AI BuilderFinder

Checked on the official pages 2026-10-12

ArtCraft apps: the free Adobe and Office clones, mapped

ArtCraft's "Crafting Apps" are twelve free, open-source rebuilds of paid desktop software: seven Adobe apps, three Microsoft Office apps, plus AutoCAD and Pro Tools. All are written in Rust, run on macOS, Windows and Linux, and were released between 30 September and 7 October 2026.

They are real software, not mockups, but none is a finished replacement yet. Every app is labelled early alpha or in development. Use them to avoid a subscription for light work, not for client deadlines.

Which app replaces which

Crafting AppStands in for
PhotoCraft
Image editing: layers, masks, type and real PSD files		 Adobe Photoshop
Early alpha
LightCraft
Photo library and raw development		 Adobe Lightroom
In development
FilmCraft
Video editing, color and sound		 Adobe Premiere Pro
In development
PdfCraft
Reading, organizing and protecting PDFs		 Adobe Acrobat
Early alpha
VectorCraft
Vector illustration		 Adobe Illustrator
In development
EffectCraft
Motion graphics and visual effects		 Adobe After Effects
In development
DesignCraft
Page layout and publishing		 Adobe InDesign
In development
WordCraft
Word processing		 Microsoft Word
In development
GridCraft
Spreadsheets		 Microsoft Excel
In development
DeckCraft
Presentations and slide shows		 Microsoft PowerPoint
In development
CADCraft
Computer-aided design and drafting		 Autodesk AutoCAD
In development
SoundCraft
Audio recording and mixing		 Avid Pro Tools
In development

Stage labels are the ones shown on each app's official page. The three most-watched apps have their own pages here: PhotoCraft, LightCraft and FilmCraft.

How close are they to the real thing?

Unusually, the developers publish their own scorecards and are blunt about them:

  • PhotoCraft (Photoshop): early alpha, "not yet a Photoshop replacement for daily professional work". Strong PSD support; gaps in AI features, 15 tools, typography and plug-ins.
  • LightCraft (Lightroom): about 81% of features present, about 61% as a day-to-day replacement.
  • FilmCraft (Premiere Pro): about 86% feature breadth, about 56% ready for real work.

The pattern is the same across all three: most menus and tools exist, but file compatibility, plug-ins, AI features and polish lag behind. The Office and CAD apps arrived a week later and are earlier still.

Who built them, and how AI was involved

The apps come from the team behind ArtCraft, led by developer Brandon Thomas and published under the storytold organisation on GitHub. Coverage in The Register and PetaPixel reported that the code was written with heavy help from AI coding tools, with The Register naming Claude. The repositories include instructions written for AI agents that contribute.

That is why this site covers them: twelve large desktop apps in about two weeks is one of the clearest public examples of what AI coding agents can build. It also explains a shared design choice: every app exposes its commands to a command-line tool and an MCP server, so an AI agent can operate the software as well as a person can.

Is it free? What ArtCraft itself costs

All twelve Crafting Apps are free and open source under MIT or Apache-2.0. Separately, ArtCraft, the team's AI image and video studio, is also open source but sells optional subscriptions for AI generation credits:

ArtCraft planMonthlyCredits a month
Basic$101,000
Pro$353,750
Max$606,600
EnterpriseCustomCustom

Prices as listed on the ArtCraft pricing page, which also showed a limited-time 20% discount when we checked. The credits pay for AI models such as Nano Banana, GPT-Image-1.5, Seedance 2.0 and Kling 3.0. You can use ArtCraft without paying by bringing your own compute or third-party subscriptions.

Download safely

Get the apps only from getartcraft.com or the official storytold repositories on GitHub. The ArtCraft Launcher installs and updates every Crafting App from one place; each app also has its own standalone installer. Viral open-source launches attract lookalike repositories and mirror sites that bundle malware, so avoid unofficial download pages.

Questions people ask

What is ArtCraft?

ArtCraft is an open-source AI image and video studio from developer Brandon Thomas. In late September and early October 2026 the same team released twelve free "Crafting Apps", open-source rebuilds of Photoshop, Lightroom, Premiere Pro, Acrobat, Illustrator, After Effects, InDesign, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, AutoCAD and Pro Tools.

Are the ArtCraft apps free?

Yes. Every Crafting App is free and open source. The developers ask for an optional subscription only on ArtCraft, the AI image and video studio, to pay for AI generation credits.

Can ArtCraft replace Adobe Creative Cloud?

Not yet for professional work. The apps are labelled early alpha or in development. The developers rate FilmCraft about 56% ready for real work against Premiere Pro and LightCraft about 61% as a day-to-day Lightroom replacement.

Was ArtCraft built with AI?

News coverage, including The Register and PetaPixel, reported that the apps were written with heavy help from AI coding tools, with The Register naming Claude. The repositories include instructions for AI agents that contribute code.

Is it legal to clone Photoshop?

The team describes the apps as clean-room implementations written from public specifications and observed behaviour, without Adobe or Microsoft code or assets. We are not lawyers, and whether that holds up has not been tested in court for these apps.

Where do I download the ArtCraft apps?

From getartcraft.com or the storytold organisation on GitHub. The ArtCraft Launcher installs and updates every Crafting App in one place; each app also has a standalone installer.

Where these facts come from. Features, version numbers and readiness figures were read from each vendor's own pages on 2026-10-12. Open-source projects change fast, so check the linked page before you rely on a detail.