{"slug": "photopea", "name": "Photopea", "category": "media", "category_name": "Media and creative", "description": "Browser-based raster image editor modeled closely on Adobe Photoshop's interface and features.", "recommenders": 17, "commenters": 20, "warners": 2, "score": 14.533, "rising": 10.36, "first": "2026-01-02", "latest": "2026-10-12", "why": "Commenters like it as a free, browser-based Photoshop replacement that covers most small edits and that many have used regularly for years.", "why_is_quote": false, "has_verdict": true, "sentiment": {"recommend": 17, "neutral": 1, "compare": 0, "warn": 2}, "spark": [0, 0, 2, 0, 0, 0, 2, 0, 1, 0, 0, 12], "listed": true, "loved": ["Long-term favorite", "Photoshop replacement"], "caveat": "Intrusive ads", "short_quote": "I love Photopea and have been using it for 6 years I think. Best piece of software imo.", "icon": true, "domain": "photopea.com", "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://www.photopea.com/", "pricing": "freemium", "aliases": ["Photopea"], "verdict": [{"text": "Commenters like it as a free, browser-based Photoshop replacement", "cites": [{"id": 799846512, "item_id": 49990407, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49990407", "by": "sen", "date": "2026-10-07", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It has basically fully replaced Photoshop for me for at least a few years now.", "excerpt": "Yeah I\u2019m a huge fan too and pay for a subscription. It has basically fully replaced Photoshop for me for at least a few years now. Between Inkscape and Photopea I haven\u2019t touched an Adobe graphics app in years.", "context": "paying subscriber", "use_case": "image editing", "switched_from": "Photoshop", "story": "Tell HN: GitHub refuses to remove cracked copies of my software after a month"}, {"id": 770891424, "item_id": 48180714, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48180714", "by": "tedggh", "date": "2026-05-18", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Photopea was a solo attempt to offer a free alternative to Photoshop, and it was highly successful.", "excerpt": "Photopea was a solo attempt to offer a free alternative to Photoshop, and it was highly successful. If the original creator had access to Claude Code back in the day, it is very likely he would have vibecoded the entire thing. So it\u2019s not like the tools are incapable of cloning Photoshop, but it would still require a lot of human effort, more than what the average person would like to invest.", "context": "", "use_case": "image editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Where Are the Vibecoded Photoshops?"}, {"id": 743470128, "item_id": 46466883, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46466883", "by": "ryannevius", "date": "2026-01-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Unless you're a power user, you should check out Photopea[1]. It runs well as a PWA.", "excerpt": "Unless you're a power user, you should check out Photopea[1]. It runs well as a PWA. [1] https://www.photopea.com/", "context": "", "use_case": "Photoshop alternative on Linux", "switched_from": "", "story": "Linux is good now; to feel like you actually own your PC, put Linux on it"}]}, {"text": " that covers most small edits and that many have used regularly for years.", "cites": [{"id": 746218752, "item_id": 46638672, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46638672", "by": "jjcm", "date": "2026-01-15", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It suffices for 95% of what I need to do.", "excerpt": "I was a very heavy photoshop user for ~20 years. These days I just use photopea for when I need to make a small edit. It suffices for 95% of what I need to do.", "context": "former heavy Photoshop user for ~20 years", "use_case": "small image edits", "switched_from": "Photoshop", "story": "Ask HN: What are your best purchases under $100?"}, {"id": 770975856, "item_id": 48185991, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48185991", "by": "cryzinger", "date": "2026-05-18", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It's not at 100% feature parity with PS but it's pretty darn close.", "excerpt": "If you only need PS in short bursts, may I recommend https://www.photopea.com/? It's not at 100% feature parity with PS but it's pretty darn close.", "context": "", "use_case": "occasional Photoshop-like editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Shutterstock to pay $35M over hard-to-cancel subscriptions"}, {"id": 799782448, "item_id": 49986403, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49986403", "by": "busymom0", "date": "2026-10-07", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I love Photopea and have been using it for 6 years I think. Best piece of software imo.", "excerpt": "I just wanted to comment to say I love Photopea and have been using it for 6 years I think. Best piece of software imo.", "context": "", "use_case": "image editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Tell HN: GitHub refuses to remove cracked copies of my software after a month"}, {"id": 799645888, "item_id": 49977868, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49977868", "by": "uurrnn", "date": "2026-10-06", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use photopea every day.", "excerpt": "I use photopea every day. I can only imagine the complex emotions you're going through. I am not nearly as attached to my software, I imagine, just because of how \"unimportant\" it is. I am still very attached to it though. For no good reason other than \"it's mine\", I think. Isn't it a good thing software can't be closed? We have to use someone's tool though, and ego is inevitable, so idk? 100s of separate \"open sourc", "context": "", "use_case": "image editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Photopea creator weighs in on Photosuite project"}]}, {"text": " The most common complaint is its large ads and aggressive handling of ad blockers,", "cites": [{"id": 800060656, "item_id": 50003791, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50003791", "by": "noname120", "date": "2026-10-08", "stance": "warn", "quote": "The owner of Photopea also fights ad blockers harshly and he went as far as surreptitiously breaking some features on purpose when it detected that an adblocker was installed", "excerpt": "> Remember that there is still quite a bit of friction to doing that, and that many people have better things to do than jump through those hoops The thing is that Photopea has been extremely obnoxious with giant colorful ads. They take a big portion of the right-side of the screen (anywhere between 1/4th and 1/6th depending on your screen resolution), stealing important real-estate for actual work. The owner of Phot", "context": "", "use_case": "online photo editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Tell HN: GitHub refuses to remove cracked copies of my software after a month"}, {"id": 799843120, "item_id": 49990195, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49990195", "by": "msalihb", "date": "2026-10-07", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use photopea for years and really respect what you did.", "excerpt": "I use photopea for years and really respect what you did. I disabled the adblocker. I hope they remove that.", "context": "", "use_case": "image editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Tell HN: GitHub refuses to remove cracked copies of my software after a month"}, {"id": 800961552, "item_id": 50060097, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50060097", "by": "Tadpole9181", "date": "2026-10-12", "stance": "warn", "quote": "his product is itself just a blatant adware copy of photoshop", "excerpt": "So, I apologize if this comes off rude in advance, but to explain my general apathy: I already don't care that much about IP \"theft\" on a good day. And it just seems weird to me that Ivan is complaining about other people copying his code (or is he talking about the *Craft projects, which are LLM Rust ports of common tools?) when his product is itself just a blatant adware copy of photoshop. Pot, meet kettle and all ", "context": "", "use_case": "online photo editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Tell HN: GitHub refuses to remove cracked copies of my software after a month"}]}, {"text": " and one user finds the 8 euro monthly premium plan hard to justify.", "cites": [{"id": 799797440, "item_id": 49987340, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49987340", "by": "taylorfinley", "date": "2026-10-07", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use it enough I would happily pay say $50 for a self-hosted single user license that will not get updates", "excerpt": "+1 from another Photopea user here. And at 8 Euro a month I can't quite justify the Photopea premium plan. I use it enough I would happily pay say $50 for a self-hosted single user license that will not get updates. But not 8 euro a month forever. I am finally forcing myself to un-learn the decades of Adobe muscle memory and replace it with gimp/krita. Or maybe I'll vibe up something that does exactly what want and n", "context": "long-time Photopea user", "use_case": "image editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Vibecoding Photoshop: Time and pressure"}]}], "praise": [{"label": "Long-term favorite", "summary": "Many commenters say they have used it frequently or daily for years and love it.", "quotes": [{"id": 799782448, "item_id": 49986403, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49986403", "by": "busymom0", "date": "2026-10-07", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I love Photopea and have been using it for 6 years I think. Best piece of software imo.", "excerpt": "I just wanted to comment to say I love Photopea and have been using it for 6 years I think. Best piece of software imo.", "context": "", "use_case": "image editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Tell HN: GitHub refuses to remove cracked copies of my software after a month"}, {"id": 799645888, "item_id": 49977868, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49977868", "by": "uurrnn", "date": "2026-10-06", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use photopea every day.", "excerpt": "I use photopea every day. I can only imagine the complex emotions you're going through. I am not nearly as attached to my software, I imagine, just because of how \"unimportant\" it is. I am still very attached to it though. For no good reason other than \"it's mine\", I think. Isn't it a good thing software can't be closed? We have to use someone's tool though, and ego is inevitable, so idk? 100s of separate \"open sourc", "context": "", "use_case": "image editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Photopea creator weighs in on Photosuite project"}, {"id": 799843120, "item_id": 49990195, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49990195", "by": "msalihb", "date": "2026-10-07", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use photopea for years and really respect what you did.", "excerpt": "I use photopea for years and really respect what you did. I disabled the adblocker. I hope they remove that.", "context": "", "use_case": "image editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Tell HN: GitHub refuses to remove cracked copies of my software after a month"}]}, {"label": "Photoshop replacement", "summary": "Users say it has replaced Photoshop for them and comes close to its feature set.", "quotes": [{"id": 799846512, "item_id": 49990407, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49990407", "by": "sen", "date": "2026-10-07", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It has basically fully replaced Photoshop for me for at least a few years now.", "excerpt": "Yeah I\u2019m a huge fan too and pay for a subscription. It has basically fully replaced Photoshop for me for at least a few years now. Between Inkscape and Photopea I haven\u2019t touched an Adobe graphics app in years.", "context": "paying subscriber", "use_case": "image editing", "switched_from": "Photoshop", "story": "Tell HN: GitHub refuses to remove cracked copies of my software after a month"}, {"id": 770975856, "item_id": 48185991, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48185991", "by": "cryzinger", "date": "2026-05-18", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It's not at 100% feature parity with PS but it's pretty darn close.", "excerpt": "If you only need PS in short bursts, may I recommend https://www.photopea.com/? It's not at 100% feature parity with PS but it's pretty darn close.", "context": "", "use_case": "occasional Photoshop-like editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Shutterstock to pay $35M over hard-to-cancel subscriptions"}, {"id": 782273153, "item_id": 48892072, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48892072", "by": "giwook", "date": "2026-07-13", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "There have been some good alternatives mentioned in the comments here, like Affinity or Photopea.", "excerpt": "There have been some good alternatives mentioned in the comments here, like Affinity or Photopea. Does anyone happen to know if there is a similarly good alternative to Lightroom?", "context": "", "use_case": "Photoshop alternative", "switched_from": "", "story": "An Infuriating Goodbye to Photoshop"}]}, {"label": "Small edits", "summary": "Former heavy Photoshop users find it covers most quick, occasional edits.", "quotes": [{"id": 746218752, "item_id": 46638672, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46638672", "by": "jjcm", "date": "2026-01-15", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It suffices for 95% of what I need to do.", "excerpt": "I was a very heavy photoshop user for ~20 years. These days I just use photopea for when I need to make a small edit. It suffices for 95% of what I need to do.", "context": "former heavy Photoshop user for ~20 years", "use_case": "small image edits", "switched_from": "Photoshop", "story": "Ask HN: What are your best purchases under $100?"}, {"id": 799854800, "item_id": 49990925, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49990925", "by": "Qwuke", "date": "2026-10-07", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "it's a really cool project", "excerpt": "I've used Photopea for small editing before, and even though it's not my daily driver, it's a really cool project.", "context": "", "use_case": "small image edits", "switched_from": "", "story": "Tell HN: GitHub refuses to remove cracked copies of my software after a month"}, {"id": 770975856, "item_id": 48185991, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48185991", "by": "cryzinger", "date": "2026-05-18", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It's not at 100% feature parity with PS but it's pretty darn close.", "excerpt": "If you only need PS in short bursts, may I recommend https://www.photopea.com/? It's not at 100% feature parity with PS but it's pretty darn close.", "context": "", "use_case": "occasional Photoshop-like editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Shutterstock to pay $35M over hard-to-cancel subscriptions"}]}, {"label": "Indie success", "summary": "Commenters admire it as a successful solo-built free Photoshop alternative.", "quotes": [{"id": 770891424, "item_id": 48180714, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48180714", "by": "tedggh", "date": "2026-05-18", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Photopea was a solo attempt to offer a free alternative to Photoshop, and it was highly successful.", "excerpt": "Photopea was a solo attempt to offer a free alternative to Photoshop, and it was highly successful. If the original creator had access to Claude Code back in the day, it is very likely he would have vibecoded the entire thing. So it\u2019s not like the tools are incapable of cloning Photoshop, but it would still require a lot of human effort, more than what the average person would like to invest.", "context": "", "use_case": "image editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Where Are the Vibecoded Photoshops?"}, {"id": 799938928, "item_id": 49996183, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49996183", "by": "thraway3837", "date": "2026-10-07", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "We should be supporting them.", "excerpt": "This is a really weird take. OP worked on this during all of their free time for over 10 years. And it finally took off into making a solid revenue for them. This is a rare success story for an indie developer. We should be supporting them. It would suck for anyone to get their life's work stolen and given away for free, which is what is happening here. -Another indie developer who hopes to have 1/100th the success t", "context": "indie developer", "use_case": "image editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Tell HN: GitHub refuses to remove cracked copies of my software after a month"}, {"id": 799587104, "item_id": 49974194, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49974194", "by": "lukan", "date": "2026-10-06", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Glad for him to found success with Photopea later", "excerpt": "Can confirm he is not AI and he also used to hang around here. Also before photopea, he tried to make a living once with a open source project, a flash replacement graphic libary for the web, called IvanK. So that did not work out, but I used it a bit and interacted with him couple of times there, before moving on to easel and later pixi, after it became clear it would not take off and the other ones had more support", "context": "", "use_case": "image editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Photopea creator weighs in on Photosuite project"}]}, {"label": "Runs in browser", "summary": "It works on the web and runs well as a PWA.", "quotes": [{"id": 743470128, "item_id": 46466883, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46466883", "by": "ryannevius", "date": "2026-01-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Unless you're a power user, you should check out Photopea[1]. It runs well as a PWA.", "excerpt": "Unless you're a power user, you should check out Photopea[1]. It runs well as a PWA. [1] https://www.photopea.com/", "context": "", "use_case": "Photoshop alternative on Linux", "switched_from": "", "story": "Linux is good now; to feel like you actually own your PC, put Linux on it"}, {"id": 799791905, "item_id": 49986994, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49986994", "by": "consumer451", "date": "2026-10-07", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Photopea.com only works via a website for normies.", "excerpt": "I get that, but isn't that model dead now? Doesn't this whole drama prove it? Is there any way to protect an SPA from ~\"Hey Claude, de-obfuscate this, then clean-room design our app in another session\" in 2026 - and then apply better marketing - without even knowing anything about code? Doesn't this apply to all client-side & native code? Gaming companies are very aware of this.. claude + ghidra + bevy is going to ki", "context": "", "use_case": "web image editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Vibecoding Photoshop: Time and pressure"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "Intrusive ads", "summary": "Large ads take screen space, and features were reportedly broken when an ad blocker was detected.", "quotes": [{"id": 800060656, "item_id": 50003791, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50003791", "by": "noname120", "date": "2026-10-08", "stance": "warn", "quote": "The owner of Photopea also fights ad blockers harshly and he went as far as surreptitiously breaking some features on purpose when it detected that an adblocker was installed", "excerpt": "> Remember that there is still quite a bit of friction to doing that, and that many people have better things to do than jump through those hoops The thing is that Photopea has been extremely obnoxious with giant colorful ads. They take a big portion of the right-side of the screen (anywhere between 1/4th and 1/6th depending on your screen resolution), stealing important real-estate for actual work. The owner of Phot", "context": "", "use_case": "online photo editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Tell HN: GitHub refuses to remove cracked copies of my software after a month"}, {"id": 799843120, "item_id": 49990195, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49990195", "by": "msalihb", "date": "2026-10-07", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use photopea for years and really respect what you did.", "excerpt": "I use photopea for years and really respect what you did. I disabled the adblocker. I hope they remove that.", "context": "", "use_case": "image editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Tell HN: GitHub refuses to remove cracked copies of my software after a month"}, {"id": 800961552, "item_id": 50060097, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50060097", "by": "Tadpole9181", "date": "2026-10-12", "stance": "warn", "quote": "his product is itself just a blatant adware copy of photoshop", "excerpt": "So, I apologize if this comes off rude in advance, but to explain my general apathy: I already don't care that much about IP \"theft\" on a good day. And it just seems weird to me that Ivan is complaining about other people copying his code (or is he talking about the *Craft projects, which are LLM Rust ports of common tools?) when his product is itself just a blatant adware copy of photoshop. Pot, meet kettle and all ", "context": "", "use_case": "online photo editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Tell HN: GitHub refuses to remove cracked copies of my software after a month"}]}, {"label": "Subscription cost", "summary": "One user won't pay 8 euro a month indefinitely and would prefer a one-time license.", "quotes": [{"id": 799797440, "item_id": 49987340, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49987340", "by": "taylorfinley", "date": "2026-10-07", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use it enough I would happily pay say $50 for a self-hosted single user license that will not get updates", "excerpt": "+1 from another Photopea user here. And at 8 Euro a month I can't quite justify the Photopea premium plan. I use it enough I would happily pay say $50 for a self-hosted single user license that will not get updates. But not 8 euro a month forever. I am finally forcing myself to un-learn the decades of Adobe muscle memory and replace it with gimp/krita. Or maybe I'll vibe up something that does exactly what want and n", "context": "long-time Photopea user", "use_case": "image editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Vibecoding Photoshop: Time and pressure"}]}, {"label": "Not full parity", "summary": "It lacks full Photoshop feature parity and is suggested mainly for non-power users.", "quotes": [{"id": 770975856, "item_id": 48185991, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48185991", "by": "cryzinger", "date": "2026-05-18", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It's not at 100% feature parity with PS but it's pretty darn close.", "excerpt": "If you only need PS in short bursts, may I recommend https://www.photopea.com/? It's not at 100% feature parity with PS but it's pretty darn close.", "context": "", "use_case": "occasional Photoshop-like editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Shutterstock to pay $35M over hard-to-cancel subscriptions"}, {"id": 743470128, "item_id": 46466883, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46466883", "by": "ryannevius", "date": "2026-01-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Unless you're a power user, you should check out Photopea[1]. It runs well as a PWA.", "excerpt": "Unless you're a power user, you should check out Photopea[1]. It runs well as a PWA. [1] https://www.photopea.com/", "context": "", "use_case": "Photoshop alternative on Linux", "switched_from": "", "story": "Linux is good now; to feel like you actually own your PC, put Linux on it"}]}, {"label": "Web only", "summary": "It is described as working only via a website.", "quotes": [{"id": 799791905, "item_id": 49986994, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49986994", "by": "consumer451", "date": "2026-10-07", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Photopea.com only works via a website for normies.", "excerpt": "I get that, but isn't that model dead now? Doesn't this whole drama prove it? Is there any way to protect an SPA from ~\"Hey Claude, de-obfuscate this, then clean-room design our app in another session\" in 2026 - and then apply better marketing - without even knowing anything about code? Doesn't this apply to all client-side & native code? Gaming companies are very aware of this.. claude + ghidra + bevy is going to ki", "context": "", "use_case": "web image editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Vibecoding Photoshop: Time and pressure"}]}], "who": [{"by": "thraway3837", "context": "indie developer", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49996183", "date": "2026-10-07"}, {"by": "sen", "context": "paying subscriber", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49990407", "date": "2026-10-07"}, {"by": "taylorfinley", "context": "long-time Photopea user", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49987340", "date": "2026-10-07"}, {"by": "jjcm", "context": "former heavy Photoshop user for ~20 years", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46638672", "date": "2026-01-15"}], "tags": ["for occasional edits", "for ex-Photoshop users", "runs in the browser", "for non-power users"], "use_cases": ["image editing", "online photo editing", "small image edits", "web image editing", "photoshop alternative", "occasional photoshop-like editing"], "compared": [{"slug": "adobe-photoshop", "name": "Adobe Photoshop", "co": 7, "switched_from": 2, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "gimp", "name": "GIMP", "co": 3, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [{"id": 793657824, "item_id": 49603614, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49603614", "by": "IvanK_net", "date": "2026-09-07", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Hey, I am the creator of https://www.photopea.com", "excerpt": "Hey, I am the creator of https://www.photopea.com and if a user decides to publish their work, it compresses PSD files (inside a browser) and sends them to the server for storing. Right now, we have about 2 TB of files. I use the DEFLATE compression which I fully implemented myself (compressor and decompressor, inside a library called UZIP.js). I wish I could use something better :D but it must be implemented in Java", "context": "creator of Photopea", "use_case": "browser image editor", "switched_from": "", "story": "bzip3"}], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49982498", "title": "Tell HN: GitHub refuses to remove cracked copies of my software after a month", "mentions": 9}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49983780", "title": "Vibecoding Photoshop: Time and pressure", "mentions": 3}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49972730", "title": "Photopea creator weighs in on Photosuite project", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49958850", "title": "ArtCraft Apps \u2013 open-source Adobe compatible suite written in Rust", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49598291", "title": "bzip3", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48891200", "title": "An Infuriating Goodbye to Photoshop", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {"recommend": 2}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {"recommend": 2}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-08": {}, "2026-09": {}, "2026-10": {"recommend": 12, "neutral": 1, "warn": 2}}, "quotes": [{"id": 800961552, "item_id": 50060097, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50060097", "by": "Tadpole9181", "date": "2026-10-12", "stance": "warn", "quote": "his product is itself just a blatant adware copy of photoshop", "excerpt": "So, I apologize if this comes off rude in advance, but to explain my general apathy: I already don't care that much about IP \"theft\" on a good day. And it just seems weird to me that Ivan is complaining about other people copying his code (or is he talking about the *Craft projects, which are LLM Rust ports of common tools?) when his product is itself just a blatant adware copy of photoshop. Pot, meet kettle and all ", "context": "", "use_case": "online photo editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Tell HN: GitHub refuses to remove cracked copies of my software after a month"}, {"id": 800305424, "item_id": 50019089, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50019089", "by": "amai", "date": "2026-10-09", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "No thanks. I use https://www.photopea.com/ .", "excerpt": "No thanks. I use https://www.photopea.com/ .", "context": "", "use_case": "image editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "ArtCraft Apps \u2013 open-source Adobe compatible suite written in Rust"}, {"id": 800060656, "item_id": 50003791, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50003791", "by": "noname120", "date": "2026-10-08", "stance": "warn", "quote": "The owner of Photopea also fights ad blockers harshly and he went as far as surreptitiously breaking some features on purpose when it detected that an adblocker was installed", "excerpt": "> Remember that there is still quite a bit of friction to doing that, and that many people have better things to do than jump through those hoops The thing is that Photopea has been extremely obnoxious with giant colorful ads. They take a big portion of the right-side of the screen (anywhere between 1/4th and 1/6th depending on your screen resolution), stealing important real-estate for actual work. The owner of Phot", "context": "", "use_case": "online photo editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Tell HN: GitHub refuses to remove cracked copies of my software after a month"}, {"id": 799938928, "item_id": 49996183, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49996183", "by": "thraway3837", "date": "2026-10-07", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "We should be supporting them.", "excerpt": "This is a really weird take. OP worked on this during all of their free time for over 10 years. And it finally took off into making a solid revenue for them. This is a rare success story for an indie developer. We should be supporting them. It would suck for anyone to get their life's work stolen and given away for free, which is what is happening here. -Another indie developer who hopes to have 1/100th the success t", "context": "indie developer", "use_case": "image editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Tell HN: GitHub refuses to remove cracked copies of my software after a month"}, {"id": 799854800, "item_id": 49990925, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49990925", "by": "Qwuke", "date": "2026-10-07", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "it's a really cool project", "excerpt": "I've used Photopea for small editing before, and even though it's not my daily driver, it's a really cool project.", "context": "", "use_case": "small image edits", "switched_from": "", "story": "Tell HN: GitHub refuses to remove cracked copies of my software after a month"}, {"id": 799846512, "item_id": 49990407, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49990407", "by": "sen", "date": "2026-10-07", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It has basically fully replaced Photoshop for me for at least a few years now.", "excerpt": "Yeah I\u2019m a huge fan too and pay for a subscription. It has basically fully replaced Photoshop for me for at least a few years now. Between Inkscape and Photopea I haven\u2019t touched an Adobe graphics app in years.", "context": "paying subscriber", "use_case": "image editing", "switched_from": "Photoshop", "story": "Tell HN: GitHub refuses to remove cracked copies of my software after a month"}, {"id": 799843120, "item_id": 49990195, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49990195", "by": "msalihb", "date": "2026-10-07", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use photopea for years and really respect what you did.", "excerpt": "I use photopea for years and really respect what you did. I disabled the adblocker. I hope they remove that.", "context": "", "use_case": "image editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Tell HN: GitHub refuses to remove cracked copies of my software after a month"}, {"id": 799833120, "item_id": 49989570, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49989570", "by": "randyrand", "date": "2026-10-07", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "What an amazing piece of software I used it all the time!", "excerpt": "Wow, was not expecting this to be about Photopea! What an amazing piece of software I used it all the time! Less with AI these days, but still lots!", "context": "", "use_case": "image editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Tell HN: GitHub refuses to remove cracked copies of my software after a month"}, {"id": 799797440, "item_id": 49987340, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49987340", "by": "taylorfinley", "date": "2026-10-07", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use it enough I would happily pay say $50 for a self-hosted single user license that will not get updates", "excerpt": "+1 from another Photopea user here. And at 8 Euro a month I can't quite justify the Photopea premium plan. I use it enough I would happily pay say $50 for a self-hosted single user license that will not get updates. But not 8 euro a month forever. I am finally forcing myself to un-learn the decades of Adobe muscle memory and replace it with gimp/krita. Or maybe I'll vibe up something that does exactly what want and n", "context": "long-time Photopea user", "use_case": "image editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Vibecoding Photoshop: Time and pressure"}, {"id": 799791905, "item_id": 49986994, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49986994", "by": "consumer451", "date": "2026-10-07", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Photopea.com only works via a website for normies.", "excerpt": "I get that, but isn't that model dead now? Doesn't this whole drama prove it? Is there any way to protect an SPA from ~\"Hey Claude, de-obfuscate this, then clean-room design our app in another session\" in 2026 - and then apply better marketing - without even knowing anything about code? Doesn't this apply to all client-side & native code? Gaming companies are very aware of this.. claude + ghidra + bevy is going to ki", "context": "", "use_case": "web image editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Vibecoding Photoshop: Time and pressure"}, {"id": 799782448, "item_id": 49986403, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49986403", "by": "busymom0", "date": "2026-10-07", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I love Photopea and have been using it for 6 years I think. Best piece of software imo.", "excerpt": "I just wanted to comment to say I love Photopea and have been using it for 6 years I think. Best piece of software imo.", "context": "", "use_case": "image editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Tell HN: GitHub refuses to remove cracked copies of my software after a month"}, {"id": 799781072, "item_id": 49986317, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49986317", "by": "junon", "date": "2026-10-07", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Hey, thanks for photopea. I use it frequently.", "excerpt": "Hey, thanks for photopea. I use it frequently. Can you settle an argument, perchance? Is it pronounced \"Photo-P\" or \"Photo-pia\" (as in \"utopia\")?", "context": "", "use_case": "image editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Vibecoding Photoshop: Time and pressure"}, {"id": 799768192, "item_id": 49985512, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49985512", "by": "fakedang", "date": "2026-10-06", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "First of all, thanks Ivan! Happy user of Photopea.", "excerpt": "First of all, thanks Ivan! Happy user of Photopea. Second, the trademark will help you against the masqueraders, those copying your tool and the Photopea brandmark. That will help with customers complaining about some other modified product. It will not help in case you find someone copying your codebase and putting it out in the open under a different name. For that, you'll need a copyright. Doing both of these migh", "context": "", "use_case": "image editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Tell HN: GitHub refuses to remove cracked copies of my software after a month"}, {"id": 799645888, "item_id": 49977868, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49977868", "by": "uurrnn", "date": "2026-10-06", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use photopea every day.", "excerpt": "I use photopea every day. I can only imagine the complex emotions you're going through. I am not nearly as attached to my software, I imagine, just because of how \"unimportant\" it is. I am still very attached to it though. For no good reason other than \"it's mine\", I think. Isn't it a good thing software can't be closed? We have to use someone's tool though, and ego is inevitable, so idk? 100s of separate \"open sourc", "context": "", "use_case": "image editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Photopea creator weighs in on Photosuite project"}, {"id": 799587104, "item_id": 49974194, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49974194", "by": "lukan", "date": "2026-10-06", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Glad for him to found success with Photopea later", "excerpt": "Can confirm he is not AI and he also used to hang around here. Also before photopea, he tried to make a living once with a open source project, a flash replacement graphic libary for the web, called IvanK. So that did not work out, but I used it a bit and interacted with him couple of times there, before moving on to easel and later pixi, after it became clear it would not take off and the other ones had more support", "context": "", "use_case": "image editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Photopea creator weighs in on Photosuite project"}, {"id": 782273153, "item_id": 48892072, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48892072", "by": "giwook", "date": "2026-07-13", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "There have been some good alternatives mentioned in the comments here, like Affinity or Photopea.", "excerpt": "There have been some good alternatives mentioned in the comments here, like Affinity or Photopea. Does anyone happen to know if there is a similarly good alternative to Lightroom?", "context": "", "use_case": "Photoshop alternative", "switched_from": "", "story": "An Infuriating Goodbye to Photoshop"}, {"id": 770975856, "item_id": 48185991, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48185991", "by": "cryzinger", "date": "2026-05-18", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It's not at 100% feature parity with PS but it's pretty darn close.", "excerpt": "If you only need PS in short bursts, may I recommend https://www.photopea.com/? It's not at 100% feature parity with PS but it's pretty darn close.", "context": "", "use_case": "occasional Photoshop-like editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Shutterstock to pay $35M over hard-to-cancel subscriptions"}, {"id": 770891424, "item_id": 48180714, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48180714", "by": "tedggh", "date": "2026-05-18", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Photopea was a solo attempt to offer a free alternative to Photoshop, and it was highly successful.", "excerpt": "Photopea was a solo attempt to offer a free alternative to Photoshop, and it was highly successful. If the original creator had access to Claude Code back in the day, it is very likely he would have vibecoded the entire thing. So it\u2019s not like the tools are incapable of cloning Photoshop, but it would still require a lot of human effort, more than what the average person would like to invest.", "context": "", "use_case": "image editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Where Are the Vibecoded Photoshops?"}, {"id": 746218752, "item_id": 46638672, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46638672", "by": "jjcm", "date": "2026-01-15", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It suffices for 95% of what I need to do.", "excerpt": "I was a very heavy photoshop user for ~20 years. These days I just use photopea for when I need to make a small edit. It suffices for 95% of what I need to do.", "context": "former heavy Photoshop user for ~20 years", "use_case": "small image edits", "switched_from": "Photoshop", "story": "Ask HN: What are your best purchases under $100?"}, {"id": 743470128, "item_id": 46466883, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46466883", "by": "ryannevius", "date": "2026-01-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Unless you're a power user, you should check out Photopea[1]. It runs well as a PWA.", "excerpt": "Unless you're a power user, you should check out Photopea[1]. It runs well as a PWA. [1] https://www.photopea.com/", "context": "", "use_case": "Photoshop alternative on Linux", "switched_from": "", "story": "Linux is good now; to feel like you actually own your PC, put Linux on it"}]}