10mo ago

24 of the best free alternatives to the most popular paid software

www.xda-developers.com

Note that these are not all FOSS.

Photo Editing:
- GIMP
- Krita
- Paint.NET
Video Editing:
- DaVinci Resolve
- CapCut
- Shotcut
Audio Editing:
- Audacity
- Cakewalk
- GarageBand
3D Graphics:
- Blender
- Spline
- Rumba
Office Software:
- LibreOffice
- Microsoft 365 Free Apps
- WPS Office
Antivirus Software:
- Windows Security
- Avast Free Antivirus
- Malwarebytes
Productivity Tools:
- Bitwarden
- VSCodium
- PDF-XChange Editor
- 7-Zip
- OBS Studio
- LanguageTool

93 comments

I only discovered Krita recently, but holy shit does it fill the Photoshop void very well. The UI isn't the same as PS, obviously. But I find it much easier to navigate than Gimp's UI. And Krita is surprisingly feature-rich.
- I like Krita. But to be honest, after years and years of using GIMP, I ironically have nothing but trouble trying to rewire my brain to do things any other way. The same problem that many people have when moving from Photoshop to GIMP.
  Also, i fundamentally need DDS files, which Krita (AFAIK) doesn't handle.
  
  You should totally get on some PS forums and start bitching about its UI being 'backward and unusable' compared to GIMP :)
  
  Maybe https://krita-artists.org/t/python-plugin-dds-support-windows-only/73488
  
  Windows only sadly. I'm on Linux
- If you don't mind paid, Affinity is pretty nice too.
  
  Desperately needs Linux support though.
  
  Didn't they recently get bought by Canva? Not saying that's a good or bad thing, but it's something to keep in mind.
  
  Yeah but it's also a one time purchase
  
  ...for now.
- I've just found out about kitra right now but from the site it says it's mostly focused are drawing and stuff like that so would photo editing be netter with something like rawtherapee?
  
  If you're working with RAW files, neither Gimp nor Krita are the tool for you.
  I use Darktable to adjust global things like brightness, contrast, white balance and so on, then export to Krita or Gimp for more granular local modifications.
  
  Yeah it's definitely more of a souped up Paint app than photo editor.

93 comments