Krita Review: Is It Free, Safe and Any Good?

Written by Paul Worrall

Krita is one of the most talked-about free art programs around, and for good reason. It’s a full digital painting app with professional brushes, layers, animation tools and a big community behind it, and it costs nothing. That naturally raises questions. Is it really free? Is it safe to download? Is it any good compared with Photoshop? And can you use it on an iPad? This guide answers all of those, and covers the drawing tablet you’ll need to get the most out of it.

What Is Krita?

Krita is a digital painting program made for artists, illustrators and comic and concept artists. It’s developed by the Krita Foundation and the KDE open-source community, and its roots go back to the late 1990s. Around 2009 the project shifted its focus away from general image editing and towards digital painting, and that’s what it’s known for today.

It runs on Windows, macOS and Linux, and on Android tablets and Chromebooks. The developers released Krita 5.3 and Krita 6.0 together in March 2026. They’re almost identical in features, but Krita 6 is built on newer underlying technology and the developers describe it as more experimental, so 5.3 is the version they recommend for real work at the moment.

Is Krita Free?

Yes. Krita is free software released under the GNU General Public License, version 3. You can download it, use it and share it without paying anything, and there are no watermarks, trials or locked features.

You’ll also see Krita for sale on Steam, the Microsoft Store, the Epic Games Store and the Mac App Store. That’s the same program, not a premium version. Buying it there gives you automatic updates and the money supports Krita’s development, which is a nice way to give something back if you use it a lot. But the free download from krita.org is the full program.

Krita’s licence page also makes it clear that you can use it for any purpose, including commercial work, and that what you create with Krita is your sole property. So if you sell prints or take commissions, you’re fine.

Is Krita Safe?

Krita itself is safe. It’s a long-running, open-source project with a foundation behind it, and its code is public for anyone to inspect. The risk comes from where you download it. Some third-party download sites bundle extra software or adverts with free programs, so always get Krita from the official krita.org website or one of the official stores listed above. That way you know you’re getting the real thing.

Is Krita Good? My Honest Review

For a free program, Krita is remarkably capable. These are the features that stand out.

Brushes. Krita has nine brush engines and a huge range of preset brushes, from pencils and inks to oils, watercolour-style and texture brushes. It also has pen stabilisation, which smooths out shaky lines, and that’s a real help for inking.

Layers and masks. It has proper non-destructive layers, layer groups, masks and vector tools, so you can work the way you would in a professional program.

Canvas tools. You can rotate and mirror the canvas, and there’s a wrap-around mode that tiles your image, which is very handy for making seamless patterns and textures.

Animation. Krita includes frame-by-frame animation with onion-skinning and a timeline, and it can export to formats like GIF and MP4. It’s not a full animation studio, but for short animations and loops it’s surprisingly good.

The downsides are worth knowing too. The interface can feel busy at first, and there’s a learning curve if you’ve never used a painting program. It’s built for painting and drawing, not photo editing, so it’s not a full Photoshop replacement. And because it’s run by a small team, the occasional bug does slip through. But for anyone who wants to paint digitally without paying a subscription, I’d say it’s the best free option there is.

Krita vs GIMP

This comparison comes up a lot because both are free, but they’re built for different jobs. GIMP is primarily an image and photo editor. It’s good for retouching photos, cropping, colour correction and general image manipulation. Krita is primarily a painting program, with far better brushes, pen handling and drawing tools.

The simple rule is this: if you want to draw or paint, choose Krita. If you mainly want to edit photos, choose GIMP. Plenty of artists use both, and as they’re free, there’s no reason not to.

Krita vs Photoshop

Photoshop does almost everything: photo editing, painting, design and more, and it’s the industry standard in many studios. But it’s subscription-only, and that cost adds up over the years. I cover the options and prices in my guide to Adobe Creative Cloud for artists.

For pure digital painting and illustration, Krita holds its own surprisingly well, and many artists prefer its brush engine. Where Photoshop wins is photo editing, design work, and the huge range of tutorials and plugins built around it. If you need Photoshop for work or college, you’ll probably end up paying for it. If you just want to paint, try Krita first. It costs nothing to find out whether it’s all you need.

If you’d like a paid program without a subscription, Affinity is worth a look, and I’ve written an Affinity review covering what it does well.

Is Krita on iPad?

No. There’s no Krita app for iPad or iPhone. On the Krita Artists forum, the team has explained that Apple’s App Store rules have been the main obstacle to releasing GPL-licensed software like Krita there, and that the team is already stretched thin supporting the platforms it has. So don’t expect an iPad version any time soon.

Krita does run on Android tablets and Chromebooks, so if you have one of those, you can use it. If you’re on an iPad, you’ll need a different app. Procreate is the most popular choice for iPad artists, and Affinity also runs on iPad.

Krita AI and AI Diffusion

Krita doesn’t have built-in AI image generation, which many artists see as a plus. But there is a popular third-party plugin called Krita AI Diffusion, developed by Acly. It adds tools like inpainting, outpainting, live painting and upscaling, using AI models such as Stable Diffusion and Flux.

It’s important to know that it isn’t an official part of Krita, and the plugin’s own page says Krita’s official channels aren’t the place to ask for help with it. It’s free and open source, and you can run it on your own computer, but you’ll need a powerful graphics card. The developer recommends at least 6GB of video memory on an NVIDIA card. There’s also a cloud option to get started without one. If you’re interested in AI art tools more widely, my ImagineArt AI review covers another option.

Krita Brushes and Brush Packs

Krita comes with a big set of brushes out of the box, enough for most artists to work with for a long time. If you want more, artists share brush packs online, usually as bundle files. You can add these through Krita’s resource manager, under Settings and Manage Resources, where you can import bundles.

As with the program itself, only download brush packs from sources you trust, such as the Krita Artists community or well-known artists. A good brush pack can transform how Krita feels, but there’s no need to collect hundreds of them. A handful of brushes you know well is worth more than a huge library you never use.

Krita Pen Pressure: Why You Need a Drawing Tablet

You can use Krita with a mouse, but you’ll miss most of what makes it good. Krita’s brushes respond to pen pressure, so pressing harder gives a thicker, darker line, just like a real pencil or brush. A mouse can’t do that. To paint properly in Krita, you need a drawing tablet with a pressure-sensitive pen.

Krita is designed with graphics tablets in mind. If your pen pressure isn’t working, the first place to look is the tablet settings in Krita’s configuration menu, and make sure your tablet’s drivers are up to date. On Windows you can switch between the two tablet input methods, Windows Ink and WinTab, which fixes pen pressure problems for many people.

There are two types of tablet. A pen tablet is a flat pad you draw on while looking at your monitor. They’re cheap and work well, but take a little getting used to. A pen display is a screen you draw directly on, which feels more natural but costs more. For a beginner, a pen tablet from XP-Pen, Wacom or Huion is the sensible start.

XP-Pen Deco on AmazonWacom Intuos on AmazonCompare prices

If you want to draw directly on the screen, a pen display like the Wacom One or an XP-Pen Artist is the step up. They cost more, but drawing straight onto the image feels much closer to working on paper.

Wacom One on AmazonXP-Pen Artist on AmazonCompare prices

Krita also runs better on a decent computer, especially with large canvases. If you’re thinking of upgrading, my guide to the best computer for graphic design is relevent here too.

Should You Use Krita?

If you want to try digital painting, Krita is the obvious place to start. It’s free, it’s safe from the official site, it’s genuinely capable, and the only thing you really need to buy is a drawing tablet. If you later find you need photo editing or a specific industry tool, you can move foward to something like Photoshop or Affinity, and the skills you’ve learned in Krita will carry over. If you’d like to explore other painting software too, my comparison of Rebelle 8 and Rebelle 8 Pro covers a paid option that’s brilliant for realistic watercolour and oils.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Krita free? Yes. Krita is free software under the GPL version 3 licence, with no trials, watermarks or locked features. Paid versions on Steam and other stores are the same program and help fund development.

Is Krita safe? Yes, as long as you download it from the official krita.org website or an official store such as Steam or the Microsoft Store. Avoid third-party download sites that may bundle extra software.

Is Krita on iPad? No. There’s no Krita app for iPad or iPhone. Krita runs on Windows, macOS, Linux, Android tablets and Chromebooks. iPad artists often use Procreate instead.

Is Krita better than GIMP? For drawing and painting, yes. Krita has far better brushes and pen support. GIMP is better for photo editing. Both are free, so many artists use both.

Can I use Krita for commercial work? Yes. Krita’s licence allows any use, including commercial work, and what you create with Krita belongs to you.

Krita proves you don’t need to spend a fortune to paint digitally. Put the money towards a good drawing tablet instead, and compare prices before you buy. Tablet prices move around a lot, especially in the big sales. If you’d like to hear about deals on tablets and art supplies as they land, join the newsletter or our Facebook group of 15,000+ artists, and browse more guides in our digital art section.