Krita is a professional, free, and open-source painting program designed by artists for artists. It offers a range of tools and features aimed at providing creative freedom for digital painters. This article will summarize Krita's features, user reviews, and other options to consider when using the software.
What is Krita?
Krita is a professional, free, and open-source painting program designed for artists. It offers multiple brush types for different art styles, layers, drawing assistants, and stabilizers to enhance the creative process.
Additionally, Krita includes animation tools to transform artwork and expandable capabilities with online tools and assets such as brushes, patterns, vector libraries, texture packs, page templates, and plugins. The program is supported by a community for sharing artwork, getting feedback, and providing input to developers.
What to Consider When Selecting a Krita Alternative?
When considering alternatives to Krita, it's essential to focus on features that cater to the needs of digital artists. Here are the top five features to look for:
Brush Variety and Customization: Look for software that offers a wide range of brush types and allows for customization. This ensures versatility in creating different art styles.
Layer Management: Effective layer management tools, including blending modes and layer masks, are crucial for complex compositions and non-destructive editing.
Stabilizers and Drawing Assistants: These tools help in creating smooth lines and precise shapes, which are particularly useful for illustrators and comic artists.
Animation Capabilities: If you plan to create animations, ensure the software supports frame-by-frame animation and offers a timeline for managing sequences.
Community and Resource Support: A strong community and access to additional resources like brushes, textures, and tutorials can significantly enhance your creative process and provide ongoing support.
Best Alternatives to Krita
1. Piktochart
Piktochart is a tool designed to transform complex ideas into captivating visuals such as infographics, reports, and presentations. It leverages AI to help users create professional-quality designs quickly and easily, without requiring any design experience. Try Piktochart For Free!
Pros of Using Piktochart
AI Design Generator: Quickly create professional visuals from any prompt.
Instant Visual Generation: Transform ideas into infographics, banners, flyers, and posters in seconds.
Document to Visual Conversion: Effortlessly convert documents into engaging data visualizations.
Text-to-Image: Generate custom AI images from text prompts.
Charts and Graphs: Create and customize various types of charts.
Who should use Piktochart?
Piktochart targets businesses, educators, and individuals who need to create professional visuals without design experience. It's ideal for marketers, HR professionals, and educators looking to enhance their presentations and reports.
Pricing
For businesses, Piktochart offers several pricing packages:
Free: $0 (Free forever)
Pro: $29 per member/month (billed monthly) or $14 per member/month (billed annually, save 52%)
Business: $49 per member/month (billed monthly) or $24 per member/month (billed annually, save 52%)
Enterprise: Custom Pricing (Contact for details)
Campus: Custom Pricing (Minimum 3000 seats, contact for details)
Reviews
Piktochart has a rating of 4.4 out of 5 stars. Users appreciate its ease of use and the ability to create professional content without design skills. Check out more of our reviews here!
2. Lucidpress
Lucidpress is a web-based design and publishing tool that allows users to create and collaborate on various types of visual content such as brochures, flyers, newsletters, presentations, and more. It offers a user-friendly interface with drag-and-drop functionality, making it accessible to users with varying design skills.
Pros of Using Lucidpress
Guarantees brand consistency: Lock critical elements like logos, fonts, and colors to ensure brand compliance.
Speeds up content creation: Allows more content to reach the audience faster by reducing repetitive design tasks.
Empowers teams: Teams can self-serve their content needs, leading to personalized and audience-specific content.
Provides valuable analytics: Uncover insights and improve branded content with detailed analytics.
Cons of Using Lucidpress
Learning curve: Adopting a new platform can be challenging for some users.
Internet dependency: Requires internet access to use the web-based tool.
Pricing
Lucidpress's pricing is not public. Contact their support for more info.
Reviews
Lucidpress has a rating of 4.4 out of 5 stars. Users generally appreciate its ease of use and powerful features. Check out more Lucidpress reviews here.
3. BeFunky
BeFunky is an all-in-one online creative platform that provides tools for photo editing, graphic design, and collage making. It offers a wide range of features including photo effects, batch editing, background removal, and customizable design templates.
Pros of Using BeFunky
User-friendly interface: Simplifies photo editing and graphic design.
Wide range of features: Includes crop, resize, artsy filters, batch processing, and background removal.
Access to extensive resources: Over a million free stock images and thousands of vector graphics and icons.
Mobile app: Available for editing on the go.
Cons of Using BeFunky
Subscription required for advanced features: Some features may require a BeFunky Plus subscription.
Limited professional-grade tools: May not meet the needs of professional designers requiring more control and customization.
Pricing
BeFunky's pricing is not public. Contact their support for more info.
Reviews
BeFunky has a rating of 4.3 out of 5 stars. Users generally appreciate its user-friendly interface and wide range of templates. Check out more BeFunky reviews here.
4. RelayThat
RelayThat is a design automation app that helps marketing managers, agencies, and teams create consistent, on-brand digital marketing materials, display ads, and social media content.
Pros of Using RelayThat
Brand Management: Easily manage and switch between multiple workspaces and campaigns.
Headline Generator: Automatically generate perfect copy with wildcard keywords.
Defeat Creative Block: Access curated libraries of top-performing color and font combinations.
One Click Resize: Resize and remix layouts to fit any advertising or social media channel without additional tweaking.
Cons of Using RelayThat
Learning Curve: Some users may find it challenging to adapt to the platform initially.
Limited Customization: The software may not offer the level of customization needed for more complex projects.
Pricing
PRO: $15 per month per user.
PRO PLUS: $25 per month, includes 2 users.
ENTERPRISE: Custom pricing, contact for details.
Reviews
RelayThat has a rating of 4.2 out of 5 stars. Users generally mention the ease of use and time-saving features. Check out more RelayThat reviews here.
5. Desygner
Desygner is an all-in-one business growth and marketing solution that provides tools for creating and managing marketing materials. It offers features like design templates, PDF editing, a vast stock image library, AI-powered text and image generation, and more. The platform is designed to be user-friendly and cost-effective, catering to individuals, small to medium-sized businesses, and large enterprises.
Pros of Using Desygner
Cost-Effective: Helps businesses save money by reducing the need for costly designers and agencies.
User-Friendly: No expertise needed to create professional designs and documents.
Comprehensive Tools: Includes a wide range of features like PDF editing, stock images, AI text generation, and more.
Collaboration: Allows team collaboration with controlled access and role assignments.
Cons of Using Desygner
Learning Curve: Despite being user-friendly, new users might still need some time to explore and utilize all features effectively.
Dependence on Internet: As an online platform, it requires a stable internet connection for optimal use.
Pricing
Business: $19.08 per month for the first 6 people (billed annually).
Enterprise: Desygner's pricing is not public. Contact their support for more info.
Reviews
Desygner has a rating of 4.6 out of 5 stars. Users generally mention the ease of use and the professional quality of the designs produced. Check out more Desygner reviews here.
6. Crello
VistaCreate is a free graphic design tool that offers thousands of free templates for users to choose from. It allows users to pick a template, adjust it to their project, and then post or print it.
Pros of Using Crello
Extensive Template Library: Over 150,000 professionally-designed templates for various formats.
Creative Assets: Access to 70 million+ royalty-free photos, videos, and vectors.
Animation and Video Features: Tools for creating engaging video posts with animated text effects and transitions.
Background Remover and Sticker Maker: Simplifies the process of creating clean backgrounds and stickers.
Cons of Using Crello
Limited Free Plan: The free plan offers limited access to templates and design elements compared to the Pro plan.
Storage Limitations: The free plan includes only 10 GB of storage for files and projects.
Pricing
Starter: $0 per month
Pro: $10 per month
Reviews
Crello has a rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars. Users generally mention the extensive library of templates and ease of use. Check out more Crello reviews here.
7. Adobe Spark
Adobe Spark is a free web page maker that allows users to design professional-quality web pages for their brand or business. It offers a variety of customizable templates and professionally-designed themes to help users get started easily.
Pros of Using Adobe Spark
Free to Use: Adobe Spark is free and does not require a credit card to get started.
Customizable Templates: Offers a wide range of templates for different purposes such as education, business, and portfolios.
Ease of Use: No design skills are needed to create professional-quality web pages.
One-Click Themes: Allows users to switch up the design of their web pages easily.
Cons of Using Adobe Spark
Limited Advanced Features: As a free tool, it may lack some advanced features available in paid web design software.
Dependency on Templates: Users might find the customization options limited compared to more robust web design tools.
Pricing
Free: $0.00 per month
Premium: $9.99 per month
Teams: $49.99 per year, per seat
Reviews
Adobe Spark has a rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars. Users generally mention the ease of use and the variety of templates. Check out more Adobe Spark reviews here.
8. Visme
Visme is an interactive content creation platform designed for marketers and professionals to create engaging presentations, documents, infographics, and data visualizations. It offers a wide range of design tools and templates, allowing users to produce on-brand content quickly and efficiently, even without prior design experience.
Pros of Using Visme
Wide Range of Tools: Visme offers a variety of tools for creating presentations, documents, charts, infographics, forms, whiteboards, social media graphics, videos, and more.
AI Integration: The AI Designer helps users create ready-to-use designs quickly from text prompts, saving time and effort.
Customizable Templates: Thousands of customizable templates are available, covering over 50 content types.
Branding Capabilities: Users can seamlessly add brand fonts, colors, and logos to their content.
Cons of Using Visme
Complexity for Beginners: Despite its ease of use, the wide range of features and tools might be overwhelming for new users.
Cost: While there is a free version, some advanced features and templates may require a paid subscription.
Pricing
Basic: $0 per month (Free)
Starter: $12.25 per month
Pro: $24.75 per month
Enterprise: Custom pricing (not publicly listed)
Reviews
Visme has a rating of 4.6 out of 5 stars. Users generally mention the ease of use and the variety of templates. Check out more Visme reviews here.
9. Stencil
Stencil is an easy-to-use graphic design tool designed for bloggers, business owners, and social media marketers. It allows users to create beautiful social media graphics, compelling ads, and stunning blog headers quickly.
Pros of Using Stencil
Ease of Use: Simple interface that allows quick creation of graphics.
Extensive Resources: Access to over 5,000,000 stock photos, 1,350+ templates, 6,550+ Google Web Fonts, and 3,100,000+ icons and graphics.
Customization: Ability to upload and store multiple logos and custom fonts.
Social Sharing: Direct sharing to platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and Buffer.
Cons of Using Stencil
Limited Advanced Features: May lack some advanced design features found in more complex tools like Photoshop.
Dependency on Internet: As a web-based tool, it requires an internet connection to function.
Pricing
Stencil's pricing is not public. Contact their support for more info.
Reviews
Stencil has a rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars. Users generally mention the ease of use and the variety of templates. Check out more Stencil reviews here.
10. Snappa
Snappa is a graphic design software that allows users to create online graphics quickly and easily. It offers pre-set image dimensions, thousands of pre-made templates, access to millions of high-resolution stock photos, and a variety of fonts, vectors, and photo effects. The tool is designed to be user-friendly, requiring no prior design experience, and includes features like one-click background removal, easy image resizing, and direct social media sharing.
Pros of Using Snappa
Time-Saving: Pre-set dimensions and templates save time.
User-Friendly: No learning curve, easy to use.
Comprehensive Resources: Access to millions of stock photos and a wide variety of fonts and vectors.
Social Media Integration: Direct sharing and scheduling capabilities.
Cons of Using Snappa
Limited Advanced Features: May not cater to professional designers needing advanced tools.
Internet Dependency: As a web-based tool, it requires a stable internet connection.
Pricing
Pro: $15 per month (monthly billing) or $10 per month (billed yearly)
Team: $30 per month (monthly billing) or $20 per month (billed yearly)
Reviews
Snappa has a rating of 4.6 out of 5 stars. Users generally mention the ease of use and the variety of templates. Check out more Snappa reviews here.
Which One Should You Go With?
Each of these tools offers unique features and benefits, making them all excellent choices for creating stunning visuals. However, if you're looking for a user-friendly option that leverages AI to simplify the design process, Piktochart stands out. Its ability to transform complex ideas into captivating visuals quickly and effortlessly makes it a top recommendation. Give Piktochart a try and see how it can elevate your visual content.
Piktochart Team
