13 open-source tools. Photoshop. Figma. Premiere. Word. Audacity. All of it. And it is trending.
Brandon Thomas was tired of paying Adobe every single month for tools he needed to do his job.
So he did what most people only think about. He built the alternatives himself.
Not one tool. Not two. He is building an entire ecosystem to replace Adobe Creative Cloud and Microsoft Office at the same time. The project is called ArtCraft, it is completely free, everything is open source, and it is currently trending all over the internet.
What makes this even more interesting is how he built it. He used AI, specifically Claude, to vibe-code most of it. A software engineer using AI to build free alternatives to the exact software companies that are also betting big on AI. That is a story worth paying attention to.
What Is ArtCraft
ArtCraft is a collection of open-source desktop applications built in Rust. They run natively on Windows, Mac, and Linux. Several of them also have browser versions powered by WebAssembly so you do not even need to install anything.
It started with seven tools focused on creative work. Then it expanded to 13. Now there is a unified launcher that lets you install, update, and manage all of them from one place.
The goal, as Thomas himself has said, is to match Adobe's software by the end of the year. That is an ambitious target. But what is already here is enough to make the project worth taking seriously.
The 13 Tools and What They Do
PhotoCraft — The Photoshop alternative. Image editing with layers, masks, and image processing tools. This is the one that started it all.
VectorCraft — For vector graphics. Illustrations, logos, icons. Comparable to Illustrator.
FilmCraft — Video editing on a timeline. The Premiere alternative. If you make videos and hate monthly subscriptions, start here.
LightCraft — Photo library management and RAW file development. The Lightroom equivalent.
PdfCraft — More than just a PDF reader. Merge, split, organize, and process PDF documents.
EffectCraft — Motion graphics and visual effects. The After Effects territory.
DesignCraft — Page layout and publishing. Books, brochures, print materials. Think InDesign.
Those are the original seven. Now here is where it gets even more interesting.
FigCraft — A full UI design and prototyping tool. Frames, auto layout, components, variants, real-time collaboration, developer handoff. This is a direct Figma alternative and it is completely free and self-hostable.
WordCraft — A word processor with a ribbon interface, change tracking, tables, citations, and table of contents support. It reads and writes DOCX files and exports to PDF. A genuine Microsoft Word alternative.
SoundCraft — A digital audio workstation. Multitrack recording, MIDI, a mixing console, automation, and plugin support. Free DAW that covers what most creators actually need.
DeckCraft — Presentation software. Slides, themes, transitions, opens and saves PPTX files. The PowerPoint replacement in this lineup.
CADCraft — Technical design and CAD drafting. Layer management, dimensioning, DXF support, PDF export. For anyone doing technical drawings.
GridCraft — Spreadsheets. Formulas, dynamic arrays, charts, PivotTables, over 500 calculation functions, reads and writes XLSX files. An Excel alternative that handles most real-world spreadsheet work.
ArtCraft Launcher
As the number of tools grew, the project needed a better way to manage them. The launcher handles installation, updates, and launching all 13 tools from a single interface. It verifies SHA-256 checksums before installing anything so you know what you are getting. It figures out the right build for your operating system and CPU automatically.
It is built as a native application, not Electron, which means it is lightweight and fast. Download it from the GitHub releases page and you can get the whole ecosystem set up in a few minutes.
The Legal Question Nobody Has Answered Yet
Here is the part worth thinking about. ArtCraft calls itself a "clean-room reimplementation" of these tools. Clean-room means the code was written from scratch without looking at the original proprietary source code, so it avoids direct copyright issues.
But when your product is literally named to mirror Photoshop, Premiere, and Lightroom, and you are building using AI that was trained on enormous amounts of existing software and design patterns, there are open questions about where the legal lines sit. Phoronix noted the "potentially pressing legal challenges" around this kind of project.
Adobe has not publicly responded yet. Whether they do or not will say a lot about how they plan to handle the open-source challenge to their business model.
Should You Switch to It Right Now
The honest answer is: try it, but carefully.
The original seven tools have had more development time and are more stable. For general image editing, vector work, or video editing, they are worth testing as a real replacement.
The newer six tools are earlier in development. Some are still in alpha. Before you move your actual work to WordCraft or GridCraft, test your files in them first. Make sure the features you depend on actually work. Keep backups.
For developers, there is a completely separate reason to care about this project. Everything is built in Rust and all the source code is public. You can read it, contribute to it, report bugs, or just learn from how it is structured. The Rust ecosystem for desktop applications is still young and ArtCraft is one of the more ambitious real-world examples of it.
Why This Is Getting So Much Attention
Adobe Creative Cloud costs around $55 a month. Microsoft 365 is another $10 to $30 depending on your plan. For a freelancer or a student, that is real money every single month for software you do not own and cannot customize.
ArtCraft is not just "another GIMP." It is a coordinated effort to cover the full stack of creative and productivity software that professionals actually use every day. The fact that one engineer started this, used AI to accelerate it, and is openly aiming to match Adobe by the end of the year is the kind of story that gets people's attention.
Whether it fully gets there or not, the direction is interesting. And what is already available is free to try right now.
Explore everything at getartcraft.
I write about open source, tools, and things happening in tech worth knowing about. Follow for more.
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