We consulted a professional photographer to add comment on our choices, our products were tested and reviewed by a photographer, and we analyzed over 800 user reviews to bring you our independent, expert guide to photo editing software. We tested eight of the best photo editing software packages available in 2021, choosing from a combination of single-payment and subscription services from Adobe, Corel, CyberLink, Serif and more. While the Lightroom mobile app is first-class, some smartphone users simply won't need all the added functions it has. The Adobe suite caters nicely for this, but if you're editing on a phone with the express intent of posting to Instagram, the answer may be a little different. The first is: where are you actually going to edit the majority of your photos? For professional and enthusiast photographers, the answer is likely to be 'on a good laptop or PC'.
When you're shopping for the best photo editing software, there are a handful of things you really need to consider. The latest was Adobe Lightroom CC, which added in features like super resolution and collaborative editing, which we discuss more below and in our review.
Many of these photo manipulation apps have been given updates over the past few months, so we figured it was high time to update the list. We've updated our list of the best photo editing software after testing the latest updates of all the apps in this guide.