head to head
Adobe Photoshop vs GIMP
GIMP is the open source alternative to Adobe Photoshop — raster graphics editor. Here is the honest comparison.
Yes — GIMP is a viable free replacement for Adobe Photoshop. GIMP is open source under its own open-source terms, written in C, with 6,432 GitHub stars, 890 forks and 0 open issues; it was last pushed 4 hours ago. Adobe Photoshop costs from $22, while self-hosting GIMP carries no licence fee — the trade is your operational time instead of a subscription. 1 other open source Adobe Photoshop alternative is tracked here, led by Krita at 10,385 stars. GIMP ranks #2 of 2 tracked open source Adobe Photoshop alternatives by stars. The tracked set, by adoption: Krita (10,385 stars). Replacement criteria on this page: 4 reasons to move to GIMP and 3 reasons to stay on Adobe Photoshop.
choose GIMP if
- Your Adobe Photoshop bill is growing with seats or usage
- You need your data in a format and server you control
- Your compliance posture requires auditing the code that touches sensitive data
- You have (or can rent) a server and basic Docker comfort
stick with Adobe Photoshop if
- You need the polished onboarding and support SLAs of a commercial vendor
- Your team has zero capacity to operate software, even self-hosted-simple
- You depend on a Adobe Photoshop integration ecosystem that the OSS alternatives have not replicated
Side by side
| GIMP (open source) | Adobe Photoshop | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free (self-hosted) | $22.99/month |
| License | Custom / other | Proprietary |
| Source code | Public, auditable | Closed |
| Self-hosting | Yes — gnome/gimp | Cloud only |
| Data ownership | Your server, your format | Vendor's cloud |
| Community | ★ 6.4K · ⑂ 890 | — |
| Built with | C | — |
Why people look for a Adobe Photoshop alternative
About GIMP
GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) is a free, open source raster image editor aimed at photographers, designers, and illustrators who need professional grade editing tools without a commercial licence, and it is positioned in this registry as the open alternative to Adobe Photoshop.
Other open source alternatives to Adobe Photoshop
last updated nightly · ranking method: github stars, live-tracked
Frequently asked questions
Is GIMP a good replacement for Adobe Photoshop?
GIMP is an open source alternative to Adobe Photoshop (Raster graphics editor). It is written in C and licensed under its own terms, with 6,432 GitHub stars.
Is GIMP free compared to Adobe Photoshop?
Yes. GIMP is open source — there is no licence fee, and you can self-host it. Adobe Photoshop is typically a paid subscription, so the trade-off is licence cost against the operational work of running it yourself.
How do I migrate from Adobe Photoshop to GIMP?
Migration effort depends on the data formats involved. Check GIMP's documentation for import options, and compare the feature table above to confirm the capabilities you depend on are covered before switching.