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The 10 Free Photoshop Alternatives Windows and MAC

Best Free Photoshop Alternatives software: Adobe Photoshop is actually most costly software. It is the to-go choice of the professional designer and illustrator, but the one which cannot be afforded by the ordinary individual. While monetary barrier is one case, the user-friendliness of the tool calls into question for many users. For some ordinary user in just the need of an occasional photo touch-up, Photoshop seems too grandiose.

Some of these Photoshop alternatives are free, and those that are paid all offer free trials. So what are you waiting for? Check them out, and let us know which you like best in the comments below!

Top 10 Free Photoshop Alternatives Windows & MAC

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If you have ever used the default Windows Paint, you’ll be much familiar with Paint.NET. This tool was originally developed to be a more advanced version of Windows Paint, and it does inherit many features from the nifty default Windows program. The tool is less powerful than GIMP or Photoshop, but it takes well care of all the basic features you would ever require in an image editing tool. You can also extend the functionality of this tool by installing the plugins developed by the vast community supporting this platform. If you want a less-cluttered and more ‘humanly’ photo editing interface, Paint.NET would just be the right fit for your needs.

  • Supported Platforms: Windows 7 or Later
  • Key Features: Selection editing, Layers, Histogram, Retouching, Resizing, Noise removal, Sharpening, Colour correction, Plugin support.
  • Supported File Formats: RAW files, BMP, JPEG, GIF, TIFF, PNG.
  • Price: Free

Best alternatives photoshop for Mac pc / ipad,. Pixelmator uses Mac OS X libraries to create fast, powerful image editing tools. As it’s built on Mac and iOS technologies

  • Supported Platforms: Mac, iPhone, iPad
  • Supported File Formats: RAW formats, BMP, GIF, JPEG, PNG, TIFF, PSD, etc.
  • Price: Paid $29.99/£20.99.

Fully compatible with Photoshop and other file formats, it’s aimed squarely at professional photographers and designers, and although Affinity Photo is hugely cheaper than Photoshop (with no subscription), its creators argue it’s actually better, promising higher speeds, fewer crashes and unlimited undos.

  • Supported Platforms: Mac / Windows
  • Supported File Formats: RAW formats, BMP, GIF, JPEG, PNG, TIFF, PSD, etc.
  • Price: Paid – £39.99/$49.99/€49.99

‘GNU Image Manipulation Program’, or as it is widely known as – GIMP is the best free alternative to Adobe Photoshop you’ll ever stumble across. With a widely supported community and with its cross compatibility over a range of operating systems, GIMP clearly stands out as the best free alternative to Photoshop. Although it doesn’t offer quite a features like Photoshop, it possess ample features to let you edit your photos in a breeze and with a stint of professionalism to it.

  • Supported Platforms: Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, BSD, Unix, SkyOS
  • Key Features: Layers, Selection editing, HDR, Re-touching, Noise removal, Lens and Colour correction, Sharpening, Plugin support, etc.
  • Supported File Formats: RAW formats, BMP, GIF, JPEG, PNG, TIFF, PSD, etc.
  • Price: Free

Best Online Photoshop Alternatives Pixlr

If you are one of those browser maniacs, who just doesn’t like to close his browser for editing an image, Pixlr is the best web-based image editing tool you’ll ever come across. If you are ever going to get close to Photoshop without paying a cent, and without leaving your browser, Pixlr is the simply the best web-based image editor. With similar features, layouts and keyboard short-cuts to that of Photoshop, Pixlr is a great free online iteration of the image editing behemoth, albeit a less powerful one. Overdoing too many layers on Pixlr can make things ugly, and it is something you must keep away from.

  • Supported Platforms: Web-Based, Android, iOS
  • Key Features: Selection tools, Text overlays, Layers, Re-sizing, Red-eye removal, teeth whitener, Filters and Effects, etc.
  • Supported File Formats: BMP, JPEG, GIF, TIFF, PNG.
  • Price: Free

Linux and Open source Photoshop Alternatives

Krita has won several applauds for being one of the best image editing tools, based for the open-source platforms like Linux and Unix. The tool comes as a bundle with the KOffice suite and is a great choice for all your image editing needs on an open-source platform. Although lacking in quite a few departments when compared to Photoshop or GIMP, this free tool is in it own rights makes up for one powerful image editor.

  • Supported Platforms: Windows, Linux, BSD, Unix.
  • Key Features: 
  • Supported File Formats: Any Windows-compatible media format
  • Price: Free

Pixelmator is a paid alternative to Photoshop for those based on Mac OS X. This tool offers support for both the latest Mac OS X Yosemite and the iPad. This is a full-featured image editing tool for your Mac-based system. The advanced technology used by this tool makes the entire image processing on your system even faster than ever before. The fast and fluid image editing tool is something every pro designer would prefer at any given time. By being cost-effective when compared to Adobe Photoshop, Pixelmator is a full-blown alternative to Photoshop you should definitely consider, given its extremely low pricing.

  • Supported Platforms: Mac OS X
  • Key Features: Texts, Shapes, Sketching, Painting tools and Brushes, Colour adjustments, Retouching, Effects, etc.
  • Supported File Formats: RAW formats, BMP, GIF, JPEG, PNG, TIFF, PSD, etc.
  • Price: paid -$29.99

With a simple UI, Sketch has many features similar to that of Photoshop and Illustrator, including layers, gradients, colour picker and style presets.

  • Supported Platforms: Mac
  • Price: Paid –$99

These are the best PS alternatives you can try…

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3 Comments

    • Hi, Ivan Kutskir,

      Nice suggestion. This one is also good online photo editing tool and we are definitely incorporate in our future updates.

      Thanks for considering to commenting here and increase knowledge for our readers.

  • GIMP is arguably the most popular free software for non-vector digital art and image editing. It is mentioned in many alternative lists as a photoshop alternative, but its development is slow and “gimped” at times. If you are are looking for both a free and open-source editor Krita would a much better option..just my two cents!

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