Contents
1. What is Lightroom?
2. Top 7 Lightroom Alternatives
3. Which One is the Best One
4. FAQs

Lightroom and Its 7 Alternatives with In-Depth Review

Skylar ReidSkylar ReidUpdated on Jan 02, 2024Photo Editor

We know so many powerful photo editors in the whole universe. Nevertheless, they do not have various built-in photo editing tools. Moreover, Lightroom is one of the photo editing tools that can save you from that. But did you know that aside from Lightroom, you can use other alternative tools? These are; GIMP, Luminar, Photoscape, Inkscape, BeFunky, CoreIDRAW, and Canva. You can try and use these top 7 alternatives, but before that, review their information below. Read now!

Lightroom Alternatives
1. What is Lightroom? 2. Top 7 Lightroom Alternatives 3. Which One is the Best One 4. FAQs of Lightroom

1. What is Lightroom?

Lightroom is from Above, and it is a desktop-focused image editor. Professional photographers commonly use it. In addition, Windows and iOS users can use Lightroom if they meet the system requirements.

Furthermore, Lightroom can categorize your images with a searchable and wide catalog. Therefore, you can manage your images properly without wasting time looking for them. It also offers a wide range of photo adjustments, one-click presets, and enhancements.

In other words, Lightroom is the best software you can use, especially if you are an illustrator, designer, artist, photographer, etc. Moreover, before seeing other information about Lightroom, let us first review its advantages and disadvantages.

Pros
It has a simple but professional user interface.
It has excellent raw filters and profiles.
It is suitable for mobile devices.
It allows you to use the search tool.
It also has non-destructive photo editing tools and a files cataloging system.
Cons
It has local plug-in support.
It is limited in sharing.
You are obliged to upload all the photos on cloud storage.
It can only be used if you subscribe to them.
It is sometimes slow on under-powered computers.
It is also sometimes confusing to use, especially for amateur users.

Lightroom Interface

Lightroom Alternatives Interface

The Lightroom user interface is simple but professional. What does it mean? You will start seeing the basic options, and then you will proceed to the professional tools. On the left rail, you will see the Plus Sign Add Photos, Learn, and Discover. Below are all the Photos, including Recently Added, Recent Edits, By Date, and People.

What’s more? You will also see the Connections, including Adobe Portfolio, Blurb, Printique, SmugMug, etc. In the middle, it is the wide Preview. Therefore, you can preview your image on the Preview, especially if you want to further look at it.

Above the Preview, you will see the Edited, Type, Keyword, Camera, Location, Sync Status, People, etc. In other words, you will see the information in the image. Overall, the user interface of Lightroom is excellent. But again, this is not much suitable for amateur users.

Edit Photo on Lightroom

Lightroom Alternatives Edit Photo

Since we discuss the user interface of Lightroom, you can now easily understand how to edit images on Lightroom. On the right rail of the user interface of Lightroom, you will see the Edit Icon, and once you click that, you will see all the options.

But before editing, you must first add the image. You can add it from your Camera or your desktop. Going back to the editing process, Lightroom lets you Create a Version and input the Name to it. But you can choose the Auto Version.

Moreover, on the Edit part, you will see the Presets, Auto, and Black and White. You can also choose a Profile like Adobe Standard and more. Below are the basic editing tools, like on the Light: Exposure, Contrast, Highlights, Shadows, Whites, and Black. You will also see the Point Curve, Color, etc., and you can use all the tools mentioned for your photos.

2. Top 7 Lightroom Alternatives

GIMP

Price: Free

Platform: Mac, Windows, Linux

Overall Rating:
Lightroom Alternatives Gimp

The first Adobe Lightroom alternative is GIMP. One best reason we can say why GIMP is included as an alternative is because GIMP is free to use. As a matter of fact, GIMP can also be used professionally, like Adobe Lightroom, but you can use GIMP 100% free. But you can donate to them if you want to.

Moreover, it is available for MacOS, Linux, and Windows. Even though GIMP is free to use, it still provides high-quality tools for editing images. It also lets you retouch, restore, and enhance photos with high-quality output.

Check more alternatives to GIMP if you find this tool is not ideal for you.

Luminar

Price: Luminar Neo Pro: $9.92, Luminar Neo Explore: $9.95, Luminar Neo Lifetime Plan: $149.00

Platform: Mac, Windows

Overall Rating:
Lightroom Alternatives Luminar

If you are looking for another Lightroom alternative, you can try Luminar. Like the previous photo editor software, Luminar also has a professional user interface. In addition, it provides three different Catalog that lets you manage all your photos.

Moreover, Luminar offers various subscription plans, and its price is not bad, especially for advanced users, since it offers numerous tools. However, we can say that the Luminar Neo Lifetime Plan is not worth it. So much with that, you will enjoy using Luminar since it offers basic photo editing with advanced presets, filters, and tools.

Photoscape

Price: Free

Platform: Windows, Mac

Overall Rating:
Lightroom Alternatives Photoscapes

The following Lightroom alternative for Mac is Photoscape. You can download it to your Windows desktop and Mac. The good thing about Photoscape is that it is free. For that reason, Photoscape does not require you to pay them. But, like GIMP, you can donate to them.

Furthermore, while using Photoscape, you can use the Editor, Batch Editor, Combine, Animated GIF, Print, Splitter, Screen Capture, Color Picker, Raw Converter, Viewer, and many more. When it comes to Editor, you will experience editing photos by Color Adjustment, Backlight Correction, Adding Text, Drawing Pictures, and many more.

Inkscape

Price: Free

Platform: Linux, Windows, MacOS

Overall Rating:
Lightroom Alternatives Inkscape

Another alternative to Adobe Lightroom is Inkscape. It is free and open-source but will be full-featured. In addition, Inkscape is focused on vector graphics creation. That means it is more in editing like a pro, such as a graphic designer, photographer, etc.

Moreover, Inscape also has a Paint feature. By adding images, you can add changes to them with the help of editing tools, such as Color Fill, Add Text, Drawings, Arrows, Circle, Box, Filters, Object, Layer, and more.

BeFunky

Price: A month: $9.99, Payable for a year: $4.99

Platform: Online

Overall Rating:
Lightroom Alternatives BeFunky

We can suggest another best Lightroom alternative for you, and it is also an online photo editor. Therefore, you do not need to download and install the software. It is BeFunky, and it offers a free version, but it is limited. Nonetheless, you can purchase the plans.

Furthermore, BeFunky allows you to choose what you want to do; you can select Image Manager, Edit, Touch Up, effects, Artsy, Frames, Graphics, Overlays, Text, and Textures. Since we focus on photo editing, BeFunky offers Crop, Resize, Rotate, CutOut, Remove Background, Replace Color, Exposure, and many more.

CorelDRAW

Price: CoreIDRAW Essentials: $129.00, CoreIDRAW Standard: $299, and CoreIDRAW Graphics Suite $549.00

Platform: Windows, Mac

Overall Rating:
Lightroom Alternatives CoreiDraw

The second to last alternative to Lightroom is CoreIDRAW. If you are unaware, CoreIDRAW is known as an advanced and expensive photo editor. First of all, the advantage of CoreIDRAW is that it provides numerous advanced features and tools. However, the disadvantage is that CoreIDRAW is too costly.

Moving forward, CoreIDRAW is more than a drawing feature because it provides more editing tools. Aside from drawing, CoreIDRAW lets you experience pro-level editing photos. However, after the trial version, you must purchase one of its expensive plans to use CoreIDRAW continually.

Canva

Price: Canva Pro: $42.52, Canva for Teams: $72.94

Platform: Online

Overall Rating:
Lightroom Alternatives Canva

The last but not the least alternative to Lightroom is Canva. It is one of our best alternative suggestions since it is an online photo editor. In addition, you can use this for free, but it has limitations.

The last but not the least alternative to Lightroom is Canva. It is one of our best alternative suggestions since it is an online photo editor. In addition, you can use this for free, but it has limitations.

3. Which One is the Best One

Platform Price Moneyback Guarantee Easy-to-use Interface Safety Editing Tools Editing Process Features Best For
Windows, Mac, Linux Free 9 8.8 8.8 8.7 8.7 Optimized Images Digital Black and White Conversion Professionals
Mac, Windows Starts at $9.92 8.8 8.7 8.9 8.8 8.7 Add and Edit Photos Manage Photos Professionals
Windows, Mac Free 9 8.9 8.8 8.8 8.9 View and Edit Images, Batch Editor, Animate GIF, Screen Capture Beginners
Linux, Windows, MacOS Free 8.5 8.6 8.5 8.7 8.5 Resize Image, Edit Photo, Draw and Print Image Beginners
Online Starts at $9.99 8.8 8.7 8.8 8.7 8.8 Photo Editor, Graphic Designer, Make Collage Professionals
Windows, Mac Starts at $129.00 8.8 8.8 8.6 8.8 8.7 Photo Editing, Illustration, Layout, Graphic Design Professionals
Online Starts at $42.52 9 9.4 8.9 9.1 9 Create Cards, Edit Images, Edit Templates Beginners

4. FAQs of Lightroom

What is Lightroom CC?

Lightroom CC is also from Adobe and it was started in the year 2017 because Adobe decided to separate Lightroom into Lightroom CC. Therefore, Lightroom and Lightroom CC have differences, especially Lightroom CC is perfect for photo processing and management.

Is Lightroom free?

Unfortunately, no. Lightroom is not free at all and it does not have a free version. In other words, you must purchase the plan first before using Lightroom.

Is Lightroom worth it?

After reviewing Lightroom, we can conclude that Lightroom is worth purchasing. How can we say that? Because of its wide range of photo editing tools and management solutions. In addition, it provides numerous features, as well as supports RAW images, and more.

Conclusion

To end this review, Lightroom is one of the best photo editors you can have, especially for your images. It is clean, slick, and advanced that comes with various editing tools you can never use for images. We hope you will try these alternatives, such as GIMP, Luminar, Photoscape, Inkscape, BeFunky, CoreIDRAW, and Canva. To end, we will see you again on our next upload!

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