Adobe PhotoShop vs. ZBrush

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Adobe PhotoShop
Score 9.2 out of 10
N/A
Adobe Photoshop is the best known graphics product on the market.
$20
per month
ZBrush
Score 8.3 out of 10
N/A
Pixologic in Los Angeles offers ZBrush, a digital sculpting and painting program for the 3D industry. Built within its interface, ZBrush offers tools for digital artists with an arsenal of features that have been developed with usability in mind, to create a user experience designed to feel natural while simultaneously inspiring the artist. With the ability to sculpt up to a billion polygons, ZBrush allows users to create almost limitless models.
$39.95
per month
Pricing
Adobe PhotoShopZBrush
Editions & Modules
Single App
$20.00
per month
Individual
$39.95
per month
Individual
$179.95
per 6 months
Individual
$895.00
perpetual license
Companies & Students
price varies
floating perpetual license
Companies & Students
price varies
academic perpetual license
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Adobe PhotoShopZBrush
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Adobe PhotoShopZBrush
Considered Both Products
Adobe PhotoShop

No answer on this topic

ZBrush
Chose ZBrush
ZBrush’s Brush system allows our digital artists to quickly and easily apply various textures and details to their models with relative ease. This makes it easier for digital influencers to give their creations a unique look and feel while still achieving a professional quality …
Chose ZBrush
Even though it's 4x as old, ZBrush is still better in my opinion. Plus, I'm just so used to it by now after 20 years. Blender will indeed become better over time and the leading industry standard soon, but for now, ZBrush is still better for me for sure. Love it!
Chose ZBrush
Zbrush is specifically used for sculpting the 3D object. Poly paint, Re-topologizing, and hard surface modeling are other great features of this software. While other mentioned software mainly focus[es] on animation, rigging, and so on.
Top Pros
Top Cons

No answers on this topic

Best Alternatives
Adobe PhotoShopZBrush
Small Businesses
CorelDRAW Graphics Suite
CorelDRAW Graphics Suite
Score 9.5 out of 10
Onshape
Onshape
Score 9.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Canva
Canva
Score 9.2 out of 10
Onshape
Onshape
Score 9.0 out of 10
Enterprises
GIMP
GIMP
Score 9.1 out of 10
Rhino
Rhino
Score 9.1 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Adobe PhotoShopZBrush
Likelihood to Recommend
8.7
(189 ratings)
8.5
(3 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.4
(30 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
9.8
(14 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Availability
9.0
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
9.0
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
10.0
(54 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
In-Person Training
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
9.0
(6 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Configurability
8.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
9.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
4.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
9.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
9.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Adobe PhotoShopZBrush
Likelihood to Recommend
Adobe
I use Adobe PhotoShop to do practically all of my business from my home in Turkey. Many customers find the cost of Adobe PhotoShop to be prohibitive, thus they turn to substitute alternatives and illegally downloaded pirated software. Regulations like torrents, sales, and price increases lead to a number of financial issues. Change can be advantageous.
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Pixologic
Blender is still behind Zbrush when it comes to production quality. But ZBrush is a bit on the expensive side. But again, I've used it for 20 years. So the $100s of spent back then have paid off many times over by now. Just something to consider when purchasing, though.
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Pros
Adobe
  • Brush customization. There are many available brushes for illustration, and each can be customized to fit the needs of your specific style.
  • Integration with other Adobe products. It is essential that the images I create be accessible in Adobe Indesign and Illustrator, and [Adobe] Photoshop can be placed and edited easily within those programs.
  • Advanced editing. The possibilities for editing photos [are] endless, with new features being added constantly.
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Pixologic
  • Intuitive UI design.
  • Advanced sculpting capabilities.
  • Integration with other 3D software.
Read full review
Cons
Adobe
  • Expensive - It is too expensive to buy Photoshop alone, and hence leading the user to purchase the entire Creative Cloud Package though he/she is not even aware of half of those apps.
  • High System Spec - Requires high system specifications to run the application smoothly, and to use it at its best.
  • Process lag - When it comes to large-sized files, the application becomes laggy taking much time even to render a single layer.
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Pixologic
  • Difficult and messy UI
  • Not well-suited for renders
  • Not suitable for animation and rigging
  • Expensive
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Likelihood to Renew
Adobe
We get a lot of use out of this software. It's vital for work with production in our industry and has a lot of cross-functionality - creating social media images, retouching photos, editing photos, creating gradients, and more. It's pretty fuss-free in that we haven't had to reach out to support and the program hasn't crashed on us. We are trained on the software (so again, this isn't for beginners), but for detail-oriented designers and creatives like ourselves - it's a no-brainer.
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Pixologic
No answers on this topic
Usability
Adobe
I've used it for a long time and would consider myself a Pro user at this point. I know where everything I need is, have custom actions set up to make common actions faster, and have my workflows automated so much that everything is easy. Occasionally, a new version of Photoshop will change a common usability feature which will slow things down for a short time before I'm able to adjust, but generally I really like my setup. However, if you're new to Photoshop, it is likely going to take you a while to figure out how you can best use the features.
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Pixologic
No answers on this topic
Reliability and Availability
Adobe
Adobe Photoshop is very reliable, but is never 100%. There have been times when Adobe Photoshop has had trouble opening, but nothing a little computer restart couldn't fix. I use Adobe Photoshop on a Mac for both work and at home on a daily basis, and I would be lost without it.
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Pixologic
No answers on this topic
Performance
Adobe
Speed can be an issue when you are dealing with large files for large format printing or billboards. When working on web images, speed is not an issue.
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Pixologic
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Adobe
While I never contacted Adobe directly, there is so much content out there in the form of YouTube videos, Lynda/LinkedIn learning that almost any issue, including bugs, can be worked around (and this method is generally faster as there's no turnaround time involved).
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Pixologic
No answers on this topic
In-Person Training
Adobe
So, I received the training at the HQ and it was train the trainer training. A good time, I spent a week at their campus
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Pixologic
No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
Adobe
I took a course so it really helped. I didn’t take the course until much later after beginning to use it, so I wish work would have sent me right off the bat. It would have alleviated a lot of frustratinon
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Pixologic
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Adobe
Canva is a great tool for creating infographics and it's free with limited options. Adobe Illustrator CC and Adobe InDesign are much more suited for creating infographics, however, I still selected Adobe PhotoShop primarily because of my familiarity with all of the tools and hotkeys. There are always workarounds from with Adobe PhotoShop, and I just haven't taken the time to learn how to use Adobe Illustrator CC as effectively.
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Pixologic
Even though it's 4x as old, ZBrush is still better in my opinion. Plus, I'm just so used to it by now after 20 years. Blender will indeed become better over time and the leading industry standard soon, but for now, ZBrush is still better for me for sure. Love it!
Read full review
Scalability
Adobe
It seems expensive compared to the free/cheap programs now available
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Pixologic
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
Adobe
  • Saved our company thousands of dollars by editing in house.
  • Has given us the ability to do things on the fly and get projects done faster.
  • Having the original .psd files saved has given us the ability to go back and reuse and update photos and graphics instead of starting all over again.
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Pixologic
  • a single tool to quickly and effectively create 3D objects.
  • Highly detailed 3D models allow us to create a range of highly detailed NFT 3D art collections for our clients.
  • Setting up licenses across an entire team can become costly.
Read full review
ScreenShots