Craft Apps Guide

ArtCraft's Crafting Apps are free, open-source desktop apps meant as alternatives to tools like Photoshop, Lightroom, Figma and Excel. Most are early. Craft Apps Guide is an unofficial site that tries to answer the obvious question: which of these can I actually use for my work today?

The homepage lists 13 apps with a status label on each. PhotoCraft, PdfCraft and FigCraft are marked early alpha. VectorCraft, EffectCraft, DeckCraft, LightCraft, GridCraft, WordCraft and others are marked in development. Each links to a guide on what the app covers and where it falls short, and the footer states that the site isn't affiliated with ArtCraft, Adobe or Microsoft.

The most practical page is the Creative App Finder. It asks three things: what you're trying to do, what file you're starting from, such as a PSD or a Premiere project, and whether someone else needs an editable file back. It then suggests one app, explains why, lists what to check before switching, and gives a four-step test using one real file. The page says nothing is uploaded and that a suggestion doesn't mean two file formats are interchangeable.

The comparison pages cover PhotoCraft against GIMP, FigCraft against Figma, the whole suite against Creative Cloud, and the office apps as alternatives to Microsoft Office. There are also tutorials for specific jobs, like a first 3D part in SolidCraft or auto layout in FigCraft, and guides for connecting the CAD apps to AI agents over MCP.

Because the site is about software it doesn't make, its safety page matters most. It points readers to getartcraft.com and the official storytold GitHub repositories, says to match the release to your operating system and CPU, and explains comparing a SHA-256 checksum when the release publishes one. It's also clear about the limits of that check: a matching checksum shows where a file came from, not that the build is bug-free or that your documents will open correctly.

The about page doesn't name who runs the guide or say how it's funded. With apps changing this quickly, check the official release notes before relying on a specific feature claim.