--- title: "GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) Reviews, Pros and Cons - 2026 Software Advice" description: "Reviews of GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program). Learn how real users rate this software's ease-of-use, functionality, overall quality and customer support. Talk to our advisors to see if GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) is a good fit for you!" source_url: "https://www.softwareadvice.com/graphic-design/gimp-gnu-image-manipulation-program-profile/reviews/" page_type: "reviews" language: "en" --- [Home](https://www.softwareadvice.com/) / [Photo Editing Software](https://www.softwareadvice.com/photo-editing/) / [GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program)](https://www.softwareadvice.com/graphic-design/gimp-gnu-image-manipulation-program-profile/) / GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) Reviews Software Advice offers objective insights based on verified user reviews and independent product and market research. When our advisors match you to a software provider, we may earn a referral fee. [Overview](https://www.softwareadvice.com/graphic-design/gimp-gnu-image-manipulation-program-profile/) Reviews [Alternatives](https://www.softwareadvice.com/graphic-design/gimp-gnu-image-manipulation-program-profile/alternatives/) # GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) User Reviews ## Reviews summary - Overall rating: 4.4/5 - Total reviews: 3,491 ### Secondary ratings - Ease of use: 3.9/5 - Customer support: 4.0/5 - Value for money: 4.8/5 - Functionality: 4.3/5 ### Rating distribution - 5 stars: 1,874 reviews (54%) - 4 stars: 1,240 reviews (36%) - 3 stars: 331 reviews (9%) - 2 stars: 37 reviews (1%) - 1 star: 9 reviews (0%) ### Most mentioned pros - There are so many options that I can customize my editing experience to fit exactly what I need. Whether I'm just doing some quick touch-ups or diving into more complex projects, I feel like I have all the tools at my fingertips. - I can confidently say that it helped our group achieve professional-level marketing results and improve product photography. - Overall, it can be challenging at times to work with (since I have the muscle memory of Adobe Photoshop), but the best replacement out there. ### Most mentioned cons - Moreover, one essential downside of GIMP is that it recognises only RGB image mode while ignoring CMYK and other modes. - Others say customer support may be slower to answer and deal with payment-related features or extensions could require technical expertise not best suited for active freelance studios. - For advanced photo editing, GIMP lacks some high-end tools that Photoshop offers. ## GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) customer reviews Showing reviews 1-25 of 3,491 (page 1). ### A Good Free Alternative for Image Editing - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Industry: Design - Company size: Self-Employed - Product usage: 3-5 years · weekly - Reviewed: September 2026 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. Despite this, GIMP remains an excellent option for people who want to edit photos and create graphics without paying a subscription. I would particularly recommend it to students, beginners, and independent creators who want a powerful tool while keeping costs low. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros The biggest advantage for me is obviously the price: GIMP is free and open source. I also appreciate the number of tools available. With some practice, it is possible to produce fairly professional work. #### Cons However, I find its interface less intuitive than some competing software. When I first started using it, I had to look for tutorials to understand certain functions. For very complex professional projects, I generally prefer Adobe tools. --- ### simple pour les visuelles - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Industry: Design - Company size: 2-10 employees - Product usage: 3-5 years · monthly - Reviewed: August 2026 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 4/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros Pour réaliser des retouches d’images, préparer des supports visuels ou modifier rapidement certains éléments graphiques, GIMP est une solution très intéressante. #### Cons Son interface demande un certain temps d’adaptation, surtout lorsqu’on commence à l’utiliser. Certaines fonctionnalités sont également moins intuitives et nécessitent plusieurs manipulations. --- ### Blender: Professional Image Editing Software for Businesses and Creative Teams - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Bruno M. - Industry: Automotive - Company size: 2-10 employees - Product usage: 1-3 years · weekly - Reviewed: August 2026 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. Overall, I must say that my general impression of GIMP software is positive. I can confidently say that it helped our group achieve professional-level marketing results and improve product photography. Thus, I would recommend the program to graphic designers and photographers with extensive experience. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 4/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros I had the opportunity to use GIMP as a Marketing Executive Intern for Hackett & Hackett International Group Limited. I had many reasons to like the software, but the most notable one was that it is free, open source and runs on various platforms. Firstly, speaking of strengths, I should mention that GIMP has an impressive set of Image Editing Tools (cropping, resizing, colour correction, image restoration), as well as non-destructive editing options (layers, masks, blend modes, opacity). #### Cons However, I also have some cons to discuss. For one, GIMP has a rather complicated interface, which is especially challenging for novices. Secondly, it is somewhat outdated and does not support many modern technologies. Additionally, its compatibility with various operating systems is limited. Moreover, one essential downside of GIMP is that it recognises only RGB image mode while ignoring CMYK and other modes. There are also limited professional design tools, such as smart objects, AI-powered photo editing and cloud collaboration. --- ### GIMP: for auxiliary image - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Industry: Design - Company size: Self-Employed - Product usage: 3-5 years · weekly - Reviewed: July 2026 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros he basic retouching, cropping, and complex filter application tools work perfectly without requiring any extravagant hardware setup. #### Cons The user interface is completely different from industry standards and feels quite austere, even confusing, for a designer accustomed to commercial suites. --- ### Great software to use - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Aneesa A. - Industry: Financial Services - Company size: 10000+ employees - Product usage: 1-3 years · daily - Reviewed: July 2026 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered Overall, it's great software to use, especially if you're learning to manipulate images and it's easy to use and straightforward #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Value for money: 4/5 - Customer support: 4/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros What I like most about GIMP is that it really helped me gain experience in manipulating images and playing around with the software #### Cons What I least liked about GIMP is that it takes a while for the software to load and it can make my laptop sound like it's about to take off when I use it --- ### Suite completa a costo zero - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Industry: International Trade and Development - Company size: 11-50 employees - Product usage: less than 1 year · monthly - Reviewed: May 2026 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered Ho utilizzato gimp sia per le creazioni di immagini vettoriali ( principalmente ci ho creato le favicon per i miei siti, e altre immagini svg ) che per la modifica di immagini di formato png e jpg. Mi sento di consigliarlo per: - strumenti completi al pari di altri prodotti a pagamento - community molto sentita su internet ( si traduce in un sacco di materiale reperibile, quali guide e consigli ) - semplicità nell'imparare ad utilizzarlo #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 4/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros Ho scoperto gimp perchè consigliato da un collega, e fin da subito me ne sono innamorato. È l'alternativa gratuita che ha con se tutti gli strumenti necessari per la manipolazione delle immagini e delle foto, quindi mi sento di consigliarla a tutti colori che hanno necessità di un prodotto per la grafica ma non hanno a disposizione un budget elevato ( in questo caso la spesa è zero perchè il prodotto è gratuito ) #### Cons Inizialmente mi sono sentito un pò scoraggiato dalla difficoltà di utilizzo di gimp, ma è bastata una lettura a diverse guide online ( o anche su youtube ci sono diversi tutorial anche in lingua italiana ), per mettermi subito in pari ed essere abbastanza autonomo nell'utilizzo --- ### Best Replacement for Photoshop - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Industry: Health, Wellness and Fitness - Company size: 11-50 employees - Product usage: 1-3 years · monthly - Reviewed: April 2026 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered Overall, it can be challenging at times to work with (since I have the muscle memory of Adobe Photoshop), but the best replacement out there. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 3/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 3/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros Gimp is the most reliable replacement for Adobe photoshop! There's nothing that comes close. And it works on linux ;) #### Cons The UI is quite clunky compared to photoshop, although I appreciate that they attempt to emulate most of the original features. --- ### GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Industry: Hospital & Health Care - Company size: 201-500 employees - Product usage: less than 1 year · monthly - Reviewed: April 2026 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. GIMP has been a fantastic addition to my digital toolbox, and I recommend it to anyone looking for a versatile and powerful editing program without breaking the bank. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Value for money: 4/5 - Customer support: 4/5 - Functionality: 3/5 #### Pros I recently started using GIMP for my photo editing needs, and I have to say, it's pretty impressive for a free tool! As someone who's always been a bit hesitant to invest in expensive software, finding GIMP felt like a real win. What I love most about it is the extensive toolset. There are so many options that I can customize my editing experience to fit exactly what I need. Whether I'm just doing some quick touch-ups or diving into more complex projects, I feel like I have all the tools at my fingertips. #### Cons I spent some time using GIMP for a photo editing project, and while I really appreciate its powerful features and how flexible it is, I did notice one thing that could be improved: performance. When working with larger files, things definitely slowed down quite a bit. --- ### Brilliant free tool for early designers - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Hayden R. - Industry: Computer Software - Company size: 11-50 employees - Product usage: 1-3 years · monthly - Reviewed: March 2026 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. I had a great experience with GIMP, as a free tool it made any design idea i had possible, and was easy to be able to use, allowing me to keep creating assets whilst in a fast paced environment. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 3/5 - Functionality: 3/5 #### Pros GIMP was a great software to use in my early days of designing. It's broad range of tools and ease of use made it possible to create assets quickly and simply, as well as exporting them. #### Cons my main concern was the quality of this images when they were exported. When images were angled, they'd come out a little blurry and not as high resolution as i hoped. This made it challenging when the assets in question were texted base or included small details that i would have liked to be noticable. --- ### A fantastic bit of design software - highly recommend - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Joe T. - Industry: Information Technology and Services - Company size: 11-50 employees - Product usage: 3-5 years · weekly - Reviewed: March 2026 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered Very good - any new marketer we hire I always tell them to download and use GIMP first. Its a fantastic bit of design software. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 3/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros Its free to download and works a treat. Has lots of different options for design, and can be used for complexed tasks . #### Cons There really is nothing to complain about to be honest - if im being picky I would say the interface needs a nice refresh but thats it!. --- ### Great graphic design software - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Industry: Public Relations and Communications - Company size: 2-10 employees - Product usage: 3-5 years · weekly - Reviewed: January 2026 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered I'm not a graphic designer so I use it to edit my website photos. It does a great job. I'm happy with it. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros GIMP is my favorite free graphic design program. It can handle all my photo editing needs without the heavy price tag so I see no sense in using something else. #### Cons Sometimes it's hard to update the program. A recent update caused computer system problems. I had to downgrade back to the version I was trying to update. --- ### GIMP, a free wholesome graphics manipulation program - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Industry: Education Management - Company size: 51-200 employees - Product usage: 3-5 years · weekly - Reviewed: July 2024 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. I have enjoyed using it and while I have other options, the fact that it is free means we can deploy it on all our computers and that is what our students are not using for all their graphics work and no one has complained about it. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Value for money: 4/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros The biggest advantage to GIMP is that is that it is free and a worthwhile alternative to Photoshop and illustrator. #### Cons IT can be heavy on the system and so it tends to be slow. Also, if one is not used to the interface, it takes some getting used to work with it. --- ### Average - Overall rating: 3/5 - Reviewer: Tomás R. - Industry: Computer Software - Company size: 11-50 employees - Product usage: 1-3 years · monthly - Reviewed: November 2023 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 2/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros Gimp has a lot of capabilities to extend its basic functionality with plugins #### Cons Its user interface is not very friendly and could use a redesign --- ### GIMP (GNU Image Management Program) review - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Deepak M. - Industry: Education Management - Company size: Self-Employed - Product usage: 3-5 years · weekly - Reviewed: May 2022 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros GIMP is very powerful and can do just about everything that other raster image manipulation software can do and more. It is free to use, since it is open source software. There are plenty of videos and tutorials available to help the user achieve a particular effect. The software can read a large number of formats. Plug-ins to achieve specific results are easily available online and are easy to install. #### Cons The program takes a bit of time to load. If load time can be improved the software will be truly amazing. --- ### Great free to use editing software!!! - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Industry: Computer Software - Company size: 501-1000 employees - Product usage: 3-5 years · monthly - Reviewed: June 2025 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. Gimp is a great free to use open source application, that is available on all desktop operating systems and is a great tools for quick And simple photo editing and content creation. Photoshop is more in depth with a lot more variety of features but that is to be expected with the large subscription price. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 2/5 - Functionality: 3/5 #### Pros Gimp is a good open source alternative to Photoshop, it has most of the traditional Photoshop features that users of Photoshop would be able to migrate to. It has good UI/UX and is user friendly. It might be difficult at the beginning for users who don't know the basic layout of photo editing software, but so is the case with Photoshop. #### Cons It is lacking new features, such a AI image fill and other AI features. There are ways of adding these through plugins, but finding the right plugins is difficult and quite difficult to implement for anaverga person without technical knowledge. Also the model would run natively on the machine, which means it's would require powerful hardware for efficient use, and also mean you would be unable to run it on laptop or mobile device. Here photoshop take a clear lead, with better cloud services. --- ### Cost-effective content creation for small studios. - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Industry: Photography - Company size: 2-10 employees - Product usage: 3-5 years · daily - Reviewed: October 2025 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. GIMP allowed White Pine Photography to create logos, photo editing, and branded content on a low budget, enhancing client work and studio advertising with robust editing capabilities. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros Free, adaptive design and graphics creation abilities of GIMP and slim design, along with quick rendering of intuitive controls, all allow photographers to produce content and manipulate images without cost. #### Cons Others say customer support may be slower to answer and deal with payment-related features or extensions could require technical expertise not best suited for active freelance studios. --- ### GIMP: Full-Bodied Image Editing Software - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Industry: Writing and Editing - Company size: 2-10 employees - Product usage: 3-5 years · weekly - Reviewed: April 2025 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. Overall, I only have positive things to say about GIMP. It's a useful image editing software that has a ton of features. It's a bit complicated to wrap your head around it at first, but there are plenty of tutorials online to get you started. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros I use GIMP to clean up low-quality images we receive from our clients. I remove blemishes and smooth out lines as needed, and make the colors flow more naturally. My favorite part about GIMP is that you can quickly and easily change one color in an image to another color, without messing up the other colors in the image. It's very handy for quick fixes and color blemishes. I appreciate that GIMP gives me exactly what I need quickly after I fire up the application. It's free and receives regular updates, and it's more user-friendly than comparable apps (looking at you, PhotoShop). I also appreciate that GIMP can export to PNG, JPEG, and other, more obscure file extensions. (I don't use them, but I might have to some day!) #### Cons GIMP has a ton of features, and some of them are buried deep in the software menus. Luckily there are guides online to help you find what you need. Additionally, technically, you can edit photos on GIMP, but that isn't the primary purpose of the software. Still, I wish GIMP had some basic photo editing capabilities, or an option to turn on "photo editing mode." It's great having easy access to image layers, color gradients, and shape manipulation, but it'd be nice to have a simple "Exposure" slide bar I could use for editing photos. --- ### basic image editing - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Industry: Information Technology and Services - Company size: 2-10 employees - Product usage: less than 1 year · weekly - Reviewed: January 2026 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered GNU Image Manipulation Program is a useful open-source tool for basic image editing and quick visual adjustments. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 4/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros It’s free and surprisingly powerful for photo retouching and simple design tasks. For small teams or occasional use, it can cover many essential needs. #### Cons The interface is not very intuitive, and the workflow can feel less polished. It’s not ideal for high-end branding or collaborative design projects. --- ### Easy to handle program - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Industry: Education Management - Company size: Self-Employed - Product usage: 1-3 years · weekly - Reviewed: May 2025 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered I use it when I want to introduce changes to my pictures for my blog rapidly without spending too much time. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros It is easy to install on my Windows computer, easy to start and works smoothly without delay. #### Cons Sometimes it takes a little time to figure out how to change a picture. Specially with the layers. --- ### Good Software - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Industry: Education Management - Company size: Self-Employed - Product usage: 3-5 years · weekly - Reviewed: March 2025 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered It's good. I mainly get done what I need to get done. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Functionality: 3/5 #### Pros I like that I can edit any photos, especially removing the background from photos which is why I mainly use it. #### Cons It doesn't have as many features as Adobe Photoshop so is lacking. --- ### great for editing images - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Industry: Arts and Crafts - Company size: Self-Employed - Product usage: 3-5 years · monthly - Reviewed: March 2025 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered good. does what it is supposed to, just a steep learning curve #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros Great alternative to paint for image editing #### Cons difficult to use at first. needed to look up how to do some things with it. --- ### Gimp > photoshop - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Industry: Utilities - Company size: 2-10 employees - Product usage: less than 1 year · weekly - Reviewed: January 2025 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered Overall my experience has been positive and more than satisfied. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros I appreciate the tools it offers for free unlike adobe so I can choose if it’s the right editing software for me. #### Cons I would like more tutorials to be available but other than that, no complaints. --- ### GIMP at a glance - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Industry: Construction - Company size: Self-Employed - Product usage: 3-5 years · daily - Reviewed: September 2023 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. I use GIMP on a daily basis. It comes in very handy since I work with a lot of images. This is a hobby of mine #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros I like the thousands of tools and images offered.I like the ease of use The help files and the tutorialThe fact that it is free and a very good competitor to Adobe Photoshop #### Cons The loading time that it takes the program to open. That is the only thing I dislike about GIMP.It is basically a very good program --- ### Incredibly Useful and Powerful - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Industry: Arts and Crafts - Company size: Self-Employed - Product usage: 3-5 years · monthly - Reviewed: June 2025 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. I use GIMP for both my own art business and for my work at a water utility. The art use is obvious. The water utility has to apply for county permits when fixing or installing service lines. The county requires drawings and images of both the site and the locations of construction signs. GIMP allows me to easily fulfill these requirements without purchasing software. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros The in-depth ability to edit images is essential. Additionally, the capacity to convert documents and images to various formats (such as PDF to JPG) is valuable. #### Cons More quick-and-dirty guidelines for small jobs and basic edits would be helpful. The huge flexibility of GIMP is great but can be a bit overwhelming. --- ### I really love it - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Industry: Design - Company size: Self-Employed - Product usage: less than 1 year · weekly - Reviewed: January 2025 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered I was pleasantly surprised by GIMP. It's a powerful tool with a lot of advanced features, and I love that it's free. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 4/5 - Customer support: 4/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros I really like the range of tools, including things like layer masks and bezier curves. It lets me achieve professional results for my design projects. The interface is customizable, which is helpful. #### Cons It took me a little time to get used to the interface. It's not as intuitive as some other programs, but there are tutorials available. ---