The Story of Photopea: From Solo Developer to Popular Web‑Based Photoshop Alternative

The author needed to edit an image but could not afford Photoshop, so they searched for alternatives and discovered Photopea.com, a web‑based Photoshop clone that looks almost identical to the desktop version.

The interface, features, and keyboard shortcuts match Photoshop, allowing users to follow existing Photoshop tutorials directly on the website.

Surprisingly, the entire project is maintained by a single Czech developer born in 1990, Ivan Kutskir.

Ivan was born in November 1990 in Ukraine, moved to the Czech Republic at age 11, received his first computer at 13, and later studied computer science for both his bachelor's and master's degrees.

After graduation he developed Flash games that earned money through advertising, learning the simple ad‑based revenue model that would later support Photopea.

In 2013, while using Photoshop, Ivan wondered if a similar image‑editing tool could run in a browser like a Flash game, and thus began the solo project Photopea.

The first three years generated no income, but Ivan’s passion for building a unique tool kept him motivated without any intention of forming a company.

In the fourth year, Photopea started earning revenue primarily through ads, similar to many Flash games; users could also pay for an ad‑free subscription, and developers could license Photopea to embed it in their own projects.

Revenue milestones followed: a few hundred dollars in 2017, $20,000 in 2018, $500,000 in 2020, and nearly $1,000,000 in 2021.

Ivan notes, “When you start your own project you never know if it will earn $250,000 a year, but if you work for a company your salary is unlikely to exceed that for the same work.”

Today Photopea has about 300,000 daily active users who collectively spend around 45,000 hours per day on the app, while the entire operation costs only $45 per year for server hosting.

Because everything runs in the browser, there is no database or backend; the site serves only a few megabytes of static files that are processed locally on the user’s computer.

There is no office, no employees, and thus no additional overhead—just one person and a modest laptop.

Initially Ivan felt being solo was a disadvantage, but later realized it was an advantage, relying on word‑of‑mouth and social media to announce new features.

His advice: release an imperfect product quickly, gather user feedback, and iterate, because completing a product is more important than achieving perfection.

The development timeline shows rapid growth: version 0.1 (10% complete), version 0.2 with 6,982 lines of code, version 0.3 with 9,039 lines, version 0.4 surpassing 10,000 lines, followed by continuous additions such as new tools, fonts, and bug fixes.

Ivan compares the process to raising a child: gradual milestones lead to a strong, mature product.

Ultimately, Photopea’s story demonstrates how time, persistence, and individual effort can create a valuable product without large funding or a big team.