GIMP vs Krita
Both are free/open-source alternatives to Adobe Photoshop. Here's how they stack up — verified facts, no spin.
GIMP
TOP PICKThe long-standing open-source image editor for photo retouching and compositing.
GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) is the most complete open-source counterpart to Photoshop for photo retouching, compositing, and image authoring, in development since the 1990s. The 3.x era has modernized it substantially: GIMP 3.0 (March 2025) introduced non-destructive editing for most commonly used filters, better PSD export, and editable text styling, and the project has kept a steady release pace since (3.2.4 as of April 2026). It runs entirely on your own machine with no account, and the honest trade-off is a learning curve: the interface and shortcuts differ from Photoshop's, and some professional features — full adjustment-layer parity, CMYK prepress — are still behind.
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.
Side by side
| GIMP | Krita | |
|---|---|---|
| Sovereignty Score | 96 | 96 |
| Open source | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hostable | Yes | Yes |
| Local-first | Yes | Yes |
| License | GPL-3.0-or-later | GPL-3.0-only |
| Pricing | Free and open-source | Free download; optional paid store builds fund development |
GIMP is Macrostack's recommended Adobe Photoshop alternative, so it's our pick here.
GIMP
Strengths
- +Free and open-source (GPL-3.0-or-later) with decades of development and a large community
- +Deep retouching and compositing tools; non-destructive filter editing since 3.0
- +Big ecosystem of plugins and scripts (Script-Fu, Python)
- +Opens and exports PSD files (within limits) plus virtually every common format
- +Runs fully offline on Windows, macOS, and Linux — no account required
Trade-offs
- −Interface and shortcuts differ from Photoshop — expect a real adjustment period
- −PSD support is partial; complex layered files may not round-trip cleanly
- −No full equivalent of Photoshop's adjustment layers yet, and CMYK/prepress workflows are still limited
- −No built-in generative AI tools comparable to Firefly
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
More Adobe Photoshop head-to-heads
Facts verified 2026-07-06. Licenses and pricing change — spotted something out of date? That's a correction we want.