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Both cover design & graphics. Here is what separates them on price, billing, what you can take with you, and coverage.
| GIMP | Piktochart | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | Free | From $15 |
| Pricing model | Free | Free plan, paid tiers |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Billing | Not stated | Not stated |
| Free trial | Not stated | Not stated |
| API | Not stated | Not stated |
| Data export | Not stated | Not stated |
| Their cut | Not stated | Not stated |
| Runs on | macOS, Windows, Linux | Web |
| Covers | Photo Editing, Design & Graphics | Design & Graphics |
| Works with | Nothing in particular | Nothing in particular |
| Founded | Not listed | Not listed |
| Reader rating | No reviews yet | No reviews yet |
| Live deals | None right now | None right now |
A free image editor for retouching and paint
GIMP has been the free answer to a paid image editor since the nineties, covering retouching, compositing, painting and format conversion, with scripting for the jobs you do a hundred times. Its colour management is strong enough for print work. The interface is its own rather than a copy of anyone else's, which is the real cost of switching to it.
Our note
The honest comparison is not against Photoshop feature by feature but against what you actually do, and for retouching and compositing most people never reach the edge of it. Photopea is worth a look first if you want something Photoshop-shaped in a browser tab.
Only on this side
Infographics and reports from templates
Piktochart turns a report or a set of figures into something a person will actually read: an infographic, a one-page summary, a poster for a wall. Templates handle the layout and the editor keeps you inside them, which is the point for anybody who does not design for a living. There is a free plan, and the paid ones are priced per member.
Our note
Piktochart is narrower than Canva and better at the one thing it does, which is making a long document of numbers look deliberate. Choose Infogram instead if the charts need to stay tied to their data.
Ratings are the average of reviews readers left. The facts are stated by each tool’s own listing and are not verified by CloutStack. How we make money.