Procreate is an image editing app that is available on the App Store for all the IOS products and it can be a great tool for graphic designers who are just starting and don’t want to dive into the world of Photoshop.
But as much artist-friendly as Procreate it is still not the industry leader and can be a bit less accessible for professional graphic designers. But not to worry they are plenty of free apps like Procreate available, you just have to search for them and that is exactly what I have done.
Listed below I have jotted down the best free and paid Procreate Alternatives that can please both professional & beginner graphic designers.
Contents
What are the best Procreate Alternatives?
| Name | Best For | Price | Our Rating | Website |
| Photoshop | Image editing | Paid[$9.99 – $20.99] | 5/5 | https://www.adobe.com/in/products/photoshop.html |
| Photoshop Express | Image editing | Free but contains payment for premium version[$9.99 – $34.99] | 4.5/5 | https://www.adobe.com/in/products/photoshop-express.html |
| GIMP | Image editing | Free | 4/5 | https://www.gimp.org |
| PhotoPea | Image editing | Free | 4/5 | https://www.photopea.com/ |
| Krita | Image editing | Free | 4/5 | https://krita.org/en/ |
| Paint.NET | Image editing | Free | 3/5 | No website available |
1. Photoshop
Photoshop is the industry leader when it comes to graphic editing. One might even think there are no Photoshop Alternatives but there are. Anyway, Photoshop has been in the market for decades and they have constantly updated themselves and pleased the industry with their numerous features and brushes.
But Photoshop can be very intimidating for beginners, it can look overwhelming with so many filters, brushes, and features. And don’t forget the hefty price tag it comes with. Photoshop is great and there is no denying it, but it is not meant for everyone.
Price of Photoshop
Monthly Plan: $20.99/month
Photography Plan: $9.99/month (Includes Lightrooms, Lightrooms Classic, and Photoshop for 20GB of cloud storage)
Features of Photoshop
- Accessible
- Available on all leading platforms
- Industry leader
Pro and Cons of Photoshop
| Pros | Cons |
| ✅So many features | ❌Very expensive |
| ✅Favoured by all the industry users | ❌Oveerwhelming for beginners |
| ✅Very accessible |
Review on Photoshop
There is no doubt in saying that Photoshop is the biggest Procreate Alternative. It is preferred by everyone for their work, it has an abundance of tools and features and is backed by one of the biggest companies, Adobe.
However, its expensive plan and overabundance of features can be very intimidating for beginners.
Rating on Photoshop
Photoshop gets a rating of 5/5 stars
2. Photoshop Express
Photoshop Express is provided to you by Photoshop itself and is for all the people who consider Photoshop to be expensive and a bit too much with all its features. Photoshop Express is available on IOS and Android and has tons of features that you can get for free.
It also provides a discovery feature that lets you share your work with the Photoshop community and if you liked someone’s work and want to use the filters that are used on their work then that also you can achieve by simply transferring their filters to your work.
Price of Photoshop Express
Photoshop Express is free to use but for some of its premium features like editing RAW photos you would need a Creative Cloud subscription:
Monthly Plan: $9.99/month
Annual Plan: $34.99/ year (First-year offer at $9.99/ year)
Features of Photoshop Express
- Intelligent Photoshop tools
- Edit in RAW photos
- Transfer PSD files from Mobile to Laptop
- Discovery mode for spreading your work
Pro and Cons of Photoshop Express
| Pros | Cons |
| ✅Free to use | ❌Some features require premium plans |
| ✅Create various layers like Photoshop | |
| ✅Discovery mode to share your work |
Review on Photoshop Express
Photoshop Express is really an amazing app for beginners and is a great alternative to Procreate as you don’t have to pay to use it and can be accessed from both Android and IOS.
Rating on Photoshop Express
We give Photoshop Express a rating of 4.5/5 stars
3. GIMP
GIMP is also very popular among the graphic designer’s community as it is a free-to-use open-sourced graphic editing program that can be accessed by users with Windows OS and more. It has all the features you would want in an image editing apps like Procreate.
But GIMP has a catch, although it is free to access and use, it is not as polished as something like Procreate or even Photoshop per say, so you have to look out for that while using the application.
Price of GIMP
GIMP is free to use.
Features of GIMP
- Produces High-quality photo manipulations
- Contains various graphic design elements
- GIMP allows programming algorithms
- 3rd party plug-ins are also available to install
Pro and Cons of GIMP
| Pros | Cons |
| ✅Available for Windows, MAC and Linux OS | ❌Not as polished as Procreate |
| ✅Free of cost to use | ❌Doesn’t contain professional print colours |
| ✅Numerous plugins available | |
| ✅Developers can rephrase its source code and distribute it |
Review on GIMP
GIMP is a great application to use for free and can be a great learning start for many beginners. Not only it is preferred by beginners but professionals also will find it handy to use it when compared to Procreate
Rating on GIMP
GIMP gets a rating of 4/5 stars
4. PhotoPea
PhotoPea is a great way for people to start learning photo editing as it blends the good of Photoshop and Procreate in one format. PhotoPea has the exact same UI as Photoshop so Photoshop users can find some familiarity with it but it also has various features such as a great range of brushes that are available on Procreate.
I won’t say that it is PhotoPea replacement as it does lag some of its features which make PhotoPea so great but considering that it came from just 1 man’s vision to provide a free image editor, then PhotoPea really impresses me a lot.
Price of PhotPea
PhotoPea is free to use.
Features of PhotPea
- Very similar UI to photoshop
- Saves files as PSD and more
- Various tools and features available
- Works on both Vector and Raster graphics
Pro and Cons of PhotPea
| Pros | Cons |
| ✅Free to use | ❌The site can lag a bit because of heavy usage |
| ✅Great availability of tools | ❌Not all features of Procreate are available |
| ✅Processes files in PSD, RAW, PDF and more | ❌Not available as a separate app |
Review on PhotoPea
PhotoPea holds some serious potential to act as a Procreate Substitute but its sometimes a laggy website, no specific app and some cut back in terms of features that you can get on Procreate make it a good Procreate Alternative.
Rating on PhotoPea
PhotoPea gets a rating of 4/5 stars.
5. Krita
Krita will impress a lot of Procreate fans as it is creating a huge amount of buzz among the creative designer’s community who are also the main target of Procreate. It, like GIMP, is also an open-source platform from which the users can install and put in their own plugins which can be used by various artists as well.
Krita has an amazing range of brushes and filters that would please a lot of graphic designers and concept artists. It has a user-friendly UI and is not very hard to adapt to and learn as well.
Price of Krita
Krita is free to use.
Features of Krita
- Krita supports full colour management
- Krita also supports PSD Files
- Krita has 9 in-built brush engines
- Collection of over 100 brush collections and tools
Pro and Cons of Krita
| Pros | Cons |
| ✅Free to use | ❌Available only for Desktop |
| ✅User friendly UI | ❌No proper customer support available |
| ✅100+ brushes available to use | |
| ✅Support available for multiple plugins |
Review on Krita
Krita is in my opinion a Procreate replacement because it is free to use, has multiple brushes, supports HDR images as well, and can be accessed from your MAC or Windows OS. You should choose it before it is too late.
Rating on Krita
Krita definitely gets a rating of 4/5 stars
6. Paint.NET
Paint.NET is appreciated by a lot of people for its free of cost and is available on Windows laptops which can be a bummer for someone, but you are not losing out on much if you are a MAC user as well.
It offers you your basic Clone stamp tool and some other features but its overall UI is not as sharp and polished as the rest of the apps like Procreate that are named above have and it runs on only Raster graphics.
Price of Paint.NET
Paint.NET, like all the apps above, is free to use.
Features of Paint.NET
- Has the option to support plugins extensions
- Layers are available on it
- Numerous tools for image editing are also available
Pro and Cons of Paint.NET
| Pros | Cons |
| ✅Free to use | ❌UI is not polished |
| ✅Free Plugins available | ❌Doesn’t read PSD files |
| ❌Looks outdated | |
| ❌Only Raster based images | |
| ❌No availability on macOS or IOS |
Review on Paint.NET
Look Paint.NET may not be the best Procreate Alternative but it still has few tricks up its sleeve that can be useful for some people and it is an OG and we respect OG’s.
Rating on Paint.NET
Paint.NET gets a rating of 3/5 stars
7. Google Photos
Google Photos might not seem a direct alternative to professional image editing tools, such as Procreate, but Google has been playing a lot with various AI tools on Google Photos that allow users to edit images quite quickly and professionally on its platform.
You can easily change the background of your image, change the position of the main subject, remove unnecessary noise in the background and create a professional-looking image all through the Magic Editor on Google Photos that will be available quite soon on major Pixel and Android devices.
Price of Google Photos
Google Photos is an application that is free to use.
Features of Google Photos
- Store all your images on Google Cloud
- Magic Editor
- Magic Eraser
- Photo Unblur
Pro and Cons of Google Photos
| Pros | Cons |
| ✅Free to use | ❌ Magic Editor would only be available for Pixel users at first |
| ✅Easy to use | ❌ Only 15 GB of Free cloud storage, after that you need to purchase it |
| ✅Great professional editing tools |
Review on Google Photos
Google Photos is a place where a lot of people store their images as it is a cloud service, and many people do love the service. However, these new AI editing tools that Google has been introducing on Google Photos are next level!
The edits that you are able to do thanks to AI tools, usually used to take a lot of time to process on platforms like Photoshop, and while the results are not always perfect, but it is just incredible how easily you are able to perform all these edits on your phone and so easily, as well.
With the launch of Magic Editor, Google Photos will easily be the place where a lot of people would go for quick touchups to their images, rather than processing it fully on applications like Procreate.
Rating on Google PhotosGoogle Photos gets a rating of 4.5/5 stars.
Final note
Procreate actually is a great tool but in the industry, it is not necessarily used, it is much more used for personal projects and for beginners. And it is available only on Ipads can be a bit frustrating for some graphic designers as they like to work on a desktop and or a laptop because of its bigger screen, better horsepower, and overall simplicity.
It is a great app but so are its alternatives which are free to use.
