Hi there, today I'm going to go over five free Photoshop alternatives. Now, these alternatives are going to be available for your Windows or Mac depending on what you're using, and even on Chromebook. Most of these are great programs to use at different levels, whether you're a more advanced user or a beginner, so take a look at the one which suits you the best. Most important they are free to use, as compared to Photoshop which is quite expensive.


Krita

Today with the top 5 free Photoshop alternatives I'm going to start with my favorite program out of all these, and that is Krita. This is a great program which you can install on Mac, Windows or Linux. Krita is very powerful, plus the graphic interface is great.
Let's do a little quick walkthrough just to show you some of the features.
 With Krita, if you're a digital painter this one could be for you. You can easily create your new canvases. To start your own customization of it and start using the many brushes right away and the adaptations that you can make to them, you can click on the brushes and you’ll see how quickly you can adjust them with the size and opacity.
You can change your colors quickly and you can even change and customize your own brushes to your own settings.
You have all the ability of layers to add just like in Photoshop and your selection tools to get that precise selection that you need.
You can also work with pictures really easily if you wanted to do some quick photo editing you have the features such as the crop tool and your fun tools like they remove the blemish tool
you can use other tools where you might typically see some of them in here but if you go up to the brushes you'll be able to see that there are things like the clone tool that you see in Photoshop to grow the shrink. so there are many of these tools that are identical to what you see in Photoshop and this is all free

Medibang Paint

Another great program is Medibang paint. It is cross-platform which means you can also use it on your PC, iPad, iPhone or Android devices. This is a great painting program or if you're into comic creation, but you can still edit photos in this.
 So there are a few features though with this program you need to have an account and be logged in if you want to do things like accessing all the fonts.
 If you are creating your artwork this is another great program for that. You can create your canvas very easily by choosing whether transparent background or the solid fills, and you can see through the toolbars.
If you're used to any of the other programs you can quickly choose your brushes and do some painting with some of the designs. You have different brushes that you can choose from.
You work with all your layers so it’s very similar to Krita or Photoshop except the layout, so this is another great program to try.

GIMP

GIMP is another powerful application that you should consider. In fact, this was my go-to free photo editor years ago when I had just started to learn about how to edit photos and do some basic painting. Now, I would say GIMP is something I still could use for photo editing but not for painting like the other programs. Also, the interface isn't quite as friendly.
 Gimp has most of the features as Photoshop, Krita or Medibang, the one thing I found is that the interface isn't quite as friendly for most people. Like I know where to find the tools and features I need so it's not too bad, but if you're a newbie, choosing a program such as this one might require you to dig a little bit deeper to learn how to do a few things with it. Once mastered Gimp is a great option.
All the tools that are there you plus you can still get it broken up between your selection tools, your paint tools, and your transform tools which makes it very easy to use.

PhotoScape X

PhotoScape x is again cross-platform so you can put it on your Windows or Mac. It’s simple to install, very fun to use and it's intuitive.
 You can upgrade to a pro version but the free one will do a lot of the tasks that you probably need to get done. I think PhotoScape X is actually a photo editor that would solve most people's problems or help them with what they want to accomplish.
 Now, it's super easy to use from the way it's set up across at the top. I’m using the free version, but there is a pro version too which has some extra features like the transform tool and selective color. If you’re just getting started then the free version does a pretty good job

Pixlr

So lastly there’s Pixlr. Actually, there are two different versions: the traditional Pixlr editor and the newer Pixlr X.
The basic Pixlr editor works on any platform because all you need is a browser with Adobe Flash enabled. You can create a new image from your computer or even from a URL from the Internet. However, it's not as robust as the other apps on this list.
The brush tools, pencil and fill tools are similar to other photo editing apps which makes Pixlr very easy to use, and they work quite well.
While online, you can switch your colors around very quickly. You also have things like your clone tools and different sets of tools so this is a neat option, especially if you’re online and need to do some quick editing.
Pixlr X editor comes with some nice templates that you can use, by searching from their stock collection and then applying them. The interface is very intuitive, where you can see the layers on the right-hand side.

Conclusion

So these have been my top five favorite free Photoshop alternatives and while some of them are kind of maybe based more around Paint than photo editing, they can all do little bits and pieces of everything.
Krita is my favorite, but you need to consider which one is best for you depending on your specific needs or wants.