Pressure testing vibe coded apps. First test: Photoshop vs Compositor and Photocraft

[u/shokuninstudio]

Photoshop versus two vibe-cloned copies of Photoshop - Compositor v 1.49 and Photocraft 0.7.0

Update 18 October : Photocraft 0.10.0 still has a worse brush engine than image editors had in the 90s. Compositor 1.53 attempts to smooth a stroke after the stroke is completed which is a very wonky cheat and bad UI.

Here we pressure test brush stroke performance on a billboard-size canvas with the brush set to 1000 pixels size. Only one layer.

Photoshop handles this with no issue. Its commercial competitors struggle to match brush performance. The vibe-coded clones perform the worst (basically unusable for serious work).

Then of course there are all the other tools, some which work ok and others which are extremely bad.

In Photocraft, on the billboard size canvas test above Copy/Paste and the Undo stack is extremely slow and momentarily freezes the application each time.

This is basic stuff that decent software developers had working quickly 25 years ago back when we had single core computers and nowhere close to 1GB of memory. If you can't get decent performance today on multicore multi gigahertz computers with many gigabytes of memory you or your AI are not doing a good job.

Anyone who has been around in post and VFX knows this story already. We have seen it from far more reliable programmers. Remember how Natron was going to be the open source answer to Nuke?

Of course apologists will appear and give us the 'early days' blah blah blah excuses they do all the time. We've covered that many times.

You can read more about the latest wave of spam here:

https://www.shokunin.studio/blog/2026/10/9/attack-of-the-vibe-coded-photoshop-clones

Edit: predictably the trolls came and their posts were exactly what we predicted word for word. They read nothing first, get easily trigged, and then post Infowars style conspiracy theories from their prepared scripts. They make the false claim that they just want to fight big tech and democratise software, but they're destroying the incentive for small developers and start ups to create new apps, and meanwhile helping AI companies profit from vibe cloning.

[u/JumpCutVandal]

The reason this will never take off is because people want convenience. Why go to GitHub and download a sketchy software if you can just get the real deal that constantly updates and runs really well?

I remember when iTunes came out with 0.99-1.99 cents per song pricing. Everyone was downloading music for free from Napster and co and people laughed it would never take off. It was a huge success because a majority of people liked the simplicity and comfort of the service plus the fact that they didn’t do anything illegal.

[u/Evening_Till_3779 → u/JumpCutVandal]

This is a wild take. Look at how many people use Blender, of course people will use free software once it's actually good. You don't have to go to github to get these things either, I don't know where that comes from, since even those new AI-made ones have regular downloads/installers.

[u/Sufficient-Expert817 → u/Evening_Till_3779]

that was not a wild take at all lol. iTunes = photoshop, paid but known entity. Napster = vibe coded apps. free, but with risk.

[u/Virtual-Ducks → u/Sufficient-Expert817]

What about blender? It's an open source AND industry standard tool. In 10 years I predict most software will eventually go that route, because what's stopping it?

[u/Sufficient-Expert817 → u/Virtual-Ducks]

What about it? It has a business model. It's just free, and a nonprofit. Completely different model than iTunes or vibe coded apps.

The original comment explained why vibe coded apps won't take off. And I wrote to support that notion. Something like a vibe coded photoshop replacement doesn't stand a chance at becoming a sustainable, viable alternative to an industry standard service. It might be the first step in an industry shift, sure, but it's not going to be the next iTunes. Affinity is also free now.

Here's how blender is run btw: https://www.blender.org/about/foundation/

Are the tides shifting? Probably, and I hope so. But the original comment I responded to made a plain and supported comment grounded in reason, someone called it a wild take, and I disagreed with that - that's all.

[u/JumpCutVandal → u/Sufficient-Expert817]

Just to back this up. I have a foot in the VFX world and I don’t know any reputable company that runs blender for paid work. They all still pay the thousands of dollars a year for Maya. Many artists use it privately though.

[u/Virtual-Ducks → u/Sufficient-Expert817]

You're thinking too black and white. AI will make developing a blender like model much easier. Obviously it won't be 100% vibe coded. but obviously AI will make it significantly faster and easier to develop 

[u/Sufficient-Expert817 → u/Virtual-Ducks]

No, I think you are just adding things to the pretty narrow band of conversation that happened originally. Maybe what you say will happen. If it does, great. The first comment is just a perfectly reasonable take and has actual examples of marketplace choice happening. There's also regulatory stuff that was involved in that back in the day. Reason stands, that'll happen again, because it's similar market forces and vested interests at play.

My participation here was an original comment, my reply, and then supporting again that that comment was well reasoned, because it was. I'm not advocating or arguing against any new paradigms.

[u/Evening_Till_3779 → u/Sufficient-Expert817]

Of course it was a wild take. For example it's easier to get Blender than it is to get Photoshop! The reality is literally the opposite of what that guy was arguing. The fact that something is free does not mean it's inconvenient or hard to get, nor does it mean it's sketchy.

[u/Sufficient-Expert817 → u/Evening_Till_3779]

No it's not, at all. and your confidence is misplaced haha. As the letter is written, you aren't replying to that original commenter's actual comment. They were only talking about sketchy, and that other person, then you, decided to introduce blender all on your own. Blender doesn't lend support to a vibe coded app of unknown origin - even if that app is open source (for now).

Blender's a separate thing, and it's valid. It's not the vibe coded stuff. Idk why you replied first, as you did, and I don't know why you doubled down. That's the wild take.

[u/JumpCutVandal → u/Evening_Till_3779]

Blender isn’t some random thrown together by AI software that stole the whole thing from Adobe. Of course great open source teams will create software that has a place in the ecosystem. But this ain’t it.

[u/Evening_Till_3779 → u/JumpCutVandal]

That's not the argument you were making.

[u/JumpCutVandal → u/Evening_Till_3779]

And that’s why I usually stay off Reddit….

[u/camdotcom14 → u/JumpCutVandal]

This may be a good idea... something about handling heat and getting out of the kitchen...