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ArtCraft rebuilt Adobe's apps for free. Should you switch?

Paying every month for Photoshop, Premiere or Acrobat adds up. It stings most if you only edit a menu photo or a PDF now and then. So when a team gives away free apps that look and work like Adobe's, it gets attention.

That's what ArtCraft just did. This post explains who made these apps, what they can do today, and whether a small business should switch. The short answer: try them, but don't cancel anything yet.

Who made them

ArtCraft is a team that makes creative tools, founded by Brandon Thomas (GitHub profile). Their GitHub account is called storytold.

On 30 September 2026 they started publishing a set of free apps they call the Crafting Apps. Each one copies how a well-known paid app works:

  • PhotoCraft, like Photoshop (photo editing)
  • VectorCraft, like Illustrator (logos and drawings)
  • FilmCraft, like Premiere Pro (video editing)
  • LightCraft, like Lightroom (photo library and colour)
  • PdfCraft, like Acrobat (reading and organising PDFs)
  • EffectCraft and DesignCraft, like After Effects and InDesign

In the first week of October, early versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint copies followed.

One thing to be clear about: Adobe did not open-source anything. ArtCraft wrote all of this from scratch, using public file specs and by watching how the apps behave. They call this a "clean-room" rebuild, and they say they use none of Adobe's code. They are not linked to Adobe.

What "open source" means for you

Open source means the code is public and anyone can use it, change it and share it. For you, three things matter:

  • It's free. No monthly plan and no account. The licence (MIT or Apache-2.0) also allows business use.
  • It works offline. Your files stay on your computer.
  • It runs on most computers. There are downloads for Windows, Mac and Linux, and a version that runs in the browser.

The most popular app is PhotoCraft. It has layers, masks, text and filters, and it can open and save Photoshop (PSD) files. In ArtCraft's own test, PSD files still looked the same after saving in 307 of 309 cases.

Why it appeared so fast

PhotoCraft went from its first public code to version 0.3.0 in about a week (releases). That pace is unusual for software this big.

Part of the reason is AI. In the project's history, many code changes list AI coding assistants, such as Claude, as co-authors.

You don't have to click, either. A script or an AI agent (an AI that uses software for you) can run every action in the apps. It's a sign of where software is heading. Small teams with AI can now build tools that once needed a large company.

Should your business switch?

Not yet for your main work. ArtCraft is honest about this. The PhotoCraft page says it is in early alpha, which means a very early test version. It also says it is "not yet a Photoshop replacement for daily professional work".

Here's a fair way to use it today:

  • Try it for simple jobs: crop a product photo, add text to a banner, brighten a picture.
  • Keep your paid app (or Canva) for client work, print and anything with a deadline.
  • Look again in a few months. The apps change almost daily.

A 10-minute test

  1. Open the PhotoCraft releases page. Only download from there.
  2. On Windows, download the file ending in windows-x64.msi (most PCs). On a Mac, take the .dmg.
  3. Make a copy of a real file, like your menu design or a product photo. Never test on the original.
  4. Open the copy. Crop it, add a line of text, change the brightness, then export it as a JPG.
  5. Open the result in your usual app. If anything looks wrong or a step fails, stay with your current tool for now.

The catch

  • Early users found broken basics. In its own progress notes (5 October 2026), the team lists problems early users hit. These include text selection, keyboard shortcuts and the crop tool. It guesses a professional could switch for only about 25–35% of daily work.
  • No AI fill yet. Photoshop features like Generative Fill aren't there, and Photoshop plug-ins don't work.
  • The other apps are even newer. PdfCraft, for example, still can't reliably edit existing text in a PDF.
  • No help desk. Support is through GitHub and the team's Discord, not a company you can call.

Free tools that copy expensive ones are worth watching. For now, treat ArtCraft as a promising free extra, not a replacement. If you want help choosing the right tools for your business, book a free consultation.