🎨 The Designer Stack
Ditch Creative Cloud. Professional design tools that rival Adobe — from UI/UX prototyping to photo editing and digital art.
| What | Tool | Replaces |
|---|---|---|
| UI/UX Design | Penpot | Figma ($15/mo) |
| Photo Editing | GIMP | Photoshop ($22/mo) |
| Digital Art | Krita | Procreate / Illustrator ($22/mo) |
| Knowledge Base | AppFlowy | Notion ($10/mo) |
Total saved: ~$110/mo
The Honest Take
Let’s be real: these tools don’t have feature parity with Adobe. But for 90% of design work — UI mockups, web design, photo editing, illustrations — they’re more than enough. And the gap closes every month.
Where they shine:
- Penpot is genuinely better than Figma for developers (SVG-native, CSS grid support)
- GIMP handles 95% of what Photoshop does
- Krita is beloved by digital artists — many prefer it over paid alternatives
Where they struggle:
- Video editing (no open source premiere replacement yet)
- Print design workflows (InDesign still wins here)
Deploy Guides
→ Deploy Penpot → Deploy GIMP → Deploy Krita → Deploy AppFlowy