Adobe PhotoShop vs. Corel PaintShop Pro

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Adobe PhotoShop
Score 9.1 out of 10
N/A
Adobe Photoshop is the best known graphics product on the market.
$20
per month
Corel PaintShop Pro
Score 9.0 out of 10
N/A
PaintShop Pro is an all-in-one photo editor with advanced photo management, editing & creative tools that deliver everything a photo & design enthusiast needs, from Corel Corporation.N/A
Pricing
Adobe PhotoShopCorel PaintShop Pro
Editions & Modules
Single App
$20.00
per month
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Adobe PhotoShopCorel PaintShop Pro
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Adobe PhotoShopCorel PaintShop Pro
Best Alternatives
Adobe PhotoShopCorel PaintShop Pro
Small Businesses
CorelDRAW Graphics Suite
CorelDRAW Graphics Suite
Score 9.8 out of 10
CorelDRAW Graphics Suite
CorelDRAW Graphics Suite
Score 9.8 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
GIMP
GIMP
Score 9.3 out of 10
GIMP
GIMP
Score 9.3 out of 10
Enterprises
CorelDRAW Graphics Suite
CorelDRAW Graphics Suite
Score 9.8 out of 10
CorelDRAW Graphics Suite
CorelDRAW Graphics Suite
Score 9.8 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Adobe PhotoShopCorel PaintShop Pro
Likelihood to Recommend
9.7
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.4
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
7.3
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Availability
9.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
9.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
In-Person Training
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
9.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Configurability
8.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
9.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
4.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
9.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
9.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Adobe PhotoShopCorel PaintShop Pro
Likelihood to Recommend
I use Adobe PhotoShop to do practically all of my business from my home in Turkey. Many customers find the cost of Adobe PhotoShop to be prohibitive, thus they turn to substitute alternatives and illegally downloaded pirated software. Regulations like torrents, sales, and price increases lead to a number of financial issues. Change can be advantageous.
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Corel PaintShop Pro is well suited for photographers wanting to adjust photos and also for designers who want to create designs from scratch, working in layers and merging various elements. Due to slow load times, Corel PaintShop Pro is not well suited when you only have a few small tasks to do and when a lightweight alternative will do the job just as well (e.g. cropping and red-eye removal).
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Pros
  • Brush customization. There are many available brushes for illustration, and each can be customized to fit the needs of your specific style.
  • Integration with other Adobe products. It is essential that the images I create be accessible in Adobe Indesign and Illustrator, and [Adobe] Photoshop can be placed and edited easily within those programs.
  • Advanced editing. The possibilities for editing photos [are] endless, with new features being added constantly.
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  • I can create digital copies of artwork I collect
  • I like the fact that I can create transparent backgrounds.
  • I can edit and clean old photographs.
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Cons
  • Expensive - It is too expensive to buy Photoshop alone, and hence leading the user to purchase the entire Creative Cloud Package though he/she is not even aware of half of those apps.
  • High System Spec - Requires high system specifications to run the application smoothly, and to use it at its best.
  • Process lag - When it comes to large-sized files, the application becomes laggy taking much time even to render a single layer.
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  • I have the 2018 version and every now and again upgrade ads will pop up in the bottom right of my screen which I find rather annoying
  • How to save your work and where it gets saved is confusing. It took me a while to realize that projects were saved in "pspimage" files. The knowledge base article “The Basics Of Saving Files In PaintShop Pro” did not mention pspfiles. They also have the concept of workspaces, but I eventually realized that this is not where your work is saved.
  • I find that a tool called paint.net is massively easier to use, but, then again, paint.net has far fewer features. I think an option in PaintShop Pro for temporarily switching down the functionality and interface to resemble paint.net would be a useful feature, so users do not get blinded by the extensive interface.
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Likelihood to Renew
Adobe Photoshop Creative Cloud 2014 is part of the Adobe Creative Cloud family of software products. Therefore, when you get a license to use Adobe Photoshop for a monthly fee, you are constantly up-to-date on any upgrades or new releases of the software. So, if you are using the product, you never have to renew and you are always using the latest version of the software, for perpetuity.
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I feel like the program is not only powerful and intuitive, it's also extremely affordable. I've been a PSP user for many, many years, and I've really not looked at any other alternatives since then. At the time, anything remotely close was very expensive. PSP does everything (and MUCH more) that I need it to effectively and affordably. As long as that continues, I'll continue to be a satisfied user.
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Usability
I've used it for a long time and would consider myself a Pro user at this point. I know where everything I need is, have custom actions set up to make common actions faster, and have my workflows automated so much that everything is easy. Occasionally, a new version of Photoshop will change a common usability feature which will slow things down for a short time before I'm able to adjust, but generally I really like my setup. However, if you're new to Photoshop, it is likely going to take you a while to figure out how you can best use the features.
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Overall I am used to using Paintshop Pro since before it was a Corel Product it has only gotten better and I do not have to put up with Adobe rules
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Reliability and Availability
Adobe Photoshop is very reliable, but is never 100%. There have been times when Adobe Photoshop has had trouble opening, but nothing a little computer restart couldn't fix. I use Adobe Photoshop on a Mac for both work and at home on a daily basis, and I would be lost without it.
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This program is not dependent on outside resources. Again, this is a desktop app. Load it up and use it. As long as your machine is reasonably powered and otherwise behaving, PSP runs great.
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Performance
Speed can be an issue when you are dealing with large files for large format printing or billboards. When working on web images, speed is not an issue.
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I have had no significant waiting times
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Support Rating
While I never contacted Adobe directly, there is so much content out there in the form of YouTube videos, Lynda/LinkedIn learning that almost any issue, including bugs, can be worked around (and this method is generally faster as there's no turnaround time involved).
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I've never had to contact support. If I've had questions, I've been able to answer them from the existing help file and video tutorials.
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In-Person Training
So, I received the training at the HQ and it was train the trainer training. A good time, I spent a week at their campus
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No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
I took a course so it really helped. I didn’t take the course until much later after beginning to use it, so I wish work would have sent me right off the bat. It would have alleviated a lot of frustratinon
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Nothing in particular. This is a desktop app. Install the program and use it. It's very straightforward for general graphic manipulation, and very intuitive for more complex processing.
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Alternatives Considered
Every software has its kind of users, and Photoshop is ranked as one of the most competitive softwares and is used mainly by professionals. Figma is great for working in collaboration and designing Ui/Ux interface. Illustrator is great for vector-based work, such as logos and branding. InDesign works best if one is building large documents that require a lot of text formatting.
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From an ROI perspective, we moved entirely away from PhotoShop because we could not justify the cost vs performance. Corel PaintShop Pro is simply more cost-effective and offers the same performance and tools.
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Scalability
It seems expensive compared to the free/cheap programs now available
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I'm not sure that this is scalable; it's a desktop app. Load it up, and use it. Make sure you have a license for each person using it. Pretty simple.
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Return on Investment
  • Adobe PhotoShop in general is a great time saver.
  • It does take a long time for the program to start up, however
  • The most difficult task is onboarding new employees into Adobe PhotoShop who don't have experience with it. It's an investment for their future so we see value in it.
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  • Our website is better because of Corel PaintShop Pro
  • Our brochures for tradeshows are much better due to PaintShop Pro
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ScreenShots