Is AI about to kill Adobe? Free Photoshop alternatives are here

Meet ArtCraft: Free alternatives to Adobe Creative Cloud

For years, Adobe has dominated the creative software industry. Photoshop, Illustrator, Lightroom, InDesign and Premiere Pro have become industry standards for designers, photographers and video editors. There are plenty of things users aren't particularly fond of about Adobe, but one stands out: The subscription model.

Instead of buying the software once, users pay recurring fees to access the applications. For freelancers and smaller businesses, those costs can quickly add up. That's where ArtCraft comes in. The project is building a collection of free applications designed to replicate the functionality and familiar interfaces of Adobe's creative tools.

Here's what the suite includes:

The applications are built from scratch using Rust, with AI playing a major role in development. They're open source, meaning their code is publicly available under open-source licences. You can explore the ArtCraft project and find the PhotoCraft source code on GitHub. And yes, they're completely free to use.

How can AI recreate software like Photoshop?

Building a professional image editor from scratch is an enormous undertaking. Photoshop has been developed over decades, with countless features and refinements added along the way. Traditionally, recreating something similar would require a team of experienced developers working for years.

AI-assisted development changes the game

Rather than writing every line of code manually, developers can use AI models to generate code, implement features and solve programming problems. The developer still needs to guide the process, test the results and fix issues, but the barrier to creating complex applications can be significantly lower. This approach is often called vibe coding.

In ArtCraft's case, AI-assisted development has helped make it possible to build independent applications that resemble established creative tools without copying Adobe's proprietary code.

And that's what makes this interesting. If AI can help a small team build a convincing alternative to Photoshop, what happens when thousands of developers start doing the same thing?

PhotoCraft: Photoshop without the subscription?

Of all the applications in the suite, PhotoCraft is probably the most interesting starting point. It's designed as an alternative to Photoshop, with familiar tools for working with layers, masks, text, brushes and image adjustments. It also aims to support PSD files, making it possible to work with existing Photoshop projects.

For someone who occasionally needs to edit images, create graphics or adjust a photograph, the idea of having a free Photoshop-like application is certainly appealing.

But there's a catch. I've started experimenting with PhotoCraft myself, and while the interface feels familiar, not everything works as you'd expect. Some features appear to be missing, and even relatively straightforward operations can be harder to figure out than they should be. On the surface, it looks great. But when you try more advanced things, such as changing the blend mode of a smart filter, you'll notice that some features don't work as expected just yet.

That's not particularly surprising. The application is still in an early stage of development, and recreating the appearance of a mature application is very different from matching all its functionality.

So, while PhotoCraft might look like Photoshop, it isn't a full replacement just yet. Still, the fact that a project like this exists at all is impressive.

Why Adobe should be worried

Adobe isn't going to disappear overnight. Its applications have decades of development behind them, and professionals rely on their advanced features, integrations and reliability. But ArtCraft doesn't have to replace Photoshop completely to become a problem for Adobe.

Think about how many people use creative software without needing every advanced feature. A small business owner might need to edit product images. A marketer might create social media graphics. A freelancer might occasionally need to adjust a photograph.

For these users, paying for a full creative software subscription can feel excessive.

Free alternatives could appeal to people who:

• Want to save money Avoiding recurring software costs is attractive, particularly for freelancers and small businesses.

• Don't need every feature

  Everyday image editing doesn't always require a professional-grade application.

• Prefer open-source software Publicly available code allows others to inspect, modify and contribute to the project.

Will Adobe users switch to ArtCraft?

The real threat isn't necessarily that everyone will abandon Photoshop. It's that fewer people might feel the need to pay for it in the first place. Of course, there's a big difference between a promising free application and software you can rely on for professional work. Performance, file compatibility and long-term support all matter.

For now, established alternatives such as the Affinity suite remain more mature options for users who want to move away from Photoshop. But if these AI-built applications continue to improve, Adobe could face increasing pressure to justify its pricing.

So, is AI about to kill Adobe?

Not yet, ArtCraft's applications are promising, but they're still in an early stage of development. Professional users aren't going to abandon established workflows overnight, especially when reliability and compatibility matter.

However, dismissing these projects because they aren't yet as polished as Photoshop would miss the bigger picture. What's interesting isn't that AI has suddenly made Adobe's software obsolete. It's that AI has lowered the barrier to building applications that once required enormous development resources.

If these tools continue to improve, they could become genuinely useful alternatives for people who don't want to pay for expensive creative software. Even if they never fully replace Adobe, they could still make creative tools more accessible and put pressure on subscription prices. For now, I'd treat ArtCraft as a promising experiment worth watching rather than a reason to cancel your Adobe subscription.

But the next time you open Photoshop, it's worth asking yourself: do you really need all those features, and can you justify the monthly price?