Best Photoshop Alternatives 2026

Photoshop is the industry default, but its subscription (from $22.99 per month on an annual plan in the US) is not a fit for everyone. If you only edit photos a few times a year, if you cannot stomach a recurring fee, or if you work on Linux where Photoshop is not available at all, you have real options in 2026.

This guide compares the five Photoshop alternatives that are worth your time, looking at what each costs, where it runs, and how well it covers the features Photoshop users miss most: layers and masks, PSD support, retouching tools, and smart selections.

The short answer

The landscape changed in October 2025, when Canva made Affinity free. For most people it is now the first thing to try: a full desktop editor that gets closer to Photoshop than anything else, at no cost. If you need something that runs in a browser on any device, including a Chromebook, use Photopea. If you are on Linux or want fully open source, use GIMP. The other two are strong in narrower niches.

1. Affinity (the closest thing to Photoshop, now free)

Affinity is the only alternative that genuinely competes with Photoshop on professional workflows. It opens PSD files with their layers, and it supports layers, masks, adjustment layers, placed documents (its version of smart objects) and Photoshop-compatible plug-ins, although plug-in compatibility varies. The brush engine is excellent, and frequency separation is built in as a filter, so portrait retouching does not need a custom action.

The big change is the price. In October 2025 Canva, which bought Affinity's maker Serif in 2024, merged Affinity Photo, Designer and Publisher into a single app and made it free. You download it from Affinity's website and sign in with a free Canva account. Photo editing lives in the app's Pixel studio. The old one-time licenses are no longer sold; existing version 2 licenses still work but no longer receive updates.

What costs money: the generative AI tools that Canva added to Affinity, such as Generative Fill and Expand, sit behind a paid Canva plan. Affinity has also had machine-learning selection tools, including Select Subject, since version 2.6 in early 2025. Two other limits are worth knowing. Files live on your device, with no Creative Cloud style sync between computers. And the new app runs on Windows and Mac only for now; an iPad version has been announced but not released.

2. Photopea (free, browser-based, surprisingly good)

Photopea is a Photoshop look-alike that runs entirely in your browser. It opens and saves PSD files, supports layers and masks, has all the major adjustment tools, and is genuinely fast. The free version is ad-supported. A Premium purchase removes the ads and adds AI credits, cloud storage and a longer undo history. Recent versions include AI tools such as background removal and subject selection.

The interface is so close to Photoshop's that a long-time user can sit down and work in five minutes. The menus, panels and shortcuts follow Photoshop's conventions closely enough that the screenshots in our layer masks tutorial were taken in Photopea.

The catch: Photopea is largely a one-developer project. It has its own small set of web plug-ins but cannot run Photoshop plug-ins. And because it runs in a browser tab, closing the tab without saving loses your work.

3. GIMP (free, open source, awkward)

GIMP has been around since 1996 and is available for nearly every Linux distribution, as well as Windows and Mac. It is free and open source. GIMP 3, released in 2025, modernized the interface and added non-destructive filters, and the current release is GIMP 3.2. For basic edits and color correction it is fine.

The problem with GIMP is still the interface. It does not follow Photoshop's conventions, the keyboard shortcuts are different, and many tools are in unexpected menus. Long-time Photoshop users will fight it for weeks. People coming to image editing fresh, especially on Linux, find it perfectly usable.

If you use GIMP, consider the PhotoGIMP patch, which remaps GIMP's layout and shortcuts to mimic Photoshop. There is a version for GIMP 3. Download it only from the official Diolinux GitHub page.

4. Pixelmator Pro (Apple's own editor, polished, narrow)

Pixelmator Pro now belongs to Apple, which completed its purchase of Pixelmator in 2025. The Mac version is still sold in the Mac App Store as a $49.99 one-time purchase. Apple also offers it, with some extra features and an iPad version, through its Apple Creator Studio subscription. It is fast, beautifully designed, and uses machine learning for tools like background removal.

Pixelmator Pro is best for Apple users who edit photos as a side activity rather than a profession. The feature set is narrower than Photoshop's, and there is no Windows version.

5. Krita (digital painting first, photo editing second)

Krita is the painter's choice. The brush engine rivals Photoshop's and the focus is on digital illustration, comics, and concept art. It is free and runs on Windows, Mac, Linux and Android tablets. As a photo editor it is competent but not focused. If you are reading this guide because you want to draw and paint rather than edit photos, Krita might be the right pick.

So which one should you pick?

Most readers should start with Affinity. It costs nothing, runs on Windows and Mac, and its toolkit is the closest match to Photoshop's. You only pay if you want Canva's generative AI tools.

If you need to edit on a Chromebook, a borrowed computer, or anywhere you cannot install software, use Photopea in a browser. It is good enough that many people never need anything else.

And if your work depends on what only Photoshop offers, such as Adobe's Firefly-based generative tools, the largest plug-in ecosystem, or studios and clients that expect Photoshop files and workflows, the honest answer is to pay the subscription and learn it efficiently with a structured course.