Free
Sumo Paint
Browser painting app with layers, over 300 brushes and a symmetry tool that mirrors every stroke around up to 18 points.
BeginnerWeb
Kleki
Kleki is a free, open-source painting and drawing app that runs in your browser with brushes, layers and pressure-sensitive pen support, and needs no account.
FreeIntermediateWeb
Overview
Kleki is a free, open-source painting app that runs in a browser tab. You get six brushes: pen, blend, sketchy, pixel, chemy and smudge. There are up to 16 layers with blend modes, and pressure-sensitive input for a pen tablet or an iPad. Drag a photo in and it becomes a layer you can paint or trace over.
Kleki can store your drawing inside that browser, but only when you save it. Its help states this does not autosave. It exports a flat PNG or JPG, or a layered PSD that reopens in Krita, Clip Studio Paint and Photoshop. It runs in the browser only, on Windows, Mac, Linux, Android and iPad. You never need an account, what you save carries no watermark, and there is no paid tier.
Key features
✓Six brushes: pen, blend, sketchy, pixel, chemy & smudge
✓Pressure-sensitive input for a pen tablet or iPad
✓Up to 16 layers with blend modes
✓Import a photo as a layer to paint or trace over
✓Fill, text & shape tools
✓Filters: blur, tilt-shift, hue & saturation, curves & sharpen
✓Crop, rotate, resize, transform & perspective
✓Exports a flat PNG or JPG
✓Saves a layered PSD that opens in Krita, Clip Studio & Photoshop
✓Free, open source & needs no account
When to use
Use Kleki if:
- You want to sketch or paint right now without installing software or making an account.
- You draw with a pen tablet or on an iPad and want pressure-sensitive brushes in the browser.
- You want layers and blend modes to build a drawing up in stages.
- You want to bring a photo in and paint or trace over it on its own layer.
- You need a layered file you can finish later in Krita, Clip Studio Paint or Photoshop.
- You want a tool that stays free at every point and puts no watermark on your work.
When NOT to use
Skip Kleki if any of these describe you:
- You are editing a photo, such as retouching, removing objects or colour-correcting, rather than drawing. A photo editor is built for that work.
- You need a lot of layers or advanced painting features. Kleki caps the number of layers and keeps its tool set small.
- You want your work stored safely on its own. It stores drawings only inside the current browser, and only when you save them there. Clearing that browser or switching devices loses them unless you export a PSD or PNG first.
- You want to make pixel art on a grid. A dedicated pixel editor in the drawing and painting apps list fits that better.
- You need an installed desktop or phone app. Kleki runs only in the browser.
Frequently asked questions
Yes. Kleki is free and open source, released under an open licence. You never make an account. What you save has no watermark, and there is no paid tier that unlocks extra tools. Everything the app does is available to everyone at no cost.
No. Kleki runs entirely in your web browser. You do not download an app and you do not create an account. You open the page and start drawing. There is no official native desktop or phone app, but the browser version works on Windows, Mac, Linux, Android and iPad.
Kleki can store the current drawing inside your browser, but you have to store it yourself. Its help states that browser storage does not autosave. There is a separate tab recovery that saves a copy after five minutes and updates it every minute. Kleki describes that as not a full auto-save, and keeps it only for a short while. To keep a drawing properly, export it: a flat PNG or JPG for a finished image, or a PSD if you want to keep the layers.
Yes. Drag an image onto the canvas or use the import menu, then choose to add it as a new layer or start a new drawing from it. It reads JPEG, PNG, PSD, SVG, WEBP, BMP and GIF. Once the photo is a layer, you can paint over it or trace it on a layer above.
Yes. Use the Save PSD option and your layers are kept, so the file reopens with its layers in Krita, Clip Studio Paint and Photoshop. Going the other way, opening a PSD made in Photoshop, can look different, because Kleki does not support every Photoshop feature and simplifies the file when it imports it.
Yes. Kleki supports pressure-sensitive input, so a pen tablet or an iPad pencil changes the brush size and opacity as you press harder or softer. Because it runs in the browser, you draw with the stylus on the tablet's own browser rather than through an installed app.
No. It is a focused painting and drawing app with layers, brushes and a small set of filters. It caps the number of layers and does not do the heavy photo editing, selections and adjustments that Photoshop does. For drawing and quick painting it stands on its own, but for editing photographs you want a full photo editor.
Alternatives to Kleki
Freemium
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