Let's Animate - Krita: Rocket Mechanic (10 days)
By Ed Tadeo ·
Playing loads YouTube. YouTube will receive your IP address and device information.
remove.bg Alternatives 2026: 5 Free Options
remove.bg alternatives: rembg, GIMP, Photopea, Affinity Photo and 1 more. Prices and licenses checked October 23, 2026.
•3 min read•Photo Editing & AI Images
Verdict:Leave remove.bg when you remove backgrounds in volume and want the work to stay on your machine, or when you need a manual cutout and not an automatic one. remove.bg is built for one-click removal in the browser. Check its live prices before you switch, since this page does not give them here. rembg is the strongest free swap for volume work: it is MIT licensed, runs locally from the command line or Python, and suits a folder of product shots. You lose remove.bg's web interface and automatic results for every photo, so you need a little setup first. GIMP and Photopea are free and manual. Both let you select and mask a subject yourself, which takes longer per image but gives you full control over hair and edges. Affinity Photo is free for individuals on Mac and Windows per affinity.studio, and it suits layered edits after you have a cutout. Krita is free and built for painting, so it is the weakest choice for a simple background removal. The concrete trade-off is speed against control: remove.bg gives an automatic cutout in one step, while every free option here makes you mask the subject yourself or set up a local tool. If your images are mostly people with fine hair, test rembg on ten of them before you cancel anything.
Quick comparison
| Tool | Price | Platforms | Best for | Tested |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| rembg | Free (Free open source Python tool with a command-line interface; no paid tier) | Windows, macOS, Linux | Batch removal run locally | Docs only |
| GIMP | Free (Free; source tarballs offered, donation link only, no paid tier. Store packages are third-party and not from the GIMP team) | Linux, macOS, Windows | Manual cutouts you control by hand | Docs only |
| Photopea | Free (Free in the browser; the homepage says premium features are free and mentions no paid plan or ad-free option) | Web | Quick manual masks with no install | Docs only |
| Affinity Photo | Free (Free for individuals per affinity.studio; an iPad version is listed as coming soon; optional AI tools need a Canva premium plan) | Windows, macOS | Layered edits after a cutout | Docs only |
| Krita | Free (Free and open source; optional donations, no paid tier) | Windows, macOS, Linux, Android | Free editing alongside painting | Docs only |
| Photoroom | See pricing page | iPhone, iPad, Android, Web browser, Shopify app | AI photo editing | Docs only |
| Adobe Photoshop | Paid from $22.99 per month, annual plan billed monthly (Photoshop single app) | Windows, macOS, iPad, Web | Image editing | Docs only |
Independent comparison. Paid placements are labelled separately; editorial links earn no affiliate commissions. Learn more.
See the tools in action
Images from the linked documentation. Versions and features may differ from current plans.
Krita 4.0 animation interface
Tyson Tan · Source · CC BY-SA 4.0
GIMP 3.0 — non-destructive filter workflow
GIMP team / gimp.org · Source · CC BY-SA 4.0
Good fit if
- You remove backgrounds from a large folder of product photos (rembg is the pick)
- You need a precise manual cutout you can adjust by hand (GIMP is the pick)
- You want a quick mask in a browser with no install (Photopea is the pick)
- You edit the cutout in layers and retouch the result (Affinity Photo is the pick)
Not ideal if
- You rely on remove.bg features or integrations that these tools do not replicate
remove.bg today: Free (Free low-resolution previews (up to 0.25 megapixels) on the website, plus one bonus credit to test a high-resolution download) (remove.bg pricing, checked 2026-10-23).
Why people look for remove.bg alternatives
On remove.bg's website the free plan returns low-resolution previews of up to 0.25 megapixels, plus one bonus credit to test a high-resolution download. Full-size results need credits. Subscription credits are valid only while the subscription is active, and monthly plans renew automatically until you cancel. Pay-as-you-go credits are a one-time purchase with no monthly commitment, but the help page gives no expiry period for them. Free use through the API and apps is limited to 50 previews a month.
rembg
Compared with remove.bg: Free MIT-licensed command-line and Python tool that runs on your own machine, so images never leave it. It has no web upload or credit system, so you lose remove.bg's one-click web interface and batch dashboard.
Price: Free (Free open source Python tool with a command-line interface; no paid tier) (rembg pricing, checked 2026-10-23).
Platforms and license: Windows, macOS, Linux. MIT (open source).
Project activity: 25.2k GitHub stars · latest release v2.0.86 (Oct 21, 2026) · last commit Oct 21, 2026
Best for: Batch removal run locally.
GIMP
Compared with remove.bg: Free and open-source editor with no paid tier. You can remove backgrounds with selection and masking tools, but it is manual, so you give up remove.bg's automatic subject detection.
Price: Free (Free; source tarballs offered, donation link only, no paid tier. Store packages are third-party and not from the GIMP team) (GIMP pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Linux, macOS, Windows. Open source (license not named on gimp.org/downloads) (open source).
Best for: Manual cutouts you control by hand.
Worth knowing: Raster image editor for photo retouching and compositing.
Photopea
Compared with remove.bg: Free browser editor that reads PSD files, with no upload to a separate service. Its masking is manual rather than automatic, so you lose the one-click removal remove.bg is built around.
Price: Free (Free in the browser; the homepage says premium features are free and mentions no paid plan or ad-free option) (Photopea pricing, checked 2026-10-23).
Platforms and license: Web. Proprietary.
Best for: Quick manual masks with no install.
Worth knowing: Browser-based editor that reads PSD files. Runs with no download.
Affinity Photo
Compared with remove.bg: Free for individuals on Mac and Windows per affinity.studio. It gives you layered masking and retouching on your own computer, but you lose remove.bg's fully automatic cutout.
Price: Free (Free for individuals per affinity.studio; an iPad version is listed as coming soon; optional AI tools need a Canva premium plan) (Affinity Photo pricing, checked 2026-10-23).
Platforms and license: Windows, macOS. Proprietary.
Best for: Layered edits after a cutout.
Worth knowing: affinity.studio states Affinity is free for individuals, Mac and Windows downloads, with a Canva premium plan only needed for optional AI tools.
Krita
Compared with remove.bg: Free GPL painting program with selection and layer tools. It is built for painting, so removing a background is slower than in remove.bg, and you lose its automatic cutout entirely.
Price: Free (Free and open source; optional donations, no paid tier) (Krita pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Windows, macOS, Linux, Android. GPL (open source).
Best for: Free editing alongside painting.
Other popular options (paid)
Photoroom
Compared with remove.bg: Pro lists 8,000 AI credits and 1,000 exports a month, and the page offers a free trial rather than a free plan. It adds an editor for product photos, but its pricing page shows no dollar figure to compare.
Price: See pricing page (Photoroom pricing, checked 2026-10-23).
Adobe Photoshop
Compared with remove.bg: Costs $22.99 per month on the annual plan billed monthly, with a free trial of unstated length. A full layered editor rather than a one-click cutout tool, so masks and retouching happen in the same file.
Price: Paid from $22.99 per month, annual plan billed monthly (Photoshop single app) (Adobe Photoshop pricing, checked 2026-10-23).
Which one to pick
- You remove backgrounds from a large folder of product photos: rembg
- You need a precise manual cutout you can adjust by hand: GIMP
- You want a quick mask in a browser with no install: Photopea
- You edit the cutout in layers and retouch the result: Affinity Photo
Limits of this review
Docs-only for rembg, GIMP, Photopea, Affinity Photo, Krita: we did not install or run them, so feature claims come from vendor pages and we did not test import from remove.bg. Vendor prices and free limits change; confirm on the linked pricing page before you buy or migrate.
Related guides
More in Photo Editing & AI Images
All Photo Editing & AI Images alternatives →Sources
Kevin Fan
Kevin Fan is a SaaS founder. He runs Free Instead Of, which tracks free and open-source alternatives to paid software and checks each price and free-plan limit against the vendor's own pages.
Methodology
Based on official pricing and product pages checked between 2026-10-22 and 2026-10-23: remove.bg, rembg, GIMP, Photopea, Affinity Photo, Krita, Photoroom, Adobe Photoshop. Prices, free limits and licenses are the figures shown on those pages on those dates. No tool on this page was installed or run. No accounts were created.