Adobe Photoshop is the gold standard, preferred by the world’s top visual artists. Its powerful tools help photographers create almost anything the imagination can conjure. But instead of paying the monthly fee if your budget is tight or your use case is minimal, try a free, open-source alternative.

One of the most complete Photoshop alternatives, GIMP (short for GNU Image Manipulation Program) offers such a large feature set that even the most complex tasks can be accomplished without putting any strain on your budget. They say you get what you pay for, but in the case of GIMP, that saying isn’t necessarily true. With a very active developer community that has historically listened to user requests and feedback, this free option continues to evolve as raster editor technology advances.

While GIMP isn’t always as intuitive as Photoshop in terms of functionality and design, it makes up for some of its perceived clunkiness with several in-depth tutorials for both beginner and advanced users that will help you navigate most of the components with little to no prior knowledge of the open-source application. That said, if you’re just looking to learn the basics in a raster-based graphics editor, GIMP might be a bit much for you, and you might be better served with one of the simpler alternatives on our list.

Like Photoshop, there are a number of third-party plugins available that further enhance GIMP's functionality. As always, download at your own risk when working with non-Adobe repositories.