PhotoCraft vs Photoshop, GIMP and Photopea: an honest comparison

PhotoCraft is worth trying today if you know Photoshop and want a free, open-source editor that runs natively on Windows, macOS, Linux or FreeBSD, opens and saves layered PSD files, and can be driven by a script or an AI agent. It is not the right choice yet if Photoshop is how you earn a living, if you need generative AI or third-party plug-ins, or if you swap PSDs with Photoshop users every day. The project is in early alpha, and its README says plainly that "it is not yet a Photoshop replacement for daily professional work". If you need a mature free editor now, GIMP is the established choice. If you need to open a PSD on a computer where you can't install anything, Photopea does that well. This page compares the four as of PhotoCraft v0.16.0 (25 October 2026).

Try PhotoCraft if:

• you know Photoshop's menus and shortcuts and don't want a subscription;
• you use Linux or FreeBSD and want a Photoshop-style editor that runs natively;
• you want to open, edit and save layered PSDs without Adobe software, for personal work or work you can check before it goes out;
• you want to batch-process images, or let an AI agent edit them, through a command-line tool or an MCP server;
• open source, offline use and no account matter to you.

Wait, or use something else for now, if:

• your clients send PSDs and expect yours to open cleanly in Photoshop;
• you rely on Generative Fill or other AI features;
• you depend on third-party plug-ins, scripts or panels;
• you need deep typography, such as full right-to-left editing, type on a path that survives a PSD save, or the full set of OpenType options;
• you need predictable speed on very large documents.

At a glance

As of October 2026. Details for Photoshop, GIMP and Photopea are general and change over time, so check each product's own site for current plans and features.

	PhotoCraft v0.16.0	Photoshop	GIMP	Photopea
Price	Free	Subscription, with a free trial	Free	Free with ads; a paid Premium plan removes them
Licence	Open source: MIT or Apache-2.0	Proprietary	Open source: GNU GPL	Proprietary
Platforms	Windows, macOS, Linux, FreeBSD, web	Windows and macOS desktop, plus separate web and mobile apps	Linux, macOS, Windows	Any modern browser
Native or browser	Native (Rust, GPU), plus a WebAssembly web build	Native	Native	Browser
PSD read and write	Opens and saves layered PSD and PSB. Photoshop doesn't always accept the files it writes yet	Its own format	Opens and exports layered PSD; Photoshop-specific features come through only partly	Opens and saves layered PSD
GIMP files (.xcf)	Opens with layers, groups, masks, blend modes and channels; can't save .xcf	No	Its own format	Opens
Layer styles and smart objects	Yes, all ten layer effects; smart objects with smart filters	Yes	Not as Photoshop layer styles or smart objects	Yes
Photoshop menus and shortcuts	Yes, modelled on Photoshop	Yes	No, its own layout	Yes
Generative AI	None	Yes, built in (Adobe Firefly)	Not built in; third-party plug-ins	Limited
Plug-ins	Its own sandboxed WebAssembly plug-ins; no Photoshop plug-ins	Large third-party ecosystem	Large ecosystem of plug-ins and scripts	Can't run Photoshop plug-ins
Scripting and automation	CLI, MCP server and JSON control channel over 500+ commands; actions and batch	Actions, droplets, JavaScript scripting	Python, Script-Fu (Scheme), batch mode	Actions and scripts in the browser
Photoshop actions (.atn)	Loads and saves; mapped steps play	Yes, its own format	No	Loads and saves
Offline and privacy	Works offline, no account	Adobe account required; generative features run in Adobe's cloud	Works offline, no account	Files stay on your device; keeps working offline once loaded
Interface languages	22; some messages stay in English	Many	Many	Many
Maturity	Early alpha	Industry standard	Mature	Mature

PhotoCraft vs Photoshop

PhotoCraft is a clean-room reimplementation of Photoshop: it follows Photoshop's menus, panels, tools and shortcuts, and reads and writes Photoshop's files, without using any Adobe code. That makes the comparison unusually direct, and upstream measures itself against Photoshop 2026 and publishes the results. Its own estimate, from a full re-measure on 10 October 2026 at v0.6.0, is about 76% feature breadth (does each Photoshop feature exist?) and about 45% "ready for real work" (could a professional replace Photoshop with it?).

Where PhotoCraft is ahead:

• Cost and licence. Free under MIT or Apache-2.0, with no subscription and no account.
• Platforms. Native builds for Linux (x86_64, ARM64 and RISC-V) and FreeBSD, plus a browser build. Photoshop's desktop app runs on Windows and macOS only.
• Automation. Every menu item, tool and dialog is one of 500+ commands, and the same commands can be called from photocraft-cli, a JSON control channel or an MCP server. Upstream's gap list names this as the area where PhotoCraft is ahead of Photoshop. See CLI and MCP.
• Local by design. Nothing runs in a cloud. The smart selection tools (Select Subject, Object Selection, Quick Selection) and the Remove tool use classical, non-AI methods on your own machine.

Where PhotoCraft is behind:

• Generative AI. There is none, and no machine-learning runtime to run it on. Generative Fill and Expand, Neural Filters, Sky Replacement and Super Zoom are all missing. Upstream lists this as a gap that needs an owner decision about model licences and local versus remote models.
• PSD exchange with Photoshop. Round trips inside PhotoCraft are close to complete: re-saving keeps the render of 307 of the 309 psd-tools test files and 169 of 170 in a mixed set, according to the README. Exchange with Photoshop itself is weaker. Users have reported PSDs written by PhotoCraft that Photoshop won't open, and Photoshop-authored files don't always render as they do in Photoshop. In the test suite, PhotoCraft's render must match Photoshop's own merged image for at least 190 of 256 Photoshop-authored files. Upstream's roadmap makes reliable PSD exchange one of the conditions for beta.
• Typography. The scorecard's Type area is 5 done, 5 partial and none missing. Right-to-left paragraph direction can now be set, but the caret still moves in logical order and a PSD doesn't keep the direction. Type on a path and the area type added in v0.16.0 (text that wraps inside a shape) work in PhotoCraft's own format but save to PSD as ordinary text. The OpenType Numerals and Stylistic Sets menus are still missing.
• Workspaces. Select and Mask, Content-Aware Fill and Vanishing Point exist, but not yet as the full workspaces Photoshop users know.
• Plug-ins and scripting. Photoshop .8BF filters, UXP and CEP panels, and ExtendScript scripts don't run. PhotoCraft has its own WebAssembly plug-in system instead, so existing Photoshop plug-ins need a rewrite.
• Performance. Upstream tracks 64 performance scenarios. In the latest baseline (5 October 2026), 3 are within budget and 22 are over budget or failing. The others are tracked without a budget, not run yet or not measurable yet.
• Rough edges. The Workspace and UI area is 15 done, 6 partial and 2 missing, and 20 of 177 preferences do nothing yet. Every Photoshop menu item is wired to a command, but as the README notes, that measures wiring, not behaviour.

Tools are closer than the overall numbers suggest. The README lists 67 tools, and the tools checklist in the scorecard is 36 done, 8 partial and none missing. Upstream's documents don't agree on how many Photoshop tools are still absent: the README's status note gives a higher count, while the more detailed and more recently updated gap list names just one, the Art History Brush.

Who should pick which: If Photoshop is part of how you make money, keep it, and try PhotoCraft on the side. If you pay for Photoshop mainly for layers, masks, adjustments and occasional PSDs, and can live without generative AI, PhotoCraft is worth a test on your own files. If you want an editor you can script, run headless or connect to an AI agent, PhotoCraft is built for that.

PhotoCraft vs GIMP

GIMP is the long-standing free and open-source image editor, developed by its community for decades under the GNU GPL and available for Linux, macOS and Windows. It and PhotoCraft are both free and both open source, so the choice comes down to how they work and how far along they are.

Since v0.13.0 (22 October 2026), PhotoCraft opens GIMP's own .xcf files directly, including .xcf.gz, so GIMP users can bring their work across without exporting it first. Layers, groups, masks, blend modes, extra channels and the saved selection come through. Text and vector layers arrive as pixels, and GIMP 3's non-destructive layer filters and paths are left out, each with a note. GIMP blends in linear light by default and PhotoCraft doesn't, so soft edges and some blend modes can look slightly different. See Open GIMP XCF files.

Where PhotoCraft is ahead:

• Photoshop habits. PhotoCraft follows Photoshop's menus, tool groups and shortcuts. GIMP has its own layout, so Photoshop users have more to relearn.
• Photoshop files. PhotoCraft opens and saves PSDs with editable layer styles, adjustment and fill layers, type and smart objects. GIMP opens and exports layered PSDs, but Photoshop-specific features come through only partly.
• Photoshop actions. PhotoCraft loads and saves .atn files, and maps 112 kinds of Photoshop step to its own commands. See actions.
• Built-in automation for agents. PhotoCraft ships a command-line tool and an MCP server in its official downloads.
• Licence. For users, both are free. For developers who want to reuse the code, PhotoCraft's MIT or Apache-2.0 licence is more permissive than the GPL.

Where PhotoCraft is behind:

• Maturity. GIMP has decades of development, documentation, tutorials and books behind it. PhotoCraft is early alpha, with many open issues, and it changes fast: four releases came out between 22 and 25 October 2026, and two of them (v0.14.0 and v0.15.1) were mostly security hardening, putting limits on what a damaged or hostile file can make the app do.
• Ecosystem. GIMP has a large collection of third-party plug-ins and scripts, and can be extended in Python, Scheme and other languages. PhotoCraft's WebAssembly plug-in system is young.
• Distribution. GIMP is packaged by most Linux distributions. PhotoCraft offers AppImage, deb, rpm, Arch, tarball and Flatpak files from its releases page, but isn't on Flathub yet.
• Sending files back to GIMP. PhotoCraft opens .xcf but can't save it. To hand layered work back to GIMP, save a PSD or OpenRaster (.ora) copy. See file formats.

Who should pick which: If you need a stable free editor for real work today, GIMP is the safer choice. If you already think in Photoshop's terms, or need PSD layer styles and smart objects to survive, try PhotoCraft, and open your existing .xcf files in it to see how they come through. Having both installed costs nothing.

PhotoCraft vs Photopea

Photopea is a browser-based editor with a Photoshop-like interface and strong PSD support. It is free with ads, with a paid Premium plan that removes them. According to Photopea, files are processed on your own device and not uploaded, and the editor keeps working offline once loaded. Like PhotoCraft, it loads and saves Photoshop .atn actions.

Where PhotoCraft is ahead:

• Native desktop app. PhotoCraft runs as a native, GPU-accelerated program, so it isn't bound by a browser tab.
• Open source and ad-free. The code is public under MIT or Apache-2.0, and there are no ads or paid tiers.
• Automation outside the browser. photocraft-cli processes whole folders and exposes an MCP server for AI agents. Photopea's actions and scripts run inside the browser.

Where PhotoCraft is behind:

• Zero install. Photopea opens in any modern browser on almost any device, including Chromebooks and tablets. PhotoCraft has a browser build too, but it runs as 32-bit WebAssembly on a single thread, so big images and PSDs are better handled by the desktop app.
• Maturity. Photopea has been developed for years and is widely used for opening PSDs. PhotoCraft is early alpha.
• Other formats. Photopea also opens formats from other design apps, such as Sketch files.

Who should pick which: For opening or fixing a PSD quickly on a borrowed or locked-down computer, Photopea is hard to beat. If you'd rather work in a native app, want open source, or want to automate edits from the command line, try PhotoCraft.

Switching from Photoshop

If you decide to try PhotoCraft, these guides cover the parts Photoshop users ask about most:

• Keyboard shortcuts: the defaults follow Photoshop, and the cheat sheet lists them for Windows, Linux and macOS.
• Actions: load your .atn sets, see which steps play, and batch whole folders.
• Brushes: how the brush engine compares with Photoshop's and how to bring your brushes over.
• File formats: what opens and saves, and the limits of PSD round trips.
• Tools: every tool, its shortcut, and which are still limited.

Two habits help while PhotoCraft is in alpha. Keep the original of any PSD that matters until you've checked the result in the app you'll use next. And if something behaves differently from Photoshop, file an issue on GitHub with your OS, document size, layer count and a screenshot, as upstream asks.

Try it

• Download PhotoCraft for Windows, macOS, Linux or FreeBSD. Every file comes from the official GitHub release.
• Use it online in your browser, with nothing to install.