GIMP vs Photopea
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.
Photopea
A free Photoshop-style editor that runs instantly in your browser and opens PSD files.
Photopea is a free web-based editor whose interface and shortcuts closely mirror Photoshop's, with the best PSD compatibility of any free tool — it also opens Illustrator, XD, and Sketch files. Despite running in a browser, it processes everything on your device: by its own documentation it uploads none of your files, and a loaded tab keeps working offline. It is the fastest way for a Photoshop user to get real work done at zero cost, but it is not open-source and cannot be self-hosted — the free version is ad-supported, with an optional Premium subscription (about US$5/month) — which its Sovereignty Score honestly reflects.
Side by side
| GIMP | Photopea | |
|---|---|---|
| Sovereignty Score | 96 | 45 |
| Open source | Yes | No |
| Self-hostable | Yes | No |
| Local-first | Yes | Yes |
| License | GPL-3.0-or-later | Proprietary (free) |
| Pricing | Free and open-source | Free in the browser (ad-supported); optional Premium about US$5/month |
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
Photopea
Strengths
- +Closest free match to Photoshop's interface and shortcuts — minimal relearning
- +Best-in-class PSD compatibility among free tools; also opens AI, XD, and Sketch files
- +Nothing to install; files are processed on your device, not uploaded to a server
- +Works on any OS with a modern browser, including Chromebooks and tablets
Trade-offs
- −Not open-source and not self-hostable — you depend on Photopea.com remaining available
- −Free version is ad-supported
- −Very large or complex documents are constrained by browser memory
- −Offline use works in an already-loaded tab, but it is not an installable local app you control
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.