Developer builds seven free Adobe alternatives with Claude, but they are not yet Creative Cloud replacements

Developer Brandon Thomas says he used Claude Opus 5.5 to help build seven free, open-source alternatives to popular Adobe apps. He declared that “software is over,” but the ArtCraft programs are not finished replacements for Creative Cloud: the project lists PhotoCraft and PdfCraft as early alpha software and the other five as in development.

The seven apps target familiar creative tasks, from editing photographs and video to designing pages and working with PDFs. They are separate programs written in Rust, not copies of Adobe’s source code. Thomas has described them as clean-room reimplementations and says his team aims to close the remaining gaps in features and file compatibility.

Which Adobe apps does ArtCraft aim to replace?

PhotoCraft is the project’s Photoshop-style image editor, while VectorCraft targets Illustrator-style vector drawing. FilmCraft is a Premiere Pro-style video editor, and LightCraft is designed for photo organization and raw development in the vein of Lightroom.

The remaining three are PdfCraft, an Acrobat-style PDF workbench; EffectCraft, a motion-graphics and visual-effects app modeled on After Effects; and DesignCraft, a page-layout tool targeting InDesign workflows. Thomas initially called the PDF app PrintCraft; the project’s current app listing calls it PdfCraft.

Together, those programs cover seven prominent Adobe products—not Adobe’s entire Creative Cloud catalog. ArtCraft’s own catalog has since expanded beyond the original seven to include tools for tasks such as word processing, audio, presentations, CAD and spreadsheets. Those additions do not make the original seven Adobe alternatives complete.

Are the free Adobe alternatives ready to use?

They are available to try. ArtCraft lists desktop installers for macOS, Windows and Linux, with browser versions for several apps. The software is open source and does not require an Adobe subscription. ArtCraft also offers a launcher intended to install the apps and manage updates.

Availability, however, is different from readiness for professional work. The project’s current catalog marks PhotoCraft and PdfCraft as “early alpha” and the other five Adobe-style programs as “in development.” ArtCraft’s own PhotoCraft roadmap says some Photoshop files still do not render or export as intended, while features and real-world workflow tests remain unfinished. That is a significant consideration for anyone exchanging layered files with clients or relying on a particular tool, plugin or export format.

Thomas has set an ambitious goal of matching Adobe’s features, but that remains a goal rather than an established result. His “software is over” remark is best understood as a claim about how quickly AI can help developers build complex applications, not evidence that seven mature Adobe replacements have already arrived.

What did Claude contribute?

Thomas says Claude Opus 5.5 helped him recreate the apps in native Rust. The publicly available code and development roadmaps show substantial ongoing work, but they do not establish that an AI model built the programs unaided. Thomas describes himself as an experienced Rust developer and says collaborators and community contributors are involved.

For curious users, the practical approach is to test an ArtCraft app on copies of nonessential files and check whether it supports the specific formats and tasks they need. For people considering an immediate switch from Adobe, the central distinction is straightforward: seven free alternatives now exist, but matching the reliability and compatibility of the products they target is still a work in progress.