Editor › Compare › PhotoAIA vs Photoshop: What You Do and Do Not Get
Can PhotoAIA replace Photoshop?
For most professional work, no. Photoshop has 16 and 32-bit support, RAW processing, generative AI, hundreds of filters and a plugin ecosystem. PhotoAIA overlaps on layers, masks, adjustments, layer effects and CMYK, and is free with nothing to install.
Where the overlap is real
- Layers, groups, clipping masks, layer masks, blend modes and opacity.
- The full layer-effects roster, with contours, per-effect blend modes and global light.
- Smart Objects with editable contents and re-orderable Smart Filters.
- Fifteen non-destructive adjustment layers including Curves, Levels, Selective Colour and Channel Mixer.
- Selections including magnetic lasso, magic wand, quick select, colour range and refine edge.
- Real ICC CMYK separation and soft proofing.
Where Photoshop is simply better
- 16-bit and 32-bit editing per channel — PhotoAIA edits at 8-bit, the single biggest gap for photography and print; it does keep a lossless 16-bit TIFF passthrough on import and export, but not 16-bit editing itself.
- RAW processing through Camera Raw. PhotoAIA cannot open RAW at all.
- Generative Fill, background removal, AI upscaling.
- Hundreds of filters, Liquify, lens correction, and third-party plugins.
- Video, animation and 3D.
- Thirty-five years of production track record.
Cost and access
| PhotoAIA | Photoshop | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Subscription, from roughly $10–23/month |
| Install | None — it is a web page | Desktop or iPad app |
| Account required | No | Adobe account |
| Files leave your device | No | Optional cloud |
A fair recommendation
If you edit professionally, Photoshop — or Affinity, which is now free — is the right tool. PhotoAIA earns its place when you cannot install software, need a quick CMYK or plate check, or want a capable editor that keeps client files on your own machine.