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. KRESKA.art icon
     8 likes

    KRESKA.art is a free online drawing and painting app that lets you create art directly in your web browser. It offers a simple interface, diverse brushes, and unique features like auto-color tracing. You can use it to sketch and paint without any downloads or installations.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Proprietary

    Platforms

    • Online
     
  2. Experience advanced photo editing with AI technology, enabling quality enhancement, removal of unwanted elements, portrait retouching, image resolution increase, and creative styling with filters and effects for social media or high-quality prints.

    Cost / License

    • Paid
    • Proprietary

    Platforms

    • Windows
     
  3. Artweaver icon
     59 likes

    Artweaver is a simple Freeware program for creative painting, i.e. Artweaver offers you all artistic effects which you need for your work.

    Cost / License

    • Freemium
    • Proprietary

    Platforms

    • Windows
     
  4. Darkroom is moving photo editing to its mobile-centric and computational future. Photo editing is simplified for iPhone photographers, and supercharged with powerful AI-backed algorithms to more efficiently express yourself.

    Cost / License

    • Freemium
    • Proprietary

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • iPhone
    • iPad
     
  5. HEAVYPAINT icon
     8 likes

    A simple yet secretly powerful painting app! Focus on pure colors and shapes with a streamlined interface. Ideal for plein air painting, color notes, sketches and studies.

    Cost / License

    • Freemium
    • Proprietary

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Android
    • iPhone
    • Android Tablet
    • iPad
    • Online
     
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    1
    HEAVYPAINT vs Adobe Photoshop Comments
    Guest
    Positive
    0

    It's really good and interesting software to drawing.

    • HEAVYPAINT is Freemium and ProprietaryAdobe Photoshop is Paid and Proprietary
    • HEAVYPAINT is a Digital Painting Adobe Photoshop is an Image Editor
  6. Photo Editor icon
     13 likes

    Edit photos using exposure, brightness, color tuning, curves, batch processing, special effects, cropping, overlays, and metadata tools. Supports touch interface, multiple save formats, sharing to social media, comparison tools, and captures from web or video.

    109 Photo Editor alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Freemium
    • Proprietary

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Android
    • Android Tablet
     
  7. Hornil StylePix icon
     24 likes

    Hornil Stylepix, or simply StylePix, is a graphics editing program with a number of advanced features. StylePix is an acronym for Style Pictures. This means your pictures with nice style. If you have no experience, you can easily learn how to edit image and retouching your...

    Cost / License

    • Freemium
    • Proprietary

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Windows
     
  8. Photo Raster icon
     9 likes

    The Photo Raster is online photo editor with advanced features for photo editing and painting. The Photo Raster is powered by WebGL technology which provides performance never seen before in online applications.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Proprietary

    Platforms

    • Online
     
  9. Pixeluvo icon
     13 likes

    Pixeluvo is a beautifully designed photo and image editor for PC. It supports everything from simple color and contrast tweaks, cropping and resizing, to complex photo montage with multiple layers, masks and effects.

    Cost / License

    • Paid
    • Proprietary

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Windows
     
  10. KRAFTO icon
     1 like

    Hybrid design tool with browser-based vector and raster editing, non-destructive effects, animated frame export, editable symbols, PSD import, high-res print export, tables, charts, multilingual support, and local file storage with PNG-embedded projects.

    Cost / License

    • Freemium
    • Proprietary

    Platforms

    • Online
     
  11. Umoupen icon
     1 like

    Umoupen is a fully featured drawing and animation app for artists who want it all, sketching, frame-by-frame animation, storyboarding, comic/notebook features, endless raster and vector canvases, extensive import (most image types, MP4, SVG, FLA) and export (PNG, GIF, MP4)...

    35 Umoupen alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Paid
    • Proprietary

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Windows
    • Mac
     
  12. Photo Variants icon
     15 likes

    Photo Variants is innovative photo editing software for Windows.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Proprietary

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Windows
     
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