GIMP

GIMP, the GNU Image Manipulation Program, is a free and open-source raster image editor for photo retouching, compositing and graphic design. Photographers, hobbyists and anyone who does not want an Adobe subscription use it as a Photoshop substitute. There is no free plan as such because there is nothing to pay for: the whole application is free software.

What the free plan gives you

The current stable release is GIMP 3.2.4, dated 17 April 2026, with builds for GNU/Linux on x86_64 and ARM64, macOS on Intel and Apple Silicon, and Windows on x86_64 and ARM64. You get layers, masks, channels, non-destructive layer effects, a full set of selection and paint tools, colour management, a large filter library, scripting through Python and Script-Fu, and support for opening and exporting the common formats, including PSD. Plugins and brushes from the community extend it further. There are no watermarks, no usage caps and no account.

Where the free plan stops

There is no paid tier. The project asks for donations through PayPal and other channels, but nothing is locked behind them. The practical limits are the ones a Photoshop user notices: the interface takes time to learn, CMYK workflows are weaker, and some proprietary format features do not round-trip perfectly. Those are trade-offs of the software, not of a plan.

Who it suits

If you edit photos, make web graphics or need occasional retouching and want a tool you can install on any machine without a licence, GIMP does the job and has for decades. Print professionals who depend on CMYK-native workflows or studios standardised on Adobe files may find the friction outweighs the saving.