Photoshop alternatives: The 8 best free photo editors in 2026

Adobe Photoshop is the Kleenex of photo editing: so ubiquitous it's both a noun and a verb (and has been in the dictionary since 2008). When talking about photo editing, people say, "Just Photoshop it!"

Photoshop has been the industry standard for decades, but there are plenty of great free Photoshop alternatives to help you ditch the subscription. I first used Photoshop over 25 years ago when you had to buy it on a CD-ROM in a physical store (yes, Gen Z, the lore is true).

Based on my long-term experience with Photoshop, plus weeks researching and testing the latest alternatives, these are the eight best free photo editing apps.

The 8 best free Photoshop alternatives

• Canva for social media-first graphics and basic photo editing

• Fluer for affordable content creation for teams

• Affinity for professional photo retouching and editing

• Pixlr for conversational AI photo editing

• Fotor for easy AI tools and content creation

• Krita for artists and illustrators

• MyEdit for fast AI photo and video editing for occasional users

• Darktable for totally free RAW photo editing

What makes the best free photo editor?

Photoshop is both a professional photo editing app for photographers and a digital painting and graphic design app for artists and designers. The free Photoshop alternatives on this list primarily focus on photo editing, but I've also included some geared toward designers and artists.

Like many other types of software, AI features are becoming standard in creative apps. This list doesn't exclusively focus on AI photo editing tools, but I did evaluate the AI features offered by the apps I tested. (Photoshop still leads the pack with its combined photo editing, art creation, and advanced AI features.)

Based on my experience, here's what the best free photo editing software offers:

• AI features. All apps let you adjust brightness, contrast, and crop or add a filter. To be truly in Photoshop's class, an app needs the latest AI advancements to speed up your workflow, including generative AI.

• Ease of use. The basic layout and design of Photoshop haven't changed much in 30 years. Why? It's intuitive, and it works. The best free photo editor will make it equally as easy.

• Non-destructive editing. An "undo" button is great, but the true gold standard is layers.

• The ability to add text and design elements. Beyond photo edits, today's tools also need to include graphics, trending fonts, and templates to make creating social media content easier and faster.

• 100% free. We're trying to not pay for Photoshop here, right? There are several high-end, paid Photoshop alternatives out there, but this roundup will focus on free options, so you can edit like a pro on a student budget.

This year, I tested 58 apps before choosing the eight best to feature here. When evaluating each of them, I tested everything I usually use Photoshop for, including color-grading, toning, cropping, retouching, masking, blending modes, creating social media graphics, and adding text. I also tested the unique special effects or features of each app, including AI capabilities.

Find the best free Photoshop alternative for your needs below, based on over 35 hours of hands-on research.

The best free photo editing software at a glance

Best free photo editor for social media graphics

Canva (Web, iOS, Android, Mac, Windows)

Canva pros:

• Best mix of design tools and easy-to-use AI features for all types of content creation (photo, video, and graphics)

• Large template library of social media posts, slide decks, logos, and more

• Easy collaboration for teams

Canva cons:

• Optimized for graphics creation, not pure photo editing (though has the basics)

Canva is more of a graphics and social media content tool than purely a photo editor, but it still has the photo editing tools most users need, like color and contrast adjustments, highlights, shadows, cropping, and more.

A long-time popular Photoshop alternative, Canva has added new AI features over the years, including generative AI for images, template repurposing, and more. In 2026, Canva acquired another popular Photoshop alternative—Affinity—and transformed it into a free app that integrates with Canva. (More on Affinity later.) Canva's continuous updates and new features keep it feeling fresh.

As a capable "all-rounder" photo and graphic editing app, Canva helps you edit your own photos, remove or add objects with AI similar to Photoshop's Generative Fill, and use your photos in over 20,000 professionally-designed templates.

Besides photo editing, you can fully generate AI images and copy in Canva Documents, create a presentation from text prompts, and make a website. Beyond images, you can also generate AI text-to-video content—no camera required. This is huge for social media content and an affordable alternative to purchasing stock photos or videos.

Despite garnering negative press for increasing team plan pricing by 300% and moving to a per-user subscription model, Canva's pricing remains competitive in the photo editing category. In my opinion, it still represents excellent value, considering all the tools and capabilities it offers for both beginner and advanced users.

Marketing teams, especially remote ones, will also find Canva invaluable for Brand Kit, which saves your logo files, fonts, colors, and custom templates. Everyone can produce on-brand social, marketing, or business content quickly and easily across all departments and skill levels—plus collaborate efficiently with feedback comments within designs and custom workflows.

Honestly, Canva just works. The web app is excellent, but I also feel right at home creating content on my phone or iPad. The template library has options for every content format, and I love the flexible search function to find exactly the vibe I'm going for. I appreciate knowing that for whatever I want to create, Canva will have a great template to start from.

And with Zapier's Canva integration, you can automate your design workflows. Build automated systems across your apps, like automatically creating designs based on form submissions or uploading assets based on spreadsheet entries. Learn more about how to automate Canva, or get started with a pre-made workflow.

Canva pricing: Free; the Premium plan is $15/month for individuals or $20/month per user for teams. Discounts available for non-profits and K-12 educators.

Best free Photoshop alternative for affordable content creation for teams

Fluer (iPadOS, iOS, Android, Web)

Fluer pros:

• Affordable for teams up to 100 people

• Unused monthly AI credits roll over so you never lose what you've paid for

• Brand Lock keeps templates consistent with brand guidelines so anyone can produce high-quality content for your business

Fluer cons:

• Targeted more toward speedy content creation than photo editing or artwork, but more than capable of handling the majority of graphic tasks

Fluer, formerly known as Desygner, is the best deal in town for easy content creation and photo editing for teams. Similar to Canva, Fluer is a primarily web-based (with mobile apps available) platform for editing photos and creating logos, social media graphics, slide decks, videos, and printed materials.

Fluer offers plenty of AI features, including image, video, and slide deck generation, and soon the ability to automate lead generation and customer support with AI. More than visuals, you can also generate complete websites, brand identities, videos, and copywriting projects.

Most useful are the eight included AI Assistants, meant to serve as an agentic version of your marketing team. These agents have roles, such as a designer, writer, or financial assistant, and work together with a collective memory and brand knowledge to produce finished projects, such as reports, budget analyses, and more.

It's easy to create any graphic or video project with Fluer's tools or start from one of the professionally-designed templates. While Canva and Fluer both have thousands of templates to choose from, I personally feel Fluer's templates are of overall higher aesthetic quality, with fewer lower-quality options to sift through. As an all-in-one content creation tool, Fluer also offers a full suite of PDF tools, from converting existing files to PDF or creating from scratch to compressing, splitting, and editing PDFs from anywhere.

Where Fluer really shines is in ensuring brand consistency for teams with its Brand Lock feature. This allows teams to share editable versions of branded templates for social media graphics, slide decks, and more, but with the ability to "lock" specific elements within the templates. That means your logo placement, colors, and other elements can't accidentally get changed or shifted by template users, protecting brand consistency at scale.

While perhaps more of a Canva alternative than a Photoshop alternative, I think Fluer is the best option for teams of all sizes to keep costs down while still being able to handle all the basic photo edits and content tasks you throw at it.

Fluer pricing: Free; the Pro plan is $9.95/month for individuals or $29.95/month for teams up to 6 users.

Best free Photoshop alternative for professional photo retouching and editing

Affinity (Mac, Windows, iPadOS)

Affinity pros:

• Fast workflow: instantly switch between raster, vector, and publishing layout modes in the same file

• Every photo editing and graphics tool you could ever want in one free app

• Did I mention it's free and amazing?

Affinity cons:

• AI tools only available with paid Canva Pro subscription add-on

Affinity is a new free Photoshop alternative this year, though not new to photo editing. A long-time popular paid app, Affinity was recently purchased by Canva and is now offered entirely free as a desktop Windows and Mac app.

Previously known as Affinity Photo, the new Affinity encompasses all its previously separate products—Affinity Photo, Affinity Designer, Affinity Publisher—into one unified app for photo editing, vector graphics, and publishing, alongside built-in Canva integrations and AI features.

In a nutshell: "Wow."

Switching "Studios," as Affinity calls them, takes only a click and allows you to work on the same file in vector, raster, or layout mode by toggling between them. Affinity brings up the relevant tools for each Studio, such as paths in vector mode, and it's way, way faster than having to export from Photoshop into Adobe Illustrator and back again. Fast switching between these three studio modes is my favorite feature of the new Affinity.

The app looks and feels premium with well-organized menus and a built-in video tutorial library, and users familiar with Photoshop will feel at home right away. It was a joy to put a file through its paces, switching back and forth between photo editing, adding vector artwork, and then popping into AI mode to generate a new element or select an area to generatively expand or edit. Absolutely seamless workflow with quick, high-quality AI results. For free! I'm floored.

Affinity has been a long-time rival of Photoshop because it has the professional photo editing and graphics tools to compete. After trying the new Affinity, I think it's even better than Photoshop now, especially if you work with both vector and raster artwork regularly. Switching is easy too: import PSD, AI, and other formats directly into Affinity with all layers and settings intact.

To get the full benefits of Affinity, such as AI features, you need a Canva Pro subscription. However, Canva Pro is still much more affordable than Adobe, especially for businesses: $1,200/user/year for Adobe's all-apps plan vs. Canva Pro for $200/user/year.

Adobe has long been the professional design industry standard, but with its slick new unified desktop app and powerful Canva AI features, I think Affinity is setting a new standard for individuals and businesses alike.

Affinity pricing: Free; a Canva Pro subscription is required to access the built-in Canva AI tools.

Best free Photoshop alternative for conversational AI photo editing

Pixlr (Windows, Web)

Pixlr pros:

• AI features are easy to use for beginners

• Edit photos with text prompts for efficient, accurate results

• Most authentic Photoshop user interface and experience

Pixlr cons:

• Features confusingly divided between two apps: Pixlr X and Pixlr E

Pixlr is split into two web (or Windows) apps: Pixlr E and Pixlr X. It's confusing, and in my opinion, they could easily be combined into one app. Pixlr E is meant to be the "photo editor for experienced users," and Pixlr X is the "AI-focused, beginner-friendly" app.

If you've used Photoshop before, the Pixlr E web app (or Windows version) will feel right at home. It's got all the familiar icons along the left side, the same menu layout across the top, and a right-side panel with your editing history and layers. Pixlr does an excellent job of "duping" Photoshop's layers feature by including all the same options, including blending modes and opacity settings. You can even right-click to bring up the secondary actions menu, just like Photoshop.

In Pixlr E, you can do advanced photo editing, such as color balance, curves adjustments, and all the filters and effects Photoshop has, including AI noise reduction (requires 1 AI credit to use). You can also use familiar digital painting tools, like the brush, paint bucket, pen, and masking tools.

Pixlr X's interface is simplified and set up to be easier for beginners to use, though it still allows you to edit photos with basic color correction and cropping tools. The main reason for using Pixlr X vs. Pixlr E is for its advanced AI features, such as generative fill and expand.

New for 2026, Pixlr now supports AI image and video generation with Nano Banana as well as AI photo sharpening, background and object removal, masking (cut out) people and objects, and adding stickers or text. Pixlr's AI features do require paid credits (you get 40 for free to test it out), but paid plan pricing has stayed the same since 2024, with many new AI upgrades since then, so it's a great deal.

The most impressive AI tool in Pixlr is the Nano Banana editor where you can edit photos with AI text prompts. In the screenshot above, I asked Pixlr to remove all the background clutter behind my cat, and the large black dot (my leg) on the right, which it expertly did in just a few seconds from a simple prompt. Amazing. This is the future of easy photo editing.

It's easy to switch between Pixlr X and E as they both save projects in a combined library, so you can pop a photo into Pixlr X for a quick retouch, then switch back to Pixlr E for more advanced editing again. (Be advised: It saves into your temporary cache folder only, so cleaning your browser cache will delete them. For anything you want to keep, download it as their PXZ format, and save to your hard drive.)

Pixlr E and X pricing: Both are free to use; the premium plan, which includes both apps, ranges from $2.49 to $9.99/month for 1 person, or $16.99/month for teams up to 5 users.

Best free Photoshop alternative for easy AI tools

Fotor (Mac, Windows, iOS, Android, Web)

Fotor pros:

• Best-in-class AI object removal on par with Photoshop

• Impressive array of photo and video editing tools in one app, including multiple AI models, such as Nano Banana 2, Veo 3, and more

Fotor cons:

• Many simple editing features, such as color saturation, are locked to paid plans

Fotor is like a beautiful combination of Photoshop and Canva: all the advanced features you want for editing with one-click simplicity.

Editing photos in Fotor is a breeze. Object removal is particularly great. Fotor calls it Magic Eraser: brush over an object and it's gone. The one-click background removal is excellent as well, even for animals (many apps struggle to cut out around fuzzy fur!), and if it's not quite right, you can manually edit the cutout until it's just right.

Other tiptop AI features include image generation with choice of multiple AI models, text removal (such as logo wordmarks or packaging), background replacement, generative expand, upscaling and sharpening, and many portrait touch-up tools, like skin blemish removal, makeup enhancement, and filters. There's also a dedicated eCommerce section with virtual model try-ons, promotional social media templates, and plenty of tools for creating engaging product images.

Fotor boosted their AI video generation capabilities over the past year, now including Nano Banana 2 4K and the hard-to-find Wan 2.6, which is one of the only AI models that generates video with synced, believable audio. While video isn't the focus of this article, Fotor is a great choice for those who want to edit photos and create videos all in one app.

My one beef with Fotor is the befuddling decision to lock several industry-standard features behind a paywall for its paid plans only. Features like adjusting the color saturation in a photo and one-tap enhancement. I understand wanting users to upgrade to premium plans, but these editing features are available in the native iOS camera roll app, so they're not exactly revolutionary.

The obvious power of Fotor lies in its AI capabilities, both for photo editing and advanced AI video generation. These features aren't free, but after considering the cost of other apps, I believe Fotor still represents a good value for how darn tootin' easy it is to get excellent results with their AI tools—especially for the Pro plan, which includes 100 monthly AI credits and is as low as $3.99/month when purchased annually.

Fotor pricing: Free; premium plans are $10.99/month for additional features and AI credits, or $23.99/month for Brand Kits and more AI credits. Large discounts available on annual plans.

Best free photo editing app for artists and illustrators

Krita (Windows, Mac, Linux)

Krita pros:

• Advanced brush library for artists

• Work with raster or vector files and import PSDs

• 100% free and open source

Krita cons:

• A somewhat clunky process for pure photo editing compared to other apps

Photoshop has been around for over three decades, and it may surprise you to know Krita has been around almost as long: 25 years. Those who prefer native apps instead of browser-based ones will love Krita, which is 100% free and open source.

Krita's sidebars and interface are set up mainly for artists and illustrators who are creating their own artwork. You can fully edit photos in Krita as well, though the process is clunkier than in other apps as color options are somewhat hidden in the Filter > Adjust menu. However, Krita's free noise reduction filter is excellent, and the results are definitely on par with Photoshop and other leading AI-powered photo editors. (I recommend keeping it at 25% or under for the most natural-looking results.)

For all types of artists, Krita has everything you need, from fluid and lifelike sketching and painting brushes, to masking, advanced selection options, path drawing, multiple workspace options for painting, animation, VFX, and more—plus the ability to create raster and vector artwork. I love the art-first layout of Krita compared to Photoshop: when you open the app, your brushes and options are in a grid at the bottom right, making it much faster to switch between tools while working.

While Krita lacks one-click AI features popular in other apps, such as background removal, it has many advanced capabilities, like enabling you to code your own automated tasks in Python, and it can open and save PSD format files so you can work in Photoshop at work and Krita at home. When combined with a connected desktop drawing tablet, Krita is a powerful drawing app that can handle professional workflows.

Overall, Krita's feature set makes it better for digital artists than photographers, but it can still take care of any graphics or photo editing task. The best part? It's completely free and open source.

Krita pricing: Free. Mac and Microsoft store versions are paid due to platform fees; free download available directly from Krita.

Best free Photoshop alternative for fast AI photo and video editing for occasional users

MyEdit (Web)

MyEdit pros:

• AI tools are super easy to use and deliver realistic results

• The only free Photoshop alternative with forever-free AI tools (credits refresh daily)

• Offers complete suite of AI image, video, and audio generation and editing tools for creators

MyEdit cons:

• Three free AI credits and one watermark-free download per day is too limiting for most users (though credit packs aren't locked into a subscription, which is still beneficial for infrequent users)

MyEdit strikes a balance between affordable and effective AI tools for photo editing, and image, video, and audio generation (including text-to-speech). Many apps offer easy-to-use AI tools, but MyEdit takes the cake: a lazy swipe around an object still removes it perfectly. It's fast, it's free, it works. What's not to love?

I used the AI Replace tool to quickly brush around my cat, (sloppily) selecting the whole background, and with a one-sentence prompt and one click, he went from lounging in bed to lounging oceanside. I even left lots of space around my cat unselected and accidentally cut his ears off, but MyEdit understood what I wanted and generated a clean edit despite my sausage-finger selecting skills. So easy.

You can create designs from your own photos and add graphics and text, or generate custom social media post templates with AI text prompts. But MyEdit's best use, in my opinion, is for AI features like generative expansion and fill, text-to-image generation, upscaling, background removal, and product photo scene creation.

The unique thing about MyEdit is that instead of offering a free trial or a limited amount of AI credits, you get three AI credits and one watermark-free download every single day. If you only need AI tools occasionally, there's no better option. Unlike a time-limited free trial, you can get professional AI results indefinitely for free—as long as you either only have occasional need for AI, or you use it a lot and are really, really patient.

Creators on a budget will also love MyEdit's Pro plan which includes all AI tools, including text-to-speech for voiceovers, sound effects, audio quality tools, and 500 credits per month for only $84 per year.

MyEdit pricing: Free for 3 daily AI credits; premium plans range from $10-$18/month for additional AI credits and access to all image, video, and audio editing tools.

Best free Photoshop alternative for totally free RAW photo editing

Darktable (Windows, Mac, Linux)

Darktable pros:

• Advanced organization for your entire photo library

• Every editing tool needed for non-destructive RAW photo processing, from simple exposure control to complex masking

• 100% free desktop app

Darktable cons:

• No built-in AI features, such as noise reduction or upscaling

Darktable is an excellent free photo editor for photographers who only want to edit RAW photos and don't need to add text or create graphics or videos.

While aimed at experienced photographers, Darktable is still easy to use for beginners. If you've used Adobe Lightroom before, Darktable will be instantly familiar with its similar rating, tagging, filtering, importing, and photo library organization features. Also like Lightroom, Darktable is a non-destructive RAW photo editor. Meaning your actual RAW files on your hard drive never change; the edits are only applied in Darktable. To save processed images, export to your hard drive or batch export to a web gallery to show a client.

Darktable offers all the adjustments photographers need to process RAW images, as well as easy tagging and searching functions to make working with large libraries easy. I did find importing images slower than Adobe, but all other tasks, from editing images to creating albums and exporting, were very snappy. The Lighttable tab acts as your gallery viewer and organizer, and the Darkroom tab is where editing takes place.

Adjusting colors, contrast, clarity, and other settings is intuitive and well-organized in the editing menu along the right side. You can also access more advanced tools with one click (or keyboard shortcut), such as toggling on or off focus and highlight peaking, and you can take "snapshots" of your photo as you're editing so that it's easy to go back to an earlier version without having to hit undo 700 times.

While Darktable doesn't have the same level of aesthetically-designed user interface as Adobe Photoshop or offer AI features, it does have everything experienced photographers need to professionally process RAW photos for digital or print needs—all for free.

Darktable pricing: Free

Which free Photoshop alternative should you use?

The right free Photoshop alternative for you depends on what you need most. Do you need generative AI to create graphics and photorealistic scenes out of thin air? Do you need pro-level noise control and coloring tools for your photography? Do you need done-for-you templates you can easily customize for social media or your website?

Since these are all free, you can try out the ones that seem like they might be a good fit for you until you find the shoe that fits.

There are so many more free or affordable Photoshop alternatives out there that didn't make this list. A few I tested and recommend for specific types of users include:

• AlterPhoto and Paint.NET for free Windows-only desktop free Photoshop alternatives

• Inkscape for a free desktop vector artwork app

• FireAlpaca and MediBang Paint for digital art Photoshop alternatives, especially for comics

• VistaCreate for an easy all-in-one solution for small businesses that want digital promo items and easy printing in one place

• GIMP for a long-time popular and open-source free Photoshop alternative

Want the latest, best AI advancements? Take a look at this list of the best AI photo editors.

Related reading:

• The best photo editing apps for iPhone and Android

• The best AI image generators

• The top AI image editors

• The best free video editing software

• 70+ AI art styles to experiment with

This article was originally published in April 2018 by Jackie Dove. The most recent update was in March 2026.