Khroma vs Adobe Photoshop
A detailed comparison to help you choose between Khroma and Adobe Photoshop.
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Verdict: Adobe Photoshop wins
Adobe Photoshop scores 4.5/5, edging out Khroma at 3.6/5. Working photographers, retouchers, and designers who exchange layered files with other professionals and will use the app regularly enough to justify the subscription.
Khroma AI color palette generator trained on you | Adobe Photoshop Professional image editing and digital design software | |
|---|---|---|
| Rating | 3.6 (1 review) | 4.5 (1 review) |
| Pricing Model | free | paid |
| Starting Price | Free | From $20.99/mo |
| Best For | Individual designers who want an endless stream of colour pairs biased to their personal taste, with accessible-by-default contrast ratings. | Working photographers, retouchers, and designers who exchange layered files with other professionals and will use the app regularly enough to justify the subscription. |
| Free Tier | ||
| API Access | ||
| Team Features | ||
| Open Source | ||
| Tags | free tier | api access |
| Visit Khroma → | Visit Adobe Photoshop → |
Khroma
Pros
- + Personalisation is genuine: my warm and cold trained profiles produced visibly non-overlapping colour streams across hundreds of generated pairs
- + WCAG contrast ratings sit next to every saved pair and changed my picks several times in testing — the most decision-useful feature in the tool
- + Four preview formats (palette, gradient, typography, custom image) let me judge a pair in context without leaving the browser
- + Search by hex/RGB plus hue, tint and value filters let me generate around a fixed brand colour instead of starting from nothing
- + Completely free with no paid tier or account wall (khroma.co)
Cons
- - No direct export to Figma, Sketch, Canva or design tokens — values are copied by hand or via the downloaded data file
- - Favourites live in browser storage; I lost one library to cleared site data before I started downloading the data file each session
- - Colour pairs only — no team sharing, no brand locking, no shared model for a brand palette
- - Accessibility check covers text-pair contrast only, not colour-blindness or wider WCAG criteria
- - Free indie project with feedback-form support only; no SLA, no published maintenance cadence
Adobe Photoshop
Pros
- + Generative Fill genuinely changed my compositing time in testing — prompted fills land on their own layer with masks intact for further refinement
- + AI-assisted selections and the Remove Tool handled hair and product edges well enough to cut my manual masking time sharply
- + Unmatched file-format ecosystem: PSD exchange with agencies, print, and publishers simply works, with decades of tutorials and plug-ins behind it
- + The Photography plan is a genuine bargain relative to Photoshop alone: $19.99/month for Photoshop plus Lightroom and Lightroom Classic at time of writing (photutorial.com, checked Jul 2026)
- + Mature professional depth — Camera Raw, color management, typography, batch export — refined over decades and available on desktop, iPad, and web
Cons
- - Single-app pricing overcharges: $22.99/month for Photoshop alone costs more than the Photography bundle that contains it (adobe.com plans and third-party checks)
- - Generative credits meter the headline AI features — 25/month on the single-app plan at time of writing, and heavy generative use exhausts that fast
- - Annual-billed-monthly plans carry a 12-month commitment with a cancellation charge of up to 50% of the remaining balance after 14 days (Adobe US terms via photutorial.com)
- - No free tier and no perpetual license; five years of Photoshop-alone subscriptions runs roughly $1,380 versus Affinity Photo's one-time ~$70
- - Third-party pricing pages disagree on credit and storage allowances across tiers, so plan details must be confirmed on Adobe's own page
Frequently Asked Questions
Which is better, Khroma or Adobe Photoshop?▼
Adobe Photoshop scores higher at 4.5/5 vs 3.6/5 for Khroma, making it the better-rated option in our comparison.
What is the difference between Khroma and Adobe Photoshop?▼
Khroma: Khroma is an AI-powered design tool for creating color palettes and design systems. Adobe Photoshop: Adobe Photoshop is professional image editing software for retouching, compositing and digital art, with generative fill and other AI editing built in.
Is Khroma or Adobe Photoshop more affordable?▼
Khroma starts at €0/mo, Adobe Photoshop starts at €20.99/mo. Check the comparison table above for current pricing.
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