute for their arts and crafts so we decided to include them but as we mentioned, they are more of a controversial marker pen.
Conclusion
That brings our article going over the best Posca pens alternative options on the market right now to an end. Although there are a number of options, we still feel that actual Posca pens are the best option for arts and crafts as they offer the best performance overall. If you do have the budget available and the Posca pen range is available in your area we would always recommend that you go with the Posca pen range over any of the substitutes featured in our article.
