There are dozens of free photo editors out there, so we've hand-picked the very best so you can make your pictures look amazing without paying a penny.
Of course, if you're able to wait until Black Friday and Cyber Monday, you'll almost certainly be able to find a great deal on a premium photo editor like Adobe Photoshop, but there's plenty of choice out there if you can't wait that long.
Select one of our funny pictures and swap the faces with your photo or the face of someone else. Free online face swap and change faces tool. Use a selfie or upload a photo and save and share the face swap online. GIMP (the GNU Image Manipulation Program) is the best free photo editor around. It's packed with the kind of image-enhancing tools you'd find in premium software, and more are being added every. PhotoCat is a free online photo editing app for you to edit imges, retouch pictures, make photo collages, apply effects, filters, add frames, text, speech bubbles & more, great for editing facebook photos. Bring Out the Best. BeFunky's Photo Editor offers a collection of Touch Up tools that help you always look your best. Whether you want to remove a blemish, smooth wrinkles, fix red eye or whiten your teeth, our Touch Up tools can make it happen. PhotoCat is a free online photo editing app for you to edit imges, retouch pictures, make photo collages, apply effects, filters, add frames, text, speech bubbles & more, great for editing facebook photos.
We've spent hours putting a huge range of photo editors to the test, and picked out the best ones for any level of skill and experience. From powerful software packed with features that give Photoshop a run for its money to simple tools that give your pictures a whole new look with a couple of clicks, there's something for everyone.
Many free photo editors only offer a very limited selection of tools unless you pay for a subscription, or place a watermark on exported images, but none of the tools here carry any such restrictions. Whichever one you choose, you can be sure that there are no hidden tricks to catch you out.
Best free photo editors 2019 at a glance:
- GIMP
- Ashampoo Photo Optimizer 2019
- Canva
- Fotor
- Photo Pos Pro
- Paint.NET
- PhotoScape
- Pixlr X
- Adobe Photoshop Express Editor
- PiZap
1. GIMP
The best free photo editor for advanced image editing
No ads or limitations
GIMP (the GNU Image Manipulation Program) is the best free photo editor around. It's packed with the kind of image-enhancing tools you'd find in premium software, and more are being added every day.
The photo editing toolkit is breathtaking, and features layers, masks, curves, and levels. You can eliminate flaws easily with the excellent clone stamp and healing tools, create custom brushes, apply perspective changes, and apply changes to isolated areas with smart selection tools.
GIMP is an open source free photo editor, and its community of users and developers have created a huge collection of plugins to extend its utility even further. Many of these come pre-installed, and you can download more from the official glossary. If that's not enough, you can even install Photoshop plugins.
2. Ashampoo Photo Optimizer 2019
Fuss-free photo editing with automatic optimization tools
Fine manual controls
If you've got a lot of photos that you need to edit in a hurry, Ashampoo Photo Optimizer 2019 could be the tool for you. Its interface is clean and uncluttered, and utterly devoid of ads (although you'll need to submit an email address before you can start using it).
Importing pictures is a breeze, and once they've been added to the pool, you can select several at once to rotate or mirror, saving you valuable time. You can also choose individual photos to enhance with the software's one-click optimization tool. In our tests this worked particularly well on landscapes, but wasn't always great for other subjects.
If you want to make manual color and exposure corrections, there are half a dozen sliders to let you do exactly that. It's a shame you can't also apply the same color changes to a whole set of pictures at once, but this is otherwise a brilliant free photo editor for making quick corrections.
For more advanced editing, check out Ashampoo Photo Optimizer 7 – the premium version of the software with enhanced optimization tools.
3. Canva
Professional-level photo editing and templates in your browser
Includes free cloud storage
Canva is a photo editor that runs in your web browser, and is ideal for turning your favorite snaps into cards, posters, invitations and social media posts. If you're interested in maintaining a polished online presence, it's the perfect tool for you.
Canva has two tiers, free and paid, but the free level is perfect for home users. Just sign up with your email address and you'll get 1GB free cloud storage for your snaps and designs, 8,000 templates to use and edit, and two folders to keep your work organized.
You won't find advanced tools like clone brushes and smart selectors here, but there's a set of handy sliders for applying tints, vignette effects, sharpening, adjusting brightness, saturation and contrast, and much more. The text editing tools are intuitive, and there's a great selection of backgrounds and other graphics to complete your designs.
4. Fotor
One-click enhancements to make your photos shine in seconds
Batch image processing
Fotor is a free photo editor that's ideal for giving your pictures a boost quickly. If there's specific area of retouching you need doing with, say, the clone brush or healing tool, you're out of luck. However, if your needs are simple, its stack of high-end filters really shine.
There's a foolproof tilt-shift tool, for example, and a raft of vintage and vibrant colour tweaks, all easily accessed through Fotor's clever menu system. You can manually alter your own curves and levels, too, but without the complexity of high-end tools.
Fotor's standout function, and one that's sorely lacking in many free photo editors, is its batch processing tool – feed it a pile of pics and it'll filter the lot of them in one go, perfect if you have a memory card full of holiday snaps and need to cover up the results of a dodgy camera or shaky hand.
5. Photo Pos Pro
Advanced photo editing tools packaged in a simple interface
Beginner and advanced modes
Photo Pos Pro isn't as well known as Paint.net and GIMP, but it's another top-quality free photo editor that's packed with advanced image-enhancing tools.
This free photo editor's interface is smarter and more accessible than GIMP's array of menus and toolbars, with everything arranged in a logical and consistent way. If it's still too intimidating, there's also an optional 'novice' layout that resembles Fotor's filter-based approach. The choice is yours.
The 'expert' layout offers both layers and layer masks for sophisticated editing, as well as tools for adjusting curves and levels manually. You can still access the one-click filters via the main menu, but the focus is much more on fine editing.
6. Paint.NET
Looking a little dated, but still a dependable all-rounder
Plugin support
More is not, believe it or not, always better. Paint.NET's simplicity is one of its main selling points; it's a quick, easy to operate free photo editor that's ideal for trivial tasks that don't necessarily justify the sheer power of tools like GIMP.
Don't let the name fool you, though. This isn't just a cheap copy of Microsoft's ultra-basic Paint – even if it was originally meant to replace it. It's a proper photo editor, just one that lands on the basic side of the curve.
Paint.NET’s interface will remind you of its namesake, but over the years, they’ve added advanced editing tools like layers, an undo history, a ton of filters, myriad community-created plugins, and a brilliant 3D rotate/zoom function that's handy for recomposing images.
7. PhotoScape
Raw image conversion, batch processing and much more
Great selection of filters
PhotoScape might look like a rather simple free photo editor, but take a look at its main menu and you'll find a wealth of features: raw conversion, photo splitting and merging, animated GIF creation, and even a rather odd (but useful) function with which you can print lined, graph or sheet music paper.
The meat, of course, is in the photo editing. PhotoScape's interface is among the most esoteric of all the apps we've looked at here, with tools grouped into pages in odd configurations. It certainly doesn't attempt to ape Photoshop, and includes fewer features.
We'd definitely point this towards the beginner, but that doesn't mean you can't get some solid results. PhotoScape's filters are pretty advanced, so it's if good choice if you need to quickly level, sharpen or add mild filtering to pictures in a snap.
8. Pixlr X
A comprehensive browser-based photo editor for quick results
Stylish design
Pixlr X is the successor to Pixlr Editor, which was one of our favorite free online photo editors for many years.
Pixlr X makes several improvements on its predecessor. For starters, it's based on HTML5 rather than Flash, which means it can run in any modern browser. It's also slick and well designed, with an interface that's reminiscent of Photoshop Express, and a choice of dark or light color schemes.
With Pixlr X, you can make fine changes to colors and saturation, sharpen and blur images, apply vignette effects and frames, and combine multiple images. There's also support for layers, which you won't find in many free online photo editors, and an array of tools for painting and drawing. A great choice for even advanced tasks.
9. Adobe Photoshop Express Editor
A convenient way to correct lighting and exposure problems
Stylish design
As its name suggests, Adobe Photoshop Express Editor is a trimmed-down, browser-based version of the company's world-leading photo editing software. Perhaps surprisingly, it features a more extensive toolkit than the downloadable Photoshop Express app, but it only supports images in JPG format that are below 16MB.
Again, this is a Flash-based tool, but Adobe provides handy mobile apps for all platforms so you won’t miss out if you’re using a smartphone or tablet.
This free online photo editor has all the panache you’d expect from Adobe, and although it doesn’t boast quite as many tools as some of its rivals, everything that’s there is polished to perfection. Adobe Photoshop Express Editor is a pleasure to use. Its only drawbacks are the limits on uploaded file size and types, and lack of support for layers.
10. PiZap
A fun photo editor for preparing your pictures for social media
Templates for social media
Free online photo editor PiZap is available in both HTML5 and Flash editions, making it suitable for any device. You can choose to work with a photo from your hard drive, Facebook, Google Photos, Google Drive, Google Search, or a catalog of stock images. This is an impressive choice, though some of the stock images are only available to premium subscribers, and you'll need to watch out for copyright issues if you use a pic straight from Google Images.
Free Face Editing Software Online
piZap’s editing interface has a dark, modern design that makes heavy use of sliders for quick adjustments – a system that works much better than tricky icons and drop-down menus if you’re using a touchscreen device.
When you’re done, you can share your creation on all the biggest social media networks, as well as piZap’s own servers, Dropbox and Google Drive. Alternatively, you can save it to your hard drive, send it via email, or grab an embed code. You can only export your work in high quality if you’ve opened your wallet for the premium editor, but for silly social sharing that’s unlikely to be a problem.
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- Top 11 Best Free Photo Editors
Top 11 Best Free Photo Editors
$10month subscribing to Adobe softwares is not a huge price, however, if you are starting out your photo retouching career, or you do not need all this number of tools, or you can’t understand how to use them, one of the following free photo editors will work for you.
1. GIMP Photo Editor
The best free photo editor like Photoshop
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Editors' Rating (4/5)
Mac / Win / Linux | Read GIMP review
Mac / Win / Linux | Read GIMP review
- Free
- Ability to change functionality
- Packed with features and tools
- Works with different file types
- Developer support
- User-friendly interface
- No ads
- Functional packed to a minimum
- Awful online and mobile version
GIMP is the most powerful free photo editor that can completely replace Photoshop. It has an open source code. You can change the program yourself, fix various bugs and errors that you noticed, as well as add your own tools.
Download Photoshop Free before paying for a monthly subscription.
One of the main advantages, except all of the above mentioned, is that the program supports RAW files. However, to open all the formats, you need to prepare this free photo editor in advance by downloading all the necessary updates.
- Read more about open source photo editors.
GIMP has layers, customizable brushes, filters and automatic actions to improve an image quality faster.
What I really like is the possibility to open PSD files and edit them. You have access to a lot of lessons and training videos.
2. Pixlr Photo Editor
The best photo editor for eCommerce
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Editors' Rating (3.5/5)
Mac / Win / Linux | Read Pixlr review
Mac / Win / Linux | Read Pixlr review
- Portable/Mobile
- Supports layers and masks
- Customizable interface
- Opens photos from desktop or URLs
- Requires Flash
- Distracting ads
Pixlr has several versions: Pro, Editor, and Express. Pixlr Pro has a number of advantages and almost does not differ from Photoshop with tools.
Pixlr Editor is a simplified version of Pro. This version has a quite large space for advertising which occupies about 20% of the entire working space. Editor version does not support RAW, like most of all web free photo editors.
- Read more about the best free photo editor online.
Pixlr Express is some kind of Lightroom analog. There are several main effects that work pretty well, but I'd like to have a bit more. You can save files only in JPEG.
Download Lightroom Free to test this photo editing software.
Pixlr is a good choice for beginner retouchers, as you get two absolutely free photo editors to do all the necessary actions.
3. Paint.Net
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Editors' Rating (3.5/5)
Win | Read Paint.Net review
Win | Read Paint.Net review
- Easy and convenient to use
- Many useful functions and effects
- Clear and well-ordered user interface
- Online consulting and “how-to” tutorials
- Limited brush work
- No Burn and Dodge
- No text correction after applying other effects
If you don’t need to perform the complicated actions related to the image editing but are interested in the small changes, most likely your choice will fall on PaintNet.
You can use layers and a large selection of tools, but their functions are not as comprehensive as I would like. PaintNet reminds me of the earlier versions of Photoshop where the interface was very simple.
- View more about the best online photo editors.
However, simplicity does not mean the lack of opportunities - you can do basic image editing: remove skin imperfections, red eyes, and improve background.
4. Fotor
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Editors' Rating (3.5/5)
Mac / Win / Linux | Read Fotor review
Mac / Win / Linux | Read Fotor review
- Smart filters and effects
- A convenient collage maker
- RAW file converter
- Fotor social network
- Lots of ads in the mobile and web apps
- Very few possibilities for deep image editing
- Insufficient amount of functions to replace Lightroom
- Not suitable for creating an image from scratch
Fotor Edit is a simple photo editor for basic image enhancement but with some limitations. Previously, this program was a bit more convenient, but now they have added much advertising on both sides of the workspace.
- View more about 20 free programs like Photoshop.
Also, 60% of the available functions, such as effects and portrait editing tools, will be closed for you until you purchase the full version of the program.
Free Face Photo Editor Download
The web version of this free photo editor is not suitable for editing RAW files, but it is quite good for JPG and PNG.
Fotor Desktop Photo Editor is an offline free photo editing software with RAW support. However, only the desktop version provides the possibility of RAW conversion. I really like this free photo editor - almost no ads, a lot of great effects and scenes similar to the presets in Lightroom.
5. Canva
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Editors' Rating (3.5/5)
Mac / Win / Linux | Read Canva review
Mac / Win / Linux | Read Canva review
- Works with designing
- The Drag & Drop format
- Stock photos, templates and tools for design
- Not for photographers
- Works only with JPEG files
Canva is a photo editor software for graphic design of Drag & Drop format and hundreds of ready-made layouts. Canva is appreciated for the simple work with design, but the guys have also created the separate program – Canva Photo Editor, that’s why they got into this list.
If we treat Canva as a photo editor program, it is an openly weak program with a minimum of functions. So if you need a photo editor with extensive color correction functions, Canva is not for you.
This program has only three characteristics - Brightness, Contrast, and Saturation, as well as 15 effects which, frankly speaking, are bad.
However, Canva is bad only if we talk about photo editing. If it comes to design, Canva is the best free online program for these purposes.
6. iPiccy
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Editors' Rating (3.5/5)
Mac / Win / Linux | Read iPiccy review
Mac / Win / Linux | Read iPiccy review
- Practically all tools are free
- Dodge and Burn, Clone tool
- Many tools for color correction
- Too long work
- Many lags
iPiccy is a simple and free photo editing software that is considered to be one of the most popular on the web. IPiccy has a basic set - Editor, Collage, and Designer.
Despite simple and slightly outdated interface design, iPiccy free photo editor has a really wide range of image editing tools.
Here you can use all of them absolutely free of charge, and it is not only about the exposure, saturation, and sharpness, but about the Dodge and Burn, Clone Tool, Erase Background tools as well.
Color correction is a little annoying with its slow performance, and you will have to wait a few seconds until something is done, but the portrait editing is absolutely great.
7. Photoscape
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![Free Free](/uploads/1/2/6/8/126880532/760241177.jpg)
Editors' Rating (3.5/5)
Mac / Win | Read Photoscape review
Mac / Win | Read Photoscape review
- Free
- Good optimization
- Supports various file formats
- Screen capture
- Weak functionality
- Lags
- Loss of quality while maintaining
Photoscape PC photo editor is a vivid example when an excellent program just requires a little more advertising among photographers and Insta bloggers. The first thing that surprises about this free photo editor is that it supports opening RAW files without any additional plug-ins.
This is the only program which opens the folder with RAW photos within a couple of seconds. The color correction menu is even more attractive – there is a considerable number of various settings that remind Lightroom rather than other similar programs.
There is no advertising and the only thing that can somehow irritate you is “closed” tools, but this does not interfere with the work.
8. Photo Pos Pro
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Editors' Rating (3.5/5)
Win | Read Photo Pos Pro review
Win | Read Photo Pos Pro review
- Customizable interface
- Fast help and many educational tutorials
- Functionality
- Supports various file formats
- Monthly subscription
- Difficult to start photo editing
This photo editor software is, probably, everything that you may need to perform the tasks related to image editing on Windows. It includes a really large set of color correction tools, supports creating Actions, layers, effects, and even the supports RAW and PSD.
You can save your images in JPEG, GIF, PNG, TIFF, or formats that are rarely used, such as EMF or WMF. I also admire that you can choose an interface for beginners, advanced and for pros, which will help you understand how to use all the functions much faster.
Photo Pos Pro is a rather impressive photo editor, even though you might not find this out because it appears a little too complicated at a first glance and requires quite a bit of learning on your part. Its most recent version has a completely different and updated interface, some new selection tools, auto-correction, recovery brushes, etc.
You have an option to select between ‘pro’ and ‘novice’ interfaces and when it comes to the former, I feel like it is a little too chaotic. Don’t get me wrong, the tools themselves are amazing and really efficient, but I don’t get the principle behind the way the toolbar is organized. It will take you a while to get comfortable with using it.
However, the ‘novice’ mode is the complete opposite. Every single tool has its perfect spot, it’s very easy to find where things are and what they are.
To sum this all up, the program is efficient but with a little adjusting period that may slow you down at the beginning.
9. BeFunky
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Editors' Rating (3.5/5)
Mac / Win / Linux | Read BeFunky review
Mac / Win / Linux | Read BeFunky review
- Download photos from the stocks in the program
- You can save the work and continue it later
- Many useful tools for image edit
- A lot of advertising
- Most of the tools are paid
- Effects and Designer are 90% closed for free use
The program is equipped with a lot of functions for basic photo editing, so you can perform such general actions as cropping, adjusting exposure, enhancing colors and so on.
The problem is that 70% of the functions are available only for money. There's a lot of advertising too, similar Fotor – the right and bottom lines are occupied with the banners about purchasing BeFunky Plus.
There are many effects but you cannot use them as usual, because they are all marked with an asterisk, which literally asks you to pay for the full version. The photo editing work is also completely restricted, and is, actually, very inconvenient.
10. InPixio
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Editors' Rating (2/5)
Win | Read InPixio review
Win | Read InPixio review
- It is compatible with JPG, PNG, BMP, etc.
- Easy to use
- InPixio Photo Suite trial version is available with watermarks
- InPixio Photo Clip does not work
- 6 out of 7 programs are useless for photo retouchers
- No trial for Mac
- Not all programs are available on Mac
InPixio is a desktop photo editor that includes seven free programs: InPixio Photo Editor - for basic color correction, Photo Focus - to artificially blur the background, Photo Maximizer - for zooming in, Photo Cutter – for cropping photos, Photo Suite – for broader image editing and Photo Erazer – to remove the unwanted objects in the photo. As for Photo Clip, it is a paid program for image editing without a Trial version.
InPixio wants too much money for its programs. Each of them costs from $20 to $100, and you will need at least 2-3 programs for proper work so that it will cost you $150 on average.
You will get the full-fledged versions forever, but comparatively speaking, it's more than a year of using Photoshop and Lightroom with an additional cloud storage. The difference is that using these programs, you will do more than you can do with all InPixio programs.
11. PhotoWorks
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Editors' Rating (3.5/5)
Win
Win
- Small price for the full program version
- Excellent base filters
- Smooth work, the ability to return actions
- Good opportunities for basic photo editing
- Convenient work with curves
- Opening RAW files takes more than 20 seconds
- Annoying pop-ups
- No change history
- You can't save the edited photo in the free version
PhotoWorks is a really powerful and easy-to-learn image editor suitable for both new and advanced users. It has three versions: Standard, Deluxe and PRO. The choice depends on how complex your work is.
You will be able to do almost anything. Fine-tune the tones and colors, replace image background, remove unwanted objects like spots or wrinkles, fix a tilted horizon and improve the overall composition.
If you are a newbie, you will definitely like the ability to search for tools and features. Now there is no need to waste time digging in the menus and lists - just type into the field a key word or two and here you go.
Ann Young
Hi there, I'm Ann Young - a photographer, photo retoucher and of course, journalist. Here on FixThePhoto blog you can find all of my reviews, photography and photo editing tips, pricing guides, and photography experiments. read more