Free Alternative to Adobe Photoshop

GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) is the most feature-complete free alternative to Photoshop, offering professional-grade image manipulation capabilities that have evolved over 25+ years of open-source development. The landmark GIMP 3.0 release in 2025 brought transformative features including non-destructive editing with layer effects, dramatically improved PSD compatibility with 16-bit channel support, full HiDPI display optimization for Retina and 4K monitors, and a modernized GTK3 interface that feels more refined than previous versions. GIMP offers comprehensive layer support with blend modes, advanced selection tools including intelligent scissors and foreground select, masking capabilities, extensive filter library powered by GEGL (Generic Graphics Library), customizable brushes, color management for print workflows, and plugin support for Python 3, JavaScript, Lua, and Vala scripting. The software handles everything from basic photo retouching and color correction to complex compositing, text design, and batch processing.

With active community development, regular updates, and cross-platform availability on Mac, Windows, and Linux, GIMP represents the closest thing to a truly free Photoshop replacement. The learning curve is real—keyboard shortcuts, tool organization, and certain workflows differ from Photoshop—but the power is undeniable once mastered.

Photopea is a remarkable web-based image editor that looks, feels, and works almost identically to Photoshop, running entirely in your browser without any downloads or installations. Created by a single developer, Ivan Kutskir, Photopea has become the go-to solution for users who need Photoshop-like functionality on any device, anywhere, with zero setup. Its interface, keyboard shortcuts, layer handling, filter effects, smart objects, and adjustment layers feel immediately familiar to Adobe users—the muscle memory transfers directly.

Photopea handles PSD files with exceptional fidelity, preserving most layer effects, blend modes, and even smart objects that other alternatives struggle with. Beyond Photoshop files, it also opens Sketch, Adobe XD, Figma, GIMP XCF, CorelDRAW CDR, and dozens of other formats, making it an incredible format converter. The software supports both raster and vector graphics, includes AI-powered features for object selection and background removal, and processes everything client-side in JavaScript, meaning your files never leave your device unless you explicitly save to cloud storage.

The free version is ad-supported with a banner at the top, while the Premium subscription ($5/month) removes ads and adds priority support. For professionals who occasionally need Photoshop functionality on the go, contractors working on client computers, students using school computers without software installation rights, or anyone wanting a zero-friction editing experience, Photopea is transformative.

Krita is a professional-grade digital painting program designed specifically for concept artists, illustrators, comic book creators, matte painters, and texture artists. While it can handle photo editing, Krita's true strength lies in its exceptional brush engines, which rival and sometimes surpass Photoshop's painting capabilities. The software offers hundreds of pre-installed brushes with realistic behavior—oil, watercolor, charcoal, inking pens—plus the ability to create custom brushes with physics-based dynamics.

Brush stabilizers smooth out hand tremors for clean line work, making it excellent for digital inking. Krita includes frame-by-frame animation capabilities with onion skinning, HDR painting support for next-generation game assets, and full CMYK color system support for print work. The interface is intuitive and Photoshop-like with floating palettes, layer organization, and customizable shortcuts.

Krita supports PSD files reasonably well, though some advanced Photoshop features may not translate perfectly. The application is completely free, open-source, cross-platform, and actively developed by the Krita Foundation with funding from artists who want to keep it free. Performance is excellent even on complex documents with hundreds of layers, and the software takes full advantage of multi-core processors and tablet pressure sensitivity. For anyone whose work leans toward digital art creation rather than photo manipulation, Krita is the clear choice in the free software space.

Darktable is a powerful open-source photography workflow application and RAW developer that serves as a comprehensive alternative to Adobe Lightroom's develop module, while also offering photo editing capabilities that overlap with Photoshop for photographers. Designed for photographers who shoot in RAW format, Darktable provides non-destructive editing with a complete set of professional color correction, lens correction, noise reduction, and enhancement tools. The software uses a modular processing pipeline where you stack operations—similar to Photoshop's adjustment layers—and all edits are completely reversible.

Darktable excels at batch processing, allowing you to develop styles and presets and apply them to hundreds of images instantly. The lighttable module manages your photo library with collections, filtering, and metadata editing. The darkroom module handles RAW development with exposure, white balance, tone curves, color zones, and local adjustments using drawn or parametric masks.

Darktable supports virtually every RAW format from every camera manufacturer, including DNG, CR2, CR3, NEF, ARW, RAF, and more. Advanced features include color management with ICC profiles, tethered shooting, HDR merging, focus stacking, and perspective correction. While the interface has a learning curve and feels technical compared to Lightroom, the power and flexibility are exceptional. For photographers committed to RAW workflows, especially those migrating from Lightroom, Darktable offers professional results without subscription costs.

RawTherapee is a free, open-source RAW photo processor that provides an exceptional level of technical control over the image development process. Like Darktable, it's designed for photographers who shoot in RAW format, but RawTherapee takes a slightly different approach with arguably better demosaicing algorithms and more scientific precision in its processing. The software offers comprehensive RAW processing with exposure, white balance, tone mapping, color management, sharpening, noise reduction, and lens corrections.

RawTherapee's highlight recovery is particularly impressive, often pulling detail from blown highlights that other processors can't recover. The interface is somewhat easier to navigate than Darktable, with a more traditional panel-based layout that many users find intuitive. RawTherapee supports batch processing with profiles and queue management, allowing you to process hundreds of images overnight.

The software includes advanced features like automatic perspective correction, wavelet-based editing for selective adjustments, and film simulation profiles. Color management is professional-grade with full ICC profile support and accurate color rendering. While RawTherapee lacks the photo management features of Darktable (no library module), it excels purely as a RAW converter.

Many photographers use RawTherapee in combination with another tool—processing RAWs in RawTherapee, then opening the resulting TIFFs in GIMP for compositing or retouching. The combination provides a complete, free workflow that rivals Adobe's Camera Raw plus Photoshop setup.

While Inkscape is technically an alternative to Adobe Illustrator rather than Photoshop, it deserves mention in this list because many Photoshop users also need vector graphics capabilities—and Inkscape is the best free option available. Inkscape is a professional vector graphics editor that uses the open SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) format as its native file type. It excels at creating logos, icons, diagrams, illustrations, and any graphics that need to scale without quality loss.

The software offers comprehensive path editing with Bezier and Spiro curves, powerful text layout engine with typography controls, shape tools for rectangles, circles, stars, and polygons, gradient editing, pattern fills, and extensive node editing. Inkscape supports object alignment and distribution, boolean operations for combining shapes, path effects for live distortions, and layers for organizing complex documents. While it can't edit photos in the traditional sense, Inkscape's vectorization feature can trace bitmap images into vector graphics, and it can embed raster images into vector documents.

Many designers use Inkscape alongside GIMP or Krita—creating vector elements in Inkscape, then importing them into pixel-based editors for compositing. The combination provides a complete, free design suite. Inkscape exports to PDF, EPS, PostScript, and dozens of other formats, making it suitable for professional print workflows. For web designers, UI designers, logo designers, and illustrators who need vector capabilities without the Adobe Creative Cloud subscription, Inkscape is essential.

While not free, Pixelmator Pro deserves inclusion as the best reasonably-priced Mac alternative to Photoshop, offering a beautifully designed, Mac-native experience for a one-time $49.99 purchase that delivers far more value than a few months of Photoshop subscription. Developed by the Pixelmator Team in Lithuania, this application is built from the ground up for macOS, taking full advantage of Core Image, Core ML, and Metal for exceptional performance on Apple Silicon and Intel Macs. Machine learning powers intelligent object selection, instant background removal, accurate color matching, and ML-enhanced super resolution that upscales images with impressive quality.

Pixelmator Pro offers non-destructive color adjustments, RAW photo support with editing tools, layer-based editing with blend modes and effects, selection tools including magnetic selection and quick selection, and retouching brushes for healing and cloning. The interface is gorgeous, intuitive, and feels like it belongs on macOS—nothing about it feels like a cross-platform port. Integration with iCloud, Photos, and Files app makes it seamless within the Apple ecosystem.

Regular free updates add features—recent versions added Photoshop PSD import improvements, ML-powered denoising, and video editing capabilities. For Mac users who appreciate beautiful, well-designed software and want professional editing tools without ongoing subscription costs, Pixelmator Pro is worth every penny of its one-time price.

Paint.NET started as a Microsoft Paint replacement project at Washington State University and has evolved into a surprisingly capable image editor with an active user community. While it's Windows-only (and requires Wine or Crossover to run on Mac), it's worth mentioning for Mac users who dual-boot or run virtual machines, as it fills the gap between overly simple editors and complex professional tools. Paint.NET offers layer support with blending modes, selection tools, adjustment layers, special effects, and a plugin architecture that has spawned hundreds of community extensions.

The interface is simple and intuitive—far less intimidating than GIMP for users who just want to accomplish basic to intermediate editing tasks. Performance is excellent even on modest hardware. Paint.NET handles basic photo retouching, composition work, text design, and image manipulation without overwhelming users with options.

It's particularly popular among Windows users who find GIMP's interface confusing but need more than basic editing tools. The active forum community provides tutorials, plugins, and support. While it lacks advanced features like 16-bit editing, CMYK support, or extensive RAW processing, Paint.NET excels at being approachable and capable for the vast majority of common editing tasks.

Affinity Photo, developed by Serif, is a professional raster graphics editor that directly competes with Photoshop at a fraction of the cost. While not free, its $69.99 one-time purchase (with frequent 50% off sales bringing it to $34.99) makes it incredibly affordable compared to Photoshop's $251.88 annual subscription. Affinity Photo offers professional features including unlimited layers, RAW editing, PSD import and export, advanced selection and masking, HDR merging, focus stacking, panorama stitching, and extensive retouching tools.

The software uses a document model called Personas—Photo Persona for editing, Liquify Persona for distortions, Develop Persona for RAW processing, Tone Mapping Persona for HDR, and Export Persona for batch output. This workflow separation keeps the interface clean while providing powerful capabilities. Affinity Photo supports 16-bit and 32-bit editing, CMYK color mode for print, ICC color management, and hundreds of filters and adjustments.

The software is fast, modern, and works beautifully on Apple Silicon Macs with native support. Serif also offers Affinity Designer (Illustrator alternative) and Affinity Publisher (InDesign alternative), and buying all three costs less than three months of Adobe Creative Cloud. For professionals who need Photoshop-level capabilities but reject subscription pricing, Affinity Photo is the strongest commercial alternative.

PhotoGIMP is not a separate application but rather a modification package that transforms GIMP's interface, shortcuts, and layout to closely mimic Adobe Photoshop. Created by Diolinux, PhotoGIMP addresses one of GIMP's biggest barriers to adoption—its unfamiliar interface and different keyboard shortcuts. The package includes a Photoshop-like theme, reorganized menus with Adobe terminology, Photoshop keyboard shortcut mappings, preset brushes and patterns, custom splash screen, and organized tool options.

After installing PhotoGIMP, GIMP looks and feels remarkably similar to Photoshop, making the transition much easier for users who have years of muscle memory with Adobe's layout. PhotoGIMP essentially gives you GIMP's powerful capabilities wrapped in Photoshop's familiar interface—best of both worlds. It's particularly valuable for users who are comfortable with Photoshop's workflow but want to avoid the subscription cost.

Installation is simple—download the PhotoGIMP package, extract it, and copy the contents to GIMP's configuration folder. The modification is completely reversible if you want to return to standard GIMP. For educators teaching image editing with muscle memory that transfers to professional environments, PhotoGIMP makes GIMP a more practical choice. It's the easiest way to get free Photoshop-like editing without actually using Photoshop.