For years, Adobe has ruled the digital art and photography world with an iron fist. If you wanted top-tier image editing, you had to subscribe to Photoshop.
Sure, alternatives like Affinity Photo and Pixelmator existed, but they were always the underdogs—scrappy, affordable, and refreshingly free of Adobe’s suffocating subscription model. Now, that’s all about to change, and Adobe should be very, very nervous.
Apple has officially acquired Pixelmator, the Lithuania-based company behind one of the most powerful Photoshop competitors on the market.
If you’ve ever used Pixelmator Pro, you know that it punches way above its weight class. It’s fast, loaded with AI-powered tools, and designed specifically for macOS, making it a seamless experience for Apple users.
And now, with Apple’s vast resources backing it, Pixelmator has the potential to become something much bigger—a true Photoshop rival with Apple’s ecosystem as its battleground.
The Writing on the Wall for Adobe
Apple isn’t a company that makes acquisitions lightly.
When it buys something, it usually means one of two things: either it’s killing off a competitor (see: Dark Sky, Texture) or it’s gearing up for a major play in that space.
Pixelmator is too good to be left in the shadows, which means Apple likely has bigger plans.
Imagine Pixelmator integrated deeply into macOS, supercharged with Apple Silicon optimizations, and perhaps even baked into iCloud for seamless cross-device editing.
Now, add the possibility of it being bundled into Apple One, giving users a pro-level photo editor for a fraction of Adobe’s subscription cost. That’s the kind of move that could shake Adobe to its core.
Adobe’s Worst Nightmare? A Free or Cheap Photoshop Alternative
Adobe’s Achilles’ heel has always been its pricing model. The Creative Cloud subscription is expensive—$20.99 per month for Photoshop alone, or $59.99 for the full suite.
That adds up fast, and many creatives have long wished for an escape. If Apple plays its cards right, Pixelmator could be that escape route.
Apple doesn’t need to charge $20 a month for Pixelmator. It could easily roll it into macOS, offer it for a one-time fee, or—if it really wants to turn the screws on Adobe—make it free for Mac users. That alone could push thousands of creatives to ditch Photoshop overnight.
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The Risk for Pixelmator Users
Of course, not everyone is cheering. Apple has a habit of acquiring beloved apps only to shut them down or lock them into its walled garden.
Just ask fans of Dark Sky, the weather app Apple bought and then killed, rolling its best features into Apple’s own Weather app.
The fear here is that Apple might force Pixelmator into exclusivity, cutting off future development for non-Apple users.
Then there’s the question of creative control. One of the reasons Pixelmator has been so successful is its independent spirit.
Will the team be given the freedom to innovate, or will Apple’s corporate bureaucracy slow things down?
Will we still get the Pixelmator we love, or will it slowly morph into another Apple-branded product, stripped of its uniqueness?
The Bottom Line
No matter what happens, this acquisition is a big deal. Apple has been making aggressive moves in the pro-creative space, and with Pixelmator under its wing, it now has a serious contender against Adobe.
If you’re an Adobe executive, you’re probably sweating right now. And if you’re a creative looking for a powerful, affordable Photoshop alternative, things just got a lot more interesting.
One thing’s for sure—2025 is shaping up to be a wild year for digital artists and photographers.
The question is, will Apple use Pixelmator to finally break Adobe’s monopoly, or will this be another case of a great app lost to the corporate machine? Time will tell, but for now, Adobe should be watching its back.
Let me know your thoughts in the comment section on Apple’s move to complete its acquisition of Pixelmator’s apps.
