But for now, let’s discuss my top four cost-efficient Photoshop alternatives, and break down their pros and cons.

I’ll dive into inexpensive and alternative hardware options in a future post. I provided a variety of options since some hardware can also be cost-prohibitive. It’s worth noting that some of the software options I chose are optimized for certain hardware.

Tablet users (either Microsoft, Apple, or Android) with a stylus.

Desktop or laptop users (either PC or Mac) with a drawing tablet (Wacom, Huion, etc).

There are two types of users I considered for this post:

After all, our goal is to help you create your art as quickly and easily as possible, so you can get it onto products in your Artist Shop. I ultimately chose the four programs below for their combination of features, ease of use, and compatibility. When narrowing down my list, I considered well-known programs such as Clip Studio Paint and MediBang, but they didn’t quite make the cut. Not necessarily bad, but there are better options out there. There are a bunch of Photoshop alternatives you can find, but some just don’t feel….right. Some work on tablets, and others even work inside your browser. The list of cheap and free alternatives to Photoshop continues to grow. But that level of quality comes with a price tag-one that’s cost-prohibitive for a lot of folks. It’s an incredibly intuitive and versatile tool made for creative pros.

Photoshop autodesk sketchbook pro