For years, Adobe comprised the majority of my creative world. Most of the tutorials I watched revolved around Adobe software when I first got into editing, and naturally, everything else followed suit. Most of the templates I downloaded were made by or for Adobe software. I memorized the shortcuts and got used to the layouts and features.

After finally deciding to cut the Adobe cord, I expected to find more freedom, but it was more chaotic than liberating at first. Dropping the Creative Cloud forced me to take a harder look at how I work and what tools I actually want to use.

I did regret it at first

And then came the hunt for similar apps

I won't lie, I did feel some regret at first. After Effects was one of the first creative tools I learned how to use, so losing access felt a bit like free-falling. My motion graphics style heavily depended on the unique way AE handles keyframing and motion blur, so I knew finding similar features elsewhere was going to be challenging.

Once the regret passed, it was time to hit the trenches. I'd already been using some of the Adobe alternatives at the time, but not to their full capacity, so it still took some deep diving to find exactly what I needed.

Adobe apps that were easy to replace

There's no lack of free Adobe alternatives

Photoshop was relatively easy to replace with Photopea, the free Photoshop clone. That doesn’t mean it came without compromise. Photopea’s Selection tools aren’t as refined as Photoshop’s, and it also doesn’t have Camera Raw (however, Darktable was a good find for handling raw shots). And overall, the UI feels a tad outdated, but I made it work nonetheless. I’d rate Affinity Photo as a better replacement for Photoshop-level editing, but it’s not free.

Krita also stepped up nicely with handling the brush and color work for my more creative designs, and its brush engine actually outshines Photoshop’s. Illustrator was another easy one to let go of, especially since I don’t do vector work that often, so I honestly couldn’t tell you every single thing I'm missing by replacing it with Inkscape. And Kdenlive is a very solid stand-in for Premiere.

The tools that weren’t so easy to replace

Not every Adobe tool has a solid alternative

The real issue was After Effects. The closest replacement I could find was the Fusion Tab in DaVinci Resolve. On paper, Fusion does a lot of what AE does — motion graphics, compositing, VFX. But it functions very differently, so the learning curve was substantial.

Resolve has an easy layer-based editing tab, but Fusion is node-based, which takes a lot of getting used to when you come from layers. The biggest thing was having to organize the nodes myself so the visual flow makes sense, whereas layers do this for you. Then I also have to set up the node connections between assets and their effects - one wrong link and it breaks the entire graphic.

Keyframing also works very differently in Resolve. The Keyframes feature gives you a layer-like overview of the keyframe placement, but you can’t use it to adjust the interpolation. The Spline editor is where you’ll adjust the interpolation curves, and it also took me forever to find the curve presets. It’s just a completely different ecosystem, and I’ve yet to find something that functions like AE.

Another thing that I’m missing quite a bit is Generative Fill in Photoshop. Sure, there are a million GenAI tools out there, but none of them are so seamlessly integrated into an image editor the way Adobe did it.

The format and compatibility issues

I lost some good projects

Even after finding tools that sufficiently replaced Adobe, the issue of file/format compatibility arose. PSD and AI files are proprietary and created by and for Adobe. Photopea handles PSDs seamlessly, but GIMP doesn’t, and Inkscape also has issues with AI files. I struggled quite a bit getting some of my old graphics to open properly — the layers would break and things were misaligned or just completely missing. I actually had to redo some of my designs from scratch.

Finding a new love for AI tools

There's more out there than Generative Fill

Stepping away from Adobe led me to test a wide array of tools, including some very quirky ones like Visions of Chaos. But what I liked the most was experimenting with AI tools. Adobe jumped on the AI train very quickly, and I was impressed at first, but then I got bored with their offerings and, admittedly, chalked it up to limitations of GenAI and automation. But I was wrong.

There’s a whole world of AI tools that feel fresher than Adobe’s built-ins. Canva has an entire AI-powered Magic Studio, and Figma also has AI actions built in. Patterned.ai is a fabulous option for generating patterns for my background assets. And RunwayML has come really far since its inception.

The adjustment was worth the hassle

Dropping Adobe wasn’t the smoothest breakup, and I still miss it sometimes. But for now, my workflow is free, less bloated, and feels more personal. And the best part was falling into some of the weirder corners of creative tech and testing out new tools, some of which have earned a permanent place in my kit.