10 tools compared
Best Affinity Photo Alternatives in 2026
Affinity Photo (Affinity is the imaging and design suite for creative professionals exclusively for Mac) isn't the right fit for everyone. Below are 10 real alternatives, including free options, pulled straight from our Affinity Photo profile — Canva starts at $12.99/mo if budget is the main driver.
| # | Tool | Pricing | Platforms |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Canva | $12.99/mo | — |
| 2 | Sketch | — | |
| 3 | Adobe Photoshop | — | — |
| 4 | Affinity Designer | — | — |
| 5 | GIMP | Open source | |
| 6 | Pixelmator | — | — |
| 7 | Adobe Illustrator | — | — |
| 8 | Photopea | Open source | |
| 9 | Krita | — | |
| 10 | Pixlr | — |
1. Canva
Canva is a graphic-design platform featuring a drag-and-drop interface with templates, images, and fonts designed to make visual content creation straightforward regardless of skill level. It offers a broad set of tools within the Design Tools category, including Document Creation with writing AI, Custom Prints with over 30 products to pick from, and Presentations featuring magic shortcuts, animations, and recording. Users can also build Websites with performance tracking, edit videos using a one-click video background remover and animations, create Social Media Content with resizing options and a content planner, and use Whiteboards for flowcharts, planning, and brainstorming.
Full Canva profile →2. Sketch
Sketch is a professional digital design tool tailored for the Mac environment, making it a strong choice for users who need robust vector editing tools and symbols for reusable design components. It features a clean and intuitive user interface alongside a rich plugins ecosystem and a strong community that provides plenty of tutorials and shared assets. It performs well even with complex design files due to its optimization for Mac.
Full Sketch profile →3. Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Photoshop is a webtop application categorized under Design Tools, built for editing images and photos online. It is widely used by professional photographers, designers, and artists, delivering high-quality results for basic photo editing and complex digital art creation through features like Comprehensive Editing Tools, layers, masks, and retouching capabilities. Users also benefit from regular updates, extensive plugin support for third-party tools, and seamless integration with other Adobe Creative Cloud applications such as Illustrator, Lightroom, and Premiere Pro.
Full Adobe Photoshop profile →4. Affinity Designer
Affinity Designer is a design tool that works well for professional designers who want a one-time purchase option instead of popular subscription-based alternatives like Adobe Illustrator. It offers advanced vector tools, smooth performance and stability with large files, and a modern, customizable user interface. Users also benefit from seamless integration with other Serif products like Affinity Photo and Affinity Publisher, alongside regular updates that add new features.
Full Affinity Designer profile →5. GIMP
GIMP is a multiplatform photo manipulation tool that fits users looking for a free and open source graphic design software option. It provides a comprehensive set of image editing tools for photo retouching, image composition, and image authoring, which accommodates both beginners and advanced users. Additionally, users can utilize extensive plugin support to enhance functionality and customize the software to suit specific needs, alongside cross-platform compatibility for Windows, macOS, and Linux.
Full GIMP profile →6. Pixelmator
Pixelmator is an image-editing application built for Mac and iPad. It is a strong fit for users looking for a user-friendly interface that remains powerful enough for professionals, utilizing macOS technologies like Metal, Core Image, and OpenGL for performance optimization. It also includes AI-powered tools such as ML Super Resolution to enhance image quality using machine learning algorithms.
Full Pixelmator profile →7. Adobe Illustrator
Adobe Illustrator is an industry-standard vector graphics editor built for professionals who need precision drawing tools and infinitely scalable graphics for logos, icons, and complex illustrations. It offers an extensive toolset and integrates seamlessly with other Adobe Creative Cloud applications like Photoshop, InDesign, and After Effects, backed by regular updates from Adobe.
Full Adobe Illustrator profile →8. Photopea
Photopea is a web-based image editing application that is suitable for both beginners and advanced users. It stands out for its compatibility with a wide range of file formats, including PSD, XCF, Sketch, and XD, allowing for seamless workflow integration with other graphic design tools. The user interface is intuitive and similar to Adobe Photoshop, which helps reduce the learning curve for users already familiar with Photoshop.
Full Photopea profile →9. Krita
Krita is a professional free and open source painting program made by artists for concept art, texture and matte painting, illustrations, and comics. It stands out with a powerful brush engine that is highly configurable and dynamic, alongside a rich feature set including HDR painting, layer management, color wheels, and advanced selections.
Full Krita profile →10. Pixlr
Pixlr is a design tool well-suited for both beginners and experienced users who need a web-based application with cross-platform compatibility for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and iOS. It stands out for its user-friendly interface, fast performance with larger image files, and advanced editing tools like layers, filters, and various adjustments.
Full Pixlr profile →