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The Best Free Photoshop Apps Alternatives For 2020

Tech Writer

There are loads of ideas you might be searching for Photoshop alternatives. It may be Photoshop CC’s pricey subscription. Perhaps you want to help smaller development homes. Or maybe you don’t need the millions of features that come with Photoshop.

The truth is, Photoshop is such a ubiquitous brand that, like Google, it has become a verb. Creatives don’t edit images; they Photoshop them. This is all great PR for Adobe, but it might make you think that no different software is worth your time – and though we are fans of Photoshop, we humbly disagree with that assumption.

These alternatives to Photoshop are worth checking out because some are just as strong, producing super-professional results. Others are a fraction of the amount or no cost at all. For even more extra options, see our list of photo apps and photo editing software. Of course, if you do want to download Photoshop, we’ve got you covered there too.

Adobe Photoshop is the maximum typically used photo editing software available nowadays. Now not best is Photoshop more costly than most different editing software programs, but it’s no longer an excellent alternative for everybody because it’s hard to master.

To assist photographers with their editing tasks, software program developers have designed alternatives to Photoshop. These options fee less and have intuitive editing tools. In case you are prepared for an lower priced and smooth-to-use alternative to Photoshop, check our list. Our top pick, Affinity Photo, was the primary to have a complete-featured iPad app to accompany the laptop version, something Adobe continues to be working on getting proper for Photoshop.

Best Free Photoshop Apps Alternatives

At a glance:

The best free Photoshop apps alternative: Affinity Photo

Affinity Photo

Photoshop

While Adobe may be slowly bringing the Photoshop iPad app up-to-speed with the desktop app, Affinity Photo already has a fully-fledged iPad version. While the UI is re-designed for iPad, Affinity Photo has the same tools on the mobile app as it does on Windows and Mac. Even for photographers who don’t own an iPad, Affinity Photo has one of the most extended lists of features of any Photoshop alternative.

Affinity Photo and Photoshop have many standard features, including non-destructive layer editing and RGB and CMYK color spaces. However, right off the bat, there are clear differences between the programs — because while Photoshop costs $10 a month, Affinity Photo has a one-time fee of $50. That means Affinity users can pay once and be done. In contrast, Photoshop users will lose access to the program if they cancel their subscriptions — but they are also automatically kept up to date with the latest version without any additional upgrade fee. While Affinity Photo’s incremental updates are free, moving from version 1.0 to 2.0 will not be.

As the newer program, Affinity Photo launched with a cleaner, more modern design — many users, say that the program feels more like using a mobile app. The developers at Affinity Photo know that the program is competing directly with an industry-standard. It has worked to include all the significant features that Photoshop is known for. The two programs aren’t identical, but Affinity Photo still contains many more advanced tools, like photo merging for HDR composites, panoramas, and focus stacking. Layers and masking are also a big part of Affinity.

Photoshop, but still has some perks over Affinity. Layers are more easily resized, and EXIF data can be edited, for starters. Photoshop also has a more familiar interface for experienced editors, a plethora of tutorials, and plenty of plug-ins. The biggest perk for Photoshop is the easy integration with the RAW editor and organizer Adobe Lightroom, which is included in the subscription price when you sign up for the Photography Plan. Serif, Affinity’s parent company, also offers Affinity Designer and Publisher but doesn’t have a RAW management program to compete with Lightroom.

The best free Photoshop apps alternative: GNU Image Manipulation Program

Gimp

Photoshop

While there are a handful of free Photoshop alternatives, the open-source program GNU Image Manipulation Program (often shortened to GIMP) comes closest to Photoshop’s advanced tools. As an open-source program, GIMP is free to download for Mac, Windows, and Linux.

GIMP has several of the same tools as Photoshop. Layer editing is possible, allowing GIMP to do more than just a primary crop and color edit. Like local adjustment, blemish correction, and object removal, many advanced edits can be easily tackled inside the open-source program. While other free programs will crop, recolor, and apply filters, GIMP offers enough advanced tools to be considered a real Photoshop competitor.

Of course, a free program is never on par with a paid industry standard. While GIMP contains many of the same most-used tools, it lacks a few features. The healing brush, for example, has one option, whereas Photoshop’s brush has four. GIMP also does not have non-destructive adjustment layer editing, where the changes can be reverted or altered later without affecting the rest of the edit. GIMP also tends to be behind Photoshop’s latest new tools, with some new options not arriving at the free program until years later. GIMP isn’t as much of a graphic design program as Photoshop — CMYK support, for example, is not included.

The GIMP user interface is either great or not so great, depending on how you look at it. As an open-source format, the UI isn’t as professional and sleek as Photoshop’s. However, since there aren’t many tools, the program can feel slightly less daunting and allows for more customization options.

GIMP can’t replace every Photoshop feature exactly, but it’s the open-source program that comes the closest to the Adobe powerhouse, with a free price tag. Learn more about how it compares in our Photoshop versus GIMP comparison.

A new fork of the GNU Image Manipulation Program called Glimpse is hoping to make a friendlier version of the app with a refined user interface (and less potentially offensive name).

The best Photoshop and Lightroom alternative: Corel PaintShop Pro

Corel PaintShop Pro

Photoshop

Corel PaintShop Pro is a Photoshop alternative that’s also tied to a Lightroom alternative called AfterShot Pro. Like other competitors, Corel aims for the users frustrated with having to pay a monthly fee by offering a one-time price. When bundled with AfterShot Pro, Corel PaintShop Pro is $100, with upgrades for current users at $80. Unlike Photoshop, however, PaintShop Pro is a Windows-only program.

Corel PaintShop Pro is the company’s more advanced photo editor. Still, it attempts to bridge the gap between being easy to use and having advanced features using an Essentials panel. This mode is designed for beginners, though if you need more advanced tools, they are accessible simply by switching the way. That option can make PaintShop Pro easier to dive into for beginners while offering room to grow.

PaintShop Pro 2020 adds a photography workspace with tools specific to the photo editing workflow. The update also brings the refine brush option to create better selections when working with composites. A new content-aware clone tool is also part of the latest version.

Although PaintShop Pro contains many of the same Photoshop tools, including layer-based editing, Photoshop is still the best for content-aware adjustments. Photoshop has tools like the Face-Aware Liquify, offering a more robust Content-Aware Fill compared to Corel’s Magic fill, which helps fill in areas of an image based on the surrounding content. Adobe Camera RAW also has more tools than the RAW converter included with PaintShop, though that’s not as much of an issue if opting for the bundle that provides for AfterShot. However, PaintShop has some options that are not part of Photoshop, including being bundled with PhotoMirage to animate a still photo and auto paint to instantly convert an image into a style of painting other artwork.

The best Photoshop alternative for ease of use: Pixelmator Pro

Pixelmator

Photoshop

One of the top-rated desktop image editors in the Mac App Store, Pixelmator Pro, is a macOS-only editor that is billed as a set of “professional image editing tools that anyone can use.” The streamlined program doesn’t quite have all Photoshop’s power but quickly rises above other beginner-friendly editing apps. Because it is designed from the ground up for the Mac. Mac users will instantly feel at home inside the simple user interface while also enjoying features like seamless integration with iCloud. And unlike Photoshop, Pixelmator Pro costs just $40 as a one-time download.

Despite the lower price, Pixelmator Pro still includes a wealth of different photo editing tools. Of course, it covers the basics like cropping, exposure adjustments, and color correction and has several more advanced features. Layers are included — and non-destructive — along with brush tools and retouching tools and compatibility with common file types like PSD, PNG, HEIF, and TIFF.

Pixelmator Pro is a much younger app than Photoshop, but it is regularly adding new features and expanding others. Some of the latest improvements are focused on machine learning, including a tool to upscale a photo and another to remove noise.

While Pixelmator Pro isn’t a beginners-only simplified photo editor, Adobe Photoshop still wins out in a few areas when it comes to accomplishing more complex edits. Pixelmator Pro doesn’t support creating GIFs, and while you can manually merge HDR images, there’s no auto-align feature like there is in Photoshop. A few time-saving features such as actions are also missing, which, in Photoshop, let you record your workflow and apply it to future images.
Like many other competing models, Pixelmator Pro is also missing a Lightroom alternative, giving another perk to Photoshop. Unlike the original Pixelmator, Pixelmator Pro does support working with RAW files, which is why the Pro version is worth $10 more and is a better Photoshop alternative.

Do you really need Photoshop?

The first and longest-standing photo and graphics program, Photoshop is no longer the only principal photo editor. Photoshop maintains its title as an industry standard and includes the most advanced features more often than not. If you want the most photo-editing tools with graphic design options mixed in, Photoshop is still the one to beat. While the subscription is a turn-off for many, Photoshop comes bundled with Lightroom for just $10 a month, which we think is a very fair price.

That doesn’t mean Photoshop is the best photo editor for everyone. If you don’t need to do much beyond crop, correct colors, and adjust a few blemishes, you can save a ton of cash by opting for a Photoshop alternative. Other programs are often easier to learn because when you ditch the more advanced tools, the program feels less daunting. Affinity Photo is the best paid Photoshop alternative, and we particularly like that it has an iPad version. PaintShop is among the best for Windows users that also need a RAW processor and organizer. Pixelmator is an excellent option for macOS users who wants an approachable but powerful app. At the same time, GIMP is available for Linux in addition to macOS and Windows — and carries an unbeatable price.

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