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Buying Guide: The Best Adobe Photoshop Alternatives for 2026
The Best Photoshop Alternatives for Beginners
A reasonable place to start with photo editing is to use the applications that come with your operating system: Apple Photos across Apple's ecosystem, Google Photos for Android, and Microsoft Photos for Windows. They give you basic color and lighting tools—and even some impressive AI effects—in simple interfaces.
If you're interested in building your photo editing skills with a more Photoshop-like editing experience, Photoshop Elements is a more approachable version of Adobe's software. Its many Guided Edits take you through the steps of using both standard and advanced effects.
Lightroom, the non-Classic version, is also worth your consideration. Lightroom provides access to the Discover community, where photographers and editors share their entire workflow, from raw image to final product. You can even submit your photos to the community and let them edit your work.
The Best Free Alternatives to Photoshop
Again, most operating systems include photo software that can serve your basic—and even some advanced AI-powered—needs for free. The Microsoft Photos app in Windows 11 offers auto-tagging, background removal, blemish removal, face recognition, image correction tools, and even support for raw camera files, all within a touch-friendly interface. It can automatically create editable albums based on the dates and locations of the photos. Apple Photos on macOS does those things, too. Both programs sync with online storage services: iCloud for Apple devices and OneDrive for Microsoft devices. (You can now access iCloud Photos in Windows 11's Photos app, too.) They also let you search by detected object types, such as "tree" or "cat." Apple Photos supports plug-ins such as Topaz Photo AI, a leading noise-reduction tool.
You also have free options if you use Ubuntu or another Linux distro, including the capable-enough Shotwell app. For more sophisticated editing, the venerable GNU Image Manipulation Program, better known as GIMP, is available for all the major desktop platforms. It has a ton of Photoshop-style plug-ins and editing capabilities, but very little in the way of creature comforts and usability. For free, Lightroom-style workflow options, consider the open-source Darktable and RawTherapee applications.