The 10 Best Apps for Editing Photos [Ranked & Reviewed]

This article reviews the 10 Best Apps for Editing Photos.

A photograph preserves the best moments of your life. Unfortunately, not all shots we take rise to the occasion, thus not preserving the best flash of memory.

This is where photo editing apps come in handy to help you make adjustments as necessary to get the best out of your photographs.

The best app for editing photos can adjust the color correction, erase an unwanted person or object, add filters, or improve the saturation.

However, with so many apps for editing photos, it isn’t easy to find the right tool to work with. A quick look through either the Google Play Store or the App Store can overwhelm you with choices.

For this reason, we have ranked and reviewed some of the best apps for editing photos for novice and advanced users. The good thing is that some are free to use, while others require payment to access advanced features.

Ranking The 10 Best Apps for Editing Photos

How do I choose the Best App for Editing Photos?

Choosing the best photo editing app is not straightforward because preference plays a crucial role in selection.

But the first thing you should know when selecting a photo editing app is what you need the app for. Is it for editing your foodie pictures? Retouching your selfies? Or you just want to enhance your scenic shots with some touches.

Usually, the best apps for editing photos fall into two categories: those geared toward professional consumers or photographers and those for everyday use. We have included both types of photo editing apps on our list.

The good thing is that most photo editing applications we reviewed here have basic editing capabilities. Some have extra features for optimal photo improvement. You will learn more about these apps below:

The Best Apps for Editing Photos

1. Adobe Lightroom

After carefully analyzing several photo editing applications, we concluded that Adobe Lightroom is the best app for editing photos. It is a top-notch app for anyone serious about showcasing the best images.

Its mobile version is part of a cloud-based workflow with full access to high-resolution files and photo storage. The good thing is that Lightroom Mobile is free.

But if you are an experienced photographer or content creator, you can purchase the entire Lightroom system for $9.99 monthly.

Key Features

• It has an excellent library-style photo organization
• The free version comes with excellent essential editing tools to deliver high-quality output.
• It comes with a wide range of adjustment options.
• Its paid version includes advanced tools like perspective correction, masking and healing, and raw file editing.

2. Snapseed

Snapseed is the best app for editing photos for everyday users.

The app is available for both Android and iOS devices. While it may be a simple tool for casual editing, Snapseed has powerful capabilities for experienced photographers and content creators.

Some of its outstanding features include selective editing tools, professional editing tools, and color and exposure configuration options.

With editing tools such as selective brushes, image tuning, detailed lighting, curves, filtering, and color scales, you have more than you need to improve the appeal of your photos.

Key Features

• It comes with several presets and filters for on-tap editing.
• It has 30+ professional editing tools.
• Fun and simplistic interface

3. PicsArt

We love PicsArt because it has all the necessary editing tools, several creative controls, and a wide variety of attractive filters.

Besides this, the app lets you choose or create funny stickers, add text, and combine your photos into a customizable collage.

Another impressive feature is the Remix Chat, which enables you to collaboratively edit photos with more than 150 million users of PicsArt.

Key Features

• It comes with several photo editing tools for casual users.
• Its straightforward interface simplifies things for starters.
• The app comes with various filters, stickers, and customized collages.

4. Pixlr

If you are a casual photographer who requires basic fine-tuning and perhaps adds some effects, then Pixlr is your tool.

This app has an intuitive interface that works well with beginners.

It also has a wide variety of straightforward photo adjustment tools, including brushes to apply selecting editing, preset layouts to help you create collages, and designed templates to enable you to shuffle images.

Generally, it is simple enough not to overwhelm you yet rich enough to allow you to get the most out of your photos.

Key Features

• It comes with many collage templates to help you design your creation.
• The free version comes with essential editing, overlays, and filters.
• Its simplified interface makes it easy for beginners to get started.

5. PhotoDirector

PhotoDirector is also the best app for editing photos because of its rich editing tools, built-in stock library, simplified user interface, and AI technology for photo retouching.

Since it is connected with iStock and Shutterstock, you won’t lack images and templates to work with.

Generally, PhotoDirector offers professional-quality tools suited for casual and professional users.

Besides the essential photo editing tools, you can try object removal tools, color grading, AI-powered background replacement, and customizing collages. On top of this, you can use the PhotoDirector app to create your own AI avatars.

Key Features

• Despite all the excellent features, the tool is free to use.
• AI technology-powered tool for replacing people and backgrounds
• It comes with several preset collages, stickers, and filters.
• Has tools to cartoon your images
• Built-in stock library

6. Adobe Photoshop Camera

Adobe Photoshop Camera is the best app for editing photos because of its AI capabilities.

Its AI technology performs photo correction and applies special effects before and after shooting the picture.

The best thing about Photoshop is that it uses lenses (filters) to adjust color, clarity, and lighting and apply special effects to your photos.

Even more impressive is the Adobe Sensei technology, which automatically identifies the type of photo and generates masks for crucial aspects like the sky or face.

Key Features

• It is easy to use. Photoshop’s point-and-shoot style of editing caters to novice users.
• Its AI technology, Adobe Sensei, customizes filters and masks depending on the type of photo.
• Photoshop Camera generates new lenses regularly, with several adjustable options.

7. FaceTune

FaceTune is arguably the best selfie app. This app is more focused on facial editing. It has several tools for face reshaping, skin smoothening, and hair color modification.

Thanks to the paint tool, you can use this photo editing app to apply artificial makeup and change skin.

On top of this, FaceTune offers several other useful tools, like different patterns for clothing and background tools.

So, you can easily swap clothes to suit your preferences. Likewise, the backdrop tool allows you to change your background with the app’s templates, like butterflies, flowers, and sparkles.

What we like about this app is that it is novice-friendly.

The first time you open the app, you will choose your photo editing skill level. Besides this, the app provides a walk-through of all the tools and features to help you through photo editing.

Key Features

• It is user-friendly.
• It has several neon filters and light effects.
• Offer tons of skin editing features.
• Virtual face reshaping and makeup tools

8. VSCO

VSCO is also the best app for editing photos in terms of quality photo-filtering tools. On top of this, the app has a community platform where users can share pictures and get feedback from other users.

What we like about the app is its simple and intuitive format. The VSCO app can be helpful for quickly editing and polishing your images.

Most community members love the montage feature, which lets them create a moving collage by layering photos.

Unfortunately, VSCO offers limited tools in its free version. You must pay for a membership if you want to take advantage of its advanced features.

Key Features

• Over 200 presets and tools
• Has video editing features
• It comes with advanced photo editing features, such as artificial light filters.
• Have a community platform for connecting and sharing photos

9. Afterlight

This app is suitable for users who love editing their photos. It has tons of tools, including composition and structure, color, exposure, curves, layering, and selective hue.

We cannot forget to mention the more than 130 filters available for paying users. Apart from this, the user interface is quite intuitive.

Key Features 

• It comes with essential editing tools that generate instant results.
• It has a no-nonsense, minimalistic user interface.
• It has several filters and effects

10. Fotor

Fotor offers advanced photo-editing tools, including color balance, one-click enhancement, and Dehaze.

On top of this, it has over 100 stylish effects and eye-catching design templates with themes for different occasions.

Key Features

• More than 30,000 stickers and elements to support your creativity
• Offer a powerful one-touch skin retouch.
• Possess a massive library of impressive design templates.

Bottom Line

There is no single best app for editing photos because of our unique preferences. But there are a few that stand out. If you are just starting, you may want to try out free photo editing apps for beginners, such as Snapseed and PicsArt.

They are powerful enough to create stunning photos. For professionals and advanced users, Adobe Lightroom is the best option for customizing professional images.

Thankfully, most of Lightroom’s fantastic tools are free, including what you need in everyday edits.  

If you don’t know where to start, try them all and see which matches your taste. It won’t take you long to find the one you prefer.

The good thing is that most of the above photo editing apps are robust and straightforward to learn.