Krita vs Affinity by Canva
Both are free/open-source alternatives to Adobe Photoshop. Here's how they stack up — verified facts, no spin.
Krita
A professional open-source studio for digital painting that doubles as a capable image editor.
Krita is a KDE project stewarded by the Krita Foundation, built first for digital painting and illustration: its brush engines, pen-tablet support, and animation tools are best-in-class among free software. It is also a genuinely capable general raster editor with layers, masks, filters, and PSD import/export, which makes it the strongest pick for people who use Photoshop mainly to draw and paint rather than to retouch photos. The direct download is completely free; identical GPL-licensed builds are sold on Steam and the Microsoft, Epic, and Mac App Stores purely to fund development.
Affinity by Canva
The full pro suite — pixel, vector, and layout — now genuinely free.
Affinity was the classic one-time-purchase Photoshop rival; after Canva's acquisition it was relaunched in late 2025 as a single free desktop app combining what used to be Affinity Photo, Designer, and Publisher — full pixel, vector, and layout studios with no feature limits or subscription. It's closed-source and needs a Canva account to activate (it works offline afterwards), and Canva's AI extras are the paid upsell. For someone who wants professional-grade Photoshop power without a subscription and without open-source trade-offs, this is now the strongest commercial answer.
Side by side
| Krita | Affinity by Canva | |
|---|---|---|
| Sovereignty Score | 96 | 42 |
| Open source | Yes | No |
| Self-hostable | Yes | No |
| Local-first | Yes | Yes |
| License | GPL-3.0-only | Proprietary (free) |
| Pricing | Free download; optional paid store builds fund development | Free (all pixel/vector/layout tools); Canva premium plans unlock the AI features |
Krita edges it on the Sovereignty Score, but the right pick depends on the trade-offs below.
Krita
Strengths
- +Free and open-source (GPL-3.0-only), developed by the Krita Foundation with a steady, funded release cadence
- +Best-in-class brush engines, tablet support, and painting workflow
- +Solid layer, mask, and filter tools for general raster work; opens and exports PSD
- +Cross-platform — Windows, macOS, Linux, and an Android/ChromeOS build
Trade-offs
- −Painting-first by design — photo retouching and selection tools are shallower than Photoshop's or GIMP's
- −PSD round-trips can lose advanced Photoshop-specific features
- −No built-in generative AI features
- −Large canvases with many layers want plenty of RAM
Affinity by Canva
Strengths
- +Professional-grade suite, genuinely free — no feature gates
- +Pixel, vector, and page layout in one app
- +Works offline after activation; native macOS and Windows
Trade-offs
- −Closed-source; requires a Canva account to activate
- −Long-term direction now depends on Canva
- −iPad version still catching up
Facts verified 2026-07-06. Licenses and pricing change — spotted something out of date? That's a correction we want.