Darklight Studio: Lightroom’s Cheap Equivalents

10 Best Lightroom Alternatives in 2024 [Free & Paid]

Ollie Mattison

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

We all know that in the world of video editing Lightroom is very popular and favorite among all the photographers but the pricing makes up think about lightroom alternatives. A few years back adobe introduced a monthly plan for all creative apps and due to that some of the users upgraded to the new plan while others looked for the best lightroom alternatives. So here this article would be summarizing about the adobe lightroom alternative such as free lightroom alternative and paid too.

• Part 1: Reasons Why You Pick Adobe Lightroom
• Part 2: Best 12 Lightroom Alternatives in 2024
• Part 3: FAQs about Adobe Lightroom and its Alternatives

Disclaimer: This post includes affiliate links

If you click on a link and make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

Part 1: Reasons Why You Pick Adobe Lightroom

So let us first talk about what lightroom is, so it is one of the most popular editing software used by photographers and it is the best tool for managing and processing the thousands of photos that live on your devices. This tool is the most powerful editor to empower your clicks and help you to capture and edit the best shots of yours.

Now it is necessary to find the reasons for picking adobe lightroom and some of the cons too.

1. Easy to use the tool

Most of the users find the interface of the tool easier and they can find a way of working simply.

2. Cloud storage

The storage of the adobe lightroom is very much handy for the users who are working on the go needed some extra space on the desktop.

3. Sliders

Here sliders make it easier to get simple visuals on mobile as well as a desktop too.

4. Mobile & Desktop balance

The tools easily work in both the tool mobile and a desktop having cloud storage to keep things all together.

The reasons why it is not worth pick

1. Some features are lacking

This tool still has to proceed with Lightroom Classic in some of the areas.

2. Lightroom classic vs. lightroom

Users still for the most advanced projects of editing need to pick the Classic version over the normal one.

3. Compositing

We find that currently, the capacity of compositing of the lightroom is a bit limited in merging the panoramic scenes.

Part 2: Best 12 Lightroom Alternatives in 2024

Now let us talk about each adobe lightroom alternative you could ever think of using to make your editing looks amazing.

3 Best Free Lightroom Alternatives

So if you are wondering to know the best free alternative to lightroom then find the following list of options to make the best choice:

1.Lightzone

This tool is a simply amazing free alternative to lightroom which works on all devices such as Mac, Windows, and Linux. One of the best features of it is zone mapping where you can do selective adjustments. One other term where no other tool can beat this is in black and white photo processing. So it has fewer features than others but it is surely an effective choice for you.

Features

• Contract Management
• Image Editing
• Output Formats
• Import/ Export Functions
• Bitmap to Vector Conversion
• Layers
• Magic Wand

Pros

• Quick and efficient editing
• Non-destructive work
• Comes with a feature for photo organizing

Cons

• May seem too
• Asset management is basic

2.Capture One Express

This is one of the best lightroom alternatives you could ever think of trying for sure. The best thing about the tool is raw image rending among other tools. Here some basic tools such as HDR support and vignette tool are not found which is a bit weird. It creates a great color rendition same as the pro version which is better than the lightroom too.

Features

• Luminosity masks
• Advanced Color Editor
• Local adjustments
• Color Balance Tool

Pros

• Deep image color correction
• Faster than Lightroom
• Workspace customizing
• Luminosity range, linear-gradient, radial-gradient masking
• RAW processing
• Integrated into Phase One cameras
• Fujifilm film simulations

Cons

• Difficult interface
• No cloud storage
• No Dehaze tool

3.Apple Photos

This tool is the finest lightroom alternative mac and no one can deny the fact. Being an Apple user if you go ahead with this tool it would not ask much time for you to be pro in this. As you would everything is as an apple work system only. It can hide some random screenshots and receipts used by all in iPhone. This tool is considered a combination of simple and modern editing features for all photographers. So for all professional photographers using a free tool is a need then this is the best free alternative lightroom for sure.

Features

• Always-On Sidebar
• New Kinds of Memories
• Better People Recognition
• New Elegant Filters
• AI-Powered Search
• Curves and Other Deep Adjustments
• Editing Features for Live Photos
• Round-Trip Third-Party Editing

Pros

• Easily “Sync” photos across devices
• Optimized Storage
• Edit Photos from any device
• Backup
• Access your photos from anywhere!

Cons

• Storage cost
• Bit confusing
• Can’t choose which image to sync

3 Paid Adobe Lightroom Alternatives

1.ON1 Photo RAW

Source: shotkit.com

This tool comes with great features such as an image organizer, Raw processor, layered editor, effects and so many best things. It has amazing photo library management which would impress you so much. Here you can find images via searching simply with keywords such as date of capturing. It may seem a bit difficult for those who are new to this editing field.

Pricing: 30-day free trial and USD 99.99 purchase price

Features

• Customize Keyboard Shortcuts
• Keyboard Control of Tone & Color
• Cloud Sync for Presets and Extras
• Batch Processing for Adobe

Pros

• Excellent photo organization and metadata tools
• Full-fledged photo editing suite
• Nice UI for intermediate and advanced users
• Powerful Artificial Intelligence Portrait editing
• Excellent Replace Color filter
• ON1 Resize is included

Cons

• Excellent photo organization and metadata tools
• Full-fledged photo editing suite
• Nice UI for intermediate and advanced users
• Powerful Artificial Intelligence Portrait editing
• Excellent Replace Color filter
• ON1 Resize is included

2.Capture One Pro

Source: dpreview.com

This tool is developed by Phase One who are the makers of big cameras and it was designed for studio photographers and professionals. It is very similar to lightroom devices very much such as using layers, sharing in Facebook, organizing images, etc. It also offers high-end rendering quality. Here you can either pay for a subscription or purchase the software outright.

Pricing: $19/month.

3.Skylum Luminar

Source:macphun.com

This tool is the most affordable and effective choice in terms of photo editor for you. It also got launched at the right time when all were looking for the best alternative for the lightroom. This tool work as a standalone tool and also as a plugin for apple devices. It does lack in some of the good features than the other tools too in import options and focuses effects, etc.

Pricing: from $69.00

Features

• Adaptive user interface that you can adjust to your workflow.
• Workspaces that give quick access to the editing tools you need.
• One-click presets to quickly enhance your images.
• Dozens of photo filters to edit, enhance and fix your photos.
• Powerful object removal and clone & stamp tools.

Pros

• Pleasing interface
• Good automatic photo fixes
• Lots of filters
• Local adjustments with brush and gradients
• Curves

Cons

• Some operations slow
• Stability issues
• No face recognition or keyword tagging
• No depth-of-field, blur, or bokeh effects

Best Online Alternatives for Lightroom

1. Polarr

Polarr is an online available editor who is mainly to help semi photographers and beginners to learn editing in very little time. It has resizing, color correction, auto-enhance function, spot removal tool, etc. various filters and effects. Also, the tool is a bit intuitive which makes it a dedicating tool for editing. It is surely should be considered while looking for the best lightroom online alternative.

Features

• Sophisticated masking tools
• Advanced skin retouching
• Text tools
• Premium filters
• Any future features

Pros

• Accessibility for all kinds of platforms
• Watermark support
• There is a comparison mode “before” and “after”
• Supports large JPEG images up to 30MP
• Works offline, so no internet connection is required
• Masks for precise color correction

Cons

• Compared to alternatives, the subscription is expensive
• No Raw Files support
• You cannot install third-party plugins

2.Taglery

This is a place where you can organize your image effectively. It is an all-in-one space for a simple, intuitive library to collect and you can find your all images in a single place. The file format it supports is SVG, JPEG, and PNG. It can find automatically specific information and recognize people who are known and successful. Also, the data is very much secured on the cloud and accessible at any time.

Features

• All in one space
• AI detection
• Backup redundancy
• Low latency
• High throughput

Pros

• Safety
• No adv
• UI responsive

Cons

• Not found

Similar Apps Like Lightroom

1.Picsart

This editing application is very popular among all mobile users and surely the best tool to replace for lightroom. It has more than 150 million current users getting the best editing outcomes with PicsArt. It makes amazing collages, creative stickers, edit and swap backgrounds like a professional level editor. Even if you are new to editing content you would not find any difficulty in using this one.

Features

• Photo editor
• Video editor
• Collage maker
• Sticker maker
• Photo effects & filters
• Drawing tools

Pros

• Easy to use
• Range of effects
• Really good “photoshop”

Cons

• Too many ads

2.A Color Story

This tool comes with so many varieties of colors, themes and rather than focusing on a single look it has more than 400 filters, 120+ movable effects, grid view of Instagram, and viewing any many more. Also if you take the membership you would get unlimited access to filters, effects, color tools, and many more.

Features

• 400 carefully crafted filters, incl. purchases
• Over 120 movable effects, incl. purchases
• Over 20 FREE tools, including HSL + curves
• Custom filters saved from your editing steps
• Instagram grid preview + planning

Pros

• Enhances Photos for Social Media Sharing
• Includes Over 20 Free Tools
• Offers Desktop Version with Lightroom Presents and Photoshop Actions

Cons

• Requires a Purchase for Many Filters and Effects
• Has a Somewhat Confusing User Interface

Thus we have found the best lightroom alternatives list each in detail step by step so that now you could make the right choice for you.

Part 3: FAQs about Adobe Lightroom and its Alternatives

1. What is the best alternative to Lightroom?

So finding the best alternative for the lightroom is not a hard thing to look for as you would get many better options. But first, you need to think about your core needs and objectives what you want to get fulfilled by the tool. So based on your needs and expectations you can list down and find the lightroom online alternative. There is no specific alternative of lightroom for each of us based on our requirement it would vary.

2. Can I buy Lightroom without a subscription?

No, currently you can’t get access to Lightroom without purchasing any plans. If you subscribe to the available plan you would access using and storing cloud images too.

3. Should I edit photos in Photoshop or Lightroom?

Initially, it is good to start photo editing with Lightroom as it is the best tool to proceed then you can switch to Photoshop later on for some achieving some expensive edits.

Conclusion

Thus we hope that the process of finding a lightroom online alternative is a bit easier now with the above-mentioned guide talking about the best lightroom alternative for your upcoming project ideas. So we could say that while searching for a lightroom alternative mac some here and their sacrifices would be needed because adobe is undoubtedly a standard tool in the industry for a long. Now the choice is yours!

Ollie Mattison

Ollie Mattison is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Ollie Mattison

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