Quick Picks for Lightroom Alternatives
If you just want to cut to the chase, here are some top picks for Lightroom alternatives that are worth checking out. These aren’t necessarily direct replacements feature-for-feature. Each has its own strengths that may or may not be a good fit for your workflow, required features, and budget. You can find more options and much more detail below.
Why Lightroom Alternatives?
Adobe Lightroom has become the most popular photo management app that integrates image management with image processing. And it’s at the heart of my own image processing workflow. But it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. Some find it too expensive. Others don’t like the idea of being on the hook for an ongoing subscription. Maybe you’re after a specific feature or compatibility that Lightroom doesn’t offer. Or perhaps the Lightroom workflow just doesn’t suit the way you want to work or you find you’re not happy with the quality of the results that come out of it.
If you find that Lightroom doesn’t work for you for whatever reason, here are some alternatives to Lightroom that are worth a look. Whether you’re after for a good free Lightroom alternative, a full-powered suite that offers features Lightroom doesn’t have, or a more limited app to accomplish a particular part of the digital photography workflow, there’s a good chance that there’s something out there that will fit the bill.
Some of these are free apps, and some are paid. Some are direct Lightroom competitors that integrate image management with photo processing, while some focus on a specific aspect of the workflow, such as RAW processing. Each has its own virtues, and there’s a good chance you’ll be able to find one that fits your needs and preferences.
Lightroom Alternatives: Image Management + Processing Apps
Apple Aperture and Lightroom pioneered combining image management with image processing. Before that, there were management apps like iMatch or iView MediaPro and processing apps like Rawshooter and Bibble. So you would run them side-by-side, organizing in one and processing in the other. Aperture and Lightroom brought the two sides together and integrated them into a single app and single workflow. Both Lightroom and Aperture were designed to be archive and darkroom in one. And doing that added more than convenience and speed–it also opened up all sorts of new workflow options that weren’t easily possible before.
The image management functions used by most of these apps are typically based on catalogs, which offers a lot more power than simple file browsing in folders. Things like virtual collections and dynamically updated smart collections also become possible once you start using a catalog rather than a simple file system. But there is a downside, and that is that it adds another step that can slow down the initial parts of the workflow (i.e., ingesting the images into the catalog and generating the thumbnails).
All of these apps combine both image management features as well as RAW image processing.
Skylum Luminar 4 has been developing quickly and strongly, starting with RAW processing and a wide array of filters and editing tools and is compatible with third-party presets. They now added a built-in image management library and some impressive image enhancement tools such as their AI Sky Enhancer, AI Sky Replacement, and AI Structure tools.
Luminar can also act as a hub for other popular Skylum apps like Aurora HDR.
One nice thing about Luminar is that you can use it either as a standalone app (which is probably of more interest to you if you’re looking for an alternative to Lightroom) or as a plugin for Lightroom or Photoshop. There are versions for Mac and Windows as well as a free trial version. If you decide to buy a license for Luminar, they’ve given me a code just for readers of this site to get an even better deal: use the coupon code HAVECAMERA during checkout to get $10 off (it works for new licenses as well as upgrades from previous versions).
ON1 Photo RAW. ON1 was initially best known for their effects plugins, but they’ve now bloomed into having their own RAW processing software that has added a hybrid approach to image management that uses elements of a browser and a catalog. They’ve also thrown in a bunch of their effects integrated with the app. There are versions for Windows and Mac, as well as a free trial version. If you decide to buy a license for ON1 Photo RAW 2020, they’ve given me a code for my readers to get 20% off–use the coupon code HAVECAMERA at checkout.
Capture One. Capture One has been evolving quickly and impressively. What started with a heavy emphasis on high-end medium-format cameras from PhaseOne has evolved into a full-featured and polished image editing and organizing app. If you’re used to the kinds of workflow and tools offered by Lightroom and Aperture, Capture One might well be the closest alternative.
They put particular emphasis on high-end rendering quality. The image quality of its processing engine is excellent, and it now has asset management features thanks to the incorporation of what was one of the original leading asset management tools, iView MediaPro (which then became then Microsoft Expression Media). Capture One used to be very expensive, in keeping with its focus on medium-format cameras, but they’ve now brought in down in line to the same ballpark as Lightroom.
Two things in their licensing worth noting: there’s an option to buy a one-off perpetual license (i.e., no recurring subscription), or you can subscribe with a monthly fee. Secondly, there are specialized versions for those using Fujifilm, Sony, or Nikon cameras, and if you’re only using those cameras, the pricing for those versions is significantly reduced. The main “Pro” version supports all major camera brands. There’s a 30-day free trial, and it works on Mac and Windows. You can find the various buy/license options here.
ACDSee Photo Studio Ultimate 2021 offers an all-in-one digital image management and image processing. It’s Windows only (they have related, very similar app for Mac). The licensing is through a traditional purchase of a license, and there’s a free trial available.
Zoner Photo Studio X has built-in image catalog management as well as editing and processing tools. It has a layout that will quickly familiar for Lightroom users. Licenses are sold with an annual subscription model for $49/year for a single user. It’s Windows-only, and there’s a free trial version.
Corel AfterShot Pro 3. Bibble was once an excellent alternative that offered a number of useful features that the others didn’t. I used to love it. It was lightning fast and offered some super-useful batch processing options. But a drawn-out overhaul several years ago to turn it into an integrated management and processing app proved disastrous and eventually led to being bought out by Corel and renamed Corel AfterShot Pro. A key feature is that it retains Bibble’s emphasis on speed—they claim that it is “up to 4x faster than Adobe Lightroom.” It’s available for Windows, Mac, and Linux.
Exposure X6 has both image management and image processing built-in, although its image management system is a hybrid of a browser and catalog. Its overall interface and workflow will be quickly familiar to Lightroom users. The emphasis is more on the developing side. It uses a catalog-free approach, so it’s quick and straightforward but lacks some of the complex organizational control that comes with having a catalog. The developer, Exposure Software, used to be known as AlienSkin, and they’ve been in the effects and plugins area for a long time. They bring that expertise to their more recent development of Exposure by including an unusually extensive collection of presets and film emulations. The licensing is handled by a traditional purchase price, and there are versions for Windows and Mac. There’s also a free trial version. You can find it here.
No Longer Available
Apple Aperture. Several years ago now, Aperture was the biggest competitor to Lightroom, even though it only worked on Mac. But Apple decided to discontinue development and took the guts of Aperture and iPhoto to create a new app for managing photos that is simply called Photos. Aperture is no longer available, and the newer Photos app isn’t really a good fit for many photographers who required more advanced features and control. If you’re still using Aperture and looking to jump ship from Aperture to Lightroom, Adobe has put out a migration tool and John Beardsley has put together an excellent how-to guide.
RAW Processing Apps
These apps focus on processing RAW files, giving you control over how the image looks, but don’t include the image management features of the apps above.
DxO PhotoLab 3 is now the flagship product from DxO, a team that became well known for their excellent tools measuring and correcting optical shortcomings in lenses and cameras (see DxOMARK). In recent years, they’ve gone big in a much broader way, through salvaging Nik Collection apps that Google abandoned a while back (a suite of tools I’ve used since before they were Google’s and find invaluable) and investing heavily in in-house image processing tools. The combination is a top-notch and powerful RAW image processing app. There’s a free 30-day full-featured trial version.
Raw Therapee is an open-source free Lightroom alternative, albeit one with a much more limited feature set. It works on Windows, Mac, and Linux. It’s a particularly good option if you’re looking for something free and lightweight.
Darktable is free, open-source, and cross-platform, with versions for Linux, Mac, and Windows. Its interface looks strikingly similar to Lightroom Classic’s, so you should feel quite at home if you’re moving across.
LightZone is free, open-source, and works on Windows, Mac, and Linux. It’s a community-based project, and support is provided through its community forum. Development had lagged for a few years, but seems to have picked up again as of mid-2020.
Affinity Photo. This relative newcomer has been making a lot of waves in a short period of time and offers some power workflow and editing tools in a slick package. It was originally Mac only, but they’ve now added a Windows version.
ACDSee Photo Studio Professional 2020 focuses on image processing and doesn’t include the image management options of ACDSee Photo Studio Ultimate 2020 (see above). Windows only for this version, but there is a separate option for Mac users that’s called ACDSee Photo Studio for Mac 6.
Iridient Developer takes a more nuts-and-bolts approach and doesn’t have the resources behind it of many of its competitors. But it’s another option that’s out there. They have a range of tools broken out by the type of RAW files you’re working with.
Nikon CaptureNX2. If you’re using a Nikon, you can get excellent quality results out of Nikon CaptureNX2, but its workflow and batch processing has always been a bit more of a struggle than its competitors. A highlight is its proprietary masking controls known as U Point. Windows and Mac.
Photo Ninja is created by the folks behind Noise Ninja, long one of the best options for reducing image noise but the importance of which has been greatly reduced by the much-improved sensors in more recent cameras. The RAW processing engine features a number of nice workflow options. Noise Ninja is integrated into it, and if you have a Noise Ninja license, you can upgrade it to Photo Ninja. Windows and Mac, with a two-week trial license available.
Adobe Camera RAW. If you’re already using Photoshop, the Adobe Camera RAW plugin adds RAW processing capabilities. It’s fundamentally the same engine used in Lightroom’s RAW processing–so it can produce excellent quality–but it’s designed to be used with Photoshop, not as a standalone product. Windows and Mac.
SilkyPix Developer Studio. Put out by a Japanese company, its focus is on RAW conversion or “RAW development.” There’s a Professional and Standard version, and, counterintuitively, a JPEG-only version. There are versions for Windows and Mac, and they have a 30-day trial version.
RAW Image Workflow Tools
These aren’t Lightroom alternatives, but for the sake of completeness, here are some other tools for working with RAW image files.
Adobe DNG Converter. It’s all in the name–it’s a utility for converting other RAW file formats to Adobe’s DNG format. This can be useful for creating archival versions for long term storage or as a workaround for compatibility issues. It’s free, with versions for Windows and Mac. And it’s a standalone app, so you don’t need to have Lightroom, Photoshop, or Creative Cloud.
RawDigger. This is a very technical app for those who want to really drill down into the raw data captured by the camera’s sensor. It provides an enormous amount of data that usually isn’t accessible, but it’s best suited to technically-minded shooters aiming to extract everything possible from the data. There are versions for Windows and Mac, and there are various editions with increasing levels of data at increasing price points (starting at $19.99, with a 30-day free trial).
ExifTool is a free utility developed by Phil Harvey that works with file metadata, including that encoded with RAW image files. It’s the gold standard in terms of the image metadata it can access, but by itself, it’s not the most user-friendly tool, so many users might prefer one of the versions that adds a more user-friendly interface on top, such as pyExifToolGUI (Windows, Mac, Linux) or ExifToolGUI (Windows). It’s free and platform-independent, and you can find pre-compiled distributions for Windows, Mac, and Unix.
FastRawViewer. This RAW image viewer from the folks at LibRaw is designed for very fast culling of RAW image files into keepers and rejects and other sorting at an early stage of the workflow. A key difference with PhotoMechanic, which is another app famed for its speed, is that PhotoMechanic draws on the embedded JPG previews, while FastRawViewer quickly renders the RAW data. It has some basic correction tools, but it’s not intended as a full-blown RAW image processor. There are versions for Windows and Mac; a license is $19.99.
Image Management Apps
These are usually classed as Digital Asset Management (or DAM) apps. Many of them will handle other file formats as well as images. Their emphasis is on organizing and finding files and generally have very lightweight processing capabilities (if they have them at all).
- Used Book in Good Condition
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iMatch by Photools. Back when I was using Windows (a while ago now), iMatch was one of my all-time favorite apps. It offers some very powerful and very flexible options for organizing and finding your images and plays well with raw processing apps. It doesn’t have as large a development team behind it as some of the other apps here, but its developer is super-dedicated, and there’s a strong user community. It can also work very well alongside Lightroom to make available image management tools and workflows that aren’t available in Lightroom itself (you can find more info on that here). It’s Windows only. There’s a free trial version. And if you’re migrating from Lightroom, they’ve put together a helpful guide here.
Media Pro by Phase One is a standalone image organization app but doesn’t include the image processing features of Capture One (see above). Windows and Mac. UPDATE: Media Pro is no longer offered as a standalone app since its capabilities have been incorporated into Capture One (see above).
ACDSee Photo Studio Home 2021 focuses on image management and doesn’t include the processing features of ACDSee Photo Studio Ultimate (see above). Windows.
Daminion does have individual, standalone licenses, but that’s not really where their focus is. They’re aiming mainly at small teams, where collaborative tools are particularly important. Windows only.
Image Browsers
If you find that catalog-based image management is too heavy for your needs, there are also lighter-weight image browsers available that use file-based organization rather than catalog-based organization. Some of them offer basic RAW processing capabilities.
Photo Mechanic is a very powerful and very fast image media browser that includes some basic processing tools and many workflow tools like advanced metadata management. It’s a favorite of press and sports photographers who need something lightning-fast and rock solid. And did I mention it’s fast? I use this for initial ingesting, culling, and metadata editing and then move the results into Lightroom. It has basic editing available, but its tools are mostly geared toward sharing things quickly rather than intensive image processing. It’s available for Windows and Mac, with a free 30-day trial.
BreezeBrowser Pro covers some of the same ground and is aiming at the same kinds of shooters as Photo Mechanic but is considerably less expensive while lacking some of the polish and power. Windows only, with a 15-day free trial.
Adobe Bridge is part of Adobe’s Creative Cloud and is designed to be used with Photoshop but can be used by itself. It’s quick and powerful.
Lyn is a lightweight image browser for Mac. It has a free 15-day trial, and a license costs $20.
IrfanView is a long-time favorite and is surprisingly powerful, although accessing that power isn’t always as user-friendly as it could be. Windows.
XNView MP is another long-time free favorite that is very powerful. There’s now a cross-platform version that works on Windows, Mac, and Linux. A related tool they put out is XNConvert for converting image files.
Fileloupe is a fast, lightweight image and video browser. I find it particularly useful for GoPro video footage (which I’ve written about here), but it works very well for images as well. Mac. There’s a 14-day free trial available directly from the developer’s website; licenses are sold through the Mac App Store.
Batch Processing
These are useful if you’re looking to batch process multiple photos at once by doing things like resizing, converting the format, adding watermarks, or applying filters. There are many apps that can do these types of things–here are some that I’ve found particularly useful.
XnConvert is a companion to the popular XnViewMP. It’s free and cross-platform, with versions for Windows, Mac, and Linux. It has seemingly endless options and is compatible with over 500 image file formats. Cross-platform / Free.
IrfanView. As well as being a top-notch image viewer–and free as well–Irfanview includes powerful batch processing capabilities, although its workflow isn’t as polished or self-evident as some other options. Windows only / Free.
BatchPhoto can work with RAW files as well as a bunch of others. It’s a basic three-step process: choose photos, choose whatever edits to apply to them, and then output them. It’s a paid app for Mac and Windows with a free trial version.
PhotoMill doesn’t support as many file formats as some other options, but it supports all the main ones and includes a slick, if busy, interface. It also has good search functionality, GPS geotagging support, and the ability to assign ICC color profiles. Mac only / paid.
PhotoBulk has the least features and actions of the apps in this batch processing section, but that simplicity also makes it very quick and easy to use and therefore something I often find myself reaching for if I just need to very quickly convert images from PNG to JPG or resize them. It’s basically a drop panel with sections for watermarking, resizing, optimizing, and renaming. Mac only / Paid. I have a review of PhotoBulk posted separately.
Digital Asset Management for Teams
Most of the options on this page are designed for individual users. But there’s also another class of digital asset management options designed for team access and collaboration.
Most of these are enterprise-level apps and come with enterprise-level prices, so they aren’t well suited to individual photographers. But those working in a studio environment will likely appreciate the added features.
Some of the main options are:
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Horst Wetjen says
Interesting article, but if you’re looking for an all in one workflow, there are only two applications on your list that come close.
ACDSee is excellent if you’re on Windows. The Mac version, however, is severely brain damaged. I tried it, even bought it, but had to ask for a refund because other than image editing, it really didn’t do anything correctly. Something as simple as keywords was non-standard within ACDSee.
I tried ON1 and that’s nothing more than a big joke. Poor raw image processing, poor noise reduction, extremely slow speeds, not able to back up their image database… just to mention a few. If all you do is take photos with your phone, this is the application for you. Otherwise, don’t even bother with it.
Lightroom Classic does Digital Asset Management (DAM) and does it really well. It organizes your photos using directory structures you create on your disk and albums that you can create within Lightroom. It can sync previews (JPGs) of your photos to the Web and make them available on all your devices. All adjustments to these previews are global. It has Geo Location capability and can map your photos. It has tremendous photo processing capabilities and can render raw images beautifully. Purists may argue with this, but the only applications that do a slightly (and I really mean slightly) better job than Lightroom Classic are much more expensive than a 9.99/month subscription.
One really huge thing that’s never mentioned in these reviews is that with the Lightroom Classic subscription, you also get Photoshop. Photoshop is the premier photo editing application. Nothing else even comes close. What ever Lightroom can’t handle (layers, intelligent removal of large objects within a photo, extreme noise reduction…), Photoshop has got it covered. And, if you decide to cancel your Adobe subscription, you still have access to your photo library with all the adjustments you made. You just can’t add any new photos or change develop adjustments. Almost everything else works.
Finally, I am not an Adobe shill. When they went subscription, I was upset and tried everything else that had a free trial. Nothing even came close to meeting my needs. I’m an amateur photographer who loves to go out and take landscape photos. I print and frame some these. I don’t make any money on my photos other than the occasional photo contest. As Paul Simon once said: I’ve got a Nikon Camera, I love to take photographs…
Eduards says
Tried most of them, but the AlienSkin Exposure 5 worked the best for me as all in one product in terms of functionality, quality and speed. Happy researching!
David says
Great! It sure is nice to have the range of such good options available.
Laura says
This is an old thread but a constant problem. I used Extensis Portfolio for many many years, until they discontinued the individual user license. I had even bought a disk of 8.5, but a recent failure of my hard drive, and the unwitting replacement (by a usually reliable supplier) of my old OS version with one that no longer supports Portfolio, means I am now SOL for all my Portfolio catalogs on my laptop. Touch wood the version on the big Mac still works.
I relied on Portfolio’s ability to catalog into my selected folder with a separate Previews folder within it; I could rename on import, batch rename already cataloged images, import/export tag lists, and on and on. If I had a zillion bucks, I would buy Portfolio’s enterprise version, just to be able to keep working as I’m accustomed to.
I dislike iPhoto for its insistence on cataloging automatically by date and making multiple copies of images stored god-knows-where-exactly. I find Lightroom almost as much of a pain to work with, and not as clean as Portfolio. Besides, like so many others here, I detest subscription-based software. So here I am, trying to figure out what to do instead… in 2020.
Will keep track of this thread to see what DAM software does in the coming decade!
TN Args says
Nice article, thank you. Where do you think Digikam belongs, under your headings?
Peter says
Video
Hi,
in my workflow (ambitious amateur) I treat images and videos at the same time (selecting, tagging, trimming, mapping…).
Lightroom 6 does quite a satisfactory job there – is any of the competitors offering similar capabilities?
Samir Smith says
Im dont understand
Why im not us real lightrom
Why this apps nott free using
Melanie says
Good article, very informative. Any reason you didn’t mention GIMP?
David says
Not really. I just tend to think of it more as a Photoshop alternative, which isn’t really what I was intending to focus on. But if I have Affinity Photo on here, it makes sense to also include GIMP. It’s been a while since I used it, so will check out its current RAW support and add.
Oliver says
RawPower is straightforward and probably the best for detail. Limited to Mac users of course.
Fred says
I like the convenience of shooting tethered. I typically shoot 12 product images at a time (the ebay limit) that will all require the same corrections: levels, exposure, keystone, cropping, lens distortion, etc. So batch copy and paste of corrections is a huge time saver. I am trying to love Capture One 12 but find it a real struggle. If anything, it is way more than I need. Lightroom was just about perfect for me but I’d rather be prepared for the time the license stops working. I don’t want to convert to subscription.
Not to mention have you ever noticed how many times Adobe calls home? Ridiculous.
Anyway, tethered shooting, batch corrections, enough catalog management to let me keep the products organized. What do you think? (I’m on a Mac.)
Thanks for your thoughts.
John says
Very useful article, thank you! Seems to me a lot of people are looking to flee Adobe’s subscription model. Hopefully, some of the challengers will survive long term and keep up competition.
David says
Yes, the subscription model is certainly controversial. And there are some good options out there now, several of which are becoming quite well established.
Tim says
When Capture One works, it works pretty well but I have had problem after problem after problem with it and am thinking seriously about moving on from Capture One.
I switched to Capture One a year or so ago from Lightroom 6 standalone. I had months of trouble importing my Lightroom library into Capture One – I ran into one problem after another, including around 20,000 duplicate images created by Capture One in their database which weren’t in the original Lightroom catalog. Since then I have run into one problem after another – database corruption messages, thumbnails on imported images that don’t match the imported image, incredibly slow searches that are completed literally instantly in Lightroom, and features that just plain don’t work. I have contacted Capture One support again and again and again, written up these issues, and yet none have been fixed and the bugs have been closed by Capture One. There is no way to contact management because the parent company’s management is in Denmark and they have no electronic contact info. I tried contacting Customer Support on their web page but it appears that that just sends me to Tech Support whom I have already contacted.
Caveat Emptor.
David says
Interesting–thanks for posting. I’d actually been thinking lately of diving more deeply into Capture One again after a number of years away from it, so these things are good to know.
Kay says
Hello. I have been using Lightroom 4 but it is becoming less compatible with each Mac update. I don’t want to subscribe to it as it really is more than I need. What I am looking for is a photo program to do the following: enhance photos (lighting, minor touchups, etc.), crop, batch format to 16:9 when needed, allow photos to be labelled (both individually and batch) and allow batch photos to be exported, keeping them in the order and also allowing them to be numbered in sequence. Lightroom did all of these things but I am looking for something simpler. I tried, but dislike, Apple’s Photos, plus it doesn’t do the latter (keep exported photos in order and preceded by sequential numbers). Thanks for any suggestions.
Kittie says
Hi Kay, I too am looking for an alternative to Lightroom. Adobe promised that their subscription could be canceled and the program would still exist on my mac – just with no further updates. That is not true and you can’t back down into my standalone version of LR5. I refuse to be held hostage to Adobe any longer.
We are looking for an alternative. Please help.
Zach Shulman says
Hi,
I have a folder of about 40,000 PNG and PDF documents which i use have gathered during medical school and which i use to study. preview was great (esp with quicklook function) but with my growing library of files it has become sluggish and finder often freezes. i am looking for an image AND file viewer that can handle PDF and PNGs. I tried Bridge but found the interface a bit clunky for studying purposes. Would love an app that can do basic markup like preview (but viewing, as opposed to editing) is my priority. basically looking for something quick and minimal in its appearance (where i can make column sizes very narrow, hide toolbars, and fit appearance to my workflow)
thanks
Zach
David says
Back in a previous life when I was working with hundreds of thousands of scans and PDFs for research, I used Devonthink. It’s not so much an imaging app as a rich database that can work with all sorts of information. It’s very powerful, although its UI is not what you’d call minimal, and as a catalog system it might have more bells and whistles than you’re after. That said, if you’re looking for a way to search and categorize your research, it’s hard to beat. It also integrates with automatic OCR, which has its limits in terms of accuracy but is often better than not having it.
If Finder is slowing down, do you have everything in a single folder? If so, breaking them up into smaller batches might help.
One that I haven’t used but that might be worth a look os Benubird PDF. It focuses on organizing PDFs–not sure about its compatibility with PNGs.
Aside from that, I can’t think off the top of my head of something that’s a perfect fit for what you’re after.
Zach Shulman says
thanks for the reply. I will check those out…. but after I did some of my own digging, I came across an app call fileloup which may be what I am looking for. I haven’t started using it yet but it looks pretty great and I couldn’t find a single negative review. so I might try that first. thanks again for the help.
best
Zach
David says
Actually, that’s an interesting idea. I use Fileloupe for GoPro footage–and have a post on it here. Hadn’t thought of it for this use, but it is very quick.
Johnson says
Zach
Have you tried Endnote? I have used it in the past for such tasks – its big plus is searching rather than viewing.
alex says
Nice work! Here I want to recommend WidsMob Viewer (https://www.widsmob.com/viewer). It is a freemium photo viewer for Mac. Well, you can free download it to get all features. The only difference is that the free version will attach watermarks on your pictures. But it is enough for browsing photos with the Windows-like experience. Hope this helps.
Miro says
I am surprised that you didnt mention Fast Stone Browser. although it doesnt edit Raw it is by far the best photo browser, resizer and much more. Irfan view ws primitive and stay primitive and you somehow didn’t forget about is while fast stone is free and exist for about 10 years now.
Simon says
One that didn’t get a mention – Fast stone image viewer. I think it’s a really useful Windows program for viewing and editing and its free! It handles raw files, can export to various file types, lossless jpg saving, has the usual photoshop type editing tools and even has a really good batch tool for renaming and watermarking. It does lack the advanced lens correction tools of Lightroom though. Overall it has loads of great features. I use it a lot. Did I mention it was free!?
ron langevin says
reL Fast Stone Image Viewer – agreed … I have been using their products for years … fast, efficient and FREE !
Anselmo says
FastStone!! Yes!
Me too!
Renae says
Agreed! I’ve used fast stone for as long as I remember and it’s just so good!
Sherwood Botsford says
In the Skylum forums there is a huge amount of dissatisfaction with the lack of reporting on any progress on the DAM. Was initially promised in early 2018. Reps claim that it is in beta, but several individuals who requested and were put on the beta test list have not been invited. Nor will anyone on the forum admit to being on the beta list.
There is no feature list. No developer videos. At this point it is vapour ware.
One of the key features for me for any photo app, but particularly for a dam is multiple monitor support. I did a survey in my local photography group, and some 85% of them have at least dual monitor setups. Many of the remaining ones have very large monitors (4000 pixels/37 inch)
v3rlon says
Always looking for a batter DAM on the Mac. I have tried many on this list.
I would like to be able to map ANYTHING to a hotkey. This would allow me to use a hardware control surface like people can do midi2LR.
I would like easy plugins/round-tripping to other applications when the DAM can’t handle all the work.
I would like not to pay an annual subscription.
So, I own ON1, Luminar 2018 (awaiting DAM), Aperture (RIP), and have tried Aftershot 2, Darktable, Capture 1 (honestly, my trial ran out before I could give it a thorough shakedown curse you real life interruptions!), Lightroom CC and several others..
I am awaiting the DAM update to Luminar and any evidence from Affinity about their product as I already love Affinity Photos.
I love the ease of use for Apple Photos across multiple devices. I love that it is blazing fast to browse, and supports road trips to all my favorites. I wish it was faster to make said road trip. I wish it would take Lightroom plugins, because there are tons of them. And, I wish I could hotkey anything.
Anyone know of a DAM anything like that?
James says
I’m struggling with Photos due to the size of my library. It doesn’t handle multiple libraries well at all, and I don’t want to pay to use iCloud photos. If Photos could access multiple simultaneous libraries (like Aperture could) I would be sorted. Or if it could archive ‘older than x yrs’ to an off-computer library (NAS for instance) I would be totally made up.
Any suggestions?
Danny says
For open source DAM, I recommend ResourceSpace. You need to run it from a server, since it’s really intended for a team environment, but I have run it on my MacBook using MAMP and it’s pretty robust. You can customize metadata fields, create collections, etc. The developers enable the use of plug-ins like ImageMagick and Exiftool to extend the capabilities.
David says
Thanks for the tip–I haven’t tried that one but it sounds interesting.
Tony W says
Our international charity uses ResourceSpace (http://resourcespace.com/). It’s excellent. We started self hosting and then moved to their cloud service.
Karl says
For Raw processing Dxo has just released in october an amazing new tool “Dxo Photolab” – in replacement of dxo optics pro” after having bought the Nik Collection from Google and have announced they will provide an evolution of it in their product mid 2018.
With uPoints and filters, I even produce better images than Lightroom.
So the future for me is Photolab + Affinity.
David says
That’s going to be a good one to watch. As a frequent user of Nik products for about 10 years now, I was very disappointed to hear of Google abandoning them. So I’m glad such a good company will be salvaging them, at least in some form.
Nick says
Darktable has a Windows 64 bit version since 11/2017.
David says
Thanks for the tip. I have updated above.
Aubrey says
Not sure why you say the DAM iMatch 2017 by photools is showing it’s age. Are you thinking of iMatch3?
I’ve been using this iMatch product for the last 9 years (starting with iMatch 3). The company has recently introduced iMatch Anywhere. This allows me to browse through my photo library through the web wherever I am in the world. The company is very responsive, brings out significant enhancements almost every 2 months and no extra xhage ! Love it!!!
graham says
Could not agree more. IMatch is so much more flexible and comprehensive than Lightroom as a DAM solution. The developer, Mario, responds quickly to queries. It has a lot of power and so there is a learning curve for the more advanced features, but it is useable out of the box (as it were) and you can extend its features as you get to grips with it more. Cannot recommend it highly enough.
Graham
Axel says
I wonder if you know Luminar? They are coming up with a new release these days. Might be worth a look …
https://macphun.com/
David says
Yes, I’ve been playing with a bit and so far it looks very promising. I hope to have more on it soon.
Chris Baude says
FWIW, I’m having issues trying to pre-order. Support account/ portal is not for the travelling photographer.
Luminar seems to hide being windows layers, more hype then function, with unresponsive support, aside from telling me they got my message. Doe not portend well for the future. [Caveat emptor].
Miguel says
Hello David, take a look at Macphun’s Luminar 2018, looks like a good software. I’d like to know what you expect from this software.
David says
I’ve been playing with a bit and hope to have more on it very soon.
Robert Wynne says
Surprised you didnt include Zoner X. Similar to LR but subscription is half the price. It also has useful functions that are missng from LR .
David says
Thanks for the suggestion. That one fell through the cracks, but I’ve now added it above.
Charlie says
Still on LR 6 standalone so will probably use that until it grinds to a halt. I am looking for an alternative for the future as Adobe are press-ganging people into going sub based. They have pee’d off loads of customers recently including myself.
David says
Yes, while I understand why they’ve done it, their subscription model certainly isn’t everyone’s cup of tea.
Simon says
And its a minimum of £120 a year!
Morgan43 says
Informative list. I personally use PhotoViewerPro It’s a user friendly app for viewing and editing photos.
Morgan43 says
I’m using PhotoViewerPro for viewing and editing photos.
Hans says
I am another one who does not like LR subscription,, in parts of Europe it’s 150 Euro effectively for updates of something I have already bought.. I am slowly working my way into On1 RAW and it seems to be coming on well.. I don’t mind paying but don’t force me to pay!
Bogdan says
Great list, thanks!
Saurav Shrestha says
Just wanted to say thank you for the list.
I’m a novice photographer and have recently switched back to Windows (from a Mac) and was looking for alternative to Lightroom mainly because their subscription service does not make sense to me.
At $10/mo with a 1 year contract thats $120 every year I use it. There is only a certain workflow I use and that is import from sd into preset folders, go through import to see which to keep which to discard, and touch up some of them. So looking at coughing up $120 every year was not an option. Also a little angered that they charge you a “termination fee” if you cancel early.
I will go through some of the trials on your list to see what works best for me. It was pleasantly suprizing to see IRFANVIEW here. It’s been decades since I used that.
Saurav Shrestha says
I ended up liking combination of iMatch for organizing and RawTherapee for processing. Thanks!
David says
Yeah, IrfanView is one of those apps that just got it right from the get go and has been rock solid for a long, long time now.
Ziggy says
Yes, irfanview is useful but its compressed file quality isn’t nearly as good as LR’s.
Oliver says
Just FYI, Affinity Photo is now available for Windows.
David says
Thanks for the heads up. I’ve updated above.
Lynn Fredricks says
What about SILKYPIX? It is bundled with many digital cameras. While it doesn’t have an image database system, it offers an excellent RAW conversion system. Check it out at http://www.silkypix.us.
Hans says
Photo Supreme was overlooked as one of the Image Management apps. Available for Windows as well as Mac
David says
Thanks for the tip.
Daniel says
I am really only interested in organization/managing of photo collections. I leave the editing to other software.
I have been unsuccessful in trying to find one particular feature in View NX2, Faststone, and a few others.
Does anyone know which, if any, software allows for the searching of keywords/ratings/etc not just in the current folder, but across all folders (or even just all sub-folders)?
Example: I have a thousand folders each with different sub-folders. I have keywords in all photos throughout those folders. I am in the root folder and I would like to find all photos with the keyword “tree” so that I can view just those thumbnails.
Thanks in advance.
David says
Pretty much anything that uses a catalog should be able to do this easily, even if the database basically renders folders moot. Off the top of my head, Lightroom, iMatch, and ACDSee all do that. And apps like Bridge have a recursive search feature.
Daniel says
Thank you! I just found that function in Bridge!
TImoteo says
“And there might be reasons that Lightroom doesn’t meet your needs… maybe the Lightroom workflow just doesn’t suit the way you want to work.”
yeah, the workflow doesn’t suit the way I like to work: Lightroom crashes frequently and is a resource hog. I just had LR crash after editing about half a dozen images and it hadn’t written any of my changes to disk, so I lost all of those edits. I am so tired of LR crashing. I’m using a quad-core, 3.1Ghz computer with 12GB of memory running Windows 10, so it’s not likely due to old hardware or software.
David says
Have you settled on an alternative that works better for you?
Gergely says
For some jobs FastStone (Win) is the fastest and best.
K.Murat says
The latest Daminion 4.5 version has web access so you can access your photo archive from Macs/Mobile/Tablets…
Adel says
Thank you
capillaj says
I have a love/hate relationship with Lightroom. I hate the subscription model, it feels clunky at times, but damn does it process a mean image outside of photoshop. It’s been said that good software goes to die at Corel but, I don’t think that’s been the case for Bibble (Corel Aftershot). Aftershot 2 did somewhat ruined the UI for me but, it remains a great image management and editing solution in my toolbox.
You also can’t go wrong with Zoner PhotoStudio 17 for image management and adjustments. Supports just about any image file type out there including, I believe, support for xtrans files. At $90 bucks, it won’t break the bank. Download a free trial then wait for them to send you some sort of coupon for free extended licensing or lower introductory price.
David says
Thanks for the tip. It’s a shame Zoner PhotoStudio is only for Windows, but it looks like an interesting option.
johann7 says
You know you can buy perpetual license versions of Lightroom, right? Click the buy link for Lightroom here and then confirm that you really, truly don’t want the Creative Cloud service but instead a perpetual license for that particular version of Lightroom: https://www.adobe.com/products/catalog/software._sl_id-contentfilter_sl_catalog_sl_software_sl_mostpopular.html
David says
Yes. But Lightroom isn’t a good fit for everyone.
P Luu says
Yes, LR still does offer the perpetual license. But the problem is, Adobe pulled the plug on CS6 by making it subscription only (Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign and so on. So they essentially hold all of your files that you have w/these programs hostage in away, unless u fork up the subscription to even access to any of those files anymore!). So it could be only a matter of time before they do the same for LR ! And, I, like many others on here don’t want to invest in something long term only to have the rug pulled out from underneath you!
Robby-D says
Zoner Photo Studio can be downloaded for free, slightly crippled: https://free.zoner.com/
David says
Thanks for the tip.
Σηοςλθο says
Apple Aperture is the pioneering photo edit/management (Nov 2005) software and not Adobe as you have specified above. Adobe hastily followed suit with a beta release (First ever beta release by the co. from their ‘Labs’ website. Telling!) of Lightroom Jan 2006, not commercially and only available to the Mac OS platform! Ver. 1 of Lightroom only shipped commercially Feb 2007!
JeanLuc LaBarre says
Absolutely correct. However Apple let Aperture die on the vine without even bothering to issue a press release, leaving many pros like myself wasting our time wishing for a fabled ‘Aperture X’ that never came.
The day I heard that news (second hand) I stopped defending Apple.
Buy a PC. Run Lightroom.
bullsharkreef says
Thanks for the list, but so short and so few who can handle Fuji Xtrans file… I have to move from Lightroom, can’t reactivate the software after a computer mishap and Adobe support is completely useless and non-existent, looks like the only real option is Corel…
David says
This post might be useful for X-Trans compatibility options.
bullsharkreef says
Thanks.
Shinzon says
What about DxO Optics Pro? In some aspects it’s quite similar to Lr, but I found the trial version working significatly slower. But the quality seemed to be excellent
I'm an Art Addict (@artaddictfr) says
Thanks for all that apps, for all photographers.