darktable vs Photopea
darktable
darktable.org
Photopea
photopea.comSide by side
| Figure | darktable | Photopea |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | $37.50/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | — | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| iOS | — | Yes |
| Android | — | Yes |
| Self-hosted | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 4 |
| Spec score · Photo Editing Software | 8.8 (#16) | 9.4 (#1) |
| AI features | AI features are opt-in and disabled by default; they support tasks including object masking, denoising, and upscaling. | The site describes one-click background removal and replacing parts of an image using a text description. |
| AI retouching | Yes | Yes |
| Batch editing | Yes | Yes |
| Cloud sync | No | Yes |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Intended users | The project describes darktable as a flexible raw-processing toolbox that leaves users in control of their workflow and notes that its learning curve can be steep. | The site names social media enthusiasts, students and educators, small business owners, and graphic designers as audiences for its free editor. |
| Masking tools | Yes | Yes |
| Platform | multi-platform | web |
| RAW photo support | Yes | Yes |
| Support | The project directs users to the Pixls.us forum for help and GitHub Issues for bug reports and feature requests. | Photopea directs users who need help to its Reddit community and lists [email protected] on its site. |
| What it does | darktable manages digital negatives in a database, provides a zoomable lighttable, and develops and enhances raw images. | Photopea is a browser-based editor for raster and vector graphics, for tasks including resizing images, designing webpages, creating illustrations, and processing photographs. |
Plans
Photopea
- Free accountFree
- School ad-free access$450 a year
- Premium accountPrice not published
- Self-Hosted VersionPrice not published
In their own words
darktable
darktable is a free photography workflow application for organizing digital negatives and developing raw images. It stores images in a database and provides a zoomable lighttable, while its editing leaves original files unchanged. It imports standard, raw and high dynamic range formats such as JPEG, CR2, NEF, HDR, PFM and RAF. Color tools include automatic display-profile detection on most systems and built-in ICC profiles for sRGB, Adobe RGB, XYZ and linear RGB. Many operations can use OpenCL GPU acceleration, and tethered shooting with live view is supported for some camera brands. Exports include disk storage, email attachments, Piwigo webalbums and HTML-based galleries; many aspects can also be scripted in Lua. Optional AI tools cover object masking, denoising and upscaling, but the Flatpak release does not include them as of September 2026. Downloads are available for Windows, macOS and Linux/Unix options. macOS bundles require version 13.5 or later. The project notes that the learning curve can be steep.
Photopea
Photopea is a browser-based editor for raster and vector graphics, with tools for image resizing, webpage design, illustration, and photo processing. Its editing toolkit includes layers, masks, blending, smart objects, adjustment layers, channels, paths, filters, and vector tools. It opens and saves PSD files and lists support for formats including PNG, JPG, SVG, PDF, AI, HEIC, TIFF, MP4, INDD, and Figma. Photopea also offers one-click background removal and image-part replacement from a text description. It says files are processed on the user's device and can still be opened, edited, and saved offline. Dropbox, Google Drive, and OneDrive can be connected optionally. Browser installation creates a homescreen icon but still runs the editor in a browser; a separate self-hosted package can run on a customer server or local network without internet access. The free editor has a free plan. School ad-free access costs $450 a year for the whole school. The self-hosted version is listed at $5,002,000 a month, paid a whole year in advance.