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Design

Photopea

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Panel rating · 6 judges · How to read the stars

Category median

Sovereignty: not determined

0–5 in half steps. 5 means the rubric's top anchor is met on the evidence.

by Photopea · www.photopea.com

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Photopea: AI-assisted analysis on whats-best.ai Photopea: AI-assisted analysis on whats-best.ai (dark)

Add ?theme=dark to the image address for dark backgrounds. The badge shows the category and the month of the latest evaluation, and EU-Made where that is the product’s provenance. It never shows a score.

Photopea at a glance

Vendor
Photopea
Headquarters
Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 3 Nov 2026
Data hosting
Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 3 Nov 2026
Free plan
Yes, per the vendor’s own page source, captured 3 Nov 2026
Panel verdict
The AI panel rates Photopea 2/5, the mean of 6 judges. Photopea is a browser-based image editor whose scoring concentrates on one strength: file ownership and portability at 6-8, the highest band awarded. how scores are made
As of
Vendor pages captured 3 Nov 2026; evaluated by the panel 4 Nov 2026. all sources

Photopea alternatives, European ones first →

Read this page as one judge. Each weighs the same scores by what they care about.

The Skeptic

Weighted verdict

Has read "free for viewers", "commercially safe AI" and "export anytime" on every page in this category. Reads instead for the click that turns a reviewer into a billed editor, the plan the IP indemnity actually covers, and whether the export keeps a single component.

Same scores as the panel view — this lens weights them the way this judge cares.

Scored by The Skeptic

Design, prototyping & design systems

How this is scored

The making itself: vector and layout tools, interactive prototypes, and the shared components, styles and tokens that keep a company's products and materials consistent — judged on what the feature and help pages document, not on showcase images.

0 — Not a design tool: a file viewer, a stock library or a single-purpose converter in which nothing is laid out or drawn.

3 — A canvas or editor with templates, shapes, text and images; reusable components, shared styles and prototyping are basic or not described.

5 — Reusable components or styles shared across files, responsive or auto layout, and clickable prototypes or presentations linking screens.

8 — A design system managed in the tool: team libraries that update where they are used, variables or tokens for colour, type and spacing with modes or themes, component variants and properties, prototypes with transitions and conditional logic, and library changes published with versions.

10 — The design system is a governed product: library releases versioned and reviewable, token export in a documented format for development, usage analytics per component, and accessibility checks such as contrast built into the editor.

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The Skeptic

A deep editor is documented — layers, masks, smart objects, adjustment layers, channels, paths, vector editing, RAW development, Liquify and Puppet Warp — but it is raster and vector editing depth, not a design-system product. Reusable components, shared styles and interactive prototypes are not described on the captured page. 1

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Collaboration, review & developer handoff

How this is scored

Working on the same files with colleagues, clients and developers: comments and review, permissions for internal and external people, and the handoff that gives engineering measurements, assets and code rather than screenshots.

0 — A single-user tool: files are worked on alone and passed on as exports.

3 — Files shared by link with comments or real-time co-editing; guest access, permissions and a developer view are basic or not described.

5 — Real-time co-editing, comments with mentions, sharing with view or edit rights per file or project, and an inspect or developer view with measurements and asset export.

8 — Guests and reviewers who comment without a paid seat, version history with restore, branching or review of changes before they reach the main file, a developer mode that links components to code, a documented API and plugins, and named integrations with issue trackers and code tools.

10 — Handoff is a contract between design and code: component properties mapped to code components, token and asset export automated through the API, an audit log of access and sharing, and external access governed by domain, expiry and admin policy.

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The Skeptic

The vendor's own page states the working model: no uploads, files run on the device and never leave it, then travel onward as PSD or other exports. We found no public information on sharing, comments, guest access, permissions or a developer handoff view. 1

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Brand assets & governance

How this is scored

Keeping a brand usable and correct across a company: a central library for logos, images and templates, brand guidelines people can find, locked templates that let non-designers produce material, and rights and expiry metadata on every licensed asset.

0 — No shared assets of any kind; the product has no library, kit or template that a team uses together.

3 — A shared folder, brand kit or template set with logos, colours and fonts; locking, guidelines and asset metadata are basic or not described.

5 — A central brand kit or library with logos, colours and fonts, team templates that non-designers can fill, and the ability to lock brand elements or restrict who edits templates.

8 — Brand guidelines published in the tool, tagging and search across assets, approval workflows for new assets and template output, version control on assets, rights, usage and expiry metadata with warnings on expiry, and access per team, market or partner.

10 — Brand governance is auditable: every asset carries its licence, owner and permitted use, usage of each asset is tracked across files and channels, distribution to external partners is logged, and the whole library with metadata is exportable in a documented format.

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The Skeptic not rated — no public information

We found no public information on a shared brand library, team templates, guidelines, locked elements or asset rights metadata. The captured vendor page describes editing tools only and bears no governance capability. 1

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Files, formats & portability

How this is scored

Whether the work can leave: open or documented file formats, export that keeps layers, vectors and components, offline or self-hosted options, and what happens to files after a downgrade, a removed seat or a cancelled contract.

0 — Work cannot leave the product: no export or download of designs is offered.

3 — Export of designs as images or PDF per page or frame; export of whole files with structure and access after cancellation are basic or not described.

5 — Export to PNG, PDF and SVG with vectors and text kept, whole files downloadable to a local copy, and files of a downgraded or cancelled account addressed in the help centre or terms.

8 — An open or publicly documented file format, import from and export to other named tools documented, bulk export of a team’s files, an API that reads full file structure, files of removed users transferred to the organisation by policy, and a stated retention and deletion timeline after the contract ends.

10 — Portability is built in: an open-source or openly specified format, self-hosting or a local-first option, round-trip export without loss of components and prototypes, and the customer’s ownership of all files and their export rights written into the terms.

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The Skeptic

PSD is the main format with full opening and saving, the format list names imports from Figma, InDesign, Illustrator, CorelDRAW and EPS plus dozens of export formats, and the local-first statement means the vendor never holds the work, making retention-after-cancellation questions moot. We found no public information on an API reading file structure, bulk export, or terms stating export rights, which keeps it below the top band. 1

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AI features & rights to the work

How this is scored

What the vendor's AI does with the customer's files and what the customer may do with the AI's output: training on customer content and the opt-out, the models and where they run, commercial use of generated images, stock licences and indemnity.

0 — The terms state that customer files train the vendor’s models with no opt-out, or that generated output may not be used commercially.

3 — AI features described on an AI or help page with a general statement on responsible use or data handling; training on customer files, admin controls and output rights are basic or not described.

5 — A statement on whether customer content trains the models (excluded, or with a documented opt-out), AI features that an admin can switch off for the organisation, and commercial use of generated output addressed in the terms or AI page.

8 — Training excluded by default for business plans, model providers and the processing location of AI features stated, generated content labelled or carrying content credentials, stock and template licences stated per asset type, and an IP indemnity for generated output on a named plan.

10 — AI is governed in writing: a per-feature list of models, providers and locations, admin controls per team and feature, a log of AI use, training exclusion and output ownership in the contract terms, and indemnity and licence limits published in full.

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The Skeptic

Two AI features are described — one-click background removal and generative replace through a text description — next to a general statement that files never leave the device. We found no public information on model providers, AI processing location, training on customer content, admin switches, commercial-use rights or indemnity for generated output. 1

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European sovereignty

How this is scored

Who the contracting entity is, where design files, brand assets and AI prompts are stored and processed, and which subprocessors touch them. Independently sourced by the sovereignty pipeline.

0 — Proven non-EU on every dimension the evidence covers: non-EU contracting entity and non-EU hosting, with no EU option stated.

3 — One European element proven: an EU contracting entity or EU representative, EU data residency (even if only on an enterprise plan), or a published DPA, with the rest of the chain unstated.

5 — EU hosting stated for files as standard or selectable and an EU contracting entity or EU representative, with a DPA offered; the subprocessor chain (AI, rendering, support) is unstated or partly non-EU.

8 — EU contracting entity, files, assets and backups stored in the EU on named infrastructure, subprocessor list published with locations and purposes, and the processing location of AI features stated.

10 — Sovereign end to end and evidenced: European ownership, EU entity, every hosting, AI and support subprocessor European or optional, self-hosting or a European cloud offered, and certifications published.

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The Skeptic not rated — no public information

No sovereignty attributes are on record and the captured page proves no European element in either direction: we found no public information on the contracting entity, hosting, the processing location of the AI features, or any subprocessor. 1

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Pricing transparency not rated — the vendor publishes no price

How this is scored

Whether a buyer can compute the annual cost for their team from public pages alone — which seat types exist and what each may do, how viewers and guests are billed, how seats are added and trued up, AI credits, and the plan where SSO, admin controls and brand features begin.

0 — No public prices at all; every plan is a sales conversation.

3 — A public "from" price or one priced plan, per seat or flat.

5 — Per-seat prices public for the main plans with the billing period stated and the main features per plan listed.

8 — Every plan and seat type priced, free viewers and guests stated with their limits, how and when added seats are billed explained, AI credits and storage priced or included explicitly, the plan that unlocks SSO and admin controls named, and VAT treatment stated.

10 — Complete cost computability: annual cost derivable for a given mix of editors, viewers and guests, true-up and auto-upgrade rules published, every add-on priced publicly, and contract term, renewal and downgrade conditions stated.

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The Skeptic

The only pricing fact is a free tier plus the claim of "all the premium features without spending a dime", which implies a premium tier exists while showing no price for it. No plan, seat type, billing period, VAT treatment or any price figure appears on the captured page. 1

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Questions about Photopea

Is Photopea European?

Not determined: the vendor’s pages as captured do not say where Photopea is based.

Where does Photopea store data?

Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 3 Nov 2026.

Does Photopea have a free plan?

Yes. Photopea has a free plan, per the vendor’s page captured 3 Nov 2026.

What are the best alternatives to Photopea?

As of 4 Nov 2026, the panel rates Penpot (3.5/5), Sketch (3/5) and Collaboard (3/5) highest among the other 21 Design products evaluated. Ratings that look equal are rounded to half stars; the order uses the unrounded rating, then the name. The highest-rated European alternative is Penpot (EU-Made). Ratings are the AI panel’s opinion, formed from public evidence: how scores are made. The full list, with European products first: Photopea alternatives.

Where this could be wrong

What we left out

A claim that does not survive our checks costs us the claim, not the page. This is what was taken off this one.

Sources (1)

The pages every claim on this page was read from — each one checked, dated, and kept verifiable.

  1. 1 Vendor page www.photopea.com Checked 3 Nov 2026 Details →