12 Best Free Mac Photo Editors in 2025

Why I picked it: it’s super easy to install and I found it just as easy to use. I also love the fact that all edits are non-destructive, meaning that the core image is never modified or overwritten.

Best for: advanced RAW photo editing and workflow management

If you’re as old as I am, it might help for you to think of darktable as a virtual darkroom, and each of your raw photo files is like a negative. It makes it easy for you to sort through your images and play around with everything from color management to pre-defined styles and effects.

For me, Darktable really shines when you use it as a database, because you can filter, sort, tag and rate all of your images and I find that it handles huge libraries much better than some of the alternatives. It offers a wide range of advanced editing tools and a non-destructive editing workflow, allowing users to make precise adjustments without altering the original image data.

It also has an impressive export tool, and the June 2025 build added the ability to export selected images with multiple presets in a single run. There’s a lot to like!

Features:

• RAW editing
• Preserves the original image while making edits
• Advanced filters
• Tethered shooting
• Library management
• Predefined styles and effects

Why I picked it: it’s impossible to deny its popularity as an open-source alternative to Adobe Photoshop®. Put simply, it’s one of the most powerful free retouching programs out there.

Best for: advanced image editing and retouching

GIMP has been around for nearly 30 years, and I remember using an early version of it back in secondary school. It’s come a long way since then, to the point at which it’s now one of the most powerful tools out there for image manipulation and photo editing.

It includes everything you’re likely to need, from layers, channels and paths to the ability to export to a ton of different formats, and it’s just as good for image creation as it is for image editing. Some of my artist friends use it as their go-to tool for digital sketching and painting.

Features:

• Advanced photo editing tools
• Extensive selection of filters and plugins
• Layer support
• Customizable interface

Why I picked it: Lightroom^® is what the pros use, and with good reason. It’s a super powerful tool that makes it easy to edit photos from any device and to carry out professional quality exposure adjustments, color correction and more.

Best for: professional photo organization and editing

Adobe^® Lightroom^® is one of many tools that are available as part of the Adobe^® Creative Cloud^® suite, sitting alongside Photoshop^® and Illustrator^® as a must-have app for any keen visual content creator. It’s the best way there is to take good photos and make them great.

It specializes in non-destructive editing of RAW files and provides an extensive range of tools for color correction, exposure adjustments, and detailed retouching. Lightroom's^® library management capabilities are equally impressive, offering photographers a robust system for cataloging and organizing their image collections. However, one notable aspect of Lightroom^® is its subscription-based pricing model, which can be a drawback for users seeking cost-effective alternatives.

There’s a reason why Lightroom^® was named the 2024 Mac App of the Year in the Apple App Store Awards – Apple says it “excels on Mac with its transformative photo editing capabilities”.

Features:

• Non-destructive editing
• Advanced color correction
• Extensive library management
• Integration with Adobe^® Creative Cloud^®

Why I picked it: I’ve used Fotor a ton throughout the years, and it will always hold a special place in my heart as one of the first free tools that I ever worked with. If you’re looking for something that’s super quick and easy to get started with, you won’t find a better tool on the market.

Best for: quick and easy photo enhancement and basic editing

Fotor is specifically designed to be a universal online image editor, and it does a great job of delivering on that promise. If you just want to quickly tweak the brightness and contrast, it’s easy enough to pop open Fotor. Fotor's one-click enhancement feature automatically adjusts exposure, color balance, and sharpness, making it easy to enhance photos with minimal effort. Additionally, Fotor offers basic editing tools for cropping, resizing, and applying filters. While it's a convenient option for quick edits and creative projects, the free version of Fotor includes ads, which may be a minor inconvenience for some users.

Features:

• One-click enhancements
• Basic editing tools
• Collage and design features

Why I picked it: ever since the first time I lost some photos due to a hard drive failure, I’ve made a point of taking backups. Google Photos is my favorite tool to do that, and the fact that it allows you to make some basic edits to your photos is an added bonus.

Best for: cloud-based photo storage, organization, and basic editing

Google Photos is a cloud-based tool that you can access on your Mac and then hop over to a PC or an Android device and still keep working. Mostly known for its storage capacity and the ease with which you can organize and tag your photos, there are a few other features you should be aware of, too.

In particular, you’ll love the way that Google’s proprietary algorithms are able to auto-categorize your photos based on where you took them and who’s in them. You can carry out some basic tweaks to the images while you’re there, but for more detailed edits, you’ll need to switch to one of the other tools on this list.

Features:

• Unlimited cloud storage for photos (with compression)
• Automatic organization and tagging
• Basic editing tools

Why I picked it: Affinity Photo is the best free photo editing software you’ve never heard of. I like it because it’s fully compatible with Photoshop^® PSDs but it’s about ten times faster, at least on my machine.

Best for: professional-level photo editing and design

Affinity Photo describes itself as “the only fully-loaded photo editor integrated across macOS, Windows and iPad”, and so if features and cross-device compatibility are high up on your wish list, you’re going to want to check it out.

Affinity has most of the same features that you’ll have come to expect from other software, but it has one or two of its own that you might like, too. For example, you can download a ton of different brushes and even create your own, making it particularly powerful for digital artists.

Features:

• Advanced photo editing tools
• Non-destructive editing
• PSD file compatibility
• Layer support

Why I picked it: Apple Photos only has a few basic editing tools, and so I don’t often turn to it when I have major edits in mind. However, it’s great for little touchups, and I use it to back up and share my photos.

Best for: integrated photo management and simple editing for Mac users

Apple’s offering comes bundled with macOS and so perhaps its biggest benefit is the fact that you already have it. If you don’t want to faff around with website signups or software installation, it’s a great option.

Apple Photos is particularly good when it comes to storage, because it makes it easier than ever before to quickly upload your photos to the cloud, to share them with your family and friends and to delete photos or recover them later on.

Features:

• Basic editing tools
• iCloud integration
• Organization and facial recognition

Why I picked it: Luminar NEO is one of my go-to apps when I need inspiration, because its AI-powered editing tools and built-in templates constantly surprise me. However, I’ll admit that it took me a while to wrap my head around it.

Best for: creative and AI-powered photo editing

Luminar Neo is perhaps best-known because of its ability to automatically detect flaws and enhance your images. It’ll play around with everything from color and exposure to composition, making it super easy for you to make your shots the best they can possibly be.

The downside is that it’s not actually a free piece of software, although you can get a full refund within 30 days and so there’s nothing to stop you from taking it out for a spin and then returning it.

Features:

• AI enhancements and templates
• Advanced editing tools
• Layer support

Why I picked it: Despite the fact that it feels a little older than some of the other software packages on this list, Photoscape X is arguably one of the most powerful. It’s also pretty user-friendly, even if it feels like you’re using something someone designed in 2008.

Best for: fun and creative photo editing with a range of tools

If versatility is what you’re looking for, you’ve come to the right place. Photoscape X has all of the tools you need to tweak your photos and play around with stickers, text and other fun features.

One of the other big benefits of PhotoScape X is that it’s an all-in-one editor, meaning it has a bunch of different pieces of software built into it, from its photo editor to its photo viewer. The editor is where it really shines though, with over a thousand filters and effects on offer alongside its arsenal of tools.

Features:

• Basic and advanced editing tools
• Collage and GIF creation
• Batch processing

Why I picked it: I’m a sucker for that retro look, and I’m one of the few people who misses the early days of Instagram when everything had that old school filter look. Exposure X7 is perfect for taking digital photos and making them look and feel like they were shot on film.

Best for: film-inspired photo editing and organizing

Exposure X7 has a lot going for it, and while it’s mostly known for its analog film effects, it also does a great job of sorting and organizing images and allowing you to make non-destructive edits that can be reverted if you make a mistake or change your mind.

One of the more interesting things about this Mac photo editor is that it’s available both as a standalone editor and as a plugin for Photoshop^® and Lightroom^®. Why choose between Lightroom^® and Exposure X7 when you could go ahead and have both?

Features:

• Film simulation presets
• Non-destructive editing
• Layer support

Why I picked it: it’s arguably the best Lightroom^® alternative on the market, and if you take your photography seriously then you need something like Lightroom^® or Capture One. It’s not the easiest piece of software to wrap your head around, but it does have some fantastic documentation and support.

Best for: professional-level RAW photo editing and tethering

Capture One aims to be the only piece of photography software you’ll ever need, covering every step of the way from capturing photos to editing, sorting and exporting them. It does a great job of it, too. Its strengths lie in its exceptional color grading capabilities and support for tethered shooting, making it indispensable for studio photographers.

We’re talking about a professional-grade piece of software that’s trusted by various brands, including those in the industry like Fujifilm and Panasonic. They also have a comprehensive database of blogs, tutorials, livestreams and courses, so you’re sure to find whatever you’re looking for.

Features:

• Advanced RAW editing tools
• Tethered shooting support
• Catalog organization