How AI apps are offering free substitutes for Big Tech software

As AI development rapidly expands, people are replicating paid-for desktop and mobile apps with free apps, potentially changing the future of legacy software.

Last week, a Reddit user named Brandon Thomas shared a project called “ArtCraft” – essentially a free rebuild of the Adobe Creative Suite, which includes programmes such as Photoshop and Adobe PDF. The recreated services have been named PhotoCraft and PdfCraft.

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This software package usually costs individuals $779.99 per year if paid upfront or $69.99 per month on an annual contract.

Earlier this week, ArtCraft also released copies of the Microsoft Office suite.

As with the Adobe package, ArtCraft has announced WordCraft, DeckCraft, and GridCraft, taking on Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Excel. While the software engineer behind the new packages is based in the United States, the programmes are available worldwide.

Here’s what we know:

Who is Brandon Thomas and what did he do?

Reddit user “u/ai_art_is_art”, the person behind ArtCraft, has been revealed as Atlanta, US-based software engineer Brandon Thomas.

Using AI platform Anthropic’s Claude Opus 5.5 and Rust software, Thomas said he was able to reverse engineer Adobe’s creative suite.

Announcing his project on Reddit, Thomas said that this is not a “one-off flash in the pan that will die”.

“I’m not just some casual vibe coder. I’m a 15-year industry veteran who has written everything from six-nines payment rails that move billions of dollars of transaction volume a day to advanced robotics and optics automation. I’ve used Rust extensively for about a decade, and I know how to build and maintain large-scale Rust projects,” he said.

What is ‘vibe coding’ and how common is it for app development?

Possibly.