The best photo editing software

We've updated our guide to the best photo editing software to include a number of different tools. There's more choice than ever nowadays, with some programs designed for quite specific editing tasks like denoising, RAW processing or tonal adjustments, while others are designed to do a bit of everything,

Many photo editing programs are also now taking advantage of AI features to automate time-consuming tasks and help you work more quickly and efficiently. Our experienced team of experts has spend a lot of time testing, reviewing and using a range of photo editors. So we're in a great place to recommend the best options for different needs and budgets.

Below, we've listed the best photo editing software available today. We've included both desktop and mobile options, but for more of the latter, see our separate guide to the best photo apps.

The Quick List

The best photo editing software for photographers

The best photo editing software overall

Photoshop is the number one editing software not only for photographers but for a whole host of creatives. We find that it's most useful for retouching, quick fixes, and digital artistry than for traditional photo editing.

Still, Photoshop retains its position as the industry-standard software for image manipulation and Adobe continues to maintain its lead by regularly adding game-changing new features to the software – most recently through the integration of Adobe Firefly-driven AI tools such as Generative Fill and Generative Expand.

And we're going to see more AI features coming in the future – as the latest Adobe MAX 2024 conference made clear, Adobe is all-in on these features. The new Project Clean Machine tool is designed to make it easy to remove unwanted flashes from photos and videos, while Project Perfect Blend is designed to allow you to seamlessly blend your photographic subjects with AI-generated backgrounds. This may or may not be something you actually want – more than a few MAX attendees were wearied by the relentless focus on AI. Regardless, it's coming.

For retouching especially, we find Photoshop to be the most comprehensive option out there with its layers approach, allowing all kinds of non-destructive adjustments to be made. You can smooth over skin, remove any blemishes, and even edit facial expressions with the touch of a button using Adobe's neural filters. In our full Photoshop 2025 review, we found the new AI features in particular allowed us to do more work in less time.

Of course, getting to grips with Photoshop comes with a learning curve, so it's not the best choice for beginners. Meanwhile, pros will decry the lack of support native RAW image editing – for that, you need the Adobe Camera RAW plugin, which allows you to edit RAW images in Photoshop itself. (There's also Lightroom, number 7 below, for RAW image editing, which is bundled with Photoshop as part of the Adobe Photography plan.)

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The best photo editing software for AI

I've been using Skylum for a few years now, and this software is as innovative as it gets. The Kyiv-based photography company are always looking for new ways to make life easier for us photographers, and this software delivers in every aspect. My favourite thing about using Skylum Luminar Neo is the potential to save some of your images from the recycling bin.

Did you miss the focus on a shot by only a fraction of a second? Subject has their eye a little blurred? Is the sky completely overexposed? You can fix all of these things with Luminar Neo, using tools like SkyAI, Supercontrast, and the SupersharpAI extension with the option for focus stacking.

This photo editing software values your time and is firmly focused on speeding up your editing process, so photographers can spend less time editing and more time creating or expanding their business. It removes the guesswork in most cases, offering suggestions for the best templates to improve your images with specific tools for portraiture, landscapes, architecture and grayscale photos.

Read our Sklum Luminar Neo (2023) review for an in-depth look.

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The best photo editing software for pros

Capture One Pro is the professional photo editing software that I use for almost all of my editing needs. I like it because the interface is extremely clean and easy to use without being overwhelming, yet it still has a whole host of great features to help me get my work edited efficiently.

Batch editing with Capture One is a breeze, and I haven't found any other photo software that I rate as much as this one for speedy editing of collections and catalogues. You can simply use the command/ctrl C and V buttons to copy and paste your edits from one image to another, and use the provided presets and editing styles to apply a filter onto your images with ease. I can get 30 images edited in 10 minutes using this software.

In our review, we particularly praised the workflow features of Capture One Pro, which are some of the key reasons why the software is so beloved by professionals. The tethering functionality is also invaluable in studio photography, allowing you to capture and view photos directly through the software. The RAW processing module is also first-rate.

Overall, Capture One is a fantastic piece of software that I would highly recommend, and although it's on the premium side, the student discount option with 65% off sweetens the deal.

Read our full Capture One Pro review for more.

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The best photo editing software for denoising and upscaling

Photo AI 3 is a powerful new AI-driven software for photographers with exceptional denoising and upscaling capabilities. And that makes it a great option when you need to rescue and enhance unusable or low-quality images. It's pretty easy to use, too, thanks to its intuitive interface, plus it's optimised for Nvidia RTX graphics cards.

Our reviewer was particularly impressed by its denoising tool, which offering three AI models (Normal, Strong, and Extreme) to tackle various levels of noise. It consistently produced excellent results, though you need to take care to choose the appropriate model to avoid loss of fine details.

The upscaling feature matched the denoiser in effectiveness. It can intelligently add pixels to increase image resolution while retaining necessary details, making it valuable for enhancing old or low-resolution photos for printing. The sharpening tools, unfortunately, were less satisfactory but hopefully these will be improved in future.

Photo AI 3 is compatible with both Mac and PC and includes a batch processor for efficient workflows. Despite its high price point, it's unrivalled in value for photographers who frequently need noise removal and upscaling.

For more details, read our Photo AI 3 review.

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The best budget photo editing software

While Photoshop is a very powerful image-editing tool, it is quite complex, and has a daunting learning curve. Not everyone needs that – some people just want a simple photo-editing interface that's easy to use, and for such people, we'd recommend checking out CyberLink PhotoDirector 365.

In our full review of CyberLink PhotoDirector 365, we were hugely impressed by the various AI-powered features that have been added into the latest version. Landscape photographers in particular may appreciate the AI sky replacement tool, which lets you seamlessly swap out a drab sky in an image for one with a little more drama to it. There's also automatic body shaping, tools for editing skin and faces, as well as lighting and animation effects.

The intuitive interface is easy to get to grips with. It's a little rough around the edges – use it long enough and you'll start to notice little glitches, types and other things that show a slightly lack of polish. But the fundamentals of CyberLink PhotoDirector 365 are strong, and if you want a budget-friendly option for photo editing, this is a great choice.

For more information, see our CyberLink PhotoDirector 365 review.

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The best photoshop alternative software

Not keen on subscriptions and prefer to pay a one-off price? Affinity Photo is the best single-purchase photo-editing program available today, and a viable alternative to Photoshop that's much more affordable.

Affinity Photo has professional-standard editing features, and it can handle RAW editing, HDR Merge, panoramic stitching, focus stacking, batch processing, 360-degree image editing, non-destructive layers-based editing and intelligent objects. It can also handle PSD files without an issue, so if you're sick of Photoshop's running costs and want to jump ship, you'll still be able to work with all your in-progress files.

We reviewed the updated version of the software, Affinity Photo 2. While it still has a bit of a learning curve, especially for photo editing newbies, the overhauled Layers palette has made it much easier to get to grips with common editing tasks like masking. We also appreciate the much-improved iPad version for cross-platform editing.

Affinity Photo is available for Windows and Mac and as a dedicated full-featured iPad app, which can all be purchased for a one-off, no subscription price. There's also a sister graphic design package (Affinity Designer) and a desktop publishing app (Affinity Publisher). Like with Adobe's software suite, you can transfer projects between these programs without difficulty, making for a smooth workflow. While it doesn't include an equivalent to every feature in Photoshop, it's pretty close, making it exceptional value.

For more details, see our Affinity Photo 2 review

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The best photo editing software for compatibility

Adobe Lightroom is one of the most used pieces of software for photo editing, but best of all are its tools for organising images. For that reason, it's an excellent choice for anyone working with large numbers of photos, such as photographers and designers, who typically use it in tandem with Photoshop. Lightroom helps you to organise your work by letting you keep all of your photography in one place, edit it and share it from anywhere. You can store images on your computer, iPad, iPhone or Android device and even transfer photos automatically from your phone into Lightroom as you take them.

And that's not all. It can also handle complicated image management jobs that Photoshop isn't designed for. For example, it makes light work of day-to-day enhancements and RAW files. Syncing is automatic, so when you make an edit or flag an image as a favourite in one place, it updates everywhere else, too.

Lightroom also offers excellent photo editing features, especially the desktop-based Adobe Lightroom Classic, which, confusingly is still getting updated by Adobe and receives many of the latest features, such as AI Denoise. If you need some help getting your head around the difference between the two, check out our rundown of Lightroom vs Lightroom Classic.

For those who are new to photography and are seeking the best 'modern' organiser we'd recommend Lightroom as it's the best option for multi-device organisation.

Check out our Adobe Lightroom review to learn more about the software.

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The best RAW photo editing software

Looking to convert RAW files? DxO PhotoLabis is the best in the business. It's a slightly complex tool to use, but we think it achieves impeccable results. You can browse images on your computer folder by folder, and then select an image and choose from the default conversion/correction setting or a range of presets.

DxO also has top-class software and plugins (like the popular Nik Collection) available for specific purposes, like its PureRAW editor that can assist with lens softness, demosaicing, vignetting rectification, and distortion correction.

There's also the DxO DeepPRIME technology which delivers finer details and impeccable noise reduction. This is especially great if you're a music photographer working in low-light conditions like me.

We reviewed DxO PhotoLab in its sixth generation, testing out its much-touted denoising capabilities, which we found to be exceptional. Of course, this has been the case for a long time, but a welcome improvements have been made to PhotoLab's other tools like retouching and cloning. This makes it much more viable as a holistic photo editor, as opposed to just being the tool you use for denoising before switching to a different program.

Read our DxO PhotoLab review for more detail.

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The best photo editing software for portraiture

I've only briefly used this photo editing software from Anthropics, but PortraitPro 24 has some pretty great features for portrait retouching, making it another Photoshop competitor. It can locate facial features, as well as skin, hair, and backgrounds and automatically apply smart adjustments using AI.

Since I first tried out the software, it has adapted newer AI tools and features such as facial recovery, reduced reflections in glasses, and what it calls 'inpaint mouth and teeth' which can guarantee the perfect smile for your subject and can even digitally apply a full face of makeup to your model should you choose.

We've explored this program more fully our review. While some of those smart-adjustment tools proved a bit hit-and-miss in practice, the general fundamentals of the software are solid. We particularly appreciated the intuitive slider-based interface, and found smoothing out skin blemishes and similar imperfections in portraits to be a breeze.

This software is available for both Windows and macOS devices, it can also process RAW files, and is reasonably priced too for a one-off payment of $120, or you can get a basic edition of PortraitPro for as low as $59.95.

Read our PortraitPro review for more.

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The best free photo editing software

GIMP is another free photo editing tool, but this one is open source. That means it will be free forever, and there's an enthusiastic community of worldwide developers behind it, who are constantly working to improve it.

The software available for Linux, Windows and Mac, and offers a broad range of tools including painting tools, colour correction, cloning, selection, and enhancement. The team has worked hard to ensure compatibility, so you'll be able to work with all the popular file formats without problems. The software also boasts a very capable file manager built in, similar to Adobe's Bridge.

Check out our GIMP review to learn more.

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The best of the rest

Canva
While Canva isn't one of the heavyweights on our list for photo editing, it has some extremely useful tools. The photo-editor focuses on bringing simplicity to time-consuming tasks, for example the one-click background remover and auto-enhance and retouch. However, you will need the Pro version to access these tools (currently $9.95/£8.99 a month).
Read our 4-star review

Photoshop Elements
If you're just getting started with image editing, full Photoshop may be a bit too much of a learning curve. Instead, you'd be better off with Photoshop Elements; a more basic alternative to Photoshop. Its handy Quick and Guided Edit modes make it great for beginners. The 2024 version includes even more power-up from Adobe's Sensei AI.
Read our 4-star review

Corel PaintShop Pro
Corel PaintShop Pro has been the budget alternative to Photoshop for Windows users for more than two decades. Supporting layers and allowing you to edit in both raster and vector image formats, it apes Photoshop's more advanced capabilities such as content-aware move, gradients, and filters.
Find out more

inPixio Photo Studio
InPixio Photo Studio is another middleweight photo editing software that's easy to use, and features some clever AI. Currently on version 12, its background eraser and cutout tool are particularly well designed, and there's also a cool sky replacement tool, although the results are not always the most realistic.
Find out more

Pixlr X / Pixlr E
Want to make edits right in your web browser? We recommend Pixlr X and its sister app Pixlr E. Both are very easy to use, and there's nothing to download. The free plan is perfect if you just want to use these tools occasionally; alternatively, subscribe to a paid plan and all of the limitations disappear.
Find out more

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FAQs

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How to choose the best photo editing software

The easiest way to decide how to choose which is the best photo editing software for you is to think about a few factors. First is what camera you use. If it is just a normal camera on a smartphone, then practically any of our choices will work with the JPEG images that these cameras tend to create.

However, you may have a mirrorless camera that can shoot in RAW format, which is the digital equivalent of a film negative and allows a lot more latitude in the editing capabilities of an image.

Second, how often will you want to make edits? If and will those changes be needed to apply to a batch of images, then a photo editing tool with robust library tools such as Adobe Lightroom may be the best choice.

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How we tested the best photo-editing software

We based this selection on our own hands-on reviews in which our experienced writers, who have long worked in photography, spent an extended length of time with each program to be able to compare its capabilities, features, ease of use and value for money. They used each program to edit photos using the range of features provided by each program.

We considered who each program is targeted at, how good it is at what it aims to do and how it compares to other products on the market. Because we know what makes a great photo editor, we are brilliantly placed to make these recommendations and have advised on which software options are best suited for which kind of user.

For most of our choices above, we've included a link to our original, more complete reviews, where you can read more about our hands-on experience with the software. In the few cases where we haven't tested the software ourselves, we've taken on board expert advice from working photographers and consulted thousands of customer reviews (to find out more about our reviewing process, read our article on how we test software).

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