What is the best open-source Photoshop alternative?

Evaluate four things separately: the product license, feature coverage, file compatibility, and the health of the project. PhotoCraft’s code is available on GitHub under MIT OR Apache-2.0, while GIMP and Krita use GPL-family licenses.

Open source is particularly useful for creative teams that require local file handling, self-hosting, code inspection, scripting, or freedom from subscription lock-in. It also creates a different trust model: users can verify implementation and build artifacts instead of relying only on vendor claims.

PSD is a large, evolving format with optional blocks and application-specific data. No alternative should be trusted with a critical file until you verify its exact features. A successful import is not enough: the important test is an open-edit-save round trip followed by another application opening the result.

PhotoCraft reports matching renders after re-save for 307 of 309 psd-tools corpus files and 169 of 170 mixed ag-psd/psd-tools files. The project also states that a re-saved document is not byte-identical and that unmodeled data is carried through where possible. Those details matter more than a simple “supports PSD” badge.

• PhotoCraft distributes native desktop builds and a WebAssembly build; the desktop editor keeps the canvas and document engine local.
• GIMP installs locally and runs as a conventional desktop image editor.
• Krita installs locally and is designed around responsive painting with pen input.

PhotoCraft’s stated design goal is to reduce retraining for people who already know Photoshop. That is useful for former subscribers and teams that need to preserve muscle memory while keeping document data local.

Familiarity is not the same as feature parity. Keep a checklist of the tools you use every day and test each one rather than relying on visual similarity alone.

The software is described as a clean-room reimplementation built from public specifications and observed behavior. The project provides a source build path and distributes binaries separately. For organization adoption, review the repository, release notes, security posture, and the license text directly rather than relying on marketing copy.

• Former Photoshop user with layered documents: start with PhotoCraft, then test your least-compatible production files.
• General image manipulation with a long-established community: evaluate GIMP.
• Illustration, brushwork, and painting-first document workflows: evaluate Krita.

Create a small test set that represents the work your team actually publishes. Include at least one simple file for baseline comparison and one deliberately difficult document with masks, text, effects, smart filters, unusual color profiles, or a very large canvas.

Then repeat a real assignment from import through export. Record every workaround and compare time, visible output, and editable layer state. This turns a vague question about whether an editor “feels like Photoshop” into evidence your team can review.