Photoshop has been a cult favorite of every graphic designer for a long time. With so many similar software in the market that are giving tough competition to Photoshop as Photoshop is a costly software and not everyone is comfortable spending that much money every month. There are really good alternatives of Photoshop in the market these days that are way cheaper and do not have a steep learning curve. So today, we will be comparing two similar software; one of them is the way cheap Affinity software, and Gimp, again a free software.
| S. No. | Affinity | Gimp | Photoshop |
| 1. | Non destructive editing | No Non destructive editing | Non destructive editing |
| 2. | RGB and CMYK color option available | RGB option only | RGB and CMYK color option available |
| 3. | One time payment of $50 | Free | Monthly payment of $10/month |
| 4. | Free updates available but switching for version 1.0 to 2.0 is not possible | Free updates but they are not regular | Free regular updates |
| 5. | Runs on Windows, iOS, MacOS, Ipad | Available on Windows, MacOS, Linux | Available on Windows, MacOS, Linux |
| 6. | Only gives access to one device. For example if you have purchased Affinity Windows, you cannot access it on Mac. | No such Issues | Access on all devices |
| 7. | It supports fewer file formats | Supports more file formats then Affinity | |
| 8. | Good basic editing tools are available | Good basic editing tools | More tools available than Affinity and Gimp |
| 9. | Easy to use, Friendly Interface | Non intuitive for beginners | Friendly UI |
| 10. | Heavy (2gb) | Lightweight (250 mb) | Heavy (8gb) |
| 11. | Customizable Interface | Customizable interface | More customizable Interface than Affinity and Gimp |
| 12. | Reasonable Learning curve | Easy compared to Affinity and Photoshop | Reasonable learning curve |
| 13. | Customer support is available | No customer support | Customer support is available |
So is Gimp as good as Affinity?
As you can see, Gimp has less tools than Affinity have similar editing tools. Affinity software has extra features like a non-destructive layer and camera raw image editing. Also, in Affinity, you are welcome with a welcome screen similar to Photoshop.
But the advantage of paying for Affinity comes when you get to use features like non-destructive editing and advanced photo editing. It supports focus stacking, built-in panoramic. It has features similar to Photoshop, like vector shape tools. You can also access free stock images websites like Pixabay, Unsplash, etc. from within the software. It also has a preview of image adjustment with which you can see how the image will look with the adjustments before applying them. And also it requires 2GB ram.
Gimp is missing adjustment layers and does not support CMYK. Gimp requires a ram of 250Mb which means it takes less space than Affinity. There are fewer features in Gimp, and is a little slow when downloading large files but it is easy to use and a lot of things can be done with the help of plugins. For beginners who don’t need a lot of features and do not want to pay, Gimp is the best option. Also, if you want to try advanced features, it can be done through plugins.
If you see feature-wise, then Affinity is the winner between these two. Again, it all depends on what purpose you are using it for? Gimp may be the best option for you. Or it may be possible that you may need Affinity because you may not have so much time to learn about third-party plugins in Gimp and how to use them.
Conclusion
So which software is better?
We all know Photoshop is ahead of Affinity and Gimp. It is faster, convenient and has more features than the other two software. But, if the price point is a huge factor in choosing the best software, then it definitely is not the winner here. Also it is a heavy application which requires a lot of space, if this is an issue for you then go for Affinity or Gimp. Both of these have lower system requirements.
If you want to switch from Photoshop, you can give Affinity a try as it is pretty good. And if you have been using Gimp for sometime and want to explore other options go for Affinity. Photoshop is the best if budget is not an issue.
Want to know all the features of Gimp and Photoshop, read this article – https://crazy-graphics.in/similarities-between-photoshop-and-gimp/