For "best" you really can't go past Photoshop.
I have found that a program called "affinity photo" and "affinity designer", both of which are on iOS AND computer, is very comparable in terms of menu layout and features, and costs significantly less at about $50-$100 depending on if you can take advantage of discounts.
Personally, for what I need, I wouldn't really use anything else, because I require things like text gradient, effects like drop shadow, line thickness adjust, drop shadow colour adjustments, levels, layed gradients, the ability to use 20+ layers, and most other programs simply don't have those features usually. Affinity designer and affinity photo are as close to Photoshop that I've found.
Thanks. For some reason the image always seems to end up blurry after I've added text. (That's in Adobe Spark and Canva)
Is this a known problem and if so, any advice?
Cheers
Alex
Gimp is VERY well known, is open source and has been known in the design community for a decade or more. But I find it's kinda tricky to use. In terms of FREE software, I like canva, there's a program called "photopea"
https://www.photopea.com/ which is a web based editor that not that many people know about, with a layout very similar to photoshop. I should try to use it more because I haven't really experienced it yet.