Photopea rebuilds Photoshop in the browser. Bitgrain rebuilds the darkroom, halftone, dither, riso, ASCII, all deterministic.
Photopea is a remarkable piece of work, a near-complete Photoshop clone that runs in a tab. But it is a general editor. If what you actually want is the printed, screened, dithered look, you spend most of your time recreating it by hand. Bitgrain ships that look as the product.
| Capability | Bitgrain | Photopea |
|---|---|---|
| Built for | Editorial effects, posters, covers, zines | General photo editing and PSD work |
| Halftone and dither | 50+ deterministic effects, live controls | Manual, filter by filter |
| Riso and ASCII | Built in | Not built in |
| Ads | None | Ad-supported on the free tier |
| Same input, same output | Always, by construction | Depends on your manual steps |
| Video | Timeline editor, 4K export on Pro | No |
For retouching, layered PSD editing, or anything Photoshop-shaped, Photopea is the better and freer tool. Reach for Bitgrain when the output needs to look like it went through a printer, not a photo editor.
There is a free tier with a watermark and no ads. Pro is a one-time payment for full resolution and clean export, not a subscription.
No. Bitgrain imports flat images and camera formats, and saves its own portable .btg project. For PSD editing, Photopea is the right tool.
No. Every effect runs locally in your browser, so your images never leave the tab unless you opt into project sync.