27 Free Alternatives to Expensive Adobe App Subscriptions
It looks like Adobe has upset a number of users with yet another price hike for app subscriptions. While the hit at this point seems to only target certain countries – you’re saved, North American users – there’s no reason to think you won’t have to pay more to sign up for an Adobe app (or its entire suite of creative apps) in some moment in the future. This is business guys.
As you can imagine, Adobe’s price hike has sparked a wave of activity on the Internet, and many disgruntled users have jumped into Twitter discussions and blogs to offer alternatives to Adobe’s ever-increasing cost of subscription apps.
I looked at the @burgerdrome Twitter thread , as well as the great software recommendations thread started by @TubOfCoolWhip, and this is a handy image of Cullen’s recommendations that I would link to if I knew who they are. From there, I created this list of 27 good alternatives to Adobe Creative Cloud apps based on what people seemed to love (or recommend in large quantities).
I myself have not tried all of these applications and am not their target audience – alas, I do not really dabble in 3D animation. While we generally recommend the apps we used at Lifehacker, in this case I have included recommendations from various Twitter users who suggested them when applicable. (This is tricky because some applications are simply called by name, which is great for listing, but not very helpful when describing application functions.)
If you don’t like any of these options, you can always try befriending a teacher (or student) to get that nice $ 20 / month price for a full Adobe subscription. One caveat, though: this only works for the first year. You will then be charged the full standard rate.
Painting, graphic design or photo editing applications
Crete (Windows / Mac)
“I can personally recommend Krita as a viable open illustration program. In terms of business, I’ve heard good reviews for Clip Studio’s Paint and Paint Tool SAI. Krita also has re-editable file layers, filter / effect layers and layer styles. “ – @AwrySquare
Sketchbook (Windows / Mac)
“I use Sketchbook with a pen display and can recommend it. It has a fairly easy-to-navigate user interface and can be saved in the .psd format for easy transfer. The only thing he really needs is the trimming groups. “ – @xx_unsung_xx
MediBang Paint (Windows / Mac / Mobile)
“A really good free ipad app for art is Medibang paint. It’s as easy to use as procreate and has all the features and more 🙂 !!! “ – @ 1lonelyegg
Paint.net (Windows)
“Getpaint.net is a great free Photoshop alternative, and @inkscape is a great free Illustrator alternative. Have been using them for years and have all the Adobe products, but I still use them. Basically I only use Adobe Premiere and AE subscriptions. “ – @alexcchichester
Pixlr X (Internet)
“Pixlr is my personal favorite! I believe they just added a paid option to get rid of the ads, but there is still a completely working free version. “ – @notjoykeenan
GIMP (Windows / Mac)
“For editing photos, GIMP is a lot like Photoshop, but it’s free! While the user interface may be less user-friendly, it can produce good results! “ – @FarowlHd
Photoscape X (Windows / Mac)
“Photoscape is free and provides a pretty simple photo editing program! you can do a lot with it like creating GIFs and group photo editing in addition to your basic skills. I have been using it for over 5 years and I rarely needed more. “ – @trisk_philia
FireAlpaca (Windows / Mac)
“Well, now I’m glad I’m sticking to sai and fialpak. at least they keep up like shit and are hard to look at. “ – @finnifinite
If you need a little more to consider FireAlpaca for your setup, the app comes with a variety of standard and fancy digital paint brushes for your next great masterpiece (or comic). You can even make your own if you’re feeling particularly creative. For those looking to draw comics, the built-in templates make it easy to create specific layouts for the strip. The Onion Skin application mode also makes drawing animations easier as you create new layers or frames using the previous frame as a guide.
Storyboard apps
Storyboard (Windows / Mac)
“The possibilities here are pretty good and you NEED to be good at rendering / painting to use this! He can create types of keyword shots, which is… wild. : o “ – @TubOfCoolWhip
Video editing or video effects applications
HitFilm Express (Windows / Mac)
“Somone may have mentioned these two already, but VSDC Editor and Hitflim are great free editing programs.” – @NotQueenly
If I’m right, Hitfilm Express is a great special effects tool – much more than your standard video editing application, which might not be as fully featured for this kind of work. If you just want to edit and crop your video and maybe add a simple text overlay, other video apps on this list might be better suited.
Shotcut (Windows / Mac)
“I found [Shotcut] a very good free video editor. It worked very well for me and I still use it for small things. “ – @Monkeygameal
If you’re trying to go crazy like editing 360-degree video as noted byPCMag, this app might not be for you. But for basic video editing with a reasonably concise interface, you can’t go wrong with this free app.
DaVinci Resolve (Windows / Mac)
“Because of Davinci’s determination, I only have a photoshop / light room package. One day I will find a better alternative to photoshop and light room. I’m going to give it up too. “ – @ Breonnick_5
Kdenlive (Windows / Mac – sort of)
While this multitrack video editor is primarily aimed at Linux users, you will still find a few older builds for Windows and Mac to experiment with. Since the app uses the FFmpeg libraries, you can import any video or audio file you want – pretty much. You also get a healthy amount of transforms and effects that you can play with, which you can keyframe for more precision.
Applications for 3D modeling, animation, or vector graphics
Blender (Windows / Mac)
“I hate Maya for the same reasons and stick with blender whenever possible.” – @IRBlayne
Blender is a powerful 3D modeling tool that you can indulge in when you don’t want to pay for something like 3DS or Maya. Staying in learning is cool but well worth mastering if you’re serious about space exploration. Once you’re good, you can do many amazing things with this free app:
Lumion (Windows, free for students)
“If you are a student, the student version of Lumion is FREE. It is an architectural program that renders reality quickly and does all sorts of neat things like automatic sites, insertable animations of people doing something, you can set things on fire, weather settings and more. “ – @ samanthagiford8
Synfig (Windows / Mac)
“Synfig for animation! it is vectorial and works like Flash, it can’t do interactive things, but Flash games are dying anyway. “ – @ljamesart
Anything that looks like Adobe Flash but not Adobe Flash is an advantage in our book.
SketchUp (Internet)
You will find this recommendation in the aforementioned Cullen list, which indicates that this is an excellent program for basic 3D modeling. Since it’s (now) completely web-based, you can use it right in your favorite browser on Windows or Mac – or Chromebooks, I suppose. And yes, everything you do is automatically saved to the cloud, don’t worry.
MagicaVoxel (Windows / Mac)
Here’s another entry on the Cullens list – this time their recommendation for a voxel / brick 3D modeling program. I’m not a big artist or a Minecraft wizard (but I love awesome pixel art), so instead I’ll leave you a comment from this inspiring 2015 blog post : “I started with [MagicaVoxel] 5 months ago and feel like I’ve really mastered this tool. I saw a tweet featuring a voxel taken on Magica Voxel by Ephtracy . That was when I just finished Monument Valley, which I really liked. I had to try this instrument and immediately fell in love with it. “
MakeHuman (Windows / Mac)
Mysterious “Cullen” also recommends MakeHuman if you want to tinker with creating digital characters in three dimensions. If I’m right, you can import your creations into another application on our list – Blender – to animate them, which is as close as you can get to fully featured rendering software like 3DS or Maya without having to make a ton of changes. …
Inkscape (Windows / Mac)
“Vector Inkscape is a great free alternative to Adobe Illustrator” – @GrimdorkDesign
I constantly see Inkscape being mentioned on the Internet as an alternative to Adobe Illustrator. I don’t use Illustrator myself, but if I did, it would be the first app I installed to avoid Adobe subscription fees.
Audio editing and music production apps
LMMS (Windows / Mac)
“If we include music / audio editing software, then BandLab’s LMMS and Cakewalk are good free DAWs!” – @MystSaphyr
For those not in the know, “DAW” is short for “Digital Audio Workstations”. If you’re making music, use LMMS (or Cakewalk, below). If you need to trim audio or convert something to MP3, you will need an application like Audacity.
Cakewalk (Windows)
(See previous recommendation. Thanks, @MystSaphyr!)
ocenaudio (Windows / Mac)
“I would like to add Ocean Audio [sic] as a simple audio editor, and REAPER as an inexpensive and extremely powerful DAW (with an endless trial period)” – @fuzzblob
Audacity (Windows / Mac)
At this point, I hardly need to say anything about Audacity as it is one of the best free audio editors out there for years . This is my application that I use whenever I need to cut and rearrange audio very quickly.
Desktop publishing applications
Scribus (Windows / Mac)
In response to a question about InDesign alternatives: “Affinity already has / is out. But yes, I only found Scribus. “ – @dukiswa
Canva (Internet)
“Pixlr was a really great place to start as a Photoshop alternative and Canva works great as an InDesign alternative !!” – @lexgts