Alternatives to Krita
A free digital painting program built for illustrators, with over a hundred brushes ready to use. The listings below can replace it for an important use case. Each note says what changes if you switch.
The original
Krita
A free digital painting program built for illustrators, with over a hundred brushes ready to use.
Replacements
Listings that take over the same core job as Krita.
MyPaint
A distraction-free painting app for graphics tablets, with an infinite canvas and deeply configurable brushes.
MyPaint offers an infinite canvas, pigment mixing and a distraction-free mode, but has weaker text and vector tools, no macOS release and no stable release since 2020.
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe's raster image editor for photo retouching, compositing, painting and generative AI edits.
Adobe Photoshop covers painting alongside retouching, compositing and generative AI, but it is closed source, subscription only and has no Linux version.
Drawpile
Draw and animate together on a shared canvas.
Drawpile adds shared canvas sessions for drawing together and an Android build, though sessions require a network connection and a host.
GIMP
The long-running free image editor for photo retouching, compositing and general pixel work.
GIMP is also free and open source and is stronger for photo retouching and compositing, but it is not built around painting brushes and stabilisers.
Clip Studio Paint
A commercial drawing and painting app for illustration, comics and animation across desktop and mobile.
Clip Studio Paint is a paid, closed-source drawing app for illustration, comics and animation that adds Android, iOS and Chromebook versions alongside desktop.
Corel Painter
A digital painting program from Corel that simulates natural media brushes for illustration and photo painting.
Corel Painter is paid, closed-source Windows and macOS painting software simulating natural media brushes, with a cheaper Essentials edition and paid brush packs.
Rebelle
Painting software for Windows and Mac that simulates real color mixing, wet diffusion and drying.
Rebelle is paid Windows and macOS painting software simulating wet paint mixing and drying for watercolor and oil, with no Linux version.
ArtRage
A natural-media painting program with realistic paint blending and textures for desktop, tablet and phone.
ArtRage is a paid natural-media painting program with realistic blending on Windows, macOS, Android and iOS, aimed at hobby painters.
Also worth comparing
These listings name Krita as their own alternative, so the relationship runs both ways.
Adobe Fresco
Adobe's free drawing and painting app for iPad and iPhone, built for stylus and touch.
Krita is free and open source under GPL-3.0 but runs on Windows, macOS and Linux desktops rather than iPad, with over 100 brushes and comic panel tools.
Artweaver
A digital painting program for Windows with realistic brushes, layers and basic image editing tools.
Krita is free and open source on Windows, macOS and Linux, with over 100 brushes, stabilisers and vector tools, and needs plenty of RAM for large canvases.
FireAlpaca
A free, lightweight digital painting program for Windows and Mac with new brushes each week.
Krita is free and open source on Windows, macOS and Linux, with over 100 brushes, stabilisers and comic tools, though large canvases need plenty of RAM.
Kleki
A free painting tool that runs in the web browser for quick sketches and drawings.
Krita is a free open-source desktop painting program for Windows, macOS and Linux with over 100 brushes and stabilisers, requiring installation rather than a browser tab.
MediBang Paint
A free painting and comic creation app for desktop, tablet and phone.
Krita is free and open source on Windows, macOS and Linux, with over 100 brushes and vector and text tools for comic panels, but no mobile app.
Paintstorm Studio
A paid digital painting program with deeply customizable brushes for Windows, macOS, Linux and iPad.
Krita is free and open source on Windows, macOS and Linux, with over 100 brushes and stabilisers, but it has no iPad version.
PaintTool SAI
Lightweight Windows painting program with pressure-sensitive tablet support and anti-aliased brush strokes.
Krita is free and open source on Windows, macOS and Linux with over 100 brushes and stabilisers, though large canvases with many layers need plenty of RAM.
Photopea
Browser-based image editor that opens Photoshop, XD and Sketch files.
Krita is a free, open-source desktop program for Windows, macOS and Linux focused on painting and illustration rather than Photopea's Photoshop-style photo editing.
PixiEditor
Create pixel art, illustrations and animations in one editor.
Krita is a GPL painting program with over 100 brushes and vector and text tools, suited to illustration rather than dedicated pixel art.
Procreate
A digital painting and illustration app for iPad, sold as a one-time purchase.
Krita is a free, open-source painting program for Windows, macOS and Linux desktops, so moving from Procreate means drawing with a tablet on a computer instead of an iPad.
Sketchbook
Drawing and painting app for sketching and illustration on macOS, Windows, Android and iOS.
Krita is free and open source on Windows, macOS and Linux with over 100 brushes and comic tools, but it has no mobile version.
Similar software
Related functionality, not a direct replacement.
Inkscape
A free vector editor that works natively in SVG, for logos, diagrams and illustration.
Paint.NET
A fast Windows image editor that sits between Microsoft Paint and a full photo suite.
Blender
The free 3D creation suite: modelling, sculpting, rigging, animation, simulation, rendering, compositing and video editing.
Pencil2D
A small, approachable program for traditional hand-drawn 2D animation, mixing bitmap and vector layers.
OpenToonz
Professional 2D animation software, based on the Toonz version used by Studio Ghibli.
Synfig Studio
Vector 2D animation software that tweens between keyframes instead of making you draw every frame.
