I strongly prefer local software, but as someone coming from Photoshop who now only does the occasional edit (and therefore can't justify the price), I find Photopea to be a good alternative, especially since it closely mimics Photoshop's interface so I don't have to learn a new UI. Also, your images stay local on your computer and aren't uploaded to their servers.

It's developed by a single guy, which I think is very impressive given how much of Photoshop's functionality it has. I just really wish it were open source (and not a web app).