There are a lot of web-based photo editing tools out there. A lot. So many that I was a bit overwhelmed when I first started looking for an online photo editor. Not only did some of them charge quite a lot, but they also threw up major “gotchas” in terms of things like file uploads and storage.
Here are a list of best online photoshop tools.
Luminar (free trial)
If you’re looking for comprehensive free Photoshop alternatives, the free trial of Luminar 4 is a fantastic option. Luminar combines photo management and advanced RAW editing. Luminar is perfect for professional photographers and designers.
Pros: Aside from photo management, Luminar 4 also offers amazing photo editing capabilities. Use it to edit RAW photos with a high degree of accuracy. You can even make precise edits to attributes such as contrast, highlights, saturation, and brightness. Plus, Luminar comes with AI-enhanced filters including Accent AI 2.0 and Foliage enhancement. These automatic tools offer lightning-fast editing with outstanding quality.
Cons: It’s only free for a 7-day trial period. The full version is available for $69.
Taler
Best free online photo editor with free graphic design templateshttps://www.youtube.com/embed/cvq9mGXGZ3c
Taler is a scrappy new social design and photo editing tool that’s free forever and perfect for launching a new business, brand, or store. With Taler you can customize templates for Instagram Stories, t-shirt mock ups, and social banners for Facebook and YouTube.
New templates are being added every week, with more design sizes for all social platforms coming soon. Think of Taler as a sandbox for creating your digital branding with some great starter styles to help entrepreneurs grow their Shopify stores faster.
Features include:
- Hundreds of customizable design templates tailored to size requirements for Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and more.
- Drag-and-drop editor for easily customizing visual content to match your Shopify theme.
- Powerful suite of filters, overlays, and photo editing tools for carefully refining and adjusting your header template design.
- Text tools to move, resize, and color text to amplify your message.
- Over 17,000 high-resolution, royalty-free images to use in your design.
- Free stickers, shapes, emojis, and graphics.
Available for: iOS and Android
Price: Free
Taler
Best free online photo editor with free graphic design templateshttps://www.youtube.com/embed/cvq9mGXGZ3c
Taler is a scrappy new social design and photo editing tool that’s free forever and perfect for launching a new business, brand, or store. With Taler you can customize templates for Instagram Stories, t-shirt mock ups, and social banners for Facebook and YouTube.
New templates are being added every week, with more design sizes for all social platforms coming soon. Think of Taler as a sandbox for creating your digital branding with some great starter styles to help entrepreneurs grow their Shopify stores faster.
Features include:
- Hundreds of customizable design templates tailored to size requirements for Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and more.
- Drag-and-drop editor for easily customizing visual content to match your Shopify theme.
- Powerful suite of filters, overlays, and photo editing tools for carefully refining and adjusting your header template design.
- Text tools to move, resize, and color text to amplify your message.
- Over 17,000 high-resolution, royalty-free images to use in your design.
- Free stickers, shapes, emojis, and graphics.
Available for: iOS and Android
Price: Free
Apple Photos
Apple Photos comes installed on every Mac computer and offers simple editing tools to quickly improve your photographs. It’s also a great place to store your images, allowing you to organize photos by date or arrange them into folders. Basic adjustments such as color correction, brightness, saturation, and contrast can be made at the click of a button.
Pros: Photos is simple to use and works as a photo organization system and editor at the same time. The tools for editing photos are the same on the desktop as they are in the iOS app, so the interface is especially simple for Apple users.
Cons: Photos is only available for Mac and iOS and has very limited tools. It doesn’t support layers or advanced adjustments.
Microsoft Windows 10 Photos
The Microsoft Windows 10 Photos app is included with any Windows 10 operating system. Just like Apple Photos, Windows 10 Photos also works as a photo organization system. It automatically displays all images saved in your Pictures folder and makes it easy to import images that are stored in other folders as well. The one-click-fix option instantly improves color, brightness, and contrast.
Pros: 10 Photos is great for Windows users who don’t want to install extra programs. The intuitive interface is perfect for novice photographers who don’t need advanced options.
Cons: This software is only available for Windows 10 and offers limited functionality for professional photographers.
GIMP
Perhaps the most well known Photoshop alternative, GIMP has been around for ages and is one of the first programs that comes to mind for many people when they think “free Photoshop.” It’s an open-source program available for Windows, Mac, and Linux, and the official website offers a lot of helpful tutorials.
Pros: GIMP includes advanced features such as layer masks and filters. There are plenty of downloadable add-ons to fit your needs. Both photographers and graphic designers will find the tools they need to do the majority of their work, and GIMP supports a wide range of file formats.
Cons: The interface isn’t nearly as intuitive as Adobe’s.
Photo Pos Pro
Photo Pos Pro is free photo editing software that can do everything from retouching photos to making collages and creating business cards. It allows you to edit existing images as well as start new projects from scratch.
Pros: Photo Pos Pro is great for beginners, recognizes RAW files, gives you the choice of Novice or Expert modes, and helps you ease yourself into the workflow.
Cons: To unlock the full features, you need to purchase the Premium version for $30. There are two interfaces, yet if you choose the Novice mode you can’t work with layers.
Photoshop Express
Best Adobe photo editor for mobile
Adobe, a company well known for elite image and video editing tools, also offers a free photo editor called Photoshop Express for your smartphone. Photoshop Express is easy to use, boasts impressive on-the-go editing features to crop, fix red eye, and even share your finished work on social media, and more. You can also sync the tool with other Adobe products if you are already using them.
Features include:
- Quick-fix tools that heal blemishes, adjust perspective, and more.
- Hundreds of themes, effects, text styles, and stickers you can apply in one click to express your brand’s creativity.
- Edit, retouch, and create collages or combine photos in a tap.
- In-app tutorials and playbacks that show you how to create and apply edits to your photos.
- Ability to post favorite photos to social media sites or share them in email or messaging apps.
Available for: iOS, Android, and Windows
Price: Free
Raw Therapee
Raw Therapee is an open-source photo editing program that’s great for beginners. With just a few clicks, you can instantly sort photographs, improve exposure, adjust the color and white balance, increase clarity, and more. Raw Therapee also gives you the option to create collages and add frames to your photos.
Pros: You can download extensions based on your needs. It’s a great basic photo editor for beginners and is specifically designed to work without lagging on slower computers. Three basic Retouch profiles (Raw Therapee’s version of presets) offer an even faster way to improve images.
Cons: Since the number of users is limited compared to other photo editing programs, there are not a lot of tutorials available.
Pixlr
Pixlr is unique because it’s a completely web-based photo editor. It allows you to make basic adjustments such as vignettes, color correction, saturation, contrast, and frames. The mobile version makes it easy to edit photos on the go.
Pros: Pixlr is a good choice for those who don’t have any room to download extra programs on their computer. The interface is easy to use and reminiscent of Photoshop Elements. Pixlr even supports layers, which is hard to find in an online editor.
Cons: You’ll need a constant internet connection to edit photos using Pixlr. If you stick with the original Pixlr Editor, you’ll also need Flash for it to work. However, the new Pixlr X runs on HTML5.
Scratch Photos
Best free photo editor online to remove background
Scratch Photos gives social sellers a tool to remove the background of product photos quickly and easily. It’s powered by advanced AI technology that scans and removes backgrounds from even the toughest photos. After removing the existing background, you can use Scratch Photo to insert a different color or texture or source a background from Burst.
Scratch Photos is also a great tool if you run Amazon and Google Shopping ads. At the moment, product images need white backgrounds, which Scratch Photos can make in seconds.
Features include:
- AI-powered background remover that automatically takes out any background.
- Auto-adjust feature for improving darkly lit images and photo quality.
- Ability to cut and erase background and replace with plain pastel or custom background.
- Undo and redo edits for best results.
- Direct sharing to social media.
- Download images as PNG files.
Available for: iOS and Android
Price: Free
Paint.NET
Paint.NET was originally created as an alternative to Microsoft Paint but has since developed into a simple photo editor. It includes basic tools that offer the ability to edit using layers, curves, and levels. While the tools and filters are limited, you can download free extensions to add more versatility. Since Paint.NET is used by a large number of people, there are plenty of forums where you can find tutorials.
Pros: Paint.NET is simple for beginners to use and offers basic photo editing tools for those who don’t need any frills.
Cons: This software has limited functionality and is only available for Windows operating systems.
Darktable
Darktable is an image editor that’s often marketed as a Lightroom alternative, although it offers limited functionality compared to Adobe products. However, it does offer great tools for basic image enhancement, which is a good starting point for beginners. It also allows you to create and save your own presets, making one-click editing a breeze.
Pros: Darktable offers a simple interface that allows users to instantly correct colors, apply filters, and adjust brightness and contrast. The interface is nearly identical to that of Lightroom. While many photo editing programs are only available for Mac and Windows, Darktable is also available for Linux.
Cons: There aren’t enough tools for professional photographers, and Darktable can get buggy and crash if files are too large.
LightZone
LightZone is a free, basic photo editor that allows users to instantly perform basic color corrections, adjust white balance, and improve exposure.
Pros: This is an easy-to-use program that’s great for beginners and those who don’t make a lot of adjustments to their photographs. Although it’s a basic editor, it still supports RAW files. LightZone is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux.
Cons: LightZone has no real tool for layers, instead offering an alternative that includes stacking tools on top of each other. The photo editing tools are very basic, and color correction isn’t as good as with other free editors. If you don’t understand how to use particular tools in the program, there isn’t a lot of help available.
PhotoScape X
While PhotoScape X is primarily marketed as a photo editor, it does so much more. It supports batch editing, screen captures, animated GIFs, RAW image processing, image stitching, and other features. PhotoScape X makes it easy to add text and graphics to images and offers many of the same brushes and tools as Photoshop.
Pros: Great for beginners, PhotoScape X offers a lot of easy-to-use filters and tools to improve any image and inspire creativity.
Cons: Some users find the interface cluttered and confusing to navigate at first, and Photoscape X can become slow when faced with large files. Selection tools are limited, making it difficult to edit only certain parts of an image.
Photopea
Photopea is another online photo editor that doesn’t require users to download any software. It supports a range of file formats including PSD yet doesn’t offer all of the editing tools that Photoshop does.
Pros: The interface is similar to Photoshop Elements, making it easy to make the switch without a big learning curve. Photopea supports layer editing on imported PSD files and makes it easy to instantly improve photos with basic adjustments. It also supports both raster and vector graphics!
Cons: Because this is a free program, there are a lot of ads. To remove them, you’ll need to pay $9 a month. You’ll also need to be connected to the internet to use Photopea, and removing large areas from photographs (such as an entire background) doesn’t work very well.
Conclusion
Put away your expensive Photoshop software and start using the free Photoshop online editor of Photopea. It comes with a captivating variety of tools and features to edit your photos, convert between raster and vector tools, and add more than 100 effects.
Photopea also has easy-to-use interface, tutorials, and great support.