Krita-artists
Worth it
Confidence: Medium
Nothing to buy here: this is the free community forum for Krita, a $0 open-source painting app that artists widely praise.
New check
Comparison
Krita-artists vs GIMP
Krita-artists lands on Worth it, and GIMP lands on Depends.
GIMP
Depends
Confidence: High
Use it if you need serious image editing for $0 and will invest time learning it.
| Compare | ||
|---|---|---|
| Verdict | Worth it | Depends |
| Best for | Budget-conscious hobbyist painters | Hobbyist photo editors |
| Who it's not for | Studios standardized on Photoshop or Clip Studio Paint | Design teams needing collaboration or shared workflows |
| Privacy | No known public vulnerabilities found in the sources reviewed.10 | Multiple 2026 CVEs, mostly file-parser overflows and info disclosure; patch promptly. |
| Support quality | Volunteer-only, contacting team called painful | Volunteer community project; no official support |
| Public sentiment | Artists on Reddit and forums widely praise Krita's power and free price while criticizing workflow quirks and the lack of paid support.² | Users consistently praise the power and zero price but gripe about dated UX and a steep learning curve.12 |
| Biggest gotcha | No paid support or SLAs . replies come from volunteers when they come.⁴ | File format parsers are a recurring CVE vector; avoid opening untrusted image files |
Pick Krita-artists when
- Budget-conscious hobbyist painters
- Comic and illustration artists
- Artists wanting deep brush customization
- Open-source and Linux-friendly users
When Krita-artists is not a fit
- Studios standardized on Photoshop or Clip Studio Paint
- Anyone needing paid support, SLAs, or a vendor
- Pro pipelines where file compatibility is contractual
- Teams wanting roadmap guarantees and accountability
Pick GIMP when
- Hobbyist photo editors
- Linux users
- Budget-conscious creators
- Occasional image retouching
When GIMP is not a fit
- Design teams needing collaboration or shared workflows
- Anyone wanting official support or SLAs
- Users who want modern, polished UX
- Quick casual edits . simpler free tools exist
Sources
- Krita Foundation Reviews . Trustpilotca.trustpilot.comreview
review
- Ranting about Krita's workflow . Redditreddit.comreview
- Contacting Krita is pain . Redditreddit.comreview
review
- The Krita Community . official docsdocs.krita.orgofficial
- Krita Fund . Aboutfund.krita.orgofficial
- Krita 5.0 Release Noteskrita.orgofficial
- Product security page . Krita Artistskrita-artists.orgsecurity
review
- GIMP Reviews 2026 . G2g2.comreview
- GIMP 3.0 review . Dedoimedodedoimedo.comreview
- GIMP (2026) review . TechRadartechradar.comreview
- GIMP is falling behind.. Where is the UX? . PIXLSdiscuss.pixls.usreview
- GIMP 3.0.8 Released . gimp.orggimp.orgofficial