The Best Paint.NET AlternativesTop Digital Painting Tools & Image Editors like Paint.NET

Paint.NET is described as 'Free image editor for Windows, offering layer support, plugins, special effects, and portable use without installation. Lightweight and ad-free' and is a leading digital painting tool in the photos & graphics category. There are more than 100 alternatives to Paint.NET for a variety of platforms, including Windows, Mac, Linux, Web-based and Android apps. The best Paint.NET alternative is Pinta, which is both free and Open Source. Other great apps like Paint.NET are Krita, GIMP, Adobe Photoshop and Pixelmator.

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Paint.NET alternatives are mainly Image Editors but may also be Digital Painting Tools or Photo Editors.  Other popular filters includes Mac + Image Editors. Filter by these or use the filter bar below if you want a narrower list of alternatives or looking for a specific functionality of Paint.NET.
Paint.NET iconPaint.NET
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Free image editor for Windows, offering layer support, plugins, special effects, and portable use without installation. Lightweight and ad-free.

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Paint.NET alternatives page was last updated Mar 27, 2025
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Alternatives
  1. Pinta icon
     266 likes
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    Pinta is a image editing, drawing and painting application with a simple yet powerful interface. Pinta has a wide range of drawing tools, including: freehand, rectangles, circles and lines. It also has over 35 effects to apply to your images, and also has the ability to create...

    105 Pinta alternatives

    License model

    • FreeOpen Source

    Country of Origin

    • US flagUnited States

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • BSD
    • Flathub
    • Mono

    Properties

    1.  Lightweight

    Features

    1.  Support for Layers
    2.  Works Offline
    3.  Ad-free
    4.  Non Destructive Editing
    5.  Dark Mode
    6.  No registration required
    7.  No Tracking
    8.  Multiple languages
    9.  Color correction
    10.  Image Filters
    11.  Gtk

    Pinta VS Paint.NET

     
    Comments about Pinta as an Alternative to Paint.NET
    Comment summary: Pinta receives praise for closely resembling Paint.NET, making it a strong alternative, especially for basic tasks and cross-platform use. However, users also point out issues such as bugs, missing features compared to Paint.NET, and stopped updates, which hinder its effectiveness. Despite these drawbacks, many still consider it the best clone available for those needing a simple and lightweight alternative to Paint.NET.
    Top Positive Comment
    Guest
    Oct 4, 2015
    11

    This functions in almost identical ways to Paint.NET, more so than any other program listed on here.

    Top Negative Comment
    Guest
    Feb 15, 2019
    7

    It gives you a good taste of Paint.NET, but it's so broken and painful to work with that it just isn't worth using; e.g. the text function doesn't work.

    Most Recent Comment
    rushb1331
    Positive Mar 27, 2025
    1

    The only thing that i dont like about it is that you need to hold ctrl to rezise a image

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    3 of 19 comments
    Paint.NET Icon
    Pinta icon
    • Most users think Pinta is a great Paint.NET alternative.

    • Pinta is the most popular Windows, Mac & Linux alternative to Paint.NET.

    • Pinta is the most popular Open Source & free alternative to Paint.NET.

    • Pinta is Free and Open SourcePaint.NET is Free and Proprietary
    • Pinta is LightweightPaint.NET is not according to our users
  2. Krita icon
     1345 likes
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    Free, open-source painting software designed by artists for artists. Offers customizable UI, 9 brush engines, color management, tablet support, non-destructive editing, and privacy features. Portable and available on major platforms, supporting seamless texture creation.

    142 Krita alternatives

    License model

    • FreeOpen Source

    Application type

    Country of Origin

    • NL flagNetherlands
    • European Union flagEU

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Android Tablet
    • Epic Games Store
    • PortableApps.com
    • Steam

    Properties

    1.  Lightweight
    2.  Customizable

    Features

    1.  Digital Drawing
    2.  Blending brushes
    3.  Keyframe Animation
    4.  Drawing 2D
    5.  Advanced brush settings
    6.  Drawing Tablet Support
    7.  Digital-painting focused
    8.  Sketching
    9.  Color blending
    10.  Support for Layers
    11.  Texture painting
    12.  Custom Brushes

    Krita VS Paint.NET

     
    Comments about Krita as an Alternative to Paint.NET
    Comment summary: Krita is recognized as a strong alternative to Paint.NET, offering a range of tools and free cost, making it suitable for both basic and advanced image editing. While it has more painting and drawing features, it lacks some rapid photo editing capabilities found in Paint.NET. Users appreciate Krita's localization and customization options, but some find it less intuitive and heavier. Resampling filters in Krita are noted as an advantage for resizing images.
    Top Positive Comment
    Generic_Sweetener
    Jul 28, 2020
    5

    There isn't anything else exactly like paint.net, but Krita comes the closest in terms of features and ease of use. It's relatively intuitive, has various customization options, and is sufficient for basic photo editing and more advanced image manipulation and drawing.

    Top Negative Comment
    Guest
    Jan 22, 2017
    16

    Very good, but not focused to photo editing.

    Most Recent Comment
    beng tang
    Positive Sep 16, 2023
    0

    As an alternative to Paint.NET for Linux, Krita is not exactly the same, but it has most of the same functionality and it can resize (Image > Scale Image to New Size) images using a variety of resampling filters including Lanczos3, which makes it better than GIMP for resizing photos.

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    3 of 16 comments
    Paint.NET Icon
    Krita icon
    • Most users think Krita is a great Paint.NET alternative.

    • Krita is the most popular Android Tablet alternative to Paint.NET.

    • Krita is Free and Open SourcePaint.NET is Free and Proprietary
    • Krita is LightweightPaint.NET is not according to our users
  3. GIMP icon
     4631 likes
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    GIMP delivers powerful functionalities for photo retouching, image composition, and format conversion. As a versatile tool, it serves as both a simple paint program and a high-end retouching suite, and offers batch processing for mass image tasks in an accessible open-source platform.

    189 GIMP alternatives

    License model

    • FreeOpen Source

    Country of Origin

    • US flagUnited States

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • BSD
    • Snapcraft
    • Flathub
    • PortableApps.com
    • Haiku
    • Flatpak
    • AmigaOS

    Properties

    1.  Customizable

    Features

    1.  Support for Layers
    2.  Photo effects
    3.  DRM Free
    4.  Ad-free
    5.  Extensible by Plugins/Extensions
    6.  High-resolution images
    7.  Retouch photos
    8.  Open PSD files
    9.  Image Processing
    10.  Dark Mode
    11.  Color to Alpha
    12.  Works Offline

    GIMP VS Paint.NET

     
    Comments about GIMP as an Alternative to Paint.NET
    Comment summary: Paint.NET is praised for its simplicity and ease of use, making it suitable for basic image editing tasks, while GIMP is criticized for its complexity and steep learning curve. Many users find GIMP to be more of an alternative to Photoshop, due to its advanced features and professional tools, which can be overwhelming for casual users. Despite some positive feedback on GIMP's features and open-source nature, the consensus is that it lacks the user-friendliness and lightweight nature of Paint.NET.
    Top Positive Comment
    Guest
    May 21, 2019
    1

    free, open-source, cross-platform

    Top Negative Comment
    zlelmefs
    Dec 13, 2021
    6

    The #1 perk of paint.net is how lightweight and fast it is, it's intended as a competitor to Paint. GIMP is the complete opposite- it's a big, slow monster designed to compete with photoshop.

    Most Recent Comment
    beng tang
    Negative Sep 8, 2023
    0

    GIMP has many good features but it has removed the option to use lanczos algorithm for resizing images. The alternatives it provides for this purpose produce blurer images and are not as good. As resizing an image is a pretty basic requirement for a raster image editing software package, I'm afraid this is a serious limitation.

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    3 of 40 comments
    Paint.NET Icon
    GIMP icon
    • Some users think GIMP is a great Paint.NET alternative, some don't.

    • GIMP is Free and Open SourcePaint.NET is Free and Proprietary
    • GIMP is CustomizablePaint.NET is not according to our users
  4. Adobe Photoshop icon
     2399 likes
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    Comprehensive raster graphics editor offering advanced photo and image editing features. Supports multiple layers, masks, alpha compositing, various color models, and has limited vector graphics, 3D, and video capabilities. Extensible via plug-ins.

    223 Adobe Photoshop alternatives

    License model

    Country of Origin

    • US flagUnited States

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Online
    • iPhone
    • iPad
    • Wine
    • ReactOS

    Properties

    1.  Intuitive Interface

    Features

    1.  RAW Photo Editors
    2.  Color correction
    3.  Photo effects
    4.  Advanced brush settings
    5.  Image Processing
    6.  Raster graphics
    7.  Support for Layers
    8.  Color Picker
    9.  Resizing dpi
    10.  Hardware Accelerated
    11.  Support for CMYK Mode
    12.  Non Destructive Editing

    Adobe Photoshop VS Paint.NET

     
    Comments about Adobe Photoshop as an Alternative to Paint.NET
    Comment summary: Adobe Photoshop is recognized as a powerful and feature-rich photo editing software, offering capabilities such as advanced photo manipulation, video editing, and 3D design. However, it is criticized for its high price and complexity, making it less accessible for beginners and casual users. In contrast, Paint.NET is praised for being free, user-friendly, and suitable for basic editing needs, although it lacks the advanced features of Photoshop.
    Top Positive Comment
    HaricharanSrinivasan
    Dec 19, 2017
    4

    The absolute best in photo correction and manipulation. Slick interface. Fast. Loads of tools for mobile and Web design. Content-aware editing. Video editing. 3D design capability. Synced Libraries. Integrated stock library. Complementary mobile apps.

    Top Negative Comment
    Guest
    Jan 30, 2016
    34

    Very pricy advanced application compared to free paint.net

    Most Recent Comment
    zlelmefs
    Negative Dec 13, 2021
    0

    It's slow. It's not free. It's made by one of the worst software companies on the planet.

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    3 of 9 comments
    Paint.NET Icon
    Adobe Photoshop icon
    • Most users think Adobe Photoshop is a great Paint.NET alternative.

    • Adobe Photoshop is the most popular Web-based, iPhone & iPad alternative to Paint.NET.

    • Adobe Photoshop is the most popular commercial alternative to Paint.NET.

    • Adobe Photoshop is Paid and ProprietaryPaint.NET is Free and Proprietary
  5. Pixelmator icon
     419 likes
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    Image editing software for macOS and iOS, offering nondestructive, GPU-powered editing with machine learning features, RAW support, custom brushes, and seamless macOS integration for touch-ups, painting, and creative compositions.

    148 Pixelmator alternatives

    License model

    Country of Origin

    • LT flagLithuania
    • European Union flagEU

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • iPhone
    • iPad

    Properties

    1.  Customizable

    Features

    1.  Open PSD files
    2.  RAW Photo Editors
    3.  Retouch photos
    4.  Healing brush
    5.  Stickers
    6.  Tablet support
    7.  Multiple Font Colors
    8.  Asset Pipeline
    9.  Support for 64 bit

    Pixelmator VS Paint.NET

     
    Comments about Pixelmator as an Alternative to Paint.NET
    Guest
    Positive Aug 18, 2017
    2

    Fast, easy to use, not overloaded with useless features

    oddityoverseer13
    Positive Dec 10, 2016
    0

    It's cheap, and it has all the capabilities of Paint.NET (plus some), and it's even more user-friendly.

    Paint.NET Icon
    Pixelmator icon
    • Most users think Pixelmator is a great Paint.NET alternative.

    • Pixelmator is Paid and ProprietaryPaint.NET is Free and Proprietary
  6. Affinity Photo icon
     540 likes
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    Real-time image editing software supporting extensive colour spaces, unlimited layers, non-destructive edits, and a streamlined workspace for complex tasks on Windows, Mac, and iPad.

    92 Affinity Photo alternatives

    License model

    Country of Origin

    • GB flagUnited Kingdom

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • iPad

    Properties

    1.  Optimal performance
    2.  Lightweight

    Features

    1.  No Subscription
    2.  RAW Photo Editors
    3.  Non Destructive Editing
    4.  Open PSD files
    5.  Support for Layers
    6.  Color management
    7.  Photo effects
    8.  Regulation layers
    9.  Photoshop Plugins Support
    10.  No Coding Required
    11.  Dark Mode
    12.  Ad-free

    Affinity Photo VS Paint.NET

     
  7. Photopea icon
     309 likes
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    Online 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.

    104 Photopea alternatives

    License model

    • FreemiumProprietary

    Platforms

    • Online

    Top Photopea Features

    1.  Web-Based
    2.  Open PSD files
    3.  Support for Layers
    4.  Vectorize raster images
    5.  Photoshop-like
    6.  Sketch to PSD
    7.  RAW Photo Editors
    8.  Text tool
    9.  Dark Mode
    10.  Ad-free
    11.  Colorize Photo
    12.  No registration required

    Photopea VS Paint.NET

     
    Comments about Photopea as an Alternative to Paint.NET
    Guest
    Positive Oct 15, 2019
    0

    It can cover something up and add shapes to block off anything annoying.

    Paint.NET Icon
    Photopea icon
    • Most users think Photopea is a great Paint.NET alternative.

    • Photopea is Freemium and ProprietaryPaint.NET is Free and Proprietary
7 of 166 Paint.NET alternatives