Corel Painter is still on sale for Windows and macOS, but it has stood still. The Painter product page still presents Painter 2023, with Windows 10 or 11 and macOS 13 Ventura as the minimum, and sells 30-day and 365-day subscriptions and a full upgrade for existing owners. A pricing tracker recorded $429 for Painter in November 2026, after a one-week sale at $249 in September.
Painter is still loved for its natural-media brushes, so most people searching for an alternative want the same feel for less money, a more active product, or a tablet app. The picks start with tools that simulate real paint, then cover all-round painting apps.
Prices below are as of November 6, 2026. Our method is on How we review tools.
Quick comparison
| Tool | Best for | Price | Platforms |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rebelle | Realistic watercolour, oil and acrylic | $89.99, Pro $149.99, one-time | Windows, Mac |
| Krita | Free painting with deep brush settings | Free (GPLv3) | Windows, Mac, Linux, Android |
| Clip Studio Paint | Illustration, comics and line art | PRO $63, EX $277 one-time | Windows, Mac, iPad, Android, iPhone |
| Procreate | Painting on iPad | $12.99 one-time | iPad |
| ArtRage | Low-cost natural media for hobbyists | Vitae $80; Lite $29.90 | Windows, Mac, iOS, Android |
| Adobe Photoshop | Painting plus photo editing in one file | $22.99/month on the annual plan | Windows, Mac, iPad |
| Adobe Fresco | Free live oil and watercolour brushes | Free | iPad, iPhone, Windows |
Rebelle
Escape Motions built Rebelle around paint that behaves physically. Watercolour granulates, drips and can be wetted, dried or blown across the canvas, while oils and acrylics pile up with impasto. Painter users who mostly work in watercolour or thick oil will find it the nearest feel on this list.
Rebelle 8.1 started the official 8 series in August 2025, and 8.3 followed in August 2026 with heightmap export of stroke depth, per CG Channel's Rebelle 8 coverage. The same report lists $89.99 for Standard and $149.99 for Pro, which adds pigment-based colour mixing, Bristle Brushes, RealShader lighting and NanoPixel 2 upscaling up to 20x.
Best for: Traditional painters who want watercolour and oil to behave like the real thing.
Pricing:
- Rebelle 8: $89.99 one-time
- Rebelle 8 Pro: $149.99 one-time
- Lifetime licence with one year of free updates; later updates renewed separately
- Free trial
Watch out for:
- The product page says activation needs an internet connection, and updates stop after the first year unless you renew update access.
Official site: Rebelle.
Krita
Krita is the free answer for painters who want to tune brushes as deeply as in Painter. It has several brush engines, wrap-around mode for textures, brush stabilisers and a pop-up palette, and it is GPLv3 open source.
The Krita download page lists version 5.3.4.1, released on October 7, 2026, for Windows 8.1 or later, macOS 10.15, Linux and Android. Copies sold on Steam, the Epic Games Store, the Microsoft Store and the Mac App Store are the same app with automatic updates, and the money funds development.
Best for: Painters who want a free, actively developed desktop app with serious brush control.
Pricing:
- Free from krita.org
- Optional paid store editions; price set per store
Watch out for:
- There is no physical paint simulation like Rebelle's drying and dripping watercolour, so wet-media looks take more brush setup.
- There is no iPad or iPhone version.
Official site: Krita.
Clip Studio Paint
Celsys's Clip Studio Paint is the illustration and comics favourite, with excellent line stabilisation, vector layers, 3D posing models and a huge store of community brushes. Ver. 5.0 arrived in March 2026 with a Smart Shape tool, faster large brushes and a velocity brush dynamic.
The Ver. 5.0 announcement lists PRO at $63 and EX at $277 as perpetual licences, with upgrades from Ver. 4.0 at $28.99 and $82.99. Monthly and annual plans start from $0.99 a month and cover every platform, including iPad, Android and iPhone.
Best for: Illustrators and comic artists who paint but care most about clean line work.
Pricing:
- PRO Ver. 5.0: $63 one-time; upgrade from 4.0 $28.99
- EX Ver. 5.0: $277 one-time; upgrade from EX 4.0 $82.99, from PRO 4.0 $242.99
- Monthly and annual plans from $0.99/month
Watch out for:
- Perpetual licences cover Windows and macOS only. Using it on a tablet or phone requires a subscription, per the purchase page.
Official site: Clip Studio Paint.
Procreate
Procreate is what many Painter users moved to when they started painting on an iPad. It is fast, the gestures are well thought out, and its brush studio lets you build custom brushes from shape and grain textures.
The App Store listing shows $12.99, version 5.4.14 and a requirement of iPadOS 16.3 or later, with about 51,000 ratings averaging 4.4. Savage, the developer, sells it only through the App Store and says there are no subscriptions.
Best for: Artists who paint on an iPad and want a one-time, low price.
Pricing:
- $12.99 one-time on the US App Store
- Procreate Pocket for iPhone sold separately
Watch out for:
- It runs only on iPad. There is no Windows or Mac version, so files move to a desktop through PSD or other exports.
Official site: Procreate.
ArtRage
ArtRage has long been the low-cost cousin of Painter. Its oils smear and pick up colour, the palette knife moves paint around, and tracing images and real-world tools like rulers and stencils make it friendly for hobby painters.
The ArtRage site lists Vitae Desktop at $80 for Windows and macOS, Vitae Mobile at $4.99 for iOS and Android, and ArtRage Lite at $29.90 for Windows and Mac. ArtRage 6 is still listed with a demo.
Best for: Hobby painters who want natural-media oils on desktop or phone at a low price.
Pricing:
- ArtRage Vitae Desktop: $80
- ArtRage Vitae Mobile: $4.99
- ArtRage Lite: $29.90
Watch out for:
- The site gives no version numbers for Vitae and no news of an ArtRage 7, so it is hard to tell how active development is.
Official site: ArtRage.
Adobe Photoshop
Photoshop is not a natural-media simulator, but plenty of professional concept artists paint in it because the file goes straight into a production pipeline. Mixer brushes blend wet colour, and the brush ecosystem from third-party sellers is enormous.
The Photoshop plans page lists the single app at $22.99 a month on an annual plan billed monthly, or $263.88 prepaid for the year. The Photography plan with Photoshop is $19.99 a month on an annual plan. Trials last 7 days.
Best for: Concept artists and studios whose work ends up in Photoshop files anyway.
Pricing:
- Photoshop single app: $22.99/month, annual plan billed monthly
- Photoshop single app: $263.88/year prepaid
- Photography plan: $19.99/month, annual plan billed monthly
- 7-day free trial
Watch out for:
- Subscription only, with no perpetual licence. Cancelling an annual plan billed monthly early can carry a fee under Adobe's terms.
Official site: Adobe Photoshop.
Adobe Fresco
Fresco is Adobe's painting app, and it is now completely free. Its live brushes blend and smudge like physical media, which is the Painter feature most people miss, and vector brushes sit alongside them for crisp line work. Unlimited layers and frame-by-frame animation are included.
The Fresco page lists iPad, iPhone and Windows. Files open in Photoshop, so it pairs well with a Creative Cloud workflow even if you do not pay for one.
Best for: Painters on iPad or a Windows pen tablet who want live wet brushes at no cost.
Pricing:
- Free
Watch out for:
- There is no macOS version on the product page, so Mac desktop users are left out.
Official site: Adobe Fresco.
How to choose
| If you need | Pick |
|---|---|
| Watercolour and oil that behave like real paint | Rebelle |
| A free desktop painting app | Krita |
| Clean line art, comics and illustration | Clip Studio Paint |
| Painting on an iPad for a one-time $12.99 | Procreate |
| Cheap natural media on desktop and phone | ArtRage |
| Painting inside a production Photoshop pipeline | Adobe Photoshop |
| Free live brushes on iPad or Windows | Adobe Fresco |
When to stay with Corel Painter
Stay with Painter if you already own Painter 2023 and your brush library and workflows are built around it. Its natural-media brush library is the reason most people bought it, and a perpetual licence you own keeps working without a subscription. Check the Painter page for its current system requirements before upgrading your OS, since macOS 13 is the oldest version it lists.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a free alternative to Corel Painter?
Yes. Krita is free and open source on Windows, Mac, Linux and Android, and Adobe Fresco is free on iPad, iPhone and Windows. Rebelle has a free trial but is paid after that.
Is Corel Painter still being updated?
Painter 2023 is still the latest version on Corel's product page. The page sells 30-day and 365-day subscriptions and a full upgrade for existing owners, but no Painter 2024, 2025 or 2026 has appeared.
Is Rebelle better than Corel Painter?
For watercolour and wet oil, Rebelle's paint physics are more convincing and it costs far less, at $89.99 or $149.99 for Pro. Painter offers more brush categories and more years of tutorials and brush packs.
What do professional digital painters use instead of Painter?
Studios often standardise on Photoshop because PSD is the shared file format, and on iPad Procreate is the usual pick. Clip Studio Paint is common among comic and anime-style illustrators.
