Alternatives to Adobe drawing and painting software

This is a user contributed list.

If you know of any good software that's not on the list, let me know in the comments section.

Software listed below are arranged alphabetically (sort of). Links are to the product pages and respective app stores. Please report broken links.

Legend:

  • sub - subscription
  • 1x - one time payment
  • free - free/open source
  • freemium - free to use but with some tools locked
Software Windows Mac Linux iPad Android
DIGITAL PAINTING - - - - -
Adobe Photoshop (sub) Windows Mac iPad
Adobe Fresco (sub) iPad
Affinity Photo (1x) Windows Mac iPad
Artstudio Pro (1x) iPad
Clip Studio Paint Pro (sub/1x) Windows (sub/1x) Mac (sub/1x) iPad (sub) Android (sub)
Corel Painter (1x/sub) Windows Mac
Firealpaca (free) Windows Mac
IbisPaint (sub)/IbisPaint X (free) Android
Krita (free) Windows Mac Linux Android
Medibang Paint (freemium/sub) Windows Mac iPad Android
Paintstorm Studio (1x) Windows Mac iPad
Paint Tool SAI (1x) Windows Mac
Procreate (1x) iPad
Medibang Pro (1x) iPad
Rebelle (1x) Windows Mac
Sketchbook (1x) Windows Mac iPad Android
ILLUSTRATION / SKETCHING (fewer painting tools) - - - - -
Concepts (freemium/1x/sub) Windows Mac iPad Android
Sketchbook (1x) Windows Mac iPad Android
Tayasui Sketches Pro (1x) Mac iPad Android
PHOTO EDITING - - - - -
Adobe Photoshop (sub) Windows Mac iPad
Affinity Photo (1x) Windows Mac iPad
GIMP (free) Windows Mac Linux
PaintShop Pro (1x) Windows
PhotoLine (1x) Windows Mac
Photopea (free) Windows Mac Linux
Pixelmator Pro (1x) iPad
Pixlr (free) Windows Mac Linux
Sumo Paint (free) Windows Mac Linux
VECTOR - - - - -
Adobe Illustrator (sub) Windows Mac iPad
Affinity Designer (1x) Windows Mac iPad
Boxy SVG (sub/1x) Windows Mac Linux
Corel Draw (1x) Windows Mac
Gravit Designer (freemium/sub) Windows Mac Linux
Inker (free) Windows Mac Linux Android
Inkscape (free) Windows Mac Linux
Vectornator (1x) Mac iPad
Vector Ink (1x) Windows Mac Linux Android
Xara Designer (sub) Windows
PAGE PUBLISHING - - - - -
Affinity Publisher (1x) Windows Mac
QuarkXPress (1x) Windows Mac
Scribus (free) Windows Mac Linux
ANIMATION - - - - -
Adobe Animate (sub) Windows Mac
Blender 3D (free) Windows Mac Linux
Cacani (sub) Windows
Clip Studio Paint EX (sub/1x) Windows (sub/1x) Mac (sub/1x) iPad (sub) Android (sub)
Moho (1x) Windows Mac
OpenToonz (free) Windows Mac
Synfig (free) Windows Mac Linux
Toonboom (1x) Windows Mac Linux
TVPaint (1x) Windows Mac Linux Android
Wick Editor (free) Windows Mac Linux
Tags

Comments

I have ArtRage Vitae, which is available from the Mac App Store. I paid £34.99 a month ago, but that may have been an offer. It is a good natural media art program.

Very nice list! I've moved from Adobe to Affinity (Photo, Designer, Publisher) and have been very happy with the change.

A couple of notes: Adobe InDesign seems to be missing from your list. Under Animation you have Adobe Animate which is essentially a reworking of Flash, an application that I used some years ago. When I was looking for an alternative to Flash/Animate I found Hype by Tumult (https://tumult.com/hype/) which is Mac only.

Excellent list, thanks for making it.
It looks like you have forgotten Rebelle 4 an excellent watercolour/drawing app for Windows and Mac.
I use Clip Studio Paint for all of my work and have migrated from InDesign to affinity publisher with great success.
Thanks
Tomas

I would posit Leonardo for digital painting on Windows. It's nowhere near as feature heavy as something like Photoshop or Clip Studio, but it's very very fast and great for quick sketches.

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