The Best Photoshop AlternativesTop Digital Painting Tools & Image Editors like Photoshop
Adobe Photoshop is described as 'Raster graphics editor developed and published by Adobe for Windows and macOS. It was originally created in 1987 by Thomas and John Knoll. Since then, the software has become the most used tool for professional digital art, especially in raster graphics' and is a leading digital painting tool in the photos & graphics category. There are more than 100 alternatives to Adobe Photoshop for a variety of platforms, including Windows, Mac, iPad, Android and iPhone apps. The best Adobe Photoshop alternative is GIMP, which is both free and Open Source. Other great apps like Adobe Photoshop are Affinity Photo, Krita, Paint.NET and Photopea.
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Adobe Photoshop alternatives are mainly Image Editors but may also be Digital Painting Tools or Photo Editors. Other popular filters includes iPad + Free. Filter by these or use the filter bar below if you want a narrower list of alternatives or looking for a specific functionality of Adobe Photoshop.- Digital Painting Tool
- Paid • Proprietary
202 GIMP alternativesGIMP is a free program for such photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. Essentially it's the closest thing to Photoshop you can get for free.
License model
- Free • Open Source
Application types
Platforms
- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
- BSD
- Snapcraft
- Flathub
- PortableApps.com
- Haiku
- Flatpak
- AmigaOS
Top GIMP Features
- Support for Layers
- Customizable
- Photo effects
- Digital Painting
- DRM Free
- Ad-free
- Extensible by Plugins/Extensions
- High-resolution images
- Retouch photos
- Open PSD files
- Image Processing
- Dark Mode
GIMP VS Adobe Photoshop
Is GIMP a good alternative to Adobe Photoshop?
94 Affinity Photo alternativesAffinity Photo is a professional raster graphics editor that operates in real-time, allowing users to pan and zoom at 60fps. It offers live previews and non-destructive edits, supports unlimited layers, and includes a workspace for RAW editing.
License model
- Paid • Proprietary
Application types
Platforms
- Mac
- Windows
- iPad
Top Affinity Photo Features
- No Subscription
- Non Destructive Editing
- RAW Photo Editors
- Open PSD files
- Optimal performance
- Digital Painting
- Support for Layers
- Color management
- Lightweight
- Photo effects
- Regulation layers
- Photoshop Plugins Support
Affinity Photo VS Adobe Photoshop
Is Affinity Photo a good alternative to Adobe Photoshop?Comments about Affinity Photo as an Alternative to Adobe Photoshop
BloukoI believe, now that it supports Windows, that it's a great alternative to Photoshop. There's a wide variety of features you can find both on Photoshop and Photo, they share most of the key features. Affinity's design is beautiful aswell.
20RemovedUserAffinity Photo is a professional level photo editing application. It's very powerful and you can do 99% of things in it that you can do in Photoshop. It can read and write .PSD files, and is compatible (most of the time) with Photoshop brushes and plugins. If you don't mind paying, I'd recommend it. It's ~$50 one time, so no subscriptions.
32ShazAffinity Photo has a very polished interface and there's not a big learning curve if you're coming from Photoshop. It is very suitable for professionals that want to process and edit images. The affordable one-time fee for a perpetual license is also a major boost. Sometimes you may even find it on offer, so can get Photo at a much lower price. Performs very well on my macOS and Windows machines. Though I'm not a professional, I just like to dabble.
0Pricing model is good, features are comparable, and it's fast!
0rkjno63This program is closer to Photoshop than any other program, and I recommend it to those who work in the field of image processing. As for those who love drawing, I advise them to use the Krita program, as in addition to its specialization in drawing, it contains some tools for editing images.
0
148 Krita alternativesKrita is a professional Free and open source (FOSS) painting program. It is made by artists that want to see affordable art tools for everyone within concept art, texture and matte painters, illustrations and comics.
License model
- Free • Open Source
Application types
Platforms
- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
- Android Tablet
- Epic Games Store
- PortableApps.com
- Steam
Top Krita Features
- Digital Drawing
- Digital Painting
- Blending brushes
- Keyframe Animation
- Drawing 2D
- Advanced brush settings
- Lightweight
- Drawing Tablet Support
- Digital-painting focused
- Color blending
- Sketching
- Support for Layers
Krita VS Adobe Photoshop
Is Krita a good alternative to Adobe Photoshop?Comments about Krita as an Alternative to Adobe Photoshop
AtoshiIt's kinda more intuitive to use than GIMP (which is a briliant PS alternative too) interface-wise, and supports CMYK out of the box if one needs it. As of version 3.1 it has pretty advanced support for animation, including opacity curves (GIMP fails completely in that field, animathing anything is a major PITA in it)
17I like Krita as an alternative to Photoshop because it's open source and free from the tyranny of Adobe Subscriptions
6Soul Rainphotoshop is a photo editing software; krita is a painting and sketching app
31rkjno63I found what I needed in this free program. I only care about editing and beautifying images and removing blemishes from them, so I do not need paid programs like Photoshop.
0ghartzIf you use photoshop to illustrate stuff - yeah, Krita is even better. But to manipulate photos Krita is not a good alternative
2
169 Paint.NET alternativesPaint.net is a free and very capable image editing software for Windows. Great alternative to Photoshop for people that do not need all the stuff PS offers.
License model
- Free • Proprietary
Application types
Platforms
- Windows
- .NET Framework
Top Paint.NET Features
- Support for Layers
- Lightweight
- Extensible by Plugins/Extensions
- Minimalistic
- User friendly
- Dark Mode
- Support for image plugins
- Community-based
- Ad-free
- Portable
- Works Offline
- No registration required
Paint.NET VS Adobe Photoshop
Is Paint.NET a good alternative to Adobe Photoshop?Comments about Paint.NET as an Alternative to Adobe Photoshop
FedoraGFXHas many of the features of Photoshop, but it's free!
13gamefreakerxDFree to use. Great application with a simple user interface.
12Well, it as the first image editor I have used other than... paint, So I might be a little biased. But its great, I love it, it has stuff, and its good.
0ThatstinkyguyWhile it doesn't beat GIMP in terms of features, open-source, or cross-platform accessibility, it's still a solid program that's lightweight, fairly easy to use, and with a plugin (among many other ones), it seems to have better compatibility with PSD files than GIMP.
0I was able to use it from day one and get better over time the more I worked in it.
1
107 Photopea alternativesOnline photo editor, which can work with PSD, XCF and Sketch files (Photoshop, Gimp and Sketch App). Convert between PSD, XCF, JPG, PNG and many other formats.
License model
- Freemium • Proprietary
Application types
Platforms
- Online
Top Photopea Features
- Web-Based
- Open PSD files
- Support for Layers
- Vectorize raster images
- Digital Painting
- Photoshop-like
- Sketch to PSD
- RAW Photo Editors
- Dark Mode
- Ad-free
- Colorize Photo
- No registration required
Photopea VS Adobe Photoshop
Is Photopea a good alternative to Adobe Photoshop?Comments about Photopea as an Alternative to Adobe Photoshop
Fully supports PSD format with adjustment layers, layer effects, paths, layer masks etc.
15Peter GriffinIt does everything you probably need without costing $20+ dollars a month, and requires no download. Unless you need more advanced features this is extremely similar to Photoshop
8less tools and dont have a great ai
0easy to use, easy access, and very useful for no installing anything, rocks
0ZFviaZFBecause it's free, but look and feel like Adobe Photoshop CS2 incl. Smart-Objects.
0
211 Pixlr alternativesPixlr makes it easy to transform everyday images into stunning works of art. Make every moment beautiful with our family of photo editing apps.
License model
- Freemium • Proprietary
Application types
Platforms
- Online
- Android
- iPhone
- Android Tablet
- iPad
- Windows
- Chrome OS
Top Pixlr Features
- Web-Based
- Retouch photos
- Digital Painting
- Support for Layers
- Gradients
- Lightweight
- Dark Mode
- Correct Red Eyes
- Photo effects
- Multiple languages
- Custom overlays
- Open PSD files
Pixlr VS Adobe Photoshop
Is Pixlr a good alternative to Adobe Photoshop?Comments about Pixlr as an Alternative to Adobe Photoshop
The fact that Pixlr is browser based is cool at places like school where you can't just install GIMP.
9ustamillsFor simpler uses than Photoshop, it starts and stops much more quickly. If I want a quick edit (say, Crop, Contrast, and Saturation) it goes much more quickly.
4Ömer Emin OnaranYou do not need to download a program, you enter from the web.
3It is browser based, and once you learn it it is essentially Photoshop.
4Rory HarmonEasy way to change the image as per the demand.
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148 Pixelmator alternativesPixelmator is a powerful, beautiful, and easy to use image editor. Featuring an elegant and streamlined single-window interface, it puts all the focus on the images you edit, rather than what's around them.
License model
- Paid • Proprietary
Application types
Platforms
- Mac
- iPhone
- iPad
Pixelmator Features
- Open PSD files
- Retouch photos
- RAW Photo Editors
- Healing brush
- Stickers
- Multiple Font Colors
- Support for 64 bit
- Specific for 64-Bit
- Photo effects
- Tablet support
Pixelmator VS Adobe Photoshop
Is Pixelmator a good alternative to Adobe Photoshop?Comments about Pixelmator as an Alternative to Adobe Photoshop
Dave CortrightFor the simple editing I do to get photos ready for email and web, Pixelmator is perfect. It can crop (including constrained cropping), resize, and do all the essential color/brightness/contrast/levels tweaks. And the best feature of all, it has a magical healing brush for removing blemishes.
3DalsPhotographyA great program, just got it so I am still trying it, but you have some more tools or kind of different tools than within Photoshop, as you can work with paths without going to lets say , Illustrator.
0Can accomplish nearly all of the functions of Photoshop, while still being cheaper, and more stable
0Very intuitive UI for Effects. Impressed with how to apply them on an image, and how to turn a plain image to a professional edited image!
1tiltedtripod_Considering Photoshop is a ripoff with the subscription crap and Elements is totally unsupported by Adobe and it's a piece of crap, Pixelmator offers a clean interface, powerful tools and it actually works. #adobesucks
0
Comments about GIMP as an Alternative to Adobe Photoshop
If you're used to Photoshop, GIMP will feel very unusual, since it has very different ways of doing things. That being said, its more than capable of keeping up with Photoshop on a technical level, and well exceeds Photoshop's abilities (if at the cost of intuitiveness) in my opinion
The technology in GIMP really is stellar. There are tutorials all over the web for accomplishing just about everything you can imagine. Photoshop is a great piece of software, no doubt. But with their change to Cloud licensing GIMP is just that much more enticing.
I highly recommend GIMP.
Irritating, totally unintuitive, completely unthought-out interface. It may have a lot of possibilities, but a lifetime is not enough to discover them and understand the twisted logic of this program.
Photoshop is an image manipulator, while GIMP is a puzzle-based image modifier.
It is not even close in featureset to what Photoshop provides. Gimp is a MS Paint alternative than a Photoshop alternative