Best Adobe Lightroom alternatives

Say goodbye to Adobe Lightroom's high subscription fees! This article will dig into the core features of Lightroom and its popularity among photographers and designers, and analyze its price and potential savings from using alternatives. Additionally, we will share a more cost-effective way to create unique photo editing workflows with other applications.

What is Adobe Lightroom? Why do you need to find alternatives?

Lightroom is a cloud-based photo editing software developed by Adobe, which is often considered a simplified version of Photoshop. Photoshop focuses on pixel-level editing and provides unparalleled image control; while Lightroom focuses more on simplified workflow automation, such as presets, batch editing, etc. Although its functions are not as comprehensive as Photoshop, it is better in terms of efficiency. However, after Adobe Lightroom switched to subscription model, the high monthly fees have led many users to seek alternatives.

Is Adobe Lightroom free?

no. Lightroom and Photoshop are both included in Adobe Creative Cloud and have a variety of pricing options. Lightroom starts at $9.99 per month and currently has no lifetime license option.

How to choose the best Lightroom alternative?

Lightroom is expensive and not always meets all needs. If you use Lightroom and Photoshop at the same time, it will be more costly, learn and use longer, and it will also take up a lot of disk space.

Therefore, choosing a tool suite that fits your specific workflow and doesn’t exceed your budget is a smarter choice.

The most valuable features of Lightroom

If you search for "Lightroom Alternative Mac", you will see a lot of options. For a better choice, let's focus on the best features of Lightroom:

• RAW file editing: Lightroom supports RAW photos of various cameras, and can retain the original image quality even after extensive editing.
• Presets: You can use built-in presets or create custom presets to keep the style of the work consistent without manually editing each photo.
• Batch editing process: Lightroom excels in fast processing of large numbers of photos, easily enabling exposure matching, color balance correction and light correction for batch photos.
• Adjustment tools: brightness, contrast, noise reduction, gradient effects, remove unnecessary objects - Lightroom provides all traditional adjustment functions.
• Table of Contents: Most photo editors organize photos using traditional folder structures. Lightroom allows you to choose to organize using folders or directories, which facilitate file references, labels and ratings.

Fortunately, many apps have these excellent features of Lightroom and more! Some are for professional users, some are free, and some are included in a more affordable and feature-rich photo editing tool suite like Setapp.

The top 7 best Adobe Lightroom alternatives

1. Luminar Neo

Luminar Neo is developed by Skylum and can be used as a plug-in for Adobe applications or as a standalone photo editor, supports RAW format and has powerful AI capabilities. It has most of the features of Lightroom, such as uploading entire folders and applying consistent editing to photo collections, using professional presets and filters, and editing RAW formats to preserve original quality.

Luminar Neo's advantages lie in its AI effects, such as AI skin and portrait enhancement features, as well as AI enhancement sky masks, which can significantly improve the photo effect with just one click. It also offers a variety of stylized appearances (portraits, aerials, nature, etc.), as well as layer features that Lightroom does not have.

advantage:

• Powerful layer functionality (similar to Photoshop)
• Unique AI enhancements
• Available through Setapp membership

shortcoming:

• Repair brushes are slow
• No keyword-based sorting

Price: Setapp $9.99 per month (including Luminar Neo and over 10 other photo editing apps) or $89 (a one-time purchase).

Best for: novices and photography enthusiasts; users who want to try AI effects and one-click editing; users who want to use the layer function in Lightroom.

2. TouchRetouch

TouchRetouch is a tool for repairing photo defects, which can remove defects, unwanted objects, and perform rapid color correction. While it is not a complete Lightroom alternative, it lacks advanced features such as presets and batch editing, it is very practical for quick photo editing.

advantage:

• Quick photo editing process
• Cloning stamps, line removal and other advanced photo editing tools
• Available through Setapp membership

shortcoming:

• No batch editing function
• No presets and filters

Price: Setapp $9.99 per month (including TouchRetouch and over 10 other photo editing apps) or $1.99 (one-time purchase).

Best for: users who need to remove watermarks, characters or other defects.

3. Capture One Pro

Capture One Pro is a Lightroom alternative for professional photographers, combining Lightroom and Photoshop features RAW editing, Photoshop-style layers, powerful processing power and advanced color wheels. While it may outperform the Adobe Creative suite in some ways, it is also more complex and has a steeper learning curve.

advantage:

• Have most of the features of Lightroom and Photoshop
• Extensive customization options
• Strong processing capability

shortcoming:

• Expensive
• Missing HDR tools
• Steep learning curve

Price: Starting at $14 per month.

Best for: Professional photographers looking for more professional studio features.

4. PhotoBulk

PhotoBulk is a tool for batch processing of photos that quickly resize photos, rename, change metadata, add watermarks, or convert formats. It is not a Lightroom alternative, but it can be used with other photo editing apps for efficiency.

advantage:

• Quick batch editing
• Add watermark
• Available through Setapp membership

shortcoming:

• No color and tone adjustment tools
• No filters and layers

Price: Setapp $9.99 per month (including PhotoBulk and more than 10 other photo editing apps) or $9.99 (one-time purchase).

Best for: users who need to quickly optimize photo size and format, initially process shooting materials, and organize photos by collection.

5. CameraBag Pro

CameraBag Pro is an application between Photoshop and Lightroom. It has a large number of professional filters (more than 200), powerful photo editing tools, custom presets, masks and other functions, and is easy to use. It also supports video editing and can fix bad points.

advantage:

• Covering most features of Lightroom and Photoshop
• Video Editing Toolkit
• Available through Setapp membership

shortcoming:

• No directory function for Lightroom

Price: Setapp $9.99 per month (including CameraBag Pro and over 10 other photo editing apps) or $50 (a one-time purchase).

Best for: Professional photographers/videos and newbies.

6. RawTherapee

RawTherapee is an open source RAW image processing application that shares many features with Lightroom, supports RAW format, and is completely free. Although the adjustment tools are not as rich as Lightroom, they can perform basic color correction, exposure adjustment and sharpening operations. The main difference is the way the file is organized, which uses traditional folder structure.

advantage:

• Support RAW files
• Basic adjustment tools
• free

shortcoming:

• No directory function for Lightroom
• Limited adjustment tools

Price: Free

Best for: newbies or users who need basic photo adjustments.

Final conclusion: What is the best Lightroom alternative?

No single app is able to offer all the same features for a lower price than Lightroom. But you can combine multiple tools to implement Lightroom's functionality and save costs. Setapp is a good choice, it offers a complete set of photo editing tools that partially replaces Photoshop's features.

A possible Lightroom alternative workflow:

1. Use Emulsion to organize photos (catalogs or folders).
2. Use TouchRetouch to fix minor defects and remove unwanted objects or lines.
3. Use PhotoBulk to change metadata, name, size, and file format.
4. Use CameraBag Pro to create custom presets, apply filters and masks.
5. Use Luminar Neo to try advanced AI effects and layers.

All of these apps are included in the Setapp without paying separately.

Additional Benefits of Setapp

Setapp is a productivity tool for Mac and iOS users, providing a wide range of applications. Access to over 210 apps is available for $9.99 per month and offers a free 7-day trial. If you are interested in photography, design and creative work, Setapp will provide all the "Lightroom alternatives" mentioned above as well as other utility tools such as Squash (file compression) and Tayasui Sketches (drawing).

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