Adobe Photoshop is far and away the most popular photo editing tool ever. Ever since its debut in the mid-90s, Photoshop has pretty much been the de facto program for editing photos, so much so that the word Photoshop is often used as a verb for simply editing a picture. As massively popular as it is, though Photoshop isn't for everyone, primarily because of its cost.

So, enter GIMP, short for GNU Image Manipulation Program. This is a totally free and open-source alternative to Photoshop, and it's arguably the most popular one. It's built a reputation for itself as the go-to tool for anyone who doesn't want to pay Adobe's high asking price.

But is it actually good enough to replace Photoshop entirely? Let's take a closer look at what each app can do and see if GIMP can really stack up.

Pricing and compatibility

GIMP is free, Photoshop is expensive

First things first, let's touch on the cost, which is likely the main driving factor for those considering GIMP. These days, Photoshop is available through a subscription service as part of the Adobe Creative Cloud suite. The cheapest way to get Photoshop is through the Photography bundle, which costs $9.99 per month and cinludes both Photoshop and Lightoom, but basically no cloud storage (you do get 20GB, but that's not much for someone using Photoshop). There's a version of this bundle with 1TB of cloud storage for $19.99 per month. However, it's important to note that these prices are attached to an annual commitment. While you have 14 days to cancel at no cost to you, cancelling after that requires you to pay half of the remaining months in your annual commitment.

Meanwhile, GIMP is completely free in almost every sense of the word. There's no price tag attached whatsoever, and the code is even open-source, so anyone can contribute with more tools and fixes. GIMP is a hobby project for many of its developers, who are generally people with other actual jobs, so there's no cost to the user here. You can, of course, choose to donate to the cause if you want to support development.

As for compatibility, Photoshop runs on Windows and Mac in terms of desktop platforms, and it's also available on the iPad. GIMP, on the other hand, is available on Windows, Mac, and Linux, but it doesn't work on any mobile platforms. Both Photoshop and GIMP also run natively on Arm-based PCs, though GIMP's support for Windows on Arm is currently considered experimental.

Features and tools

Photoshop is part of a big ecosystem

When it comes to your general photo editing tasks, Photoshop and GIMP are pretty close in terms of the tools they offer. They both have advanced selection tools, image adjustments like color and brightness levels, the ability to resize and skew images, support for multiple layers and masks, cloning and healing tools for fixing up imperfections. While they're both designed for editing raster graphics, both programs also have a built-in rasterizer for vector graphics, so you can import scalable images into your projects easily. Your general photo editing tasks work on both programs fairly well.

GIMP can become almost just as powerful if you're willing to look around

Photoshop does have a major benefit since it's the primary money-maker for Adobe, so the company can invest a lot more into the minor things and up-and-coming tech. One of the big benefits of Photoshop is some of its AI use. Smart object selection is something GIMP doesn't offer in a similar way without plug-ins, and it's really easy to select an object in Photoshop compared to using GIMP by itself. Adobe has also been adding more generative AI features, so you can create a background for a photo or something more easily. GIMP also requires a plugin for this. Another big one is support for RAW images. Photoshop includes the built-in Camera Raw editor for importing these images, while GIMP, once again, requires a plugin. Photoshop is also careful to provide tools for non-destructive editing, like creating adjustment layers, something GIMP still doesn't have built-in, though there are workarounds for this.

What this means in the end is that Photoshop is a lot easier to use because almost everything you need is right there. It feels much more intuitive in that sense. But if you have the time and patience, GIMP can become almost just as powerful if you're willing to look around for the plugins you need. It's worth noting that Photoshop also has a huge library of plugins available to add that many more capabilities, too. You can also install things like brushes and fonts on both apps.

Another big benefit of Photoshop is that it's part of the larger Adobe ecosystem, so it can easily work with other tools in that arsenal. A big one is, of course, Lightroom, where you can basic edits on a photo first before bringing it into Photoshop for the final project. Lightroom is also included in all the same plans as Photoshop, so it's fair to consider it part of the same app. And in that sense, it makes Photoshop even more powerful because it has even more AI features, like AI-powered noise reduction and generative object removal. But Photoshop can also play nice with things like Adobe Illustrator or Fresco.

GIMP does also try to play nice with other open-source tools, like the vector graphics editor Inkscape, but it's not quite as seamless.

Ease of use and UI

It's mostly a matter of habit

As a Photoshop user, I'm inclined to say that Adobe's app is much easier to use for newcomers, as I always struggle somewhat to get the hang of GIMP. But in reality, it's mostly a matter of habit. Both apps offer similar tools, and they're laid out in sort of similar ways. The Photoshop UI is a bit more compact, but both apps have the essential features readily accessible, and the menus themselves are fairly similar, so getting the hang of things isn't too complicated either way. You may just need to give yourself some time.

That being said, the Photoshop UI is still a bit more readable at a glance. All the available tools at any given moment are easier to identify, and the main set of tools is more compact, so it leaves more room for the image itself.

Photoshop also benefits from the huge community of users and experts. The homepage for Photoshop is home to all kinds of tutorials to help you get started with specific tools or a specific kind of project. You can also find a lot of help for GIMP, but you have to search for it elsewhere, while Photoshop is much more proactive in trying to help users get started with anything they need.

Size and updates

Photoshop is big

Another consideration you might want to have when it comes to choosing between these two tools is the resource usage impact they have. After all, not everyone has a super powerful PC with a large SSD. GIMP is a generally better option in this regard in that it's much smaller and lighter. The initial download for GIMP is just over 300MB (based on the Windows version), and after installing it, it takes a little over 1GB of storage, based on our testing. Photoshop, on the other hand, takes over 4.5GB of storage, so it's much more storage-hungry (one of my PCs actually shows over 9GB used by Photoshop). Of course, plugins and other add-ons can make both apps bigger, but the initial requirements are much lower for GIMP.

And once you're using the apps, that difference is just as stark. On a PC with 32GB of RAM, Photoshop uses 1.6GB of RAM just having a JPG image open, while GIMP uses just under 340MB of RAM. With both programs idle, CPU usage is 0% on both.

Photoshop has a ton of resources behind it, so it gets updates frequently,

Then there's also the matter of updates and support. Being part of Adobe means Photoshop has a ton of resources behind it, so it gets updates frequently, with a new update every month. That's generally good, since you can get more features and fixes, but the continuous update cycle can be tiring and interrupt yoiur workflow at times. There's also no way to revert to an old version of Photoshop if a newer one gives you problems, which can be frustrating.

Meanwhile, GIMP is developed outside of work hours for most of its developers, and progress is generally a bit slow. The current stable release is almost three months old, and the release before that happened six months prior. It takes a lot longer to get new features, especially because a lot of resources also have to be aimed at fixing bugs, which is generally the priority. However, that does mean less time spent installing updates. Plus, GIMP actually has older releases available for download, so if you have a problem with the latest version, you do have the option to go back.

Should you get Photoshop or GIMP?

How important is photo editing to you?

At the end of the day, whether you should choose Photoshop or GIMP really depends on how much you value access to the latest and greatest in photo editing. Photoshop is and has always been a powerhoue, and if you're a photography professional with stable income, it's fair to say this is the way to go. If you can afford Photoshop, it does make your life easier, and it has a ton of powerful tools.

However, for casual photographers and hobbyists, or small businesses that can't really afford the high price tag of Photoshop, GIMP offers a very robust experience with a lot of the features you need to create professional edits. It's completely free, so there's very little harm in trying it, even if you already have Photoshop.