Krita vs Paint.NET

Krita: what it's good at

Krita is purpose-built for digital painting rather than photo editing, with an outstanding brush engine, excellent drawing-tablet support, and features aimed at comic and concept artists including frame-by-frame animation.

• Exceptional customisable brush engine
• Excellent graphics tablet support
• Frame-by-frame animation tools
• Comic panel and perspective assistants

Paint.NET: what it's good at

Paint.NET fills the gap between Windows Paint and a full professional editor: layers, effects and a genuinely simple interface that opens instantly. For quick edits it is often more practical than a heavyweight suite.

• Layers and adjustment effects
• Very fast to launch and learn
• Active plugin community
• Unlimited undo history

Which should you choose?

Both are free, so the honest answer is that you can install either and decide for yourself — that is the advantage of free software over a paid trial.

Both run on Windows. Only Krita supports macOS, Linux. If open source matters to you, Krita publishes its source code and Paint.NET does not.

We deliberately do not publish a star rating for either. We have no way to verify a rating that would be honest at scale, and an invented one would be worse than none — so we give you the facts and let you decide.

Frequently asked questions

Is Krita better than Paint.NET?

Neither is universally better. Krita digital painting software built for illustrators and concept artists, while Paint.NET the sweet spot between MS Paint and Photoshop. The right pick depends on your platform and workflow.

Are both really free?

Krita is open source and Paint.NET is free. Both can be downloaded without paying.

Can I install both?

Yes. Since neither costs anything, installing both and comparing them on your own files is usually the fastest way to decide.