I’ve spent a long time now bouncing between free and open-source editors in an effort to replace Photoshop. I love a lot of them, and a handful have made their way permanently into my graphics toolkit. They definitely offer numerous advantages over Photoshop that remind me why I canceled my Adobe subscriptions in the first place - transparency, low to no price tag, communities, and often unique features. However, I still hit roadblocks now and then, and end up thinking “I get why people still pay for Photoshop.”

It’s got nothing to do with brand loyalty or nostalgia, it’s the little features and integrations that make the entire creative flow in Photoshop feel seamless - or any Adobe software for that matter. The apps I use now usually lack things like smart objects, proper PSD support, superior selection tools, and so on. Photoshop clearly still dominates, and I’m starting to see why.

Smart objects

Most free editors don’t have them

To date, the only free Photoshop alternative I’ve used that has proper smart object support is Photopea. Pixeliter is another app I’ve come across with smart objects, but it’s not nearly as comprehensive and smooth as Photopea’s. My point is that if you’re cancelling your Photoshop subscription, you can pretty much wave goodbye to smart objects.

The real power of smart objects isn’t just that they’re non-destructive (it’s super easy to find a free non-destructive editor, anyway) it’s what they let you do while staying non-destructive. I think of them as a mini project inside my main file. You can transform, warp, or apply effects without ever touching the original pixels, which is something that grouped layers can’t give you. Smart objects act as a shield around your content, so you can tweak and experiment endlessly without worrying about altering the actual layers.

Beyond transformations, smart objects also make reuse effortless. Updating the source file updates the smart objects that contain it, too. So you can carry out the exact same edits with the same parameters across different visuals, but only ever make those tweaks once. Photoshop’s Place Embedded and Place Linked functions make this a breeze. And because smart objects can be nested, you can build complex multi-layered compositions that remain editable at every level, within a single container.

PSD support

A lot of free editors can’t fully edit PSD files

Just because I don’t have a Photoshop subscription anymore doesn’t mean I don’t work with PSD files. This format was developed by Adobe, but it has effectively become a shared language for design work. Many agencies, clients, developers, and designers will pass PSD files around as the default when a project needs to stay layered and editable.

The issue is that many free and open-source editors treat PSD files as a nice-to-have rather than a core feature. You can usually open the file, but something always breaks or is missing, and layers often get flattened. At that point, you’re not even working with the same file anymore, but a degraded copy.

Once again, Photopea pulls through with superior PSD handling, and Affinity handles them with a high degree of compatibility, too. You’ll find an editor here and there that keeps PSDs fully intact and editable, but don’t expect much from a free and open-source stack. So just from a professional work standpoint, I can see why people keep paying for Photoshop - its PSD support is the most reliable, and Adobe did invent the format, after all.

Full CMYK color support

Free editors lack in this area

CMYK is the color model used for print, and it behaves very differently from RGB. Full CMYK support means an editing tool actually understands those differences instead of just converting colors at the end. Unfortunately, many free editors claim CMYK support, but it’s pretty superficial - you can export in CMYK, but you’re still designing in RGB underneath it all. This makes it hard to predict how colors, especially black colors and gradients, will look once printed.

Photoshop treats CMYK as a proper workflow. You can work in the color profile from the start and make adjustments without needing to keep print constraints in mind. So if print work is part of the design work you do, that reliability matters. You’re not going to find that in tools like Paint.NET or Pixlr. Inkscape does have a CMYK color selector for the color values, but it still processes and displays RGB.

Why I’m still not going back to Photoshop

For now

Even with all of that, I’m still not rushing back to Photoshop anytime soon. For one, Affinity is free now, which was a major win for designers, and I’ve already grown to love my new graphics stack. Not to mention, the subscription costs add up quickly, it’s a pretty heavy app that sometimes slows down my PC, and I’m still undecided on how I feel about the way Adobe handles data collection.

The tradeoff is the point

I’m not trying to argue that free apps are inferior or that Photoshop is the best option for everyone, but it very well may be for some. After going without it for almost a year now, I just have a better understanding of the tradeoff people are paying for. Sure, it’s a big corp with access to your data and pricy fees, but you get what you pay for (depending on who you are). I can see how PS would make sense if I go professional with design, but for now, I’m fine with the drawbacks of an Adobe-free workflow.