The 8 best Photoshop alternatives in 2026

A professional raster editor now free from Canva, with RAW support and no subscription.

Affinity Photo is a pro-grade raster editor that Canva made free across the Affinity suite in late 2025. It brings RAW support, layers, masks, frequency separation, HDR merge, and strong PSD compatibility. It is a manual photo editor rather than a generative tool, aimed squarely at retouching and compositing.

A free browser-based editor that opens and edits PSD files with a Photoshop-like interface.

Photopea is the closest free like-for-like to Photoshop's interface, running entirely in the browser with layers, masks, and support for PSD, XCF, Sketch, XD, and RAW files. It is ad-supported and pure raster editing, with no image generation of its own. It suits opening and editing existing PSDs without a subscription or an install.

The long-standing free, open-source raster editor with deep manual editing power.

GIMP is the open-source raster editor, and version 3.2 (2026) added non-destructive editing, vector layers, CMYK soft-proofing, and improved PSD import. It is fully free with a large plugin range that rivals Photoshop's. The interface has a learning curve and generative AI is not a core part of the app.

A template-driven design platform with AI image generation and quick photo edits built in.

Canva combines templates, a drag-and-drop editor, and AI image generation and editing in one place, so an image can go straight into a post, deck, or ad. Magic-editing tools handle background removal and object edits without pixel work. It is a design tool rather than a pro raster editor, so deep retouching still goes elsewhere.

A real-time multi-model studio for generating and enhancing images on a live canvas.

Krea runs a real-time canvas where images update as you type or sketch, alongside its Krea 2 model and dozens of third-party models. Its strengths are fast visual iteration and enhancement rather than manual editing. It generates and upscales images but is not a layer-based photo retoucher.

Adobe's commercial-safe image generator, native to Photoshop and Creative Cloud.

Firefly is Adobe's generative layer inside Photoshop and Illustrator as Generative Fill and Generative Recolor, backed by an IP indemnity on its own models. It pairs generation with Adobe's manual editing rather than replacing it. Its heaviest features land first inside the paid Creative Cloud apps.

A browser-based photo editor with AI tools for quick edits and generation.

Pixlr runs in the browser with a Photoshop-lite editor plus AI features like generative fill, background removal, and text-to-image. It sits between a quick editor and a design tool, aimed at fast edits rather than professional compositing. Some AI features and higher-resolution exports sit behind paid tiers.