Seven free, open-source re-implementations of Adobe's biggest apps went viral in late 2026 — PhotoCraft (53.5k GitHub stars), Lightcraft, Filmcraft, PDFcraft, Vectorcraft, Wordcraft and Compositor. Here is an honest comparison: what each replaces, how mature it really is, and what you save by cancelling Adobe.
Short answer: PDFcraft and PhotoCraft are usable today for most people's everyday work; Lightcraft, Filmcraft, Vectorcraft and Wordcraft are promising alphas best for new projects rather than existing Adobe libraries. Replacing Adobe All Apps (≈US$59.99/month) with the free suite saves ≈US$720/year — if your workflow fits the gaps listed below.
Star counts are a 14 October 2026 snapshot — these projects are among the fastest-growing on GitHub, so treat them as a floor, not a ceiling.
| App | Replaces | Stars | Maturity | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PhotoCraft | Photoshop | ⭐ 53.5k | Beta | Everyday photo editing, layers, masking — clean-room reimplementation, no Adobe code |
| Compositor | Photoshop (Mac-focused) | ⭐ 15.5k | Beta | Mac users who want a native-feeling Photoshop alternative with a smaller learning curve |
| Lightcraft | Lightroom Classic | ⭐ 11.2k | Alpha | RAW processing and catalog-style organisation with AI-assisted edits |
| Filmcraft | Premiere Pro | ⭐ 11.5k | Alpha | Cutting and exporting 1080p/4K timeline video without a subscription |
| PDFcraft | Acrobat Pro | ⭐ 11.4k | Daily-driver | Merge, split, convert, sign and redact PDFs entirely in the browser — nothing uploaded to a server |
| Vectorcraft | Illustrator | ⭐ 7.9k | Alpha | Basic vector illustration and logo work in an SVG-first editor |
| Wordcraft | InDesign (light use) | ⭐ 9.2k | Alpha | Simple documents, posters and one-pagers — not long-form multi-chapter layouts |
Where it wins: Everyday photo editing, layers, masking — clean-room reimplementation, no Adobe code. PhotoCraft is written in Rust, so it starts fast, runs natively on Windows, macOS and Linux, and — like the rest of the Craft suite — costs nothing and phones home to no one.
Where it hurts: Plugin ecosystem is near zero; heavy PSD files with smart objects can render imperfectly.
Where it wins: Mac users who want a native-feeling Photoshop alternative with a smaller learning curve. Compositor is written in Rust, so it starts fast, runs natively on Windows, macOS and Linux, and — like the rest of the Craft suite — costs nothing and phones home to no one.
Where it hurts: Mac-first: Windows/Linux builds lag behind.
Where it wins: RAW processing and catalog-style organisation with AI-assisted edits. Lightcraft is written in Rust, so it starts fast, runs natively on Windows, macOS and Linux, and — like the rest of the Craft suite — costs nothing and phones home to no one.
Where it hurts: No Lightroom catalog import — expect to re-import and re-flag your library. At 11.2k stars and alpha maturity, expect breaking changes between releases — pin a version if you adopt it for real work, and keep your Adobe exports as a backup.
Where it wins: Cutting and exporting 1080p/4K timeline video without a subscription. Filmcraft is written in Rust, so it starts fast, runs natively on Windows, macOS and Linux, and — like the rest of the Craft suite — costs nothing and phones home to no one.
Where it hurts: Proxy workflows and GPU-accelerated effects are still landing; expect rough edges on long projects. At 11.5k stars and alpha maturity, expect breaking changes between releases — pin a version if you adopt it for real work, and keep your Adobe exports as a backup.
Where it wins: Merge, split, convert, sign and redact PDFs entirely in the browser — nothing uploaded to a server. PDFcraft is written in Rust, so it starts fast, runs natively on Windows, macOS and Linux, and — like the rest of the Craft suite — costs nothing and phones home to no one.
Where it hurts: OCR and advanced form-authoring lag Acrobat.
Where it wins: Basic vector illustration and logo work in an SVG-first editor. Vectorcraft is written in Rust, so it starts fast, runs natively on Windows, macOS and Linux, and — like the rest of the Craft suite — costs nothing and phones home to no one.
Where it hurts: Complex .ai files do not open; export paths are simpler than Illustrator's. At 7.9k stars and alpha maturity, expect breaking changes between releases — pin a version if you adopt it for real work, and keep your Adobe exports as a backup.
Where it wins: Simple documents, posters and one-pagers — not long-form multi-chapter layouts. Wordcraft is written in Rust, so it starts fast, runs natively on Windows, macOS and Linux, and — like the rest of the Craft suite — costs nothing and phones home to no one.
Where it hurts: No equivalent to InDesign's master pages and prepress tooling. At 9.2k stars and alpha maturity, expect breaking changes between releases — pin a version if you adopt it for real work, and keep your Adobe exports as a backup.
Photoshop → PhotoCraft: simple PSDs (layers, masks, text, blend modes) open well. Smart objects and newer adjustment-layer types can flatten or render oddly. Test your three most complex files first; if they survive, your library probably will.
Lightroom → Lightcraft: the catalog does not transfer. Re-import from your folder structure, and expect to redo flags and collections. RAW rendering will differ slightly from Lightroom's — that is a colour-science difference, not a bug. XMP sidecar edits are partially respected as of October 2026.
Premiere → Filmcraft: projects must be rebuilt from media. Cut a short test timeline first; long multi-sequence projects with GPU effects are the weakest path right now.
Acrobat → PDFcraft: the easiest switch of the seven — most people's Acrobat use (merge, split, sign, convert, redact) is fully covered, and everything stays local in the browser. OCR and complex form authoring are the gaps.
Adobe subscription prices in 2026 (US list, before regional taxes — verify current pricing): Photography Plan ≈ US$9.99–19.99/mo, single app ≈ US$22.99/mo, All Apps ≈ US$59.99/mo.
Trade-off, stated plainly: you are exchanging a mature, integrated suite for young tools with migration friction. For PDF work and everyday photo editing the switch is easy; for professional print production it is not, yet.
Yes — all of the Craft projects are open-source and free to download, with no subscription. They are clean-room re-implementations written in Rust, meaning no Adobe source code is involved. Some projects accept donations or may add paid hosted services later, but the desktop apps themselves are free under their open-source licences.
Adobe's Photography Plan (Lightroom + Photoshop) has been around US$9.99-19.99/month, a single app US$22.99/month, and All Apps around US$59.99/month — prices vary by country and change often, so check Adobe's current pricing. Replacing even one single-app subscription with a free Craft app saves roughly US$275 per year; replacing All Apps saves about US$720 per year. The Craft suite costs $0.
Mostly, for simple documents: layers, masks, text and blend modes in straightforward PSDs open well in PhotoCraft 2026 builds. Complex features — smart objects, adjustment layers from newer Photoshop versions, third-party plugins — can render imperfectly or flatten. Keep your originals, test one representative file before migrating a whole library, and export a flattened copy as a fallback.
Not yet, if you rely on Lightroom's catalog. Lightcraft (11.2k stars) handles RAW development and AI-assisted edits, but there is no Lightroom catalog import — you re-import your photos and redo flags, collections and some edit history. Photographers with large, carefully curated catalogs should wait for catalog tooling to mature; photographers who shoot and edit session-by-session can switch today.
The Craft wave started in late 2026 when several independent developers began clean-room Rust re-implementations of Adobe apps, inspired by the same playbook: fast native performance, memory safety, small binaries and permissive licences. Rust's cross-platform graphics ecosystem (wgpu) makes it practical to ship GPU-accelerated editors on Windows, macOS and Linux from one codebase — something the older GIMP/Inkscape generation struggles with.
Check each project's licence (most are MIT or Apache-2.0, which allow commercial use), and remember the apps are young: for client deliverables, verify output fidelity — colour profiles, PDF/X export, font embedding — before you rely on them. Many freelancers use a hybrid: Craft apps for daily work, an Adobe free trial or a single-app plan for the rare deliverable that demands it.