Adobe Photoshop and GIMP have some very similar features: they’re both raster image editors. Both programs also support virtually every image editing feature you’re ever likely to need, including selection editing, layers, alpha channels, scripting, retouching, resizing, HDR, noise removal, and much more.
Photoshop is now a proprietary paid SaaS (software as a service) product. It’s used by millions of professional graphic designers every day. In fact, the software has become so ubiquitous that the verb ’to photoshop’ was even added to the Merriam-Webster dictionary in 2008, though the first use of the term was in a Usenet group in 1992, two years after the software was first released.
GIMP’s initial public release was in 1996. Although the name was originally an acronym for ‘General Image Manipulation Program’, after meeting with Richard Stallman, the developers agreed to allow the program to form part of the GNU software collection, hence a slight name change from ‘General’ to ‘GNU’.
The program is developed by volunteers and released as open-source. The upshot is that GIMP costs nothing to download and is cross-platform, available for Windows, macOS, and Linux.
The GIMP community also maintains a variety of plugins, such as darktable, which allows you to develop and enhance raw images. Traditionally, these were easy to search for and download via the official GIMP Registry, but due to a lack of volunteer coders, the site died and has yet to be resurrected.
Photoshop also supports a number of plugins, which you can browse via the software’s own ‘Plugin Marketplace’. These include popular choices like the powerful ‘Nik Collection’ DxO Labs, which offer enhanced image editing features like taming noise and correcting perspective issues—for a price.
Like most of its plugins, Photoshop is proprietary software. It has come a long way since the turn of the century when users had to pay hundreds of dollars. Prices start at US$ per month for Photoshop and Lightroom, though users can get better value for money by signing up for all Adobe Creative Cloud apps.
The software is available for both Windows and macOS. There’s also a web version, with a slightly simplified user interface (Adobe states that the web version of Photoshop is optimized for Chrome). As of November 2019, there’s even a version of Photoshop available for the iPad. This gives it an edge over GIMP, which has no mobile version, but naturally, not all features are supported.
Photoshop files use the default proprietary file extension PSD (Photoshop Document), which stores images with support for all the program’s features, including masks, transparency, text, and alpha channels.
One of the dangers of following a SaaS model and using proprietary formats is that if a user ends the subscription, they could be left with a ton of files they can’t open. GIMP shines in this area, as it’s capable of opening PSD files, though it may not support all features, such as Photoshop files, with smart objects or vector masks and layers.
GIMP’s default XCF (experimental Computing Facility) image format is open-source but follows an ad hoc standard. The upshot is that while it’s relatively easy to open your Photoshop files in GIMP, there’s no automatic way to do this with XCF files in Photoshop. Luckily, GIMP supports exporting files in PSD format.
As free software, anyone wanting to use GIMP only needs to download it via the website or Microsoft store.
Installing Photoshop is more involved due to the Creative Cloud Subscription. We downloaded Photoshop onto our test machine and had to create an online account to receive a seven-day free trial. This made for a much longer setup time for Photoshop (15 minutes) versus GIMP (four minutes).
Newcomers will appreciate the way Photoshop takes you by the hand during setup. For instance, users are asked to gauge their level of experience. You can also specify how you plan to use Photoshop, e.g. to edit images or create graphics/visual effects. This is where we found the ‘Discover Panel’, which contains a mix of video tutorials, tools, and tips.
Photoshop’s current hot feature is ‘Generative Fill’, showcased through an interactive tutorial based around an image of a house on a mountain. Users can select an area and then enter a prompt to alter the image. Generative Fill can also add new content to images, such as a tree.
The huge number of features and plugins available can be overwhelming, which is why we were impressed to see that Photoshop also has a ‘Core Tools Workspace’, with only the essentials.
Features like these make it easy to see why Photoshop is a popular choice with industry professionals. GIMP has no native generative Al features—the closest we could find was the ‘Stable Boy’ plugin, which makes use of Stable Diffusion’s WebUI API. With well-crafted prompts, this could provide similar functionality but is more difficult to set up.
Of course, Photoshop’s range comes at a price. On our test machine, the combined install footprint of Adobe Photoshop 2024, Creative Cloud, and ‘Genuine Service’ (which apparently detects fake Adobe products) was over 9.3GB. GIMP’s footprint was just under 1.2GB.
Photoshop also requires heavy system resources—the minimum amount of RAM is 8GB (with 16GB recommended), and it must use at least 1.5GB of GPU memory. There’s no official support for graphics cards over seven years old.
GIMP, by contrast, doesn’t specify any minimum system requirements, though it can make use of a ‘tile cache’, which operates as a type of paging file for the hard disk to process graphics.
Post-install, you’ll need to be patient as GIMP loads for the first time. Introductory video tutorials are absent, but basic tools such as move, select, crop, and fill are in the top left-hand pane. On selecting one, all options are listed in the pane below.
As simplistic as this interface is, further help is available via tooltips and the GIMP Help Browser. Like everything with GIMP, this has been penned by volunteers, so may not be as comprehensive as Adobe documentation. Still, the GIMP project page links to dedicated forums and IRC channels for users with image-editing questions.
Gimp vs Photoshop: Which is better?
Overall, while Photoshop may have a wider range of features and plugins, we’ve tried to avoid saying it can do certain things GIMP can’t, as native features can usually be recreated using scripting and plugins. For instance, Resynthesizer offers much the same functionality as Photoshop’s ‘Content Aware Fill’.
Still, features like Generative Fill, Smart Objects, and integration with Adobe Stock images give Photoshop an edge when it comes to advanced image editing, provided you’re able and willing to pay. If you don’t edit images professionally, GIMP is likely to provide all the functionality you’ll need for free.
| Feature | Photoshop | GIMP |
|---|---|---|
| Advanced Features | A huge range of advanced features and plugins | Advanced editing features |
| Support | Excellent support | N/A (community-based support) |
| Cost | Ongoing expense of subscription and purchase of proprietary plugins | Free |
| Generative AI Support | Yes | No |
| Verdict | 9/10 | 8/10 |
| Trial Availability | 7-day free trial | N/A |
| Website | Adobe Photoshop | GIMP |
Nate Drake