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» What is Photoshop?
Photoshop is the best imaging and graphic design software used by millions of creative users for projects. You can create beautiful designs, digital painting, animation, and graphical drawings with Adobe Photoshop. The application is available for Desktop and iPad platforms. Make easy yet professional photography edits, remove or replace objects, and combine photos with excellent finishing with an online photo editor like Photoshop.
» Why do we need an alternative to Photoshop?
There can be many reasons for searching for an alternative to Photoshop tool. Being a user, you might not want to spend a massive subscription amount, or your project is small and does not have millions of features for the work, or simply you don’t need a professional online photo editor like Photoshop at all. There are many free Photoshop alternatives available online.
If you do not want to try Adobe Photoshop for your photography and design needs, we have compiled a list of 10 Best Photoshop Alternatives.
» Top 10 Photoshop Alternatives
1. PicMonkey
PicMonkey is the free Photoshop alternative offering various features and tools for photo editing and design development. Transform your stock pics into beautiful and professional photos in minutes with PicMonkey. The application provides tools like background remover, and portraits to touch up that elevates the design and gives it a professional touch. Hundreds of templates available on PicMonkey, which you can use to make impressive images, ads and logos for your projects. Also, share them on Facebook and Instagram. PicMonkey can also be used to design thumbnails and cover photos for your YouTube videos and other Vlogs.
Features
• Easy tools and design tool kit for creating professional photos
• Touch up portraits
• Design and add graphics to your photos like textures, filters, and layers
• Thousands of designer templates and creative graphics
• Design YouTube thumbnails and cover photos
Pricing
• PicMonkey comes with a 7-days free trial for basic and pro subscription. The Basic subscriptions start from $7.99 per month or $72.00 on an annual basis.
2. Canva
Canva is an interactive platform that allows you to create hundreds of images, posters, flyers, announcements, and logos for your business for free and even for paid images. Canva is a free Photoshop Alternative that allows you to create attractive blog banners for your website or fancy text to your pictures. The site is very versatile and easy to use. The design tool kit is completely simple and very innovative. Add images, text, graphics, stickers, and illustrations to your project. Canva is an excellent choice for budding artists and users who just started Vlogs and blogging.
Features
• Millions of photos, templates, and filers available in HD quality
• Hundreds of designs for social media marketing, content post creations, and logo development
• Export designs in various formats
• Built-in online sharing plugins for social media sharing
• Team creation and sharing made easy
• 1 GB Cloud Storage
Pricing
• Canva is a free Photoshop Alternative for individual and small teams. The Pro subscription starts from $9.95 per user per month if billed yearly.
3. GIMP
GIMP is a free Photoshop Alternative with open source code and image editor for creative users. GIMP is available for use in multiple platforms like Linux, GNU, OS X, and Windows. Since the application is free of cost, you can make changes in the source code and distribute the copy for your own use. GIMP offers many tools and techniques to give professional touch to your images and touch-ups for graphic designs. There are several customization options available with GIMP along with 3rd party plugins. The users can use the GIMP for high-quality restoration and retouch in their images. Transform your creativity into beautiful photos or graphic design elements.
Features
• Customizable Interface
• Remove blur and disturbance from the images
• Retouching tool kit to enhance your photos
• Various input hardware support offered by GIMP
• Multiple supported platforms
Pricing
• Free of cost
4. Pixlr Editor
Pixlr is an intuitive photo editing tool for online use. You don’t need to download any applications. Make edits and enhance the photo quality with the free Photoshop alternative right from your browser. Pixlr offers professional edits for the images and graphic designs with powerful tools and AI technology. The application has smart tools that provide one-click background removal, retouching in the photographs, and extracting and replacing of the layers to the images. The AI-powered tools are very impressive and offer easy coverage for all kinds of creative projects. Pixlr also has a well-stocked library of photos and banners which can be used to enhance your digital content.
Features
• Professional photo editing tools even for beginners
• Intuitive navigation and user interface
• AI technology for ease of editing
• One-click to add effects and advanced edits for professional use
• The application is also available on mobile devices
Pricing
• The application is free for users with basic tools for editing. The Premium Subscription starts from $3.99 per month for full access to Pixlr products.
5. Corel PHOTO-PAINT 2020
Corel PHOTO-PAINT 2020 is a photo editing software that can be paired with your CorelDRAW. Corel PHOTO-PAINT 2020 supports many file extensions, even Photoshop extensions (.PSD) and RAW file support, which supports more than 300 types of Camera. Corel PHOTO-PAINT 2020 offers features and tools that will fix the distortion and noise in the images, and you can work with multiple photos in a batch. Add complex layers to your photos and make quick corrections with the software. You can also add special effects to your images with Corel PHOTO-PAINT 2020 from bokeh mode to sepia filter.
Features
• AI-powered editing tools
• All new Art style effects that can be used to make digital paintings
• Modification in the lens effects
• Sharpen, blur and blend the imperfections in the image
• Add layer and objects to the photos
• Tools for cut out images which can be moved from one image to another
Pricing
• The 365- days subscription cost for $525.00, billed annually.
6. Affinity Photo
Affinity Photo is another Photoshop alternative that offers a variety of tools for image enhancement and giving a professional touch to the photos. The intuitive interface of the software is a plus point, as users can easily get accustomed to navigation. Make easy RAW edits, image rotations, and smooth workflow with the batch of images with Affinity Photo utility software. The software is downloadable in Mac, Windows, and iPad platforms. The application also allows the users to project the pictures in the 360 degrees view and merge the focal lens in the pics for making the images high definition. Affinity Photo also has smart selection tools that allow the users to make a selection of elements in the photos and enhance the objects for better viewability.
Features
• Real-time editing for quick last-minute edits
• Open and launch PSD files for editing
• Supports Nik Collection 2.5 by DxO powerful photo editing plugin
• One0click and easy retouching photos
• Masks or apply layers with full resolutions
• Professional tools for lens correction
Pricing
• Affinity Photo costs $66.00 for Windows and Mac users and $26.65 for iPad users.
7. Acorn
Acorn is a powerful image editing software that offers powerful curves, layers, and levels for editing images. The innovative circle text features help you create a logo for companies by circling the text and designing icons. You can create text with many levels like adjusting radius, rotation, and inversion of the text in the logo design. Add effects and filter to your photos by dropping shadow, distortions, and blur. Also, create attractive photos with vector tools that will add an arrow, Boolean operations, and curves to the pictures’ text and layers.
Features
• The all-new clone tool in Acorn for cloning layers, images, and shapes
• The masking of the layer with the blending brush that will blend the background
• Enriched cropping tool for your images and layers
• Opens and support RAW images
• Importing of Photoshop brush files (.abr)
Pricing
• Acorn costs $30.00 for MacOS users along with a 14-days free trial.
8. Polarr
Polarr Photo Editor Pro is an effective Photoshop Alternative with auto-enhance tools and AI technology. Polarr is so easy to use that even a beginner can use the application without much effort. The users can use the effects and filters to change the look of the photos and make it look professional. With Polarr, you can also customize filters and share them with your friends. Polarr also contains some local adjustment tools for masking and layering your pics with many adjustments. Improve the detailing of the photo and sharpen it for clarity. The professionals in the industry appreciate Polarr for its easy to use and tons of features that make Polarr an effective alternative to Photoshop.
Features
• Dual Lens effects with in-depth adjustments
• Customize Overlay and blending modes for beginners and novice
• Powerful tool kit for layering and masking images
• Full set of local adjustment tools
• Create and customize photo filters
Pricing
• Polarr starts at $3.99 per month per user
9. Photopea
Photopea is an advanced and straightforward photo editing tool for everyone. The application is available on your browser, and you do not need any downloads. Simply open the link, and your application is available online. You can import PSD files from Photoshop apps and create a beautiful and attractive image for your creative campaign. Photopea also supports the formats from many other popular photo editing software like GIMP, Adobe XD, and CorelDRAW. Photopea is designed with a very intuitive and simple interface. You can directly upload the photo from the Drive or computer and start editing. You can add filters like 3D, Blur, and Stylize to the photos with Photopea.
Features
• Intuitive Interface with simple tools
• The look of the software is like Photoshop
• Modify the channels and path of layers with one click
• The innovative and broad color palette for enhancing images
• Huge and smart CSS gallery with hundreds of photos
Pricing
• It is free of cost
10. Fotor
Fotor is an advanced photo editing software that makes it a perfect Photoshop alternative for all. It offers a variety of features and tools for making perfect professional photos for your creative campaign. You can create promotional photos and banners for your online store or website; make collages for friends and family with old photos, and a full set of tools for retouching old images with new colors and effects. Fotor is a great option when you need software for photo editing, making great functional collages, and creating new designs from scratch. Transform your photos into new professional images with beauty tools, highlighting and give a complete makeover to portraits.
Features
• Complete set of photo editing tools like adjust and crop the image. Recolor or resize the images to your desired size.
• Thousands of designer templates for graphics
• Handy tools to add an extra dimension to your images
• Hundred of new fonts and sticker for your photo albums and posters
• Online handy guides and tutorials that will help you learn and grow with Fotor
Pricing
• Fotor Pro subscription costs $3.33 per month if billed annually. However, it will cost $8.99 per month if billed monthly.
Final Words
There are tons of photo editing software available online with a variety of features. You can search and opt for any of the above Photoshop alternatives for your project. Search and select the application that suits your needs.