Deeper Dive: Our Top Tested Picks
EDITORS’ NOTE
November 18, 2025: With this update, our lineup of recommended photo editing software remains unchanged. We have vetted the existing picks for currency and availability.
- Excellent photo management and organization tools
- Auto masking for local adjustments
- Face recognition and geo-tagging
- Supports plug-ins
- Capable mobile apps
- Syncing photos to cloud storage isn’t straightforward
Lightroom Classic is the top workflow software choice for working professional photographers. It excels at letting you import and organize your photo collection, and it features the best tools for correcting and enhancing photos during the raw file process. Lightroom Classic includes features not in the non-Classic version of Lightroom, such as printing, soft-proofing, tethered shooting, and plug-in support.
Advanced amateurs: This app should also appeal to photo enthusiasts who want its organization, tethering, plug-in, and printing capabilities and are willing to pay a recurring subscription fee.
Pro photographers: Lightroom Classic is primarily for professional photographers. When pros talk about Lightroom, they invariably mean Lightroom Classic.
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Adobe Lightroom Classic Review
- Vast set of photo correction and manipulation tools
- Cutting-edge generative AI features
- Slick user interface with a lot of guidance
- Mobile and web design capabilities
- Rich drawing and typography options
- Excellent raw camera file support
- Cloud Documents, collaboration features, and Synced Libraries
- No perpetual license option
- Runs many processes in the background
Photoshop is the most powerful image editing software available. It includes a massive number of tools, but its interface has gotten more manageable in recent versions. For example, it has a clear Home screen to get you started, hover-over help tips, and a persistent search box at the top. Photoshop is where Adobe showcases its state-of-the-art features, including generative AI capabilities for image creation, editing, object removal, and selection. Otherwise, Photoshop includes the complex drawing, filter, gradient, layer, masking, shape, and text tools that professional designers and photographers need. You can also bolster it with a wealth of third-party plug-ins for even more power. As with most other Adobe offerings, however, it requires a subscription. Those fees can add up after a few years, although this model does provide you with new features all the time.
Enthusiasts without budget constraints: If you’re a photographer or imaging enthusiast who wants to see everything that’s possible to do with your creation (including via advanced AI tools) and don’t mind paying a recurring subscription price, Photoshop is for you.
Professional image editors: Photoshop is designed for professionals who need to create images and graphics for both commercial and artistic purposes. It supports formats used by print shops and allows overlays and effects necessary for commercial applications.
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Adobe Photoshop Review
- Simple, clear interface
- Reliably syncs photos to cloud storage
- Color, detail, and light adjustments equal to Lightroom Classic’s
- Powerful raw profiles and AI tools
- Strong community features
- Subscription only
- No local printing or plug-in support
Lightroom differs from Adobe’s Lightroom Classic application in that it features a simpler interface and integrated cloud storage. It’s full of powerful image editing tools that, at this point, match those in Classic. With advanced AI search, cloud syncing, and face recognition tools, Lightroom is one of the best apps for finding any photo in your collection from any device. Its rich set of community and learning features is a boon to any budding photo editor. Lightroom now allows you to use local storage instead of cloud storage, which will appeal to those who prefer not to upload everything; however, you lose the helpful AI-powered photo search feature with locally stored photos.
Pro photographers with limited needs: The app could also work well for pros who don’t need printing, plug-ins, or tethered shooting capabilities.
Serious amateur photographers: Lightroom appeals to serious amateurs who want the best tools for correcting their shots, a clear and simple interface, and easy access to their pictures from any device.
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Adobe Lightroom Review
- Many powerful image-manipulation tools
- Strong face-tagging and geotagging
- Excellent output options
- Effective search
- Helpful guidance for beyond-basic techniques
- License lasts only three years
- No chromatic aberration corrections or lens geometry profiles
- Little cloud storage for mobile and web syncing
Elements wraps many features from Photoshop proper into a friendlier interface that emphasizes guidance in creating effects. You still get filters, layers, and a smart Organizer utility to keep track of your photo collection. It doesn’t technically require subscription payments, though a license lasts for only three years.
Memory keepers: Adobe describes the audience for Elements as “memory keepers,” referring to individuals who want to create keepsakes from family occasions. It’s a pretty apt target audience for the software.
For those who prefer a simpler approach: Adobe Elements is a suitable alternative if you want straightforward guidance for creating impactful edits. It also offers an on-ramp to Photoshop by introducing editing concepts in a simpler and more accessible way.
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Adobe Photoshop Elements Review
- Excellent raw file conversion quality
- Fast import speeds
- Automatic batch adjustment tools
- Supports collaboration
- Interface can get complex, especially with layers
- No face recognition for organization
- Expensive
Capture One is a super-powerful professional photo workflow app. It does the best job of interpreting a camera’s raw image data to deliver an accurate and sharp photo among the software we’ve tested. It also includes an abundance of adjustments and local editing tools, as well as advanced color grading and layering capabilities. A unique Speed Edit feature allows you to access frequently used tools with a single keypress. Capture One still trails Lightroom in some workflow abilities, however, such as face recognition and geotagging.
Photographers who want a single program: Capture One can fully serve your needs if you’re looking for a program that combines Lightroom Classic’s workflow features with Photoshop’s layer editing tools.
Pro photographers: If you don’t use Lightroom Classic, Capture One is a top alternative. It has strong support for collaboration features and tethered shooting. Pros can also take advantage of its elite color and skin-tone tools.
Studios: Capture One’s Studio subscription includes online collaboration features and other enhancements for professional editing teams.
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Capture One Review
- Photoshop-like features at a lower price
- Powerful effects and editing tools
- Extensive help and tutorials
- Good assortment of vector drawing tools
- Automatic noise removal
- Inconsistent interface
- No macOS version
- Some slow operations
This longtime Photoshop competitor offers enough tools for many designers and photographers who don’t want to make unending subscription payments to Adobe. PaintShop Pro features advanced AI tools, including Background Replacement, Portrait Mode, and Style Transfer. Designers can work with brushes, patterns, painting tools, and text on both raster and vector images. Hobbyists have access to a wide range of creative effects and filters. Layers, mask selection, plug-in support, raw camera file support, scripts, and tone curves are at your disposal, just like in Photoshop.
Graphic designers: Since PaintShop Pro allows you to work with both vector and raster images, it may meet the needs of graphic designers. Of course, most creative types are better off with Corel’s more expensive and up-to-date CoreDraw Graphics Suite.
Photo editors on a budget: If you need Photoshop’s standard tools, including brushes, filters, layers, masking, and raw camera file conversion, but don’t want to pay Adobe’s increasingly exorbitant subscription fee, PaintShop is available for a one-time fee.
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Corel PaintShop Pro Review
- Many advanced effects and editing tools
- Full set of generative AI capabilities
- Unique Body Shaper feature
- Extensive layer support
- Tethered shooting
- Complex interface
- Some operations are slow
CyberLink produces some of the most powerful and innovative video editing software available, and the company has leveraged its deep imaging expertise to enhance photo editing with PhotoDirector. The software combines Lightroom-like organization and workflow tools with Photoshop-like layer image editing in a clear, intuitive interface. The company is constantly producing new effects and templates, with numerous generative AI image creation and editing features being integrated into the product. The software is available as either a one-time purchase or a subscription, which adds online storage and a steady stream of updated content and tools. The subscription option also gives you access to stock images from Getty.
Photo enthusiasts seeking an all-in-one solution: PhotoDirector is designed for enthusiasts, rather than professionals, who want a comprehensive workflow and image editing application.
Social media posters: PhotoDirector’s subscription version includes an endless supply of effects and a vast library of stock content, making it a great fit for creating arresting posts on platforms like Bluesky, Instagram, Threads, or X.
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CyberLink PhotoDirector Review
Best for Noise Reduction and Camera Profile Corrections
DxO PhotoLab
- Best-in-class noise reduction
- Clear interface
- Excellent camera and lens characteristic corrections
- Geometry fixes
- Powerful local adjustments
- Doesn’t require importing
- Few photo organization or workflow tools
- No AVIF, HDR, HEIF, or JXL support
DxO PhotoLab can automatically enhance your photos, but it also offers a full suite of powerful photo correction and editing tools for customizing your photo’s look. DxO pioneered several technologies that went on to appear in other software products, such as lens-profile-based corrections and geometry fixes. The DeepPrime XD2s’ noise reduction feature is superior to what you find in competitors. The software is also excellent at automatically correcting lighting with its SmartLighting and ClearView tools, addressing lens softness, and eliminating chromatic aberration. Finally, its Hue Masks and U Point technology give you unmatched control over local adjustments. If you just need noise reduction and lens corrections, the company’s less-expensive DxO PureRAW app is a good fit.
Geometry correctors: DxO PhotoLab is mostly for professionals who need to get the best out of their raw camera files, with top-tier noise reduction and camera-and-lens combination profile-based corrections (including for geometry).
Lightroom Classic or Photoshop users: DxO PhotoLab functions as a plug-in for Lightroom Classic and Photoshop, allowing you to continue using those as your primary applications while benefiting from DxO’s unique tools.
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DxO PhotoLab Review
- Surprising number of Photoshop features
- No installation required
- Clear interface and good help
- Includes vector editing
- Navigating away from page loses project
- Some actions can be slow
- Lacks some advanced Photoshop features
Photopea is a surprisingly full-featured Photoshop alternative despite being a purely web-based application. While you can use most of its features for free, a $5-per-month subscription gets you generative AI image-creation tools, more steps in your editing history, and 5GB of online image storage.
Browser-based photo editors: If you can’t install a big photo application on your local machine, the browser-based Photopea is an excellent choice.
Photographers on a budget: Photopea should appeal to budget-conscious editors because it offers a surprisingly comprehensive selection of features at no cost. And if you want to eliminate ads or try generative AI tools, a subscription starts at a reasonable €50 (about $58) per year.
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Photopea Review
- Unique AI photo-fixing tools
- Simple, pleasing interface
- Lots of adjustment tools, effects, and filters
- Supports layers and masking
- Some operations are slow
- No face recognition or keyword tagging
Skylum Luminar is a well-designed photo editing application with unique and innovative tools, including over 20 that use AI. You get power-line removal and twilight enhancer features, along with Neon Glow, which detects and surrounds your photo subject with a neon glow. Another tool, AI Relight, allows you to adjust lighting for different parts of a photo based on their distance from the camera. Luminar excels at fixing drab skies in your shots, as the company name suggests. The interface is clear and simple, too, but you don’t get Lightroom’s workflow and organization features.
AI enthusiasts: If you want to have fun enhancing your photos with whizbang AI features, Skylum Luminar is worth a look. The program is available as a one-time purchase, saving you from paying subscription fees forever.
Lightroom Classic and Photoshop faithful: Do you primarily use Lightroom Classic or Photoshop? You can access Luminar’s AI features and unique effects through a plug-in, without needing to relearn a whole new app.
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Skylum Luminar Neo Review
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The Best Photo Editing Software for 2025
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Buying Guide: The Best Photo Editing Software for 2025
What Is the Best Photo Editing Software for Beginners?
If you’re just beginning to explore photo editing, the options are continually improving. A great place to start is with the free applications that come pre-installed with your operating system: Apple Photos for iPadOS, iOS, and macOS, Google Photos for Android and ChromeOS, and Microsoft Photos for Windows. They provide basic color and light editing tools in simple interfaces, along with organization and “Memories” features that highlight your best shots from past events. These apps now even include AI tools that blur backgrounds and remove objects or people.
If you’re a more ambitious beginner, Adobe Lightroom, the non-Classic version, is worth considering. Lightroom comes with the Discover community, where photographers and editors share their entire process from raw image to final product. You can submit your photos to the community and let them edit your work. For in-program editing tutorials, look to Photoshop Elements. Its many Guided Edits show you how to create arresting effects. The latest versions of Photoshop include plentiful help and learning content.
Can You Edit Photos Online?
In this list, we primarily include software that can be installed on a desktop or laptop computer, although some also have a mobile app. That said, online photo editing options (which are often free) might adequately serve entry-level photographers. These web apps often integrate with online photo storage and sharing services—Flickr, with its built-in photo editor, and Google Photos are two examples. Both can spiff up the photos you upload and help you organize them.
Free photo editing programs often lack the tools available in paid software. Photopea is an exception. It’s an online photo editor that replicates much of Photoshop’s functionality. If you want all its AI features and online storage, however, you must pay $5 per month.
Major programs now offer web versions, too. The latest version of Lightroom, for instance, features a web app with a surprising array of photo editing capabilities. Adobe also maintains an increasingly impressive web version of its flagship Photoshop app. Other notable names in web-based photo editing include BeFunky, Fotor, Photofx, and PicMonkey.
What’s the Best Image Editing Software for Hobbyists?
Most of the products in this list are suitable for enthusiast photographers, including people who genuinely love working with digital photographs. The apps are not free and require a few hundred megabytes of disk space. Several, such as Lightroom and CyberLink PhotoDirector, excel in workflow—importing, organizing, editing, and outputting photos from an SLR or mirrorless camera.
Enthusiasts want to do more than just import, organize, and render their photos. They want to do fun stuff, too! As mentioned, Adobe Photoshop Elements includes Guided Edits that make special effects, such as color splash (in which only one color shows on an otherwise black-and-white photo) or motion blur, a simple step-by-step process. They also want a large selection of creative filters, which several of the programs here include.
How Do Photo Editors Handle Output and Sharing?
At the back end of the workflow is output. Capable software, such as Lightroom Classic, provides powerful printing options, including soft-proofing, which allows you to see whether the printer you use can accurately reproduce the colors in your photo. (Strangely, the new version of Lightroom doesn’t support local printing, though it lets you send images to a photo printing service.) Lightroom Classic can directly publish photos on sites like Flickr and SmugMug. All good software at this level comes with strong printing and sharing options, and some, like ACDSee Photo Studio and Lightroom, include online photo hosting for presenting a portfolio of your work.
What Is the Best Free Photo Editing Software?
If you’ve outgrown the standard photo editing apps on your phone, such as those preinstalled with the camera or the effects included on Instagram, does that mean you have to pay a ton for high-end software? Absolutely not.
Desktop operating systems typically include photo software that can serve consumers’ needs at no extra cost. For example, the Microsoft Photos app included with Windows 10 and Windows 11 may surprise you with its capabilities. It provides a comprehensive set of image tools, including auto-tagging, blemish removal, face recognition, and support for raw camera files. It can automatically remove backgrounds or objects from a scene, and it creates editable albums based on the dates and locations of the photos.
On macOS, Apple Photos also does those things. Both programs sync with online storage services: iCloud for Apple devices and OneDrive for Microsoft devices. (You can now access iCloud Photos in Windows 11’s Photos app, too.) Both photo apps allow you to search based on detected object types, such as “tree” or “cat,” within the application.
Ubuntu users also get photo software at no cost. One option for them is the capable-enough Shotwell app. For more sophisticated editing, the venerable GNU Image Manipulation Program, better known as GIMP, is available for Linux, macOS, and Windows. It features a multitude of Photoshop-style plug-ins and editing capabilities, but lacks creature comforts and usability. For free Lightroom-style workflow options, look to Darktable and RawTherapee, which are also available for all major desktop platforms.
What Is the Best Photo Editing Software for Raw Files?
The programs at the enthusiast and professional levels can import and edit raw files from your digital camera. These are files that include every bit of data from the camera’s image sensor. Each camera manufacturer uses its own format and file extension for these. For example, Canon cameras use CR2 or CR3 files, and Nikon uses NEF. Raw here means what it sounds like: a file with the raw sensor data. It’s neither an acronym nor a file extension.
Most applications that work with raw files offer nondestructive editing, meaning they don’t touch the original photo files. Instead, they maintain a database of edits that you apply and that appear in photos you export from the application. These programs also come with good organization tools, including pick and reject for culling, color-coding, geotagging with maps, and keyword tagging.
Working with raw files provides some big advantages when it comes to correcting (or adjusting) photos. Since the photo you see on the screen is just one interpretation of what’s in the raw file, the software can dig into that data to recover more detail in a bright sky or fully fix an improper white balance level. If you set your camera to shoot with JPGs, you’re losing those capabilities. Several applications here work wonders with raw photos, including DxO PhotoLab, Lightroom, PhotoDirector, and even the online Photopea.
What Is the Best Software for Advanced Photo Correction?
AI-powered content-aware tools in Photoshop and other apps allow you to move or remove objects while maintaining a consistent background. Say you want to remove a couple of strangers from a serene beach scene and have the app fill in the background. Adobe continues to improve this technology by leaps and bounds, with new tools for accurate automatic selection and generative AI background filling. Even more of this wizardry is on the way as Adobe continues to add Firefly features to Photoshop. Microsoft has added a generative AI-like background removal feature to both the Photos and Paint utilities in Windows.
None of these edits involves simple filters like the classic ones for Instagram. Rather, they produce highly customized, one-off images. Another good example is CyberLink PhotoDirector’s Multiple Exposure effect, which allows you to create an image with 10 versions of Johnny jumping over the curb on his skateboard.
(Credit: CyberLink/PCMag)
Most enthusiast- and pro-level photo software can produce HDR effects and panoramas after you feed them multiple shots, and local edit brushes let you paint adjustments onto only specific areas of an image. Affinity Photo has those features, but its interface isn’t the most intuitive. CyberLink PhotoDirector, ON1 PhotoRAW, and Zoner Photo Studio X combine Lightroom and Photoshop features at a lower price, but they don’t match the level of power and ease you get in the Adobe software. Emerging HDR photo file formats, such as AV1 and JXL, are also starting to appear, and Adobe Lightroom and Zoner Photo Studio support editing photos with wide color spaces.
What Is the Best Professional Photo Editing Software?
At the very top end of the image editing pyramid is Photoshop. Its color tools, drawing abilities, layered editing, filters, plug-in support, selection capabilities, and text tools make it the industry standard. (Adobe removed its 3D editing tools from Photoshop because of the changing graphics hardware landscape; you can find 3D functionality in the company’s Substance 3D line of applications.) The company continues to add unique, state-of-the-art features.
Recommended by Our Editors
(Credit: Adobe/PCMag)
Photoshop (and its included companion, Adobe Camera Raw utility) is where you find Adobe’s latest and greatest imaging technology, such as the previously mentioned Firefly generative AI features, as well as Content-Aware Crop, Detail Enhancement, Neural Filters, Perspective Warp, and Subject Select. The program offers a comprehensive suite of tools for professionals in the imaging industry, including Artboards, Design Spaces, and realistic, customizable brushes.
Pros need more than this one application, though, and many use workflow programs like ACDSee Photo Studio, Lightroom, AfterShot Pro, or Photo Mechanic for workflow functions like importing and organization. In addition to its workflow prowess, Lightroom offers mobile photo apps, allowing photographers on the go to get some work done before returning to their PCs.
If tethered shooting—controlling the camera in the software from the computer while it’s attached—is part of your workflow, you should try Capture One. It gives you a lot of related tools, along with top-notch raw file conversion. Lightroom Classic is also strong in this area.
Photoshop has the most image editing capabilities, though it doesn’t always make producing those effects simple. Its edits aren’t nondestructive like those of Lightroom and some other products. Anyone with less intensive needs can obtain all the necessary Photoshop features from competitors, such as Corel PaintShop Pro or Serif Affinity Photo.
DxO PureRAW is another tool professionals might want in their kit due to its excellent lens-profile-based corrections and DeepPrime noise reduction. Topaz Photo AI is another top choice for removing camera sensor noise. Skylum Luminar, too, comes with unique AI-powered features, such as automatic power line removal, which can instantly enhance many a landscape or cityscape. It also has unique depth-based lighting options. You can use it as either a standalone app or as a Photoshop plug-in.
Capture One, DxO PhotoLab, Lightroom, PaintShop Pro, and Photoshop all have precise tools for local selections. For example, they allow you to select everything in a photo within a precise color range and refine the selection of challenging content, such as a model’s hair or trees on the horizon.
How Much Does Photoshop Cost?
Some users are resentful of Adobe’s shift to a subscription model for Photoshop. The most affordable option for Photoshop is now the Photography (1TB) plan, which includes 1TB of cloud storage, both versions of Lightroom, online services such as Adobe Stock and Portfolio, and multiple mobile apps. It costs $238.99 per year, which works out to $19.99 per month. A Photoshop-only subscription with 100GB of cloud storage goes for $263.88 per year.
Several other vendors have followed Adobe’s lead in offering subscriptions. These deals usually include all updates, new templates, AI tools, effects, and, in some cases, such as with CyberLink PhotoDirector, access to stock images from big names like Getty. Capture One’s subscription costs $189 per year or $25 per month. Alternatively, you can purchase it one-time for $317, but note that this does not include updates.
How Can Plug-Ins Expand Your Editing Options?
One more thing to consider when putting together your budget is third-party plug-ins for professional-level software. The excellent DxO ViewPoint, Nik Collection, and RNI All Films are good examples of this large class of software. These can add more effects and adjustments than you find in the base software. They often include tools for film looks, black-and-white options, sharpening, and noise reduction. You can install several of these products as Lightroom Classic or Photoshop plug-ins, or use them as standalone programs.
