30+ Gimp Competitors, Features, Reviews and Pricing

The best GIMP competitors comprise mainly of image manipulation software and apps. These may include image editors, photo editors and digital painting or editing tools. They can be accessed through a variety of platforms like Windows, Android, macOS, Linux, iPad and web-based. Thebest GIMP competitors include Adobe Photoshop, Corel Paintshop Pro, Krita, Pixlr, Canva, Luminar AI, Adobe Lightroom, Affinity Photo, Paint.NET and Pixelmator.

What is GIMP?

GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program), is a powerful and free raster graphics editor used by photographers, graphic designers, illustrators and other creative professionals.

It is a great alternative to commercial image editing software with a wide range of features and tools that allow you to manipulate and transform images, create digital artwork, graphics, logos and much more.

You can manipulate, crop and resize images,as well as create layers, adjust colors, and apply any number of special effects. Plus, because it is open source, it is constantly being updated with the latest features and improvements.

GIMP is the closest competitor to Adobe Photoshop available for free. You can use GIMP on Windows, macOS, Linux, iPad, openBSD, Solaris and web-based using a browser.

Features of GIMP

Ample painting tools
Supports custom patterns
Over 100 plug-ins
Onion skin
Clone & smudge tools
Custom brushes
Photo retouching

MNG Support
Advanced Manipulation
Color palettes,choosers &eyedropper
Gradient editor
Frame Navigator
Many file formats
Batch editing

Pricing:

Free. Open-source.

GIMP Competitors and Alternatives

Adobe Photoshop

Adobe Photoshop is a raster graphics editor and the most popular competitor to GIMP. It is the go-to tool for digital creatives around the world with comprehensive set of tools for transforming your photos and images into stunning works of art.

From subtle touch-ups to dramatic transformations, you can do it all with Photoshop.Whether you’re a professional or an amateur, Photoshop has something for everyone.

Create gorgeous images, rich graphics and incredible art by blending and mashing…

Pricing:

Paid. $24.14/mo.

Corel PaintShop Pro

PaintShop Pro is a complete photo-editing studio with customizable graphic design toolset to edit, enhance, correct and turn images into engaging animations. It is a raster and vector graphics editor for MS Windows 7 and above that make use of AI for faster and easier photo editing and customization.

You can record scripts and add them as toolbar buttons. A former Jasc software Corel PaintShop Pro is now managed by Corel, who has been in the industry for a while now. It is commercial but cheap with…

Pricing:

Paid. $79.99.

Krita

Krita is a free digital painting tool, with a wide range of features that make creating stunning artwork a breeze. With its intuitive interface, powerful brushes, and comprehensive layer system, Krita is the perfect choice for anyone looking to unleash their creativity.

From drawing and painting to photo-editing and animation, Krita has you covered. Whether you’re a professional artist or just starting out, Krita is the perfect tool for unleashing your creativity in style!

Pricing:

Free. Open-source.

Pixlr

Pixlr is a powerful photo editing tool that will make you look like a pro in no time! With its array of features, you can easily enhance and touch up your photos to make them look stunning.

From basic editing tools like cropping, resizing, and adjusting colors to more advanced features like layers, masks, and brushes, Pixlr provides everything you need to create professional-level photos. Unleash your creative potential and make your photos look the way you want them to be!

Pricing:

Paid. $7.99/mo.

Canva

Canva is again another free image editing software offering similar services like GIMP. It is the perfect tool for beginners to unleash their inner artist. With its easy-to-use drag-and-drop editor, you can create stunning graphics, logos, posters, videos, and more in just a few clicks.

Whether you’re a budding designer or an experienced pro, Canva has all the features and tools you need to create beautiful designs that stand out from the crowd.

From its AI-powered Magic Write feature to its clever app development platform, Canva is the ultimate all-in-one tool for anyone looking to level up their creative game.

Pricing:

Freemium. $12.99/mo.

Luminar Neo

If you are looking for a quick image editing solution, look no further than Luminar Neo from Skylum. This tool is powered by artificial intelligence making your work super fast and hassle free.

A well designed interface is well suited for those not proficient in image editing. Luminar Neo has both Windows and macOS versions.

Pricing:

Paid. $14.95/mo.

Adobe Lightroom

Adobe Lightroom is one of the best competitors to GIMP developed by Adobe Inc. It is a cloud-based software with an assortment of features such as color,brightness, contrast and level adjustments, filters, improving tone, reducing noise and level adjustments.

It is used on Windows, macOS, iOS, Android and web based platforms. Plans start at $9.99 per month.

Pricing:

Paid. $9.99/mo.

Affinity Photo

Another GIMP competitor to try is Affinity Photo, a proprietary software released by Serif for Windows, iOS, iPadOS and macOS. It provides a comprehensive set of tools for editing and retouching photographs, as well as creating illustrations and graphic designs.

Users have the ability to perform 3D image creation, image rendering, adding layer controls, masking, advanced RAW processing, HDR merging, Panorama stitching and digital painting.

Affinity Photo allows users to make precise adjustments to their images, such as…

Pricing:

Paid. $69.99.

Pixelmator

Pixelmator is a great macOS and iOS graphics editor that allows you to perfect your images. Like GIMP, Pixalmator has ample editing tools for color selection, photo retouching, background removal, repair and cloning, masking and cropping and image upscaling. Pixelmator Pro costs $49.99 with a 7-day free trial.

Pricing:

Paid. $49.99.

Paint.NET

Paint.NET is another freeware raster graphics editor developed by dotPDN LLC. It is currently supported by computers running Microsoft Windows 10 or later.

Some of its features include layers support, adding special effects and availability of plugins to add new effects and the ability to handle new file types.

You can download Paint.NET for free on their website though it may cost you a small fee on the Microsoft Store, charged as a way to support development. Those who download from the developer’s website are asked (but not required) to make a donation.

Pricing:

Free. Proprietary.

CorelDRAW Graphics Suite

CorelDRAW Graphics Suite is a popular Vector Graphics software with precision design tools used by artists and professional designers to create vector illustration, edit photos, change typography and layout and many other graphic projects.

CorelDRAW Graphics Suite is like your artistic sidekick, helping you to create stunning graphics and designs with ease. It makes the creation of logos, posters and editing your digital photos and illustrations easy and enjoyable.

Pricing:

Paid. $269.00/year.

Inkscape

Inkscape is another awesome open-source vector graphics editor app which is a competitor to GIMP. It is one of the best for vector-based image editing, with PDF import and export ability.

Inkscape is free, open-source and with a tons of features to create professional artwork. It is easy to use, works on Linux and supports many advanced SVG features like markers, clones, node editing, alpha blending trace bitmaps and more.

Pricing:

Free. Open-source.

Photopea

Photopea is a free online photo editor that offers many of the same features as GIMP, including layer styles, masks, and filters. Its user-friendly interface and compatibility with PSD files make it an excellent choice for those who need a quick and easy way to edit their photos.

This great full blown web-based image editor has the tools for most advanced image editing for free unlike its competitors.

Pricing:

Free. Proprietary.

Photoscape X

Photoscape X is one of the best free and most professional photo-editing application. Among the features offered by Photoscape X include batch editing, resizing, brightness and color adjustment, white balance, backlight correction, frames, balloons, mosaic mode, adding text, drawing pictures, renaming, lossless cropping, filters, red eye removal, blooming, create GIFs, splitter, color picker, raw converter and more.

Photoscape X makes enhancing and editing images and photos editing…

Pricing:

Free. Proprietary.

Adobe Photoshop Express

Adobe Photoshop Express (PsX) by Adobe Inc. is a free photo editing software, which allows users to enhance, crop, share, and print pictures.

Along with this, it provides access to numerous features like applying presets filters, removing red-eye, reducing noise, and adding borders. Adobe Photoshop Express is free to download on the Apple App Store, Google Play, or the Windows Store.

Pricing:

Free. Proprietary.

Darktable

Darktable is a Linux-based 16-bit-per-color, non-destructive photo editing competitor to GIMP which is also very similar to Adobe Lightroom. Use Darktable for adding filters, photo touch-up, color correction, support for scripting.

Darktable is literally a great open-source alternative to Adobe Lightroom, great for processing quality, tons of options, and modern, easy to use interface.

Pricing:

Free. Proprietary.

Lightzone

Lightzone is free, open-source a digital photo editor for Windows, Linux, FreeBSD and Mac OS X used for non-destructive editing of images in various RAW and JPEG formats.

You can use it to create and apply predetermined image transformations called ‘styles’ to an entire batch of images in a single operation.

LightZone is a free, open-source digital photo editor software application and can be downloaded free of charge .

Pricing:

Free. Proprietary.

RawTherapee

RawTherapee is an impressive, free RAW image converter and digital photo processing software similar to GIMP, darktable and Lightzone.

Use RawTherapee to process photos in conjunction with hugin and digikam as well as non-destructive editing. The interface is clean and comprehensible, especially for professionals in photo editing.

Pricing:

Free. Proprietary.

PicMonkey

PicMonkey allows you to create quick, easy, and beautiful graphics online. You can create images using great effects, graphics, templates, texture tools to create logos and icons and more, with the flexibility of saving them to the cloud to re-edit later. But when you want to download or share an image, you’ll need to subscribe.

The PicMonkey mobile app is free, but PicMonkey subscribers get access to premium features like touch up and integrated cloud image storage, with the ability to edit on the desktop, and finish on mobile, or vice versa.

Pricing:

Paid. $7.99/mo.

InPixio Photo Studio

InPixio Photo Studio is a photo editing solution that helps you crop, edit, straighten and add special effects to digital images.

The one-click editor helps professionals to adjust brightness of photos, replace sky, remove backgrounds and red-eye effects, easily combine photos, stickers and text as well as repair and restore old photographs via a unified platform using photo-montage AI technology tools.

There are two versions of InPixio—Standard and Pro. The pro version gives you more features and is worth the upgrade.

Pricing:

Paid. $49.99-$99.99/year.

Polarr

Polarr is a photo-editing app and online editor that lets you create unique visual aesthetics using photo and video filters such as color and lighting adjustments, gradient and luminance masks, custom overlays, and segmentation of identifiable objects. Create and search for trendy filters with the Polarr QR code used by creators to distribute filters to their friends.

Polarr includes creator’s social handle, a visual preview of the effect, and a scannable code for users to acquire the filter. You can download…

Pricing:

Paid. $2.49-$3.99/mo.

ACDSee Photo Studio

ACDSee Photo Studio is an all-in-one solution for anyone who takes and edits a lot of photos, and wants to keep them organized.

Easier to set up and use, the software has tools for easily retouching faces, photo-merging, panorama stitching, background removal, replacing the sky and shape selection.

ACDSee Photo Studio consists of modes to help you manage, search, view, develop and edit your files such as layered editing, non-destructive RAW photo editing together with superior file…

Pricing:

Paid. $8.9/mo.

Photo Pos Pro

Photo Pos Pro is a powerful, free photo editor tool to turn you digital photos into stunning artworks, easily create, edit, enhance, manipulate and print your digital photos and eye-catching graphics. The photo editor provides you complete solution to enhance your images and photos for free.

A web-based editor is available as well as apps for Windows and iOS. Professional features include filters, layers, masks,…

Pricing:

Free. Proprietary.

Snapseed

Snapseed is a photo-editing application by Google for iOS and Android that enables users to enhance photos and apply digital filters to photos including those in JPG and RAW formats.

Explore Snapseed’s incredible editing features and tools such as non-destructive editing,Image tuning, cropping, rotate, perspective, white balance, filters, vignette, lens blur, glamour glow, tonal contrast, HDR Scape and more

Pricing:

Free. Proprietary.

DxO PhotoLab

DxO PhotoLab is a powerful photo editing software that specializes in correcting lens distortion, optical corrections, enhancing image quality, DeepPRIME denoising technology, creative tools, great local adjustments and powerful digital asset management.

Its advanced features like Prime noise reduction and ClearView haze removal make it a popular choice for landscape and architectural photographers. DxO PhotoLab is your complete, end-to-end, RAW photo editing and workflow software solution for proficient photographers built for quality and utility. Get it for a one time fee of $219 on their website.

Pricing:

Paid. $219.

Fotor Photo Editor

Fotor’s free online photo editor lets you edit photos in just a few clicks. It covers various free online photo editing tools, so you can crop images, resize images, add text to photos, make photo collages,enhance photos, retouch portraits, remove backgrounds, apply effects and create graphic designs with ease.

Apart from the online photo editor, Fotor has photo editor app versions for iOS and Android as well as programs for Windows and Mac. A cool…

Pricing:

Freemium. $8.99-$19.99/mo.

Capture One Pro

Another favorite in this guide to the best competitors to GIMP is Capture One, a professional photo editing software suite that specializes in RAW image processing as well as PSD, JPEG, and DNG. It offers advanced features like color grading smart adjustments, styles and presets, style brushes, luminosity masking dehaze, curves and levels, skin tone editing, radial masks, heal, clone and magic brushes as well as tethered shooting, making it a popular choice for commercial photographers and studios.

You can subscribe to a Capture One Pro license monthly or yearly, or make…

Pricing:

Paid. $24.00/mo.

ON1 Photo RAW

ON1 Photo RAW is a standalone editor for Mac or Windows integrated with features editing tools and technologies like browse, develop effects, no-noise, resize AI, super select AI portrait AI, HDR, sky swap, mask AI, and more.

Each of the new features and technologies in On1 Photo Raw take away the steep learning-curve that come with more traditional ways of editing.

Photographers no longer have to deal with the tedious methods of masking, layering, brushing, or adjusting when working on specific areas…

Pricing:

Paid. $7.99-$17.99/mo.

FX Photo Studio Pro

FX Photo Studio Pro is an image editing software for Mac OS X 10.6 or later that allows users to apply filters, effects, and textures to their photos.

Dubbed as the creative powerhouse for digital artists of all skill levels, you get more high quality photo filters and photo effects than in any similar photography software.

FX Photo Studio costs $39.99 and a $9.99 standard version. A $0.99 iPhone version is also available.

Pricing:

Paid.$9.99/mo.

Picsart

Picsart is an AI-powered photo and video editing app with tools to add filters, AI photo effects, stickers, backgrounds, text overlays, with social network integration.

The platform allows users to take and edit pictures and videos, draw with layers, make cards, and share the images on Picsart and other social networks. Picsart is free to use and offers in-app purchases of stickers and other graphic elements.

The free plan has limited features. Picsart Gold plan costs $5/month or $60/year and comes with a 7-day free trial.

Pricing:

Freemium.$5-$7/mo.

YouCam Perfect

YouCam Perfect is a photo editor and beauty camera app for iPhone and Android with plenty of photo editing and beautifying tools to bring the best of your photos. The app lets you edit photos, videos and selfies while an auto-beautify feature enhances your looks as you shoot.

Some of its features include adding photo effects, camera filters, collages and fonts, removing puffy eyes, erasing wrinkles or lines,shrink/enlarge features, face smoothing and acne removal , reshape face/body, whiten teeth, beautify, remove unwanted items and more.

YouCam Perfect has over 300 million downloads and counting on Google Play Store. The app is free to download with paid plans starting at $30.99/mo

Pricing:

Freemium.$30.99/mo.

VSCO

VSCO is a photography mobile app for iOS and Android devices for capturing photos in the app and edit them, using a complete library of over 200 preset filters and editing tools such as the Artificial Light Series (AL1,AL2 and AL3), to soften or boost the artificial light within your image.

Use the Grain tool to add realistic film-like grain to give your image a softer more nostalgic look.

Apart from ample photo editing and filtering features, VSCO also allows users to…

Pricing:

Freemium.$19.99/year.

Ashampoo Photo Optimizer

Ashampoo Photo Optimizer is a photo editing software designed to enhance and optimize your digital images. The software is developed by Ashampoo GmbH & Co. KG, a German company that specializes in creating various software applications for Windows users.

Ashampoo Photo Optimizer 9 includes all the usual tools like image cropping, rotating, watermarking, batch processing, red-eye removal, resizing and softening, with artistic effects and elegant frame designs.

Ashampoo Photo Optimizer is primarily developed for Windows users and can be used on Windows 7, 8, 10 and 11 operating systems. However, there are…

Pricing:

Freemium. $39.99.