Best Photo Editing Software (2026): Top 10 Compared

Adobe Photoshop is the layer-based image editor that most other products on this page measure themselves against; ON1, Affinity and Photopea all describe compatibility with or alternatives to Photoshop on their own sites. It handles retouching, compositing, masking, typography and graphics work.

Adobe sells Photoshop only by subscription. The Photoshop plan on Adobe's US plans page was $22.99 per month on an annual plan paid monthly on 12 October 2026, and includes Photoshop on desktop, web and mobile plus the Adobe Express Premium plan. Adobe also lists Firefly Pro, a generative AI plan that includes Photoshop on web and mobile but not on desktop.

For photographers the more relevant offer is often the Creative Cloud Photography plan with 1TB of storage. At $19.99 per month on an annual plan, it costs less than Photoshop alone and adds Lightroom and Lightroom Classic.

Adobe Lightroom is Adobe's photo management and RAW development application. Adobe's Lightroom plan includes two products: Lightroom, which stores originals in Adobe's cloud and syncs edits across mobile, desktop and web, and Lightroom Classic, the desktop application that keeps a catalogue of files on the photographer's own drives.

The work Lightroom is built for is volume: importing a shoot, rating and keywording, applying adjustments and presets across many images, and exporting. Adjustments are non-destructive, so the original RAW file is never altered. Lightroom is not a layer editor, and photographers who need compositing or detailed retouching usually pair it with Photoshop.

On Adobe's US plans page on 12 October 2026, the Lightroom plan with 1TB of storage was $11.99 per month on an annual plan paid monthly. The Creative Cloud Photography plan with 1TB, at $19.99 per month, adds Photoshop on desktop and mobile.

Affinity changed its business model in 2025 after Canva's acquisition of Serif. The separate Affinity Photo, Designer and Publisher apps sold as one-time purchases have been replaced by a single Affinity app with Pixel, Vector and Layout studios. Affinity's FAQ states that the app is free, that every tool in the three studios can be used without restriction or payment, and that a free Canva account is needed to sign in.

For photo work, Affinity lists non-destructive RAW editing with lens correction and noise reduction, live filters and adjustments, frequency separation, inpainting and liquify tools, HDR merge, focus merge, astrophotography stacking, and batch processing with recordable macros.

Canva's paid AI features are the revenue link. With a Canva Pro, Business, Enterprise or Education plan, the Canva AI Studio inside Affinity adds generative fill and expand, background removal, depth selection, colourise, portrait blur and lighting, and super resolution. Affinity runs on macOS and Windows; an iPad version is listed as coming soon.

Luminar, from Skylum, is aimed at photographers who want strong results with fewer manual steps. Skylum's pricing page now sells Luminar as a cross-device product: the desktop app for macOS and Windows and a mobile app, with edits that can start on a phone and continue on a computer. Skylum lists a web version as coming in autumn 2026.

The product's distinction is its AI toolset. Skylum lists Restoration, GenErase for removing objects, GenSwap for replacing parts of an image, GenExpand and an AI Assistant, alongside a library of more than 2,150 presets, 500 LUTs, 400 overlays and 550 skies.

The pricing structure needs careful reading. The $159 plan gives lifetime use of the apps but AI tools for 365 days; after that they renew through the Luminar Prime subscription. The $199 Max plan includes a year of Prime, which renews annually unless cancelled. Luminar can also run as a plug-in inside Photoshop and Lightroom.

Capture One is a RAW editor and asset manager aimed at professional and studio photographers. Its plans page lists support for more than 550 cameras, its own colour profiles and RAW conversion, and tethering tools including Live View, ReTether, camera controls and adjustments applied automatically to the next capture.

The product line is tiered. Pro is the desktop editor. All in One adds the iPad and iPhone app, online collaboration, cloud-shared settings, priority support and Content Credentials embedding. Studio, aimed at high-volume client-facing production, adds offline collaboration, multiple viewer screens, automated cropping, automatic backup and tool locks. A Pro perpetual licence remains available for photographers who do not need the newest camera support.

Capture One's support site documents a 6% price increase effective on renewals from 6 July 2026, following a 6% rise in 2025. Its loyalty programme gives subscribers a 20% discount on a perpetual licence for each year subscribed, and a free perpetual licence after five years.

DxO PhotoLab is a RAW development application from DxO. DxO's store was selling DxO PhotoLab 10 on 12 October 2026 in two editions, Essential and Elite, both as one-time lifetime licences for Mac and Windows.

DxO's product page emphasises image quality. DeepPRIME noise reduction uses machine learning to clean up high-ISO files, DxO Modules apply corrections measured for specific camera and lens combinations, and lens softness compensation recovers sharpness. AI masks complement local adjustment tools, and the application includes colour tools and file management.

The two editions differ in features and activations: Essential activates on two computers and Elite on three, according to the store. DxO states that an internet connection is required to activate the software, after which PhotoLab can be used offline for 37 days before reconnecting.

ON1 Photo RAW is positioned on ON1's site as a replacement for both Lightroom and Photoshop. It combines RAW processing, photo management, layers, masks and effects in one application for Mac and Windows, so a photographer can browse, edit, retouch and export without moving between programs.

ON1 lists a set of AI tools included in the product: NoNoise AI for high-ISO images, Resize AI for enlargement, Generative Erase, Sky Swap AI, Restore AI for damaged photos and Super Select AI for one-click subject or sky masks. Photo management works on files where they already live, without a separate import step, with AI-powered keywording.

ON1 sells both ways. On 12 October 2026 the buy page offered Photo RAW 2027 at $99.99 and Photo RAW MAX 2027 at $169.99 as one-time purchases, with buyers receiving the 2026 version now and 2027 on release. ON1's FAQ states that a licence includes updates within its version but not major upgrades in later years.

GIMP, the GNU Image Manipulation Program, is a free and open-source raster image editor developed as a community project. The project site lists release 3.2.6 and builds for GNU/Linux, macOS, Windows and other operating systems. Anyone may modify the source code and distribute changes.

GIMP's site describes four main uses: photo retouching, restoration and compositing; original artwork creation; graphic design elements such as icons and interface mock-ups; and scripted image manipulation.

Extensibility is the main distinction. GIMP supports plug-ins and scripts in C, C++, Python and Scheme, and the project notes a large number of plug-ins and scripts created by the community. It has no built-in photo library or catalogue, so photographers who shoot RAW usually develop files in a separate converter before retouching in GIMP. Buyers moving from Photoshop should expect a different interface and plan time for retraining.

Pixelmator Pro is now an Apple product, and its site describes it as an image editor and graphic design tool for Mac and iPad with AI features built on Apple Intelligence. Apple sells it two ways: as a one-time $49.99 purchase on the Mac App Store, and as part of Apple Creator Studio, a subscription that also includes Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro and premium features in Keynote, Pages and Numbers.

For photo work, Apple lists non-destructive layers and effects, more than 60 effects, colour adjustment layers, and Select and Mask for detecting fine edges such as hair. RAW photos can be added as layers and edited directly without conversion. Intelligence features include Super Resolution for upscaling, one-click background removal, Deband for compression artefacts, Auto Enhance and Auto Crop.

Pixelmator Pro also handles vector graphics, templates and video layers. It has no Windows version and no dedicated catalogue for large photo libraries, so photographers managing thousands of RAW files may need a separate library tool.

Photopea is a browser-based image editor that closely follows Photoshop's layout and file format. Its site states that the editor runs entirely on the user's device, using the local CPU and GPU, so files open without being uploaded to a server.

PSD is Photopea's main format, and it both opens and saves Photoshop files. The site lists support for more than 40 other formats, including PNG, JPG, WEBP, SVG, PDF, AI, HEIC, TIFF and Figma files, and RAW files from major camera makers including DNG, CR3, NEF, ARW and RAF, with basic exposure and colour controls. Layers, masks, layer styles, smart objects, adjustment layers, channels, paths, Liquify and Puppet Warp are included, along with AI background removal and text-prompted replacement.

Photopea is free with advertising. A Premium account removes ads and is sold as a one-time payment for a fixed period rather than a recurring subscription, according to its privacy policy; prices appear in the logged-in Account window.