10 Best Photo Editing Software for Mac of 2026

Lightroom Classic ranks first because it answers both halves of what Mac photographers need: a catalog for organizing and a raw editor for finishing. Adobe describes it simply as a way to edit and organize all your photos on desktop, and its comparison table confirms that originals stay on a local hard drive. On the editing side, Adobe lists masking tools for precise adjustments, Content-Aware Remove for erasing distractions and Adaptive Presets. The cost is a subscription. Adobe's US plan page lists the Lightroom (1TB) plan at $11.99 per month and the Photography (1TB) plan, which adds Photoshop, at $19.99 per month, both on annual terms; we could not confirm those figures from our location, so the price check is marked pending. There is no perpetual license. Photographers who keep everything on external drives and want one place to rate, keyword and develop raw files will find it the most complete option on the Mac.

Affinity is the best free pixel editor available for the Mac today. Canva now offers the app free for individuals, and it merges what used to be separate photo, design and layout apps into one program with a single .af file format. For photographers this means layer-based retouching, nondestructive edits and an undo history that is saved with the file. Affinity says it opens PSD files with layers and structure preserved, which helps if you are moving away from Photoshop or receiving files from clients. Its AI tools are optional and need a Canva premium plan, so the free version is a traditional manual editor. What it lacks is a catalog: it is not built to organize thousands of raw files, so it fits best behind Apple Photos, darktable or Lightroom Classic. The interface also covers design and layout, which makes it broad but busier than a photo-only editor.

Pixelmator Pro is the strongest pure editor for Mac owners who do not want a subscription. Apple now develops it and still sells it on the Mac App Store for $49.99, with an alternative route through Apple Creator Studio at $12.99 per month or $129 per year, which bundles Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro. Apple's listing names full RAW support for over 750 cameras, machine learning tools that remove backgrounds, increase resolution and reduce noise, and a Repair tool that removes unwanted objects. Layers are nondestructive, and adjustment layers allow selective color work. It also covers design work with over 200 templates and vector tools. The gap is organization: there is no catalog, so it works best alongside Apple Photos or the Finder. It needs macOS 12.0 or later. For edits that go beyond sliders, such as retouching, composites and social graphics, it is the best value on this list.

Apple Photos is the default answer for many Mac owners and a good one for casual photographers. It is built into macOS, so there is nothing to buy, and iCloud Photos puts photos taken on an iPhone into the Mac library automatically. Apple's user guide covers editing tools for light, color and filters, plus Clean Up, Reframe and Extend for Macs that support Apple Intelligence. Organization is where it shines for everyday use: search finds people, places, objects and events, and Memories assembles trips and holidays into collections. Apple also documents how to move the library to an external drive when the Mac runs low on space. The limits appear with demanding work. It offers far fewer local adjustment and raw tools than Lightroom Classic or DxO PhotoLab, and Apple notes that some intelligent features have regional, language and device limits.

Photoshop remains the most capable image editor you can run on a Mac, but most photographers need it alongside a library tool rather than instead of one. Adobe's product page lists Generative Fill and Generative Expand, Generative Upscale, Harmonize, Relight, selection and masking for hair and complex edges, Camera Raw and AI removal tools, with Firefly built in. That is more than any other app here offers for composites and heavy retouching. The cost is the reason it ranks sixth. Adobe's US page lists the single-app plan at $22.99 per month on annual terms with 25 monthly generative credits, while the Photography (1TB) plan bundles Photoshop with Lightroom Classic for less; we could not verify these figures from our location, so the price check is pending. It has no photo catalog and a steep learning curve. Photographers who mainly adjust exposure and color will find Lightroom Classic or Pixelmator Pro faster.

ON1 Photo RAW is the closest thing to Lightroom Classic plus Photoshop that you can own. ON1 sells Photo RAW 2027 for $99.99 as a one-time purchase, with free updates for that version and installs on two computers. Instead of importing into a catalog, it browses your folders directly and adds tags, albums, stacks and AI keywording, which suits photographers who already keep files in a set folder structure. Editing includes layers and masks, Super Select AI for skies and subjects, depth masks, NoNoise AI, Resize AI and Generative Erase. The MAX edition at $169.99 adds the AI Culling Assistant, Restore AI and plugins for Photoshop and Lightroom, and both editions can be subscribed to instead. The trade-off is that major new versions are paid upgrades, and the minimum is macOS 13. It scores below Lightroom Classic on ease of use because many tools sit in one dense interface.

Luminar Neo is built around AI tools that produce a finished look quickly. Skylum's Mac App Store listing groups them into generative tools such as GenErase and GenExpand, scenery tools such as Sky AI and Atmosphere AI, and portrait tools such as Skin AI, Face AI and Bokeh AI. It also includes Noiseless AI, Supersharp AI, upscaling up to 6X, HDR Merge for up to 1,000 brackets, panorama stitching and focus stacking, with raw support for over 1,000 camera types. Layers and presets cover more traditional workflows. Pricing is less tidy: the app is a free download, but the listing says you must buy a plan to access all features, and the in-app purchase list ranges from a $8.99 monthly subscription to lifetime licenses. It ranks below ON1 because library tools are lighter and fine manual control is less of a focus. For quick dramatic edits, it is among the fastest options on the Mac.

Capture One Pro is the editor many studios use when tethered shooting and color matter most. Its product page highlights tethering with Live View, Snap to Eye focus and Next Capture Adjustments that apply edits as images arrive. The color editor works with custom camera profiles and fine hue, saturation and luminance control, and Capture One promotes consistent skin tones across portraits. Assisted masking detects subjects or backgrounds, Enhanced Denoise handles high ISO files, and both sessions and catalogs are available for organization. It supports over 550 cameras. Capture One sells Pro, All in One and Studio subscriptions plus a Pro perpetual license; the pricing page showed euros from this machine, so the USD price is pending. The interface takes longer to learn than Lightroom Classic. For tethered commercial work it is the specialist pick.

DxO PhotoLab is for photographers who judge an editor by the quality of the raw conversion. Version 10 is built on DeepPRIME and DeepPRIME XD noise reduction and on DxO Modules, which DxO describes as camera and lens profiles based on real-world lab measurements. Distortion, chromatic aberration, vignetting and perspective are corrected automatically. Local editing combines AI Masks with DxO's U Point technology, and version 10 adds Depth Masks for foreground and background selections, a new Color Grading tool and one-click selection of every person in a scene. The 10.3 update added integration with Affinity, which pairs well with the free editor on this list. It is sold as a perpetual license for Windows and macOS with a free trial; the shop showed euros from here, so the USD price is pending. It lacks generative tools and its organizing features are lighter than Lightroom Classic's, which keeps it lower in this ranking.

darktable is the free option for photographers who want the catalog-plus-editor model of Lightroom Classic without paying. The project describes it as a virtual lighttable and darkroom: it manages raw files in a database, shows them in a zoomable lighttable and develops them non-destructively. Filtering covers tags, star ratings and color labels, and edits are stored in both XMP sidecar files and the database, so your settings travel with the images. Processing runs on floating point values with OpenCL GPU acceleration, and tethered shooting with live view works for some camera brands. Repetitive tasks can be scripted in Lua. The cost is the learning curve. The modules and terminology assume some knowledge of raw processing, which is why it scores lowest here on ease of use. Mac users should also note that the current 5.6.2 download for macOS is an arm64 build for Apple silicon.