Copic Vs Ohuhu Markers: Which One Is The Best?

I love working with Copic markers.

But as an artist on a budget, I’m always looking for cheap alternatives.

Ohuhu markers are only a fraction of the cost of Copic markers.

But how do they compare performance wise?

This article will show you all the similarities and differences between Copic and Ohuhu markers. And will help you make a buying decision!

But if you don’t have a lot of time, here is the quick summary: the Copic markers have more vibrant colors and blend better, while the Ohuhu markers are much cheaper and can be ok alternative when buying art markers for the first time.

Similarities between Ohuhu and Copic markers

Let’s start by looking at what both markers have in common:

1. Alcohol-based ink

Both Ohuhu and Copic markers use alcohol-based ink.

Why is this important?

Compared to water-based or acrylic-based inks, alcohol-based inks are much better at blending smoothly and don’t leave as many streaks.

This makes it much easier to color gradients and fill large areas.

2. Dual ended

The Ohuhu and Copic markers are both dual-ended.

This means that you can use them on both sides and each end has a different nib.

Having two types of nibs gives extra versatility because you can make different strokes.

I’ll talk more about the nibs included later on.

3. Wide color range

It’s always nice to have plenty of colors to choose from.

Fortunately, both Ohuhu and Copic markers are available in a wide range of colors.

For Ohuhu markers you can choose between 200 colors, while Copic Sketch markers are available in 358 colors.

Although that’s still a big difference, 200 colors is really more than enough to start with.

Do keep in mind that not all the colors are the same for both markers.

In my experience, the Ohuhu markers seem a little more pigmented than Copic markers.

Below you can see all the colors available for both Copic and Ohuhu markers:

Differences between Copic and Ohuhu

Of course, when you are making a buying decision, the differences are going to be more important than the similarities.

So let’s see what’s the difference between the Ohuhu and Copic markers.

1. Marker types

In this article I’ll compare the Ohuhu markers with the Copic Sketch markers.

But I thought I would quickly mention that there are 2 more types of Copic markers: the Ciao markers and Classic markers.

They slightly differ in their size, barrel shape, nibs, and color range.

However, the Sketch markers are the most popular, so I’ll focus on them.

For more information on Copic markers, you can read my article on which Copic markers to buy.

The Ohuhu markers are available in both an alcohol-based version and a water-based version.

In my opinion, alcohol-based inks are much better for coloring. So I’ll focus on those for this review.

Moreover, when buying the Alcohol-based Ohuhu markers you can choose between a bullet+chisel nib version and a brush+chisel nib version.

Refillable

Ohuhu markers are not refillable while Copic markers are.

This is a big deal if you are planning to use your art markers for a long time.

Every time one of your Ohuhu markers run out of ink, you will have to buy a new one.

And since Ohuhu markers aren’t sold individually, you will have to get an entire set of markers (the smallest set available is 40 colors).

And we all known that you use some colors way more than others.

In contrast, Copic markers are super easy to refill. And more importantly, it’s cheap too!

One Copic refill costs around $6 and can refill your Sketch markers up to 12 times.

So after a few refills, the price difference Ohuhu markers and Copics becomes a lot less dramatic.

Nibs

Copic Sketch markers always come with a chisel and a brush nib, while the Ohuhu markers are available with a chisel tip on one side and either a bullet or brush nib on the other side.

However, if you want to buy Ohuhu markers, I would strongly recommend going with the brush nib option.

The bullet nib is just not as easy to work with and also feels a little dry. So blending colors together or filling large areas is not as easy as with a brush nib.

Regardless of which nib you are using, I felt like the durability of Ohuhu nibs was considerably less than Copic nibs.

After just a few weeks I could notice a little tail on my Ohuhu nibs, while I never had this problem even after years of using Copic markers.

It’s worth mentioning that each Ohuhu nib can be taking out of the marker and reversed. So every nib actually counts as two nibs.

This is definitely very clever design that I haven’t seen in other art markers, but it only solved the problem temporarily.

Moreover, Ohuhu doesn’t sell nib replacements while Copic does.

Price

Let’s take the prices on Amazon as standard to make a quick cost comparison between both markers.

You can buy an Ohuhu set with 200 colors for roughly $100, which makes each marker ~$0.50. One of the cheapest alternatives to Copic markers.

Meanwhile, you can get a Copic Sketch set of 72 colors for around $325, which results in an average cost of ~$4.50 per marker.

That means that the Copic markers are a whopping 9x more expensive.

Although as mentioned before, refilling a Copic Sketch marker only costs around ~$0.50 and the nibs are more durable.

Moreover, you can’t buy individual Ohuhu markers, so you will probably end up with several duplicate markers.

But even taking all of that into consideration, the Ohuhu markers will be a lot cheaper than Copic markers.

Ohuhu Vs Copic: a side-by-side comparison

Below you can see 4 illustrations, 2 of which were colored with Copic markers and 2 with Ohuhu markers.

The blending is smoother with Copic markers but the Ohuhu markers didn’t do a bad job either.

The colors look a little different between the Copic and Ohuhu illustrations, but that is mainly because not every Copic color has an Ohuhu equivalent.

Which is better: Ohuhu or Copic?

Overall, I was quite pleasantly surprised by the quality of the Ohuhu markers.

Especially if you take into consideration how cheap they are.

They might not be refillable and the nibs aren’t super durable, but they are cheap enough that you can buy new ones when needed.

The blending and colors can’t quite compare with Copic markers, but Ohuhu markers can be a good stepping stone to higher quality art markers.