GIMP vs Pinta
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.
Pinta
A lightweight, open-source editor for quick everyday image edits.
Pinta is a simple, MIT-licensed image editor modeled on Paint.NET, for the large group of people who pay for Photoshop but mostly crop, resize, annotate, and make quick adjustments. It offers layers, a solid set of adjustments and effects, and an interface you can learn in minutes, on Linux, Windows, and macOS. It is deliberately not a professional tool: there is no PSD support and nothing like Photoshop-depth retouching — but if your needs are genuinely simple, it may be all the editor you need.
Side by side
| GIMP | Pinta | |
|---|---|---|
| Sovereignty Score | 96 | 92 |
| Open source | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hostable | Yes | Yes |
| Local-first | Yes | Yes |
| License | GPL-3.0-or-later | MIT |
| Pricing | Free and open-source | Free and open-source |
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
Pinta
Strengths
- +Simple and fast for everyday edits — crop, resize, annotate, adjust
- +MIT-licensed and cross-platform (Linux, Windows, macOS)
- +Layers and useful adjustments/effects without a learning curve
- +Small footprint; runs well on older hardware
Trade-offs
- −Nowhere near Photoshop's depth — no advanced retouching, masking, or prepress tools
- −No PSD support (native format plus OpenRaster and standard image formats)
- −Small maintainer team and a modest development pace
- −Far smaller ecosystem and fewer tutorials than GIMP or Krita
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.