Adobe seems to be one of those services people either love or hate. I’d like to think I fall somewhere in the middle. I don’t appreciate its sneaky cancellation fees or that data collection is turned on by default, requiring you to locate the opt-out function - plus, nobody likes the high prices. But I can also appreciate the quality of their products overall and the effort the developers and designers put into them. For anyone who does professional or even hobbyist image editing, you’re kind of cornered if you don’t get an Adobe subscription, but also cornered if you do.

If you’re in the former camp and looking for alternatives, there’s a massive pool of options to pick from. The issue with this is that it’s hard to know what exactly will suit your specific editing needs. Although I’m not a professional photographer or editor, I’ve tried probably 100+ editors since discovering the field of graphics manipulation, so I can usually tell quickly which ones are worth my time. The top things I look for is a frictionless user experience, non-destructive layer-based editing, and an adaptable feature set that’s applicable to a wide range of editing techniques.

Affinity

This is pretty much all you need

Affinity combined their previously paid graphics trio - Photo, Designer, Publisher - into one free app. For photographers and image editors, you’ll mainly be concerned with the Pixel workspace for raster graphics, which used to be Affinity Photo. And everything, except some generative AI features from Canva, is free. If you’ve used Photo before, Pixel will be a walk in the park for you. But it’s such a smooth user flow that even complete beginners can pick it up in no time.

Pixel covers pretty much anything you’d expect to find in a comprehensive photo editor. It has a great selection toolkit that’s suitable for subjects with finer edges. You can create complex composites with adjustment layers, masks, blend modes, brushes, and gradients. It has advanced coloring controls, including LAB color model macros, RGB luminosity layers, and infrared editing. There are patch and healing tools for retouching, and it ships with a massive kit of filters and effects. All of these adjustments have properties that can be fine-tuned for precise control.

Furthermore, Affinity Pixel still has the Develop persona, which is its RAW file workspace. This pretty much doubles it as a replacement for Lightroom too. It doesn’t have auto adjustments or batch editing, so it’s not suitable for serious photographers who do large shoots, but it has all the lighting and color correction controls for getting your RAW shots into shape.

If you’re somewhere between a casual and professional editor, Affinity is all you need to cover your RAW file handling and pixel-based editing.

Photopea

The Photoshop clone

If you’ve previously had a Photoshop subscription and are looking for a replacement, the best you will find is Photopea. This browser-based app was specifically designed to be a Photoshop alternative, and the layout and user flow mirrors Photoshop, albeit a tad stripped-down in comparison. Photopea is an indie project by Ivan Kutskir, and is completely free to use - though it does have ads and you’re encouraged to donate.

It has nearly every advanced function Photoshop does, including Smart Objects, perspective editing, the same selection and retouching tools, same layer management, and even PSD compatibility. This means you can bring your Photoshop files over without completely breaking them; it’s smooth most of the time at least, but I’ve had one or two break before.

It also has a massive effects and filter selection (with the option for custom plugins), a massive brush selection, dodging and burning, masking, auto background removal, and all the rest. You can easily create Photoshop-quality edits with Photopea. And despite running in your browser, it handles heavy workflows surprisingly well. It supports a wide range of formats beyond PSD, including XD, AI, SVG, PDF, RAW files, PNG, and JPEG.

Darktable

For those who want to avoid a Lightroom subscription

If Affinity’s Develop workspace doesn’t cut it for you, then Darktable is worth a look. It’s a powerful open-source RAW editor, and it has batch processing and file management, making it more suitable for photographers working with large or multiple shoots. The interface can feel a little clunky or technical at first, but once you get used to it, it’s not that intimidating. It’s a true non-destructive editor and all past edits can be managed through the history stack in the side panel.

On the features side, Darktable uses a “module” system, which is basically the name for its features. Each module is a dedicated tool for a specific task. You’ve got the Quick Access panel with basic adjustments for shots that don’t require that much correction - this is where I hang out most of the time, and I use it for my PNGs and JPEGs too. The rest of the panels sport advanced lighting and color controls, lens correction, and there’s also a histogram and clipping indicators.

Before you pay for Adobe

You don’t necessarily need to jump into an Adobe subscription to do serious photo editing. Between tools like Affinity, Photopea, and Darktable, you can cover the full pipeline from RAW development to color grading, retouching, and creative editing. Each tool has its own strengths and trade-offs, but so do Adobe products. This is the perfect, free editing stack that’s suitable for newbies and advanced editors long-term.