Best free Photoshop alternatives, by what you edit

Product	Best for	Per month, yearly plan	The deciding fact, and the catch	Link
Affinity	Best free layered editor	Free	One app, entirely free since October 2025, on Windows and Mac. Reports say it needs a Canva account, and its page says the AI tools need a Canva premium plan.	Visit
GIMP	Best for retouching on Linux	Free	Free and open source with no paid tier, on Windows, Mac and Linux. The interface is the cost: it's built for people who already know what they want.	Visit
Krita	Best for painting	Free	Free, open source, built for drawing rather than photo fixes. The download page lists version 5.3.4.1, released Oct 7, 2026.	Visit
Paint.NET	Best for quick Windows fixes	Free	Windows only. The download page lists a free download and a paid one. The download page lists version 5.1.12, from March 8, 2026, with a free and a paid download.	Visit

For most people: Photopea if you've got PSD files, Affinity if you want an app. Both are free, and both have a catch you should know before you commit an afternoon.

The other three suit narrower jobs. Here's the split.

You've got a PSD and no Photoshop

Photopea. It opens PSD files in a browser tab, with nothing to install. Photopea's own page calls it a free online editor and says files stay on your device. It states no Premium price at all. Third-party listings give figures that disagree with each other, so I won't quote one. Check photopea.com before paying.

The platform is the catch. No browser, no editor, and a Premium plan whose price you can't confirm in advance.

Weighing it against a desktop install? GIMP against Photopea goes through it.

You want a real app, for nothing

Affinity. Canva relaunched it in late October 2025 as a single app for design, photo editing and page layout. Its page says "Free for individuals" and lists Windows and Mac downloads. The iPad version still shows "Coming soon" there.

The catch: Affinity's page says its AI tools need a Canva premium plan. Everything else is free. Reports also say you sign in with a free Canva account, which I couldn't confirm on Affinity's page and which Photoshop refugees may find rude.

You want the open-source one

GIMP is free and open source. I found no cloud tier or subscription. Its download page lists stable version 3.2.6, released Sep 10, 2026, and it runs on Windows, Mac and Linux. It's the closest free thing to Photoshop's retouching toolbox, and also the one with the interface that leaves newcomers lost. If you're comparing it with a subscription, Lightroom against darktable frames that trade-off for RAW work.

Krita is the same price and a different job. It's a painting app. Use it to draw, not to fix a photo. Its download page lists version 5.3.4.1 from Oct 7, 2026.

You're on Windows and need a quick crop

Paint.NET. Windows only. Its download page lists a free download and a paid one. It's for resizing, cropping and quick fixes, and I'd not pick it for layered PSD work.

Before you upload anything

Photos carry location data unless you remove it. Do that first: how to strip location data from photos. All five sit in the photo editor catalog, with prices checked November 1, 2026.