Photoshop Alternatives

Adobe Photoshop serves as a professional raster graphics editor for Windows and macOS, handling advanced image editing, retouching, and digital art. Users praise its extensive feature set for graphics and design, though many complain about high pricing compared to other editors.

GIMP tops the rankings as the leading Photoshop alternative, offering broad image-editing and retouching tools completely free and open-source. Many users switch to GIMP specifically to escape Photoshop's cloud licensing and subscription model. Affinity Photo ranks second with its polished interface and one-time purchase model, repeatedly highlighted as a cost advantage over subscription pricing. Luminar Neo brings AI tools like GenErase and GenExpand plus focus stacking and HDR merging for photographer-centric workflows.

Krita ranks third, focusing on digital painting with advanced brush control and animation support for artists. The alternatives landscape splits between pro photo editors and art-first painting apps, with Photopea standing out as a free, install-free option with PSD support and a familiar interface.

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For open source transparency, GIMP and Krita lead with community-driven development and no proprietary licensing restrictions. Linux users have native options in GIMP, Krita, and MyPaint without relying on Windows or macOS-only tools. Windows-only picks include Paint.NET and Corel PaintShop Pro for desktop editing with layers, effects, and selection tools.

Web-based editors like Photopea, Pixlr, and Sumo Paint work in browsers when you can't install software on school or locked-down computers. Users avoiding subscriptions can choose Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer for predictable one-time licensing. For PSD workflows, Photopea, Affinity Photo, and Pixelmator open Photoshop-format documents to maintain collaboration compatibility. iPad workflows benefit from Affinity Photo, Pixelmator, and Pixlr for editing on tablets rather than desktop-only setups.

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Alternatives list

  1. Livebrush icon
     23 likes
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    Livebrush is a drawing application. It employs an easy-to-use brush tool that reacts to your gestures through the use of velocity and other motion controls. By combining simple motion controls with customizable brush styles, Livebrush offers a fun and unique way to create...

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Proprietary

    Application type

    Alerts

    • Discontinued

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Adobe AIR
     
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  2. Sharpen AI icon
     5 likes
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    Get tack-sharp images that still look natural. Naturally sharpen your images with no artifacts. Get jaw-dropping results in a wide variety of situations with deep learning models trained for shake reduction, focus correction, and blur removal.

    More intelligent image sharpening. .

    18 Sharpen AI alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Pay once
    • Proprietary

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Adobe Photoshop
    • Adobe Photoshop Lightroom
     
  3. OptiClean icon
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    OptiClean is an AI-powered photo retouch app that effortlessly removes unwanted people, objects, text, logos, or watermarks from your image with just a few clicks. Compared to traditional tools, OptiClean's AI recreates realistic backgrounds without the need for selecting a...

    Cost / License

    • Pay once
    • Proprietary

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
     
  4. PaintStar icon
     14 likes
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    PaintStar is a versatile digital image processing software suitable for such tasks as retouching of photographs, composing and authoring images, image morphing, screen capture, and displaying image thumbnail in Windows Explorer context menu.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Proprietary

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Windows
     
  5. CinePaint icon
     15 likes
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    CinePaint is a deep paint application that edits EXR, DPX, 16-bit TIFF, JPEG, PNG and many other types of image files. CinePaint is available as a native application for Linux, Mac OS X, and BSD.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Alerts

    • Discontinued

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Linux
     
  6. PhotoGlory icon
     1 like
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    PhotoGlory is simple and intuitive photo restoration software. Enhance your retro pics with 100 built-in effects and use many other effective tools.

    14 PhotoGlory alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Freemium (Pay once)
    • Proprietary

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Windows
     
  7. Photopainter icon
     3 likes
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    Photopainter is both a natural-media painting software and an image processing system at the same time.

    Cost / License

    • Paid
    • Proprietary

    Alerts

    • Discontinued

    Platforms

    • Windows
     
  8. AlterPhoto icon
     1 like
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    AlterPhoto is powerful photo editor and image manipulation tool for Windows. It combines ease of use with powerful editing features powered by computer vision and generative AI. This program will become an indispensable tool for both photographers and graphic designers.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Proprietary

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Windows
     
  9. Copy a direct link to this comment to your clipboard

    Picture Window Pro is a powerful image editing tool designed for serious photographers with demanding creative and quality standards.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Proprietary

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Windows
     
  10. Copy a direct link to this comment to your clipboard

    Fhotoroom HDR is an easy to use powerful image editor that can take your JPEG's, Digital Camera RAW and High Dynamic Range photos and help you fix exposure, color, and distortion problems or quickly and easily make your photos stunning.

    99 Fhotoroom HDR alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Freemium
    • Proprietary

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Windows
     
  11. Roxio Creator icon
     7 likes
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    Comprehensive multimedia suite with over 20 integrated applications offering disc burning, video capture and editing, photo editing, file conversion, DVD authoring, and encryption, ensuring versatile media management and online sharing capabilities.

    322 Roxio Creator alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Pay once
    • Proprietary

    Platforms

    • Windows
     
  12. iPiccy icon
     9 likes
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    iPiccy is an online photo editor with tons of powerful features to make your images beautiful. It takes commercial quality editing tools and wraps them in a simple and intuitive interface that makes editing as fast as possible, exposing the features you need only when you need...

    Cost / License

    • Free Personal
    • Proprietary

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Online
     
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