Apple hasn’t been a major player in the pro photo editing software category for over a decade after abandoning the excellent Aperture. But with its acquisition of Pixelmator Pro in 2025, the company seems serious about the space once again, going so far as to include the app in the Creator Studio suite alongside Final Cut Pro, the iWork apps, Logic Pro, and more.
I took Pixelmator Pro for a spin to find out what it’s all about and whether you should use it instead of its expensive Adobe alternatives. Here’s everything you need to know.
What Pixelmator Pro Actually Does
Pixelmator Pro fills a major gap in Apple’s offerings. Although Apple Photos provides a reasonably powerful set of photo editing tools, it’s not a true Photoshop competitor. Pixelmator Pro takes on that role and more, combining Illustrator-like vector editing with Photoshop-like layered bitmap image editing.
(Credit: Apple/PCMag)
Vectors are visual images created via instructions that indicate the direction and extent of lines and curves. You can enlarge these indefinitely without causing degradation since the instructions simply produce longer lines or larger elements that are just as sharp. Bitmap, or raster, images comprise actual pixels, or dots, usually from images you capture with a camera. If you try to enlarge rasters, you will see artifacts, noise, pixelization, or a staircasing effect along what should be straight edges.
Pixelmator Pro Pricing Explained
You have two options for accessing Pixelmator Pro. You can purchase it from the Apple App Store for a one-time fee of $49.99. Alternatively, you can get it as part of the Apple Creator Studio subscription, which goes for a reasonable $12.99 per month or $129 per year. A one-month trial is available for Creator Studio, but not the perpetual-license version. Just note that Creator Studio doesn’t include any iCloud storage.
Pixelmator Pro vs. Adobe and Everyone Else
As mentioned, Pixelmator Pro competes with both Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. You can get them for $22.99 per month each with an annual commitment or via Adobe’s Creative Cloud subscription ($69.99 per month with an annual commitment). I’ve already pit Apple Creator Studio and Adobe Creative Cloud against each other in a head-to-head comparison.
Pixelmator Pro also challenges the free Affinity software, which online design heavyweight Canva now owns. Affinity goes a step further than Pixelmator Pro by including layout design tools, which could save you from having to pay for another Adobe app, InDesign.
(Credit: Apple/PCMag)
Lesser-known players also offer layer-based photo editing, including Capture One ($17 per month, billed annually), PhotoDirector ($64.99 per year), Skylum Luminar ($119 for a perpetual license), and Zoner Studio ($5.99 per month). For vector image editing, you can consider CorelDraw ($22.42 per month or $549 for a perpetual license), which, like Canva’s Affinity, includes page layout features, in addition to photo and vector design editing tools.
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What You Need to Run Pixelmator Pro
Pixelmator Pro is available only on Macs and iPads running macOS 26 and iPadOS 26, respectively. Other apps within the Creator Studio suite don’t have as stringent requirements. For example, the latest versions of Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro require only macOS 15.6. As for hardware, you need a Mac or an iPad with an Apple M1 chip or later, the base iPad (A16), or the iPad mini (A17 Pro).
Who Should Use Pixelmator Pro
In short, Pixelmator Pro is for Mac or iPad creators who need to edit images. You could be a designer who creates and edits Illustrator-style vector images. You might be a photographer or image editor who works with Photoshop-type raster images. Or you might need to work with both types.
(Credit: Apple/PCMag)
Within that subset, below are some more specific target groups:
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Apple die-hards. Since Pixelmator Pro ties in with Apple apps and services (iCloud, Photos, and more) and runs only on Apple hardware, it’s a logical choice if you’re firmly in the Apple camp.
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Casual photo editors and designers. If you want more than Apple Photos offers in terms of design tools, you should find what you need in Pixelmator Pro. Similarly, Pixelmator Pro is a good option if you don’t want to commit to learning a full-on professional program.
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Photography enthusiasts and pro designers on a budget. Since a perpetual license for Pixelmator Pro is far cheaper than both Photoshop and Illustrator, it’s a good fit if you don’t have a lot to spend on editing software.
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Final Cut Pro or Logic Pro users. If you use any of the other apps within Apple’s Creator Studio, it makes a lot of sense to at least determine whether Pixelmator Pro can handle your photo editing needs.
With all that in mind, Pixelmator Pro feels more suitable for designers than photographers, since project templates are the first choice in the startup panel. Even Apple’s help documentation starts by calling Pixelmator Pro “a design studio.”
(Credit: Apple/PCMag)
Yes, photo editors will find all autocorrection, color, and lighting tools they expect. And the app even has Lightroom-like Texture and Clarity sliders, along with Color Replace, Levels, and Curves features. But photographers will miss Adobe Lightroom’s excellent workflow features. Apple now owns a more Lightroom-like app (Photomator), but for some reason, it decided not to include it in Creator Studio.
What Pixelmator Pro Does Best
(Credit: Apple/PCMag)
Pixelmator Pro offers a uniquely clean, straightforward interface and an extremely capable iPad version that adds support for the Apple Pencil and all its special gestures. It doesn’t have any features that you can’t find in one or more of its competitors, but a few are still worth calling out below.
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Background Removal. This AI feature is common among modern photo editing apps, even appearing in the free Google Photos. Apple’s version works well in my experience.
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Noise Reduction. The program includes a good image denoising tool that works automatically. Still, it’s not as powerful as the one you get in DxO PureRAW or Topaz Photo.
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Raw camera file support. Like Lightroom and Photoshop, Pixelmator lets you work with raw camera files with support for most popular camera modes. You don’t, however, get profile-based camera and lens optimizations as you do in Adobe Lightroom and DxO Photolab.
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Upscaling with AI. Like Photoshop and Topaz Photo, Pixelmator can enlarge a low-resolution image without introducing artifacts and while maintaining sharpness.
Should You Switch to Pixelmator Pro?
Pixelmator Pro occupies a happy middle ground between some extremely expensive Adobe apps (namely Photoshop and Illustrator). If you don’t need page layout (InDesign) or photo workflow (Lightroom) features, it can absolutely save you from having to shell out for the full Adobe Creative Cloud suite. The free Affinity is an appealing alternative, however, since it includes everything that Pixelmator Pro does, along with page layout tools.
I don’t think Apple needs to make Pixelmator Pro into something it’s not meant to be, but I would still like to see it add better photo workflow features and correction profiles. Apple users should still give it a serious chance even without those improvements. In the meantime, I’m just glad that Apple is getting back into the image editing game.
About Our Expert
Michael Muchmore
Principal Writer, Software
Experience
I’ve been testing PC and mobile software for more than 20 years, focusing on photo and video editing, operating systems, and web browsers. Prior to my current role, I covered software and apps for ExtremeTech and headed up PCMag’s enterprise software team. I’ve attended trade shows for Microsoft, Google, and Apple and written about all of them and their products.
I still get a kick out of seeing what’s new in video and photo editing software, and how operating systems change over time. I was privileged to byline the cover story of the last print issue of PC Magazine, the Windows 7 review, and I’ve witnessed every Microsoft misstep and win, up to the latest Windows 11.
I’m an avid bird photographer and traveler—I’ve been to 40 countries, many with great birds! Because I’m also a classical music fan and former performer, I’ve reviewed streaming services that emphasize classical music.
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