Top4Art

What is the best app for digital painting: as of 6 Oct 2026 the top 4 by fit per dollar are Procreate, GIMP, Krita and Clip Studio Paint, with Procreate scoring 0.985.

Top 4 / Painting and photo editors

What is the best app for digital painting?

Computed on from capability fit and cheapest monthly cost. No manual overrides.

Procreate

Savage Interactive
#1
Fit
1.00
Cost
$0.36/mo
cheapest qualifying plan
Value
0.985

Best fit per dollar of the 12 tools ranked for this job.

Facts verified

GIMP

#2
Fit
0.95
Cost
free
Value
0.955
Facts verified

Krita

#3
Fit
0.95
Cost
free
Value
0.955
Facts verified

Clip Studio Paint

CELSYS
#4
Fit
1.00
Cost
$1.39/mo
Value
0.947
Facts verified

Full ranking

# Tool Fit Cost Value Facts verified
1 Procreate 1.00 $0.36/mo 0.985
2 GIMP 0.95 free 0.955
3 Krita 0.95 free 0.955
4 Clip Studio Paint 1.00 $1.39/mo 0.947
5 Adobe Photoshop 1.00 $19.99/mo 0.677
6 Photopea 0.59 free 0.591
7 Affinity 0.55 free 0.545
8 darktable 0.50 free 0.500
9 Toon Boom Harmony 0.73 $30.00/mo 0.454
10 Capture One Pro 0.64 $17.99/mo 0.440
11 Adobe Animate 0.55 $22.99/mo 0.359
12 Adobe Lightroom 0.41 $12.50/mo 0.303

Weights used

  • Custom brush engine Required
  • Pen pressure and tilt
  • Layers and masks
  • PSD import
  • Works offline

Capability support behind the scores

Capability support for the top 4
Capability ProcreateGIMPKritaClip Studio Paint
Custom brush engine
Pen pressure and tilt
Layers and masks
PSD import
Works offline