Open-source alternatives to Adobe Photoshop
3 alternatives, ranked by a published maintenance score computed from live GitHub signals (fetched 2026-09-04). We flag unmaintained projects on both sides — including Adobe Photoshop itself when the data says so.
About Adobe Photoshop: Proprietary, subscription-only since 2013. People look for alternatives mainly over the subscription model and platform lock-in. It is closed-source, so the same public maintenance signals do not exist for it — we score only the alternatives below.
The alternatives
Graphite
New node-based 2D graphics editor in the browser, raster and vector.
How this 90/100 was computed
| Last commit | today | 40/40 |
|---|---|---|
| Latest release | 35 days ago | 25/25 |
| Community size | GitHub stars | 15/15 |
| Open-issue trend | not enough history yet — needs snapshots 21+ days apart; neutral 10/20 awarded meanwhile | 10/20 |
| Total | 90/100 |
Krita
Painting-first image editor from KDE, strong brush engines and tablet support.
How this 87/100 was computed
| Last commit | today | 40/40 |
|---|---|---|
| Latest release | 40 days ago | 25/25 |
| Community size | GitHub stars | 12/15 |
| Open-issue trend | not enough history yet — needs snapshots 21+ days apart; neutral 10/20 awarded meanwhile | 10/20 |
| Total | 87/100 |
GIMP
The long-running free image editor; raster editing, layers, plugins.
How this 81/100 was computed
| Last commit | today | 40/40 |
|---|---|---|
| Latest release | 4 months ago | 19/25 |
| Community size | GitHub stars | 12/15 |
| Open-issue trend | not enough history yet — needs snapshots 21+ days apart; neutral 10/20 awarded meanwhile | 10/20 |
| Total | 81/100 |