I made this page as a means to list various free art-related softwares i've used or heard about. Many of the art programs people give the spotlight to online are paid, some far beyond people's price range, others adopting predatory subscription models. (Cough cough Adobe, Autodesk, and just about every other major software company at this point jesus christ)
With how advanced and fleshed out free and/or open source programs have gotten, I think they deserve way more time in the limelight.
So reguardless if you're looking for a place to start or just want to try something new, I hope this list becomes handy for people who stumble across it.
NOTE: This list is meant to be updated overtime, meaning info may change based on updates & programs may be added, moved or (hopefully not) removed
Last updated: December 01, 2025
OS: Windows / Mac / Linux / Android
Free & Open Source
One of my personal favorites on this list & my main art program for years. Krita is a free drawing/painting program with a focus on professional-level tools and work. It also has animation tools, which has been improving and getting more and more featured since its debut.
An extra note on the Android version; it's currently only available for tablets
OS: Windows / Mac / Linux
Free & Open Source
Probably the most well known free art program. GIMP is more focused on photo editing & photo editing tools, but it's not impossible to use it as a drawing tool (there's still pen & lining options).
OS: Windows / Mac / Linux
Free & Open Source
A free and open source program for vector drawings. In my opinion, it handles a lot better than Adobe Illustrator.
OS: Windows / Mac / Linux
Free
Another well-known free art software, FireAlpaca's been popular for years. It's pretty simple to pick up and use, and it comes with useful features like perspective & comic tools. It's also extremely lightweight, meaning if you have an older or lower-end computer this is a great program for that!
OS: Windows / Mac / iOS / Android
Free with Paywalls
iirc, Medibang was developed by the same people who made FireAlpaca, meaning if you're familiar with the latter this should be an easy switch. It's main focus is comic tools with it having options for organising pages, and some collaborative features.
I have listed it as "Free with Paywalls" since the mobile version is plauged with ads, plus one of the biggest features is cloudsaves, which you do have to pay a subscription to access. The app can also be clunky and laggy to use on phones.
OS: iOS / Android
Free with Paywalls
Ibispaint is one of the most fully featured art programs for android & IoS, having many features, effects, etc. that put it on par with desktop at times.
The free version still provides a lot, but overtime it's become more ad-heavy. For example, exiting drawings will cause ads to pop up and some features are locked behing a subscription.
OS: Windows / Mac / Linux
Free & Open Source
The biggest feature of MyPaint is it has an infinate canvas. It's pretty handy for things like lengthy sketch pages, or looser & less-polished work. Though unfortunately development has been slow (as of last updating this page, the latest release was in 2020)
OS: Windows
Free
Paint.NET is a free photo editing program that was initally made as an 'upgraded MSpaint', but has long become a stand-alone software. It does have drawing tools available and it's made to be lightweight to easily run on older & lower-end systems. The only note I have for now is it's Windows only.
OS: Windows / Mac / Linux
Free & Open Source
Drawpile's main feature is collaborative drawing, meaning you can host a session and have friends join in and draw with you! Or even host & join public sessions
It still can be used as a stand-alone drawing software if that's all you need.
OS: iOS / Android
Free with Paywalls
Sketchbook is an pretty minimal program on the surfave & has a clean UI. It's also lightweight and less laggy on lower-end systems in my experience.
Unfortunately I did demote this from Free to free with paywalls, as while the iOS and Android versions are still free, the only options available on desktop currently are paid.
OS: Windows / Mac / Linux
Free & Open Source
LibreSprite is a pixel art & sprite animation software. It started as a fork of Aesprite that was made before Aesprite became closed source & paid. The program itself has developed into a stand-alone project
OS: Windows / Mac / Linux
Free
Slate is a minimalist pixel-art editor. The main focus is to keep making pixel art & tilesets simple, straight-forward, and user-friendly
OS: Windows
Free
GraphicsGale is a more elaborate sprite editor with it's main focus being animations. It had been made freeware a few years back.
Main note is by default the program is in Japanese but there's an official patch on the site for an english translation (Here)
OS: Web
Free
Pixil art is a community site that has a pixel art tool onsite. You can do animations, sprite sheets, as well as has more advanced features built in.
OS: iOS / Android
Free with Paywalls
One of the most well known free animation apps. FlipaClip is an app that's pretty straight-forward and focused on frame-by-frame animation
Will note, as of last updating I haven't gotten around to trying the app (more of a desktop user myself). So I listed it as free w/paywalls as you do need to pay to remove ads & iirc the watermark, but it's a one-time purchace & fairly cheap too if you're interested
OS: Windows / Mac / Linux
Free & Open Source
A farily basic and minimal animation program. Pencil2D is another older program with a focus on frame-by-frame animation. At least the last time i've played with this program, it's lightweight so I'd imagine it being good for older systems.
OS: Windows / Mac
Free & Open Source
OpenToonz is a free animation program based off the "Toonz" software
The only note i'll leave is as it's a more niche program I have struggled to find documentation on it. But I still feel it's worth bringing up since most known animation programs are paid.
OS: Windows / Mac / Linux
Free & Open Source
Synfig specializes in Tween-based vector animations. Frame-by-frame animations is still possible, just clunkier than a program designed for frame-by-frame. But I suggest sticking to tween-based stuff if you do want to try this one.
OS: Windows / Mac / Linux
Free & Open Source
Anime Effects is another tween-based program for on making shorter animations (think: gatcha game animations & gifs). Unlike Synfig it's based on mesh tweening of raster images (regular pngs/jpgs/etc).
This is a fan-made continuation of the original.
OS: Windows / Mac / Linux / iOS / Android
Free
Obsidian is a highly customizable notetaking program. You can add custom CSS and Plugins to add features that aren't there by default. It's main focus is notetaking, but there's nothing stopping you from using it as a straight-up writing program. Though if you do, just be aware the program uses markdown text language so there might be issues converting it to text or pasting it in other programs
But on the otherhand, the program using Markdown files means it's easy to move between devices and even other markdown-based programs.
OS: Windows / Linux
Free & Open Source
An extremely minimal writing program that's made to keep the focus on drafting & away from other things on your desktop. There's custom theming options, as well as tools for keeping track of how much you've wrote and setting goals around it.
OS: Windows / Linux
Free & Open Source
Unlike most other writing software, Manuskript's features is more heavily focused around creative writing such as an outline/timeline view, the ability to organize by chapter, a focus mode similar to the aforementioned Focus Writer, and 'index cards' for notetaking
OS: Windows / Mac / Linux
Free & Open Source
Will note: This is a full office suite, but here I'm specifically highlighting Writer & Draw as writing & publishing tools respectively.
LibreOffice Writer is a fully featured writing program simiar to Microsoft Word. It can open MSword documents with few issues if that's an important feature.
Draw, despite its title is a PDF editor. While it's not the main focus, I've found it useful for basic zine-making.
OS: Windows / Mac / Linux
Free & Open Source
Scribus is a desktop publishing software, handy for both e-books/e-zines as well as more traditional publishing needs.
It does have a steep learning curve and some of the tool functionality is dated compared to other modern programs, but it's still a functional alternative to inDesign
OS: Windows / Mac / Linux
Free
Meant to serve as a companion to your regular writing software. Stimuwrite is a small tool that's designed around giving you visual noise & feedback while you're writing, developed with writers w/ADHD in mind.
OS: Web
Free
A web-based collaborative writing tool. You currently need an account to use the site and it's still in development, but it's also known to be very anti-AI compared to certain other popular web-based solution.
OS: Windows
Free & Open Source
One of the most popular music tracker programs, great for both making and playing tracker music files.
OS: Windows / Mac / Linux
Free & Open Source
A classic music tracker based off Fasttracker 2. From lurking, this looks to have a steeper learning curve than OpenMPT.
OS: Windows / Mac / Linux
Free & Open Source
A swiss army knife in terms of voice & quick audio clipping & editing.
OS: Windows / Linux
Free & Open Source
A fork that was made in the light of Audacity showing some signs of wear. As of right now, functionality between Tenacity and Audacity are virtually the same but I can see the program eventually spinning into its own thing later down the line.
OS: Windows / Mac / Linux
Free & Open Source
A more robust audio software with tools for video making, music production, etc.
While it's main focus is recording & studio work, it's also a DAW (has midi/VST support)
OS: Windows / Mac / Linux
Free & Open Source
Screen recording & live streaming tool, one of the most well known and used ones as well.
OS: Windows / Mac / Linux
Free & Open Source
My current video editor of choice. Kdenlive is FOSS video editor, most often compared to Premiere in terms of workflow and layout. Especially compared to many other free options out there, it's packed with features commonly seen in pro-level/paid software like color correction tools, masking effects, multi-track editing, etc.
OS: Windows / Mac / Linux
Free with Paywalls
DaVinci Resolve is a video editor with a free version of the program available. Though for people looking for simple video editing, the free version has more than enough to cover that.
I still list it as free w/paywalls because of the amount of missing features & the full version being roughly $300 US, but most of the features free users are missing out on are designed for larger-scale studio use.
Programs that don't fit under any of the other categories, or things that don't have enough on the list to warrent it's own section
OS: Windows / Mac / Linux
Free & Open Source
Blender is probably the most well known and used 3D programs out there, especially within the independant artist & animator space. It does 3D modeling and animation, but it's also packed with 2D animation tools and has some video editing capabilities.
The program can get heavy if you're doing intensive 3D Work, and it might look intimidating upfront. But it's well documented & the blender community is huge and open with their tutorials so there's no shortage of guides to get started.
OS: Windows / Mac / Linux / Web
Free & Open Source
A program based around low-poly & block-based modeling with some light animation tools. It's most well known usecase is for block games like Minecraft and even comes with presets centered around them. What's great about this one is you can run it in your browser
OS: Windows / Mac / Linux
Free
Tool for making and organizing refrence images & moodboards for a project
OS: Windows / Mac / Linux
Free
Lets you sort and tag images for easy look up, without too much re-arranging of your main image folders
OS: Windows
Free & Open Source
Mainly a screenshot tool, but also has features for Gif + video capture, and more.
OS: Windows / Mac / Linux
Free & Open Source
Spreading out your accounts is a good idea, managing all of said accounts gets hectic. PostyBirb aims to make keeping up with multiple accounts easy by keeping all editing & posting features within one app instead of needing to individually post to each platform. It supports a handful of bigger art sites plus a few more obscure platforms, and has options for scheduling posts as needed.
OS: Windows / Mac
Free & Open Source
Gif-heavy warning for both the Itch page & the site itself
Electric Zine Maker is a program about making, well, zines! Specifically smaller ones you can make with one sheet of paper. It's meant to be an 'software toy' aka less about being serious, more about having fun. If you're a fan of old funware like KidPix or Power Goo, it's definately worth checking out.