Updated October 14, 2026. Written for PhotoCraft 0.8.2 (what changed since). Prices in USD.
- Photopea if you receive .ai, .xd, .fig, .sketch or camera RAW files, need generative fill now, or want the editor with the longest track record.
- PhotoCraft if ads are a problem (a classroom, a client call, a shared screen), if your organization prefers open-source software, or if you also want an installed app on Windows, macOS or Linux.
Side by side
| Photopea | PhotoCraft | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost and ads | Free with ads. Premium removes them; the price is shown in the editor's Account window | Free, no account, no ads in the editor |
| Source code | Proprietary | Open source, MIT or Apache-2.0 |
| Where it runs | Browser | Browser, plus desktop apps for Windows, macOS, Linux and FreeBSD |
| Files it opens | PSD, AI, XD, Figma, Sketch, PDF, InDesign, RAW (DNG, CR2, CR3, NEF, ARW and more), common images and about 40 more | PSD and PSB, layered TIFF, Affinity (read-only), Paint.NET, OpenRaster, SVG, HEIC (read-only), OpenEXR, HDR, FITS and common images |
| Color | 8, 16 and 32-bit | RGB, Grayscale, CMYK and Lab at 8, 16 and 32-bit, with ICC color management |
| AI | One-click background removal and text-prompt replace, built in | Select Subject and Remove Background on your device; generative AI only through the photocraft.run AI panel (your key or credits) |
| Automation | Actions, scripts, variables | Actions, a command-line tool and an MCP server (desktop only) |
| Maturity | Years of releases; version 5.6 added 16/32-bit in April 2024 | Early alpha (0.8.2): 67 tools, 15 Photoshop tools still missing |
Where Photopea is ahead
Files from outside Photoshop are the clearest difference. Photopea's home page lists Illustrator, PDF, AVIF and camera RAW formats on top of the usual images, and its start screen offers Adobe XD, Figma and Sketch files. It added InDesign and Krita files in 2022. PhotoCraft opens none of those design formats; it is a Photoshop-format editor first.
Photopea is also further along. Its manual covers smart objects, video and animation, the Vanishing Point filter and bitmap-to-vector tracing, and the project has been shipping releases for years. PhotoCraft's own developers say it is in early alpha and not yet a Photoshop replacement for daily professional work; their list of gaps names generative AI, 15 missing tools, typography depth and plug-in support.
AI is the third. Photopea has background removal and a text-prompt replace tool inside the editor. PhotoCraft has no generative features in the app itself.
Where PhotoCraft is ahead
The code is open under MIT or Apache-2.0, so anyone can read it, build it, fork it or host it. The web build is a folder of static files with no server code, which means a school or a company can put it on its own domain and know exactly what runs. Photopea's code is closed.
Photopea's free tier carries ads, and removing them means signing in and buying Premium. The PhotoCraft editor on this site shows none.
PhotoCraft is the same app on the desktop. The desktop builds add autosave and crash recovery, use the fonts installed on your computer, and handle very large documents more comfortably than a browser tab. Photopea has no installed version.
Its depth in the Photoshop format is documented. Re-saving keeps the render of 307 of the 309 files in the psd-tools test set, all 116 shape layers in the project's corpus match Photoshop's pixels, and CMYK and Lab documents open natively. Data it doesn't model yet is carried through the save rather than dropped.
Automation goes further. Every menu item is one of 500+ commands that the CLI and MCP server can call, so a script or an AI agent can open a PSD, change a headline and export a PNG without a window. That runs on the desktop or command line, not in the browser editor.
Privacy: the same until you use AI
Both editors read your file inside the browser. Photopea's manual says it does not upload your files, and PhotoCraft opens files from your disk and saves them back as downloads. The difference shows up only with AI. On photocraft.run the AI panel sends the image you choose to the provider whose key you entered, or to the Craft Apps service if you use credits.
What each costs in practice
For editing alone, nothing on either side. Photopea's cost is the ads, or Premium to remove them. PhotoCraft's only cost is optional AI: free with your own OpenAI, Gemini or OpenRouter key (the provider bills you), or prepaid Craft Apps credits starting at $9.90 for 800 credits, where one image costs 4 to 57 credits depending on the model and size. New accounts get 10 credits free.
Which one for your file
If the file is an .ai, .xd, .fig or .sketch design, start with Photopea; PhotoCraft won't open it. If you are on a shared screen, teaching, or simply tired of ads, PhotoCraft does the everyday PSD work (layers, masks, type, adjustment layers, export) with none. If you want the same tool on an installed machine later, PhotoCraft is the only one of the two that has a desktop app.
The hard case is a client PSD full of type layers and smart objects that has to go back to someone using Photoshop. Both are free and neither uploads the file, so you don't have to guess: open it in PhotoCraft and in Photopea, check the type layers and the smart objects in each, save from the one that kept them, and send the client the re-saved PSD with a PNG of how it should look.
For the wider picture beyond Photoshop, the hub guide open-source alternatives to Adobe covers GIMP, Krita and the rest, app by app.