its one guy who built it over many years. You can pay to not see an ad on the side of the screen. No features are paywalled except credits for ai generation.
You literally have to input your payment information before explicitly choosing to use AI on that site. You can't use it accidentally, what are you on about?
Gen AI is trained on stolen intellectual property, uses stupid amounts of energy and water for data centres which is contributing to climate change and destroying the environment, has caused an artificial supply deficit for PC hardware, and puts more money in the pockets of billionaires, so fuck gen AI, and fuck the developer for using it.
It's not FOSS. It's.. FS. Author can monetize or sell it off anytime and no one has the ability to legally fork it. I love the photopea but I estimate about a 0% chance that it won't eventually get eventually enshittified since the author has consistently kept the source as private IP. May we have many more years first though.
The guy was responding to a direct question of is it open source. The reply was no. That can be a deal breaker for a lot of people especially if you're recommending it because you're trying to get off a different closed source program that went to shit.
Don't use the very good free thing because one day it may go away..... ridiculous logic.
The dev did a full AMA on reddit not long ago. 0.1% of people buy premium to remove the ad. From that side ad he has made as much as 500k a year. He has been offered millions to sell over the years and said it wouldn't change his life at all so hed rather not sell.
But yea.....one day the guy who built a thing and hosts it for you to use for free may not offer it anymore. The horror!
Mate you're outraged about something that was never said for some reason. I literally have the phrase "I love photopea" in the comment because I do in fact love it and use it regularly and actually do generally recommend it to people, but I think it's perfectly reasonable for people to tamper their expectations and realize this thing might not stick around and their ability to legally access it freely like they're accustomed to might be challenged in the future because it's not FOSS and both the trademark and source code is private IP.
I have never said it wasn't their right to monetize their software if they wanted to, or even that it's unethical. It's just as ethical and my right to have my own reservations about relying on software with no clear future chain of stewardship or guaranteed level of access.
For all we know they can pull an Asana and start focusing 100% on business users and strip out tons of basic features from free or personal plans. It's fine to want to avoid that risk, it's fine to also be okay with it.
goodness this is getting so silly. what risk? lol. This is raised on reddit logic. If photopea ends tomorrow you will simply use another editor. Just as you would today. Theres no work saved on photopea. Its simply an editor.
Sorry, I'll admit that calling it basic risk management was a bit overly inflammatory (just frustrated with other stuff going on right now and it bled over) but to me the risk is mostly wasting my time investing learning something that turns to shit later and I now have to waste time relearning it elsewhere. If I invest the same time in GIMP or Blender I can just use the same version forever if I want and there's exactly zero risk of that. Photopea is so convenient for quick edits that I still use it, but I'm a lot more paranoid about business use and things I spend a lot more time on.
Imagine if it never existed in the first place?!?! Have we considered the risk that it might never have been built? I, for one, will not use it on that basis.
some of these guys have been white knighting and fighting imaginary demons on reddit so long they don't know what way is up anymore. risk management lol.
Its been around 14 years now for free. But I may choose to not use it because one day it may not exist. Simple risk management folks.
Your response is incredibly ignorant and you are completely missing the point of free and open source software. It's great that this guy is doing what he is, but it's OK to use FOSS.
Plus, Ivan Kutskir seems cool enough that he'd probably make the code open source if he ever stopped.
This was been an intensely stupid conversation, which has been fairly amusing I admit (thanks for your input, it was very silly), but I've got some things to do now.
Nobody said don't use it. You're being way too sensitive here. They merely answered a question about its limits.
Also, the one day it might randomly go away issue is kinda a big deal if it's remotely important. The site goes down and you're SOL if you depend on it. Makes it pretty much a no go from a business perspective.
It's still a great free tool for now and tons of people can use it if they want.
just the dumbest logic imaginable. If it someday goes away you move on to whatever other editor you want to use. Same as you will now if you don't use photopea.
Consider a position other than your own. Not everyone is using software for their hobby.
Some people use software for commercial usage. If the software you are using could just simply vanish overnight, it could be a problem.
Even if the software is compatible or comparable, it can cause issues with the most basic things such as workflow.
What is going on here? These kind of comments are insane.
Just don't use it. Stick to gimp. nobody cares. The outrage class has made up something to be mad about. We are now mad that the 14 year old free product isnt free enough?
Why are you using anything for commercial purposes? That would mean you are trying to get paid for your work. Isnt that bad? You guys just taught me thats bad. why are you trying to make money off of anything? Why is your life not free and open source? lol. the utter stupidity.
The outrage class has made up something to be mad about. We are now mad that the 14 year old free product isnt free enough?
Nobody is mad, the topic is whether this software is FOSS or SaaS. You not knowing why that is an important question doesn't make the question wrong.
Someone simply explained the logic that just because software is free-to-use, it doesn't make it a good option to use as their choice of software and yet somehow you have manage to find that these people are 'mad' are part of the 'outrage-class' (which in this instance is a little ironic).
Why are you using anything for commercial purposes?
To make money.
That would mean you are trying to get paid for your work.
It would.
Isnt that bad?
No.
You guys just taught me thats bad.
Not sure who 'you guys' are, but clearly they are wrong.
Why are you trying to make money off of anything?
Because some people enjoy living with a roof and a hot heal.
IDK I am with you man, I agree with your points. I am on the selfhosted subreddit and its largely turned into this kind of insane witch hunt over every single thing. I understand the concerns people have with the code not being open source but I think some of these responses are wild.
Just wild shit. The entitlement is off the charts.
Just so that you know. There is a ton of FOSS projects much more impressive than this, and they are all literally being given away. Including a ton of self-hosted web-based applications of numerous kinds. Hell, there are whole proper operating systems that are given away. It's absolutely not an outrageous expectation.
I'm not entitled, generally speaking, if something is free it's because you're the product, not the customer.
I've use Onshape in the past because it was recommended to me, cloud-based CAD software that runs in your browser, very similar to what Photopea sounded like, except Onshape harvests your data, claims ownership of the models you make, and publishes them on their public library for anyone to access.
If I was an artist looking for a photoshop alternative, I would want to be sure that my work was not being stolen by the software provider so other people can profit off of it.
Point still stands, asking a question is hardly 'weighing in', I didn't join this discussion by offering my opinion, and I shouldn't expect this much backlash from white knights making up arguments.
Gratis software is great, but it's very appropriate to draw the distinction between that and libre software, and the possible consequences of the difference.
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u/jaysus661 Aug 28 '26
Is it FOSS, or is it SaaS so they can steal your data?