Best Krita Alternatives
The top-ranked Krita alternative is Adobe Photoshop (Subscription). The best free option is GIMP (open source).
Krita is a powerful free, open-source digital painting app, but some artists want more photo editing, better performance on huge canvases, or industry-standard tooling. Others compare it to commercial painting suites.
1Industry-standard professional image editing and compositing software.
2Clip Studio Paint
FreemiumPowerful drawing and painting software popular for comics and manga.
3Powerful, intuitive painting app built for the iPad and Apple Pencil.
Corel Painter
PaidProfessional digital painting software with realistic natural media brushes.
Free all-in-one photo, vector and layout app from Canva; AI features need Canva Pro.
Free, open-source editor; version 3.2 (2026) adds non-destructive, vector and link layers.
MyPaint
Open SourceOpen-source painting app with a distraction-free canvas and brushes.
Autodesk SketchBook
FreeFree drawing and painting app with a clean, professional interface.
Paintstorm Studio
PaidProfessional digital painting tool with a highly customizable brush engine.
Sketchbook / FireAlpaca
FreeFree, lightweight painting app for illustration and simple comics.
Concepts
FreemiumFlexible infinite-canvas sketching app for ideas and illustration.
Krita alternatives: FAQ
What is the best alternative to Krita?
Adobe Photoshop is ranked first on this list (Subscription). The ranking combines our base score with readers' votes, so it can change.
What is the best free alternative to Krita?
The highest-ranked free or open-source options here are GIMP, MyPaint and Autodesk SketchBook.
Which Krita alternatives work on Mac?
Adobe Photoshop, Clip Studio Paint, Corel Painter and Affinity (by Canva) run on macOS.
Which Krita alternatives work on Linux?
GIMP and MyPaint run on Linux.
Are there Krita alternatives for Android?
Yes: Clip Studio Paint, Autodesk SketchBook and Concepts have Android apps.
Know a Krita alternative we missed? Suggest it — we review submissions before they go live.