Best Photoshop Alternatives 2026

Photoshop is the industry default, but its $22.99 per month subscription 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 are working in Linux where Photoshop is not even available, you have real options in 2026.

This guide ranks the five Photoshop alternatives that are actually worth your time. Each one was tested on the same three tasks: a portrait retouch, a product cutout, and a multi-layer composite. Some held up. Some did not.

The short answer

If you want a one-time purchase that gets the closest to Photoshop's feature set, buy Affinity Photo. If you want free and need it to run in a browser on any device, use Photopea. If you are on Linux or want fully open-source, use GIMP. The other two are good in narrow niches.

1. Affinity Photo (the closest thing to Photoshop)

Affinity Photo is the only alternative that genuinely competes with Photoshop on professional workflows. It opens PSD files. It supports layers, masks, adjustment layers, smart objects, and a full plug-in architecture. The brush engine is excellent. The frequency separation tool is built in.

The big sell is the pricing model. Affinity Photo is a one-time purchase of $69.99. No subscription. You own the software for as long as it runs. Serif (the developer) ships major updates roughly every 18 months and charges for them, but you can skip an upgrade or two without losing anything.

What it lacks: Photoshop's machine-learning features (Select Subject, Generative Fill) are not in Affinity Photo, and there is no equivalent. If your workflow leans heavily on those, switching will hurt.

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

Photopea is a Photoshop clone 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 $5 per month "premium" tier removes ads and adds extra features.

The interface is so close to Photoshop's that a long-time user can sit down and work in five minutes. We tested a portrait retouch using frequency separation and Photopea handled it without complaint.

The catch: Photopea is a single-developer project. There are no native plug-ins. The undo history caps at a smaller depth than Photoshop. And because it runs in a browser tab, accidentally closing the tab without saving is a small disaster.

3. GIMP (free, open source, awkward)

GIMP has been around since 1996 and is the default photo editor on most Linux distributions. It is free, open source, and runs everywhere. For basic edits and color correction it is fine.

The problem with GIMP is the interface. It does not match Photoshop's conventions, the keyboard shortcuts are different, and many tools are buried 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 must use GIMP, install the PhotoGIMP patch which remaps the GIMP interface to mimic Photoshop. It is the difference between GIMP being unusable and GIMP being acceptable.

4. Pixelmator Pro (Mac only, beautiful, narrow)

Pixelmator Pro is a Mac App Store native that costs $49.99 one-time. It is fast, beautifully designed, and integrates tightly with Apple's image-handling APIs. Machine-learning features like background removal are built in and work well.

Pixelmator Pro is best for Mac users who do photo editing as a side activity rather than a profession. The feature set is narrower than Photoshop's, and there is no Windows or iPad 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. 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 buy?

Most readers will be best served by Affinity Photo. The one-time purchase is the right pricing model for anyone who does not literally use the software every day, and the feature set is the closest fit to Photoshop's professional toolkit.

If you cannot afford even the $70 for Affinity, use Photopea for free in a browser. It is good enough that you may never feel the need to upgrade.

And if you genuinely need Photoshop's features (Select Subject, Generative Fill, the full ecosystem of plug-ins, the industry-standard PSD interoperability), the honest answer is to pay the subscription. Adobe offers a 7-day free trial.