# Alternatives to Photopea

Photoshop in the browser, PSD-native.

Photopea ranks #1 of 10 in Image editing, with an Alt Score of 96. It is proprietary, freemium from $5/month and available on the web. 12 of 12 checklist rows are verified against a public source.

Source: https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/photopea/
Category: Image editing

## Where Photopea stands out

- **Runs in browser** — 2 of 9 apps with a verified answer have this

## Overview

- **Who it's for**: Designers, photographers, students, and anyone who needs to open or edit PSD, XCF, Sketch, XD, AI, or other design-app files without owning Photoshop or another native app.
- **What you get**: A full-featured raster and vector editor with layers, masks, adjustment layers, blend modes, and filters, running entirely in the browser with a Photoshop-like interface. It reads and writes PSD natively, plus PNG, JPG, GIF, SVG, PDF, RAW formats, and files from other editors like GIMP (XCF), Sketch, and XD. Files are processed locally in the browser, not uploaded to a server. It's free to use, with optional paid tiers to remove ads.
- **How it works**: Open a file from your device, a URL, or a blank canvas directly in the browser tab; edit it using the toolbar, layers panel, and menus familiar from desktop editors; then export or save it back to PSD or another supported format.

## Profile

- **License**: Proprietary (verified 2026-07-11)
- **Pricing model**: Freemium (verified 2026-07-11)
- **Starts at**: $5/month (verified 2026-07-11)
- **Platforms**: Web
- **Status**: active (verified 2026-07-11)

## Ranked alternatives

| # | App | Alt Score | Licence | Platforms |
|---|-----|-----------|---------|-----------|
| 1 | [Photoshop](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/photoshop.md) | 96 | Proprietary | Windows, macOS, iOS, Web |
| 2 | [GIMP](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/gimp.md) | 74 | GPL-3.0 | Windows, macOS, Linux |
| 3 | [Krita](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/krita.md) | 70 | GPL-3.0 | Windows, macOS, Linux, Android |
| 4 | [Pixelmator Pro](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/pixelmator-pro.md) | 70 | Proprietary | macOS |
| 5 | [Affinity Photo](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/affinity-photo.md) | 62 | Proprietary | Windows, macOS, iOS |
| 6 | [Luminar Neo](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/luminar-neo.md) | 62 | Proprietary | Windows, macOS |
| 7 | [Polarr](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/polarr.md) | 51 | Proprietary | Web, iOS, Android, Windows |
| 8 | [Paint.NET](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/paintnet.md) | 48 | Proprietary | Windows |
| 9 | [PhotoScape X](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/photoscape-x.md) | 40 | Proprietary | macOS |

Alt Score = Verified coverage (90%) + Visibility (10%). See https://altcatalog.com/how-alt-score-works/

## Feature comparison

Legend: Yes / No / Partial / ? (not verified).

| Image editing checklist | Photopea | Photoshop | GIMP | Krita | Pixelmator Pro | Affinity Photo |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Freemium | Subscription | Free | Free | One-time | Freemium |
| Starts at | $5/month | $22.99/month | ? | ? | $49.99 | ? |
| License | Proprietary | Proprietary | GPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| Platforms | Web | Windows, macOS, iOS, Web | Windows, macOS, Linux | Windows, macOS, Linux, Android | macOS | Windows, macOS, iOS |
| Layers | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Non-destructive editing | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partial | Yes | Yes |
| RAW support | Yes | Yes | Partial | Partial | Yes | Yes |
| CMYK support | Yes | Yes | Partial | Partial | ? | Yes |
| PSD compatibility (open / save) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Content-aware / AI fill | Partial | Yes | Partial | Partial | Partial | Partial |
| Vector tools included | Yes | Yes | Partial | Yes | Yes | Partial |
| Batch processing | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partial | Yes | Yes |
| Plugins ecosystem | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partial | ? | ? |
| Runs in browser | Yes | Partial | No | ? | No | No |
| GPU acceleration | Yes | Yes | Partial | Yes | Yes | ? |
| Scripting / macros | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partial | ? |

## Sources

Sources for Photopea. Each alternative is sourced on its own page.

- **License**: Proprietary — <https://github.com/photopea/photopea> (verified 2026-07-11)
  - Quote: “Since Photopea is not fully open-source, this repository serves as a place for bug reports, feature requests, and general discussion.”
- **Platforms**: Web — <https://www.photopea.com/learn/> (verified 2026-07-11)
  - Quote: “Photopea editor works in a web browser. It can be started by going to www.Photopea.com.”
- **Status**: active — <https://github.com/photopea/photopea/issues> (verified 2026-07-11)
  - Quote: “issue #8884 opened on Jul 11, 2026”
- **Pricing model**: Freemium — <https://blog.photopea.com/photopea-premium.html> (verified 2026-07-11)
  - Quote: “5 USD per month”
- **Starts at**: $5/month — <https://blog.photopea.com/photopea-premium.html> (verified 2026-07-11)
  - Quote: “5 USD per month”
- **Layers**: Yes — <https://www.photopea.com/learn/smart-objects> (verified 2026-07-11)
  - Quote: “A Smart Object is a type of a layer”
- **Non-destructive editing**: Yes — <https://www.photopea.com/learn/smart-objects> (verified 2026-07-11)
  - Quote: “The Smart Object would have the image information (100 x 100 px image) stored in the background, so after scaling it down and up again, the new image can be recalculated from the source, which never l”
- **RAW support**: Yes — <https://www.photopea.com/tuts/open-raw-photos-online/> (verified 2026-07-11)
  - Quote: “Photopea supports .DNG, .NEF, CR2, .ARW and other raw formats.”
- **CMYK support**: Yes — <https://blog.photopea.com/photopea-5-2-color-profiles-and-cmyk-mode.html> (verified 2026-07-11)
  - Quote: “We have a new option: Image - Mode - CMYK. This lets you see, how will your image look like after printing on an average printer”
- **PSD compatibility (open / save)**: Yes — <https://www.photopea.com/learn/opening-saving> (verified 2026-07-11)
  - Quote: “You can save your work as a PSD file (to preserve the whole structure of the document) using File - Save as PSD.”
- **Content-aware / AI fill**: Partial — <https://www.photopea.com/learn/bt-smart> (verified 2026-07-11)
  - Quote: “Spot Healing brush lets you remove objects and unwanted artifacts from pictures. Simply draw over an unwanted area, just like you do with a Brush tool, and release the mouse.”
- **Vector tools included**: Yes — <https://www.photopea.com/learn/vector-graphics> (verified 2026-07-11)
  - Quote: “Photopea has a rich set of tools to work with vector graphics”
- **Batch processing**: Yes — <https://www.photopea.com/tuts/batch-convert-images-online-no-upload/> (verified 2026-07-11)
  - Quote: “Did you ever want to convert hundreds of images from one format to another, like PNG to JPG, or TIFF to WEBP?”
- **Plugins ecosystem**: Yes — <https://www.photopea.com/api/plugins> (verified 2026-07-11)
  - Quote: “Create Plugins for Photopea and provide them to your users through a configuration JSON.”
- **Runs in browser**: Yes — <https://www.photopea.com/learn/> (verified 2026-07-11)
  - Quote: “Photopea editor works in a web browser. It can be started by going to www.Photopea.com.”
- **GPU acceleration**: Yes — <https://blog.photopea.com/photopea-1-3.html> (verified 2026-07-11)
  - Quote: “Redrawing a project with resolution 2048x1152 pixels, with 10 full-size layers and 3 layer effects takes 850 ms without WebGL acceleration, and 55 ms with acceleration.”
- **Scripting / macros**: Yes — <https://www.photopea.com/learn/scripts> (verified 2026-07-11)
  - Quote: “Photopea can execute scripts written in Javascript.”

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Ranked by verified data, never by who paid. https://altcatalog.com/trust/