Adobe Photoshop → GIMP
What it saves, what actually moves, what you rebuild — and the thing that catches people.
What it costs, and what it saves
Adobe, as listed on 2026-10-03 (US): the Photoshop single-app plan is US$22.99/mo on an annual plan billed monthly (US$275.88 a year) or US$263.88 a year prepaid, with 100 GB storage and 25 generative credits a month; Creative Cloud Pro is US$69.99/mo after a US$34.99 introductory rate for the first 3 months, or US$779.88 a year prepaid. Cancelling an annual billed-monthly plan after the 14-day refund window costs a lump sum of 50% of the remaining contract obligation (30% of the annual commitment in California), per Adobe's subscription terms. GIMP 3.2.6, released 2026-09-10, is free under the GNU GPL. The direct saving against the single-app plan is about US$264 to US$276 a year; the hidden cost is the time to retrain and rebuild actions, presets and plug-in workflows.
Moves cleanly
Flat images in common formats open as they are. Layered PSDs open with their pixel layers, and GIMP 3.x imports and exports CMYK JPEG, TIFF, PSD and JPEG XL, keeps Photoshop clipping paths, guides and layer data stored inside TIFFs and JPEGs, and its PSD export can save clipping paths, CMYK profiles and metadata. GIMP 3.2 also imports the Drop Shadow, Inner Shadow and Outer Glow layer styles, Photoshop .acv curves and .alv levels presets, and can export PSB.
You rebuild
Adjustment layers, Smart Objects, most layer styles, Photoshop actions and .8bf plug-ins, generative-fill edits and your shortcut habits. Per GIMP's August 2026 development update, editable PSD text and adjustment layers imported as GEGL equivalents are in development builds (3.3.x toward 3.4), not in stable 3.2.6, so recreate them with non-destructive filters, text layers, vector layers and Link Layers.
What Adobe Photoshop costs you today
US$22.99/month as a single app on an annual plan (about US$34.49 month-to-month), or US$19.99/month in the Photography plan bundled with Lightroom and 1 TB of cloud storage; also included in Creative Cloud Pro at US$69.99/month. There is no perpetual-license version — subscription only.
What actually holds you in
Layered work saved as PSD/PSB keeps full fidelity only inside Adobe's applications; other editors open PSDs with varying completeness. Licensing is tied to your Adobe account and lapses with the subscription, and flattened exports (PNG, TIFF, JPEG) preserve pixels but not your editable layer structure. Years of muscle memory, recorded actions, and third-party plugins add real practical switching cost.
What you are moving to
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.
Free and open-source
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
What you give up
- 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
The migration, step by step
- 1Audit before switching: open a sample of your real working PSDs in GIMP 3.2.6, note which layers arrive as plain pixels, which styles are missing and whether text stays editable, and keep the original PSDs untouched as your archive copy.
- 2Install GIMP 3.2.6 next to Photoshop and set up colour management: load the same RGB working profile and your print shop's CMYK ICC profile so soft-proofing and the CMYK selector's Total Ink Coverage readout match what the printer expects.
- 3Rebuild the toolkit: recreate adjustment layers as non-destructive filters, linked Smart Objects as Link Layers, shapes as 3.2 vector layers, import your .acv and .alv presets, and port automation to Python 3 or Script-Fu (GIMP 3 does not run GIMP 2.10 plug-ins, and Photoshop actions are not among its documented formats).
- 4Parallel run for a few weeks: do new work in GIMP and save masters as XCF, where non-destructive filters are stored, while keeping the Photoshop subscription active so you can check any file GIMP renders differently.
- 5Agree hand-off formats with clients and printers: send exported PSD, TIFF or PDF, run one CMYK test export past the print shop, and confirm whether anyone needs layered PSDs back from you.
- 6Cut over at the end of the Adobe term: download everything from Creative Cloud storage, then cancel on the renewal date so you avoid the 50% early-termination charge on an annual billed-monthly plan.
The gotcha
The PSD gap is about live features, not pixels. GIMP's roadmap lists 'Layer effects and adjustment layers import from PSD' as work in progress for 3.4 and notes that only some legacy effects import today, so a file built on Curves, Levels or Hue/Saturation adjustment layers opens in stable 3.2.6 without those adjustments as editable layers and can look different from Photoshop. Smart Objects are the second trap: even GIMP's in-development PSD descriptor work (merge request !2338, June 2026) supports only externally linked smart objects, not embedded ones, so an embedded logo or mock-up arrives without its editable source. Third, CMYK: GIMP does not store pixels in CMYK (CMYK as backend pixel storage is a 3.4 roadmap item still marked WIP), so CMYK files are edited in RGB and converted on export; soft-proof against the printer's profile before every print job.
When to stay on Adobe Photoshop
Stay if clients or print shops send and expect layered PSDs with adjustment layers, Smart Objects and layer styles intact; if your workflow depends on Photoshop actions, .8bf plug-ins or Adobe's generative fill; or if you edit in CMYK every day for print. GIMP's PSD import is improving with each release, but round-tripping live Photoshop files is not something stable GIMP does yet.
More Layer 5 migrations
Figures verified 2026-07-06 against vendor pricing pages. Prices change and migrations differ by estate — treat the cost delta as a starting model, not a quote. Rankings and recommendations here are merit-only; affiliate income never changes a verdict. See our methodology.