Adobe Lightroom
Lightroom lets professional photographers and photo enthusiasts make amazing photos from anywhere through photo editing and organizing.
Adobe Lightroom is commercial image editing software made by Adobe Inc. It was first released in 2007. Its English Wikipedia article has about 3.4k readers a month on phones.
- Made by
- Adobe Inc.
- Since
- 2007
- Wikipedia readers on phones
- 3.4k a month
- Source code
- Closed
Judgement
- What it is
- Complete system
- What it does
- Photo library management and non-destructive RAW editing, with cloud sync across desktop and mobile.
- Adopt it when
- You shoot many photos and want to organise and edit them in one place, often bundled with Photoshop.
- Watch out
- Subscription only, and cloud storage tiers cost more as libraries grow.
- Ready for
- Production-ready
- Runs as
- Desktop app, mobile app and cloud service
- What the license allows
- Closed source: you use it under the maker's terms and cannot change or resell the code.
Judged on 2026-11-03 from the maker's description and Wikipedia. The license and age lines are worked out directly.
Compare Adobe Lightroom
Open-source alternatives to Adobe Lightroom
-
1
PhotoCraft storytold
PhotoCraft: An open-source, photo editor written by scratch in pure Rust
Complete system Experimental You want to try a native open-source Photoshop-style editor and can accept missing features.
★ 76k Apache-2.0 Rust Active, pushed today -
2
Graphite GraphiteEditor
Community-built comprehensive 2D content creation appplication for graphic design, digital art, and interactive real-time motion graphics powered by a node-based procedural graphics engine
Complete system Experimental You want to experiment with procedural, non-destructive 2D design in an open-source tool.
★ 28k Apache-2.0 Rust Active, pushed today -
3
ImageToolbox T8RIN
🖼️ Image Toolbox is a powerful app for advanced image manipulation. It offers dozens of features, from basic tools like crop and draw to filters, OCR, and a wide range of image processing options
Complete system Production-ready You want one free Android app for nearly every image manipulation task.
★ 15k Apache-2.0 Kotlin Active, pushed today -
4
Darktable darktable-org
darktable is an open source photography workflow application and raw developer
Complete system Production-ready You shoot raw and want a free Lightroom alternative.
★ 13k GPL-3.0 C Active, pushed today -
5
Krita KDE
Krita is a free and open source cross-platform application that offers an end-to-end solution for creating digital art files from scratch built on the KDE and Qt frameworks.
Complete system Production-ready You want a professional-grade painting app without a subscription.
★ 11k GPL-3.0 C++ Active, pushed today -
6
PixiEditor PixiEditor
PixiEditor is a Universal Editor for all your 2D needs
Complete system Usable Indie game developers or artists want a free editor for sprites and simple animation.
★ 8.1k LGPL-3.0 C# Active, pushed today -
7
RawTherapee RawTherapee
A powerful cross-platform raw photo processing program
Complete system Production-ready You want fine control over raw development and do not need library management.
★ 4.3k GPL-3.0 C++ Active, pushed yesterday -
8
Pinta PintaProject
Simple GTK Paint Program
Complete system Production-ready You want a lightweight Paint.NET-style editor on Linux or macOS.
★ 4.1k MIT C# Active, pushed yesterday -
9
Nomacs nomacs
nomacs is a free image viewer for windows, linux, and mac systems.
Complete system Production-ready You need a free viewer that opens many image formats quickly.
★ 3.3k GPL-3.0 C++ Active, pushed today -
10
Vue-fabric-editor ikuaitu
快图设计-基于fabric.js和Vue的开源图片编辑器，可自定义字体、素材、设计模板。fabric.js and Vue based image editor, can customize fonts, materials, design templates.
Building block Usable You are building a Canva-style design or product customisation feature and want a Vue starting point.
★ 8k MIT Vue Slowing, pushed 3 months ago
Other commercial image editors
-
1
Adobe Photoshop Adobe Inc.
Explore quick new ways to create custom scenes, make complex edits, & combine images online or with the free Photoshop mobile app.
Complete system Production-ready You do professional photo retouching or compositing, or need to exchange PSD files with other professionals.
11k readers a month Since 1990 Commercial -
2
Adobe Illustrator Adobe Inc.
Powered by generative AI, magically transform a text prompt into a fully editable vector graphic with Adobe Illustrator, the industry-leading vector graphics software.
Complete system Production-ready You produce professional vector artwork or need to exchange AI and EPS files with print and brand agencies.
2.8k readers a month Since 1987 Commercial -
3
Pixelmator Pro Apple Inc.
Pixelmator Pro is a powerful, easy-to-use image editor that brings professional tools and powerful AI features to everyone across Mac and iPad.
Complete system Production-ready You edit images on a Mac and want a capable, inexpensive alternative to Photoshop.
314 readers a month Since 2007 Commercial -
4
Capture One Capture One A/S
Discover Capture One: the ultimate photo editing software designed for photographers who demand precision and control. With advanced editing tools, seamless RAW handling, and powerful tethering capabilities, Capture One elevates your photography to new heights. Experience unparalleled color control,
Complete system Production-ready You are a studio or commercial photographer who shoots tethered and needs precise colour.
258 readers a month Commercial
Under it
Every program, Adobe Lightroom included, runs on a microchip.
The description is the maker's own, quoted as written. Facts come from Wikipedia and refresh weekly. Readers are counted on Wikipedia's mobile site only, because automated traffic that Wikimedia does not flag inflates desktop counts.