12 Best Free Lightroom^® Alternatives [2024]

Movavi Photo Editor is a robust photo editing application, and one of the most popular Lightroom^® alternatives for Mac or Windows. The program has a user-friendly interface that’s easy even for beginners to learn. Along with intuitive controls and multiple professional-level tools and features, Movavi also offers a large library of articles and tutorials to help new and seasoned photo editors make the magic happen with every project. A few of the key features included with this Lightroom^® alternative are AI-powered retouching and editing tools, background removal, watermarking, color correction, text features, and a large variety of filters and effects. Movavi also offers a free trial of the software, making it a great free Lightroom^® alternative for users who don’t mind a watermark.

Key features

• AI auto enhancing
• Easy background removal
• AI photo restoration
• 100+ filters and effects

If you’re looking for a Linux alternative, Darktable offers free photo editing software like Lightroom^® that’s compatible with multiple operating systems. This open source alternative has downloads available for Windows, MacOS, and Linux. As a freeware project, Darktable’s features are constantly evolving. At the time of this writing, it includes non-destructive editing workflows to let you preserve your image at every step of the editing process. It also offers professional-level color management, multiple image format options, and the ability to automate some repetitive editing tasks. This software is not created for beginners, though. So, if you’re not accustomed to finding solutions on your own and combing through forums for answers, this might not be the application for you.

Key features

• Professional color management
• Multiple image formats
• Automation of repetitive editing tasks
• Non-destructive editing capability

Apple Photo is Apple’s built-in Lightroom^® alternative. If you have a MacOS device, then you likely already have Apple Photos on your machine. If not, you can find this free Mac Lightroom^® alternative in the App Store. Along with its photo editing capabilities, this application also takes some of the more tedious manual work out of photo editing. It automatically declutters and organizes your photo library, and it focuses on the best photos in each batch. So, if you’ve taken hundreds of photos of a subject, this free Lightroom^® alternative will essentially sort out the lower-quality shots, saving you time and effort on choosing the shots you most want to edit. Editing tools in the app include resizing, cropping, creating collages, warping, and .GIF creation, along with color correction, filters, and effects.

Key features

• Professional color correction
• Auto sorting with focus on the best shots
• Direct sharing from the app
• Multiple filters and effects

Capture One is a Lightroom^® alternative that’s great for on-the-fly edits. The app includes the capability to connect your camera, shoot pictures, and start editing immediately. It also includes collaborative capabilities, like sharing, viewing, rating, tagging, and commenting on photo projects. So, if you’re working with a creative team, you can get quick feedback directly in your photo editor. Its AI tools automate tedious tasks like sharpening focus on a subject and cleaning up extraneous visual noise. Essentially, its strongest point is its ability to automate the not-so-fun parts of photo editing, so that you can focus on the more creative aspects of the job. While Capture One has a free trial version, though, this is not a free Lightroom^® alternative. Subscriptions start at $14.92 per month (billed annually) for this Adobe^® Lightroom^® alternative.

Key features

• Advanced color editing
• AI editing and retouching tools
• Customizable workspace
• Multiple filters and effects

Photo Studio Ultimate is ACDSee’s brand new Lightroom^® alternative. Users can opt for a lifetime license at $149.99 or an annual subscription at $89 per year. This app boasts a lot of convenient advanced AI tools, including keyword editing, sky definition and replacement, object selection, and edit brushing. It also has an AI-powered portrait retouching assistant and offers non-destructive AI masking. Along with all of its AI-heavy editing features, Photo Studio Ultimate also offers file management capabilities and the ability to migrate photos from Lightroom^® and Photoshop^®. So, if you’ve started a project in Lightroom^®, you can continue your work by moving it over to this Lightroom^® alternative. Photo Studio Ultimate is currently only available for Windows, but ACDSee does offer a similar app for MacOS and iOS devices.

Key features

• Non-destructive AI masking
• AI-powered portrait retouching
• Digital asset management

PhotoDirector Essential is a desktop and mobile app that serves well as a Lightroom^® alternative for many users. Like some of the other programs like Lightroom^® that we’ve reviewed here, this substitute offers several automated features, such as automatic face and body retouching, generative AI tools, and one-click photo enhancements. The generative AI engine lets you create photos from text prompts, or you can use its AI image enhancer to fix photos you’ve taken. Background and object removal is automated, as well, with the option to specifically remove people, animals, or text from a background.

Key features

• Generative AI text tool
• Background and object removal
• One-click photo enhancement

Corel AfterShot Pro is one of the best Lightroom^® alternative programs for professional photographers. It offers robust but simple photo management features, streamlined editing workflows, and fast batch processing. It also integrates with Photoshop^®. So, if you want to do any further retouching or editing on an image after you get done with it in Corel, you can send the project directly to Photoshop^® without any additional steps or hassle.

Key features

• Photo management and organization
• Fast editing workflows
• Large batch processing

DxO’s Lightroom^® alternative is actually a suite of programs, much like the Adobe^® Suite^®. If you’re looking for free apps like Lightroom^®, DxO offers free trials of all of its programs, giving you the ability to test out which elements of the suite are best for your photo editing projects. In this family of apps, you’ll find PureRAW, which boasts the ability to enhance and upgrade your photos without upgrading your camera; PhotoLab, which gives you end-to-end editing capabilities for RAW photos; ViewPoint, which offers control of the geometry of your images; and FilmPack, to give digital images the magic of analog style. You can also opt for the entire Nik Collection, which gives you the ability to edit in Lightroom^® Classic, DxO PhotoLab, Affinity Photo, and Photoshop^®.

Key features

• Visual noise reduction
• Optical correction
• Image warping
• Color reproduction and correction

ON1 Photo Raw is an all-in-one photo editor and Lightroom^® alternative. Developed for both desktop and mobile use, the application includes AI tools, raw photo editing capabilities, image organization, one-click masking, photo merging, and automation of repetitive tasks. You can try this Adobe^® Lightroom^® alternative for free, but before you fall in love with it, be warned that ON1 Photo Raw is not the most budget-friendly of the apps like Lightroom^® out there. Purchasing a lifetime license will cost you between $99 and $199. However, the subscription price is a bit more wallet-friendly at $7.50-12.50 (billed annually).

Key features

• One-click photo masking
• Image resizing
• Filters and effects
• AI enhancement

As we tried out all the best Lightroom^® alternatives available today, Exposure X7 stood out as a stable and robust program. This Lightroom^® alternative requires a moderate budget, but for the money, you get easy photo masking, a complete RAW photo editor, one-click photo adjustments, non-destructive layering, and plug-in capabilities with Photoshop^® and Lightroom^®. While its features are fairly comprehensive, though, Exposure X7 doesn’t have as many of the AI-driven tools as some of the other Lightroom^® alternatives we’ve used. If you’re very particular about your editing work and you like to do things by hand, this program will do the job. If you need more automation and assistance, it may not be the best Lightroom^® alternative for you.

Key features

• Keyword and collection organization features
• 500+ image presets
• Photo retouching
• Intelligent masking

Affinity Photo is a professional-level Lightroom^® alternative for Windows and MacOS. It’s also compatible with iOS devices and is developed specifically to work on iPads as well as desktops. While Affinity Photo is a paid program and therefore not the best free alternative to Lightroom^®, it does offer an affordable Lightroom^® alternative for iPad users at just $18.49. For mobile editors working on their tablets, Affinity could be the best Lightroom^® alternative, but desktop users should know that the full version will run you $164.99 for a lifetime license.

Key features

• Full RAW development
• Unlimited layers and effects
• Compound masks
• Asset organization

Raw Therapee is a completely free Lightroom^® alternative available for Windows, Mac, or Linux computers. Unlike a lot of open source free Lightroom^® alternatives, Raw Therapee was designed with beginners in mind as much as veteran Linux users and professional editors. While the program was designed and developed by volunteers and therefore doesn’t have a dedicated customer service department, it does have a forum dedicated to answering user questions. It doesn’t have some of the AI tools that other programs have, but it does include a full suite of editing tools that can help you take your photos to the next level.

Key features

• Non-destructive editing
• Advanced color editing and correction
• Automatic ghost masking