Comparison
GIMP vs Krita
GIMP and Krita are the two flagship open-source creative tools, and both are genuinely free with no accounts, telemetry, or upsells. The real decision is workflow: GIMP is built for photo retouching and image manipulation, while Krita is a painting-first studio for illustration, concept art, and animation.
| Pricing & openness | ||
| Price | Free No subscriptions, accounts, or upsells | Free Optional paid store builds exist purely to fund development |
| License | GPL-3.0-or-later Full source public on GNOME GitLab | GPL-3.0-only Full source public on KDE infrastructure with a GitHub mirror |
| Developer | GIMP Development Team International community project, active since 1998 | Krita Foundation Netherlands-based foundation within the KDE community |
| Privacy & security | ||
| Data collection | None No analytics or telemetry; only an optional, disableable update check | None One-sentence privacy statement: no personal data accessed, collected, or transmitted |
| Release verification | SHA256 checksums Published for every build; Windows installers digitally signed | GPG-signed releases .sig files published alongside every release; signed macOS disk images |
| Known vulnerabilities | 4 file-parser CVEs (2023) DDS/PSD/PSP flaws up to CVSS 7.8, fixed in 2.10.36; no independent audit | CVE-2025-59820 TGA heap overflow, patched; no independent audit |
| Experience | ||
| Primary focus | Photo editing & manipulation Layers, masks, advanced selections, color management, deep plugin ecosystem | Digital painting & illustration Deep brush engine with stabilizers, comic tooling, frame-by-frame animation |
| Platforms | macOS 11+ · Windows 10+ · Linux Native Apple Silicon builds in the 3.x series; no mobile app | Windows 8.1+ · macOS 10.14+ · Linux · Android Android build is beta, aimed at tablets and Chromebooks |
| Current version | 3.2.4 (April 2026) Non-destructive layer effects, GTK3 interface, regular release cadence | 5.3.2.1 (June 2026) Rebuilt text engine; experimental Qt 6-based 6.0 line in parallel |
The bottom line
Choose GIMP if
Choose GIMP if your work centers on photo retouching, image manipulation, and format-heavy editing rather than freehand drawing. Its layers, masks, advanced selection tools, and plugin ecosystem make it the closest fully free counterpart to a traditional image editor, provided you accept a steeper learning curve.
Choose Krita if
Choose Krita if you draw, paint, or animate — its brush engine, stabilizers, and comic and animation tooling are built for artists first. It also reaches further across devices, with a beta Android build for tablets and Chromebooks alongside desktop versions.