Best Photo Editor Tools for 2025
Looking for the best photo editing tools to create professional content? We've compared, reviewed and ranked the top rated tools to help you get started now and take your photos to the next level.
- Beautify your selfies with AI technology
- Enhance, brighten & retouch in seconds
- Over 200 million downloads
- Add movement & effects to still photos
- Sharpen & enhance old blurry photos
- Add, replace, or change objects in photos
- Stock footage, sounds & fonts library
- Edit, personalize, and share in 1 app
- 90M+ downloads across platforms
- Extract exciting clips from long-form videos
- Trend analysis fuels automated editing
- Machine learning keeps videos centered
- Color correction, multi-cam & VR support
- Smooth integrations to enhance creativity
- In-app tutorials, guides & community
Photo editing plays a crucial role in the digital age. Photo editing skills enable individuals and teams to:
- Enhance their design’s visual appeal.
- Create a more professional appearance.
- Make the design more brand-friendly.
- Gain more search engine and social media clicks.
- Adapt designs to new trends.
- Restore or enhance images.
Every month there are more and more popular photo editing apps. In this guide, we will go over the current popular photo editing apps trends. Then, we will cover the best professional photo editing apps.
Top Photo Editing Apps
Upgrade your photos with generative AI
Step-by-step tutorials inside Lightroom 
Generative Expand to extend images easily
Vast library of brushes and textures 
Custom templates: Blogs, articles & social
Plagiarism Checker: Protect your reputation 
Mobile-friendly tools for on-the-go edits
Cloud-based for real-time team editing The Evolution of Photo Editing Apps
The main trends in photo editing apps in 2024 are pushing towards convenience and quality.
On the extreme end, AI is making it possible to mass-produce quality designs. AI can also edit existing designs according to your input. This comes as an addition to the millions of stock designs available on various platforms. There are endless ways to gain inspiration and kickstart your design processes.
Photo editing has constantly been moving in a more intuitive direction. Apps offer more suggestions and there are more options for getting more done with less work. New filters, better prompts, and especially AI have made photo editing easier.
Collaboration on photo editing work has also become easier thanks to cloud technology. Collaboration is now a given and work is shared automatically via the cloud.
These trends and features make photo editing easier for everyone. Professionals and casual users both benefit from increasingly intuitive and fun photo editing apps.
Key Features to Look for in a Photo Editor App
Your best app for photo editing is the one that you find easiest to use, with all the features you need. When you’re comparing photo editing apps, there are a few important things to consider.
User interface
User interfaces are the most important part of the best photo editing apps. Most of your time on your photo editor app will be spent navigating and interacting with the interface. If the interface makes features easy to understand and navigate between, your editing job will be easier.
Filter options
Photo editing apps vary greatly when it comes to filter options. Filters offer a fast way to enhance images and prepare them for further editing. Look at the set of filters each app offers to see how they allow you to quickly improve your photos.
Different apps offer different filters under different names. But there are some types of filters that you’ll often see. The common types include:
- Greyscale filters
- Darkroom filters
- Black & white filters
- Anime filters
- Comic filters
Each of these filters simply adds a unique “tint” to the overall image. For example, a black and white filter will remove the color from a photo, while maintaining the varying brightness. Darkroom filters add a lot of shade and remove the appearance of sunlight.
Before dedicating yourself to learning how to use one photo editor very well, look into what filters they have available. As a bonus, look into any available filter customizations.
Editing tools
Editing tools are specific features for altering the photo. You should expect basics like cropping, rotating, saturation, brightness, and contrast. There are also other options you may want, which vary by app. So, watch some video tutorials/demos of each app’s editing tools.
Sharing capabilities
It is increasingly important for apps to be compatible with multiple devices. They must be able to transfer work to different platforms and social media channels such as Instagram and TikTok. They should also be easily shareable for easy collaboration with other influencers and creators.
Top Photo Editor Apps of 2024
These photo editor apps all help you grab attention with your designs in different ways. Let’s go over the best apps for garnering attention and standing out in 2024.
Facetune
Facetune is an easy photo editing app. It stands out for its ability to streamline photo editing tasks. Routine editing is made easy with custom filters, AI, and intuitive editing features. It’s a solution hand-made for making high volumes of photos attractive and attention-grabbing.
Facetune’s main features are:
- It’s designed for selfie editing and exceeds at making selfies perfect
- It comes with an AI avatar generator
- Specific editing tools for removing imperfections
- Retouching acne and blemishes
- Removing blur
- Adding custom effects
Facetune comes with several filters to change the “mood” of your selfies. Overall, it’s one of the easiest-to-use photo editing apps. It offers extensive editing that transforms a photo with a single tap. For instantaneous selfie editing, Facetune is incredibly effective.
In addition to adding effects, Facetune editing features help you enhance the natural beauty of your photos. The highlighting focuses on balancing out the face and skin. If you want to make the photo more attention-grabbing, you can also add stickers, frames, and text.
The AI avatar generator is a great option for creative purposes. You can create a new, highly edited image with just a few taps.
Whether you use the AI feature or not, Facetune excels at selfie editing. The bread and butter of the app are its editing options. These can be used manually or automated. The selfie-focused photo editing features include blemish removal and whitening.
The iOS photo editor has become a strong photo editing app choice in itself. Increasingly, both Android and Apple offer excellent editing. Once you tap “edit”, you’re essentially using a high-end editing app. From there, you can use features like:
- Exposure
- Brilliance
- Highlights
- Shadows
Google Photos also offers several features. Those include saturation adjustment, shadows, skin tone, HDR, contrast, and more. You also get all the important photo editing features like cropping and rotation.
Both of these built-in phone editors offer excellent interoperability. For example, you can access Google Photos on your Android and desktop devices. There is also a strong level of integration between iOS devices and desktop devices with iCloud.
Adobe Photoshop
For more complex photo editing work, Adobe Photoshop is still one of the best options. Compared to the other items on this list, Photoshop is the most complex photo editor. This is its strength and its weakness.
The interface is full of countless editing options. This translates into more fine-tuning than is possible with other photo editors. But it also means that Adobe Photoshop has the steepest learning curve.
The list of features is extensive and includes all the features we’ve gone over in this article. For each of those features, you can achieve an extremely precise result. For example, color editing is done on a collapsed panel offering thousands of shades of the same color.
Adobe Photoshop offers versatility, precision, and an extensive set of features. It’s also one of the most widely used professional photo editors. While it’s hard to learn to use well, there are many professionals you can find to use Photoshop. The large following is accompanied by a huge online community offering tips, resources, and tutorials.
Lastly, Adobe Photoshop integrates with other Adobe software. You can seamlessly switch between Photoshop and other Adobe Creative Cloud apps.
Canva Photo Editor
Canva is a web-based photo editor. It is extremely convenient because it doesn’t require downloads on desktop devices. It also offers a small, uncluttered interface that beginners can easily approach. From there, it offers unlimited creative potential.
Canva is popular for its ease of use and collaboration potential. It is available on and interoperable between Mac OS, Windows, and Android. Teams can collaborate on the go on smartphones and computers. Team members can even collaborate on the same project simultaneously.
Beginners will find Canva easier to approach than complex apps like Photoshop. Canva comes with thousands of templates and simple photo editor tools. These templates come appropriately sized for different purposes:
- Email headers
- Social media posts and ads
- YouTube
- X (Twitter)
- Posters
- Brochures and flyers
- Book covers
- Much more
What Canva offers is an easy-to-use tool for professional imagery. It is popular among marketing teams running digital ads or making physical marketing material.
Canva also offers one of the most intuitive and easy-to-use AI image generators. With a few prompts, it offers detailed visualizations of your written inputs.
Here’s a brief comparison of some of the top features of photo editor tools:
Facetune key features:
- Blemish removal
- Whitening teeth and eyes
- Smoothing skin
- Reshaping
- Makeup
- Highlights
Number of User Reviews on Google Play: > 610,000
Who it’s for: Influencers and content creators
Phone Editor key features:
- Cropping
- Basic Filters
- Social sharing
- Contrast
- Focus
Who it’s for: Everyone (casual use)
Abobe Photoshop key features:
- Collapsing panels
- Quick touch-ups
- Extensive filters
- Several brush tools
Who it’s for: Graphic design professionals
Canva Photo Editor key features:
- Thousands of templates
- Thousands of elements
- Simple set of editing tools
- AI prompt image generation
Who it’s for: Marketing teams and design enthusiasts
We chose a series of apps that are the best for one specific purpose
For example, Facetune shines when it comes to personal photo and selfie editing. Influencers and content creators get a competitive advantage when using Facetune. It was designed specifically for influencer’s needs, offering extensive but simple photo editing. Because it’s so fast and easy to use, you can edit a higher volume of photos in less time.
The other choices we’ve covered shine in the other areas we’ve covered.
Expert Tips and Tricks for Photo Editing
There are some tips you can use to make the most out of any photo editor and get the most professional result:
Customized Filters
Filters and presets can save a lot of time with editing. One great way to make the most out of them is to customize preset filters. Customizing preset settings for your photos helps you efficiently create more authentic outcomes.
Facetune offers a selection of hundreds of filters to make this job easier. You can select from hundreds of finely-tuned filters. That means you can add a “sun-kissed” look, a bit of glitter, add rainbows or sparkle, and much more. After applying a filter, you can fine-tune the final result by adjusting the brightness, contrast, and other settings.
Follow the Rule of Thirds
Apply the rule of thirds for photos with more than one person/focus.
To follow the rule of thirds, you start by breaking the image into 9 equal parts. Imagine or layout 2 equally spaced horizontal lines and 2 vertical lines. Within this grid, place key elements along the borders to establish balance. Alternatively, try just placing elements where the lines intersect. If you have a large photo, try cropping it before applying this practice so you can get a far more balanced result.
Using this rule adds dynamism to any design or photo. It serves to move the center of interest from the center of the photo while maintaining its original balance.
Brush up to Sharpen Focus
Use brush tools when filters don’t create an optimal outcome. This is often necessary to create sharp outcomes. It also often helps focus the viewer’s eyes when filters alter the photo’s focus.
The apps we’ve gone over offer some brushes to fine-tune your photos. For example, Facetune offers brushes for whitening, smoothing, and wrinkle/blemish removal. Because it’s an editor focused on photos and selfies, you have a greater ability to focus your editing. Or, if you’d rather, you can just try a one-touch brush-up and see if that suffices.
Future Trends and Innovations in Photo Editing Apps
Going into 2024, there are exciting developments in photo editing. These trends suggest that even more changes are coming.
AI & Machine Learning
AI is the most impactful trend going into 2024. Dozens of companies offering image editing are diving deep into AI. The race to create the best AI image generators and editors is not over. Going forward, you can expect greater accuracy from AI image generation. You can also expect more speed and more options to choose from. Likewise, editing is growing more accurate as AI models better understand user prompts.
Augmented Reality (AR) Integration
Virtual elements and effects can be incorporated from images captured with a camera. AR integration enhances photos by overlaying digital content into captured photos.
With some work, AR integration can be leveraged to add dynamism and life to photos. AR features are increasingly common on social media platforms as well. This can help marketing teams create viral content with greatly enhanced photos.
Cloud-Based Editing
Cloud-based editing is an increasingly expected feature from image editors. 2024 is a great time for marketing teams, who can now expect even greater efficiency.
Collaborative editing is getting easier as most apps:
- Integrate cloud editing
- Improve cross-platform interoperability
Advanced Customization
Both manual and automated customization options are becoming more numerous and advanced. Desaturation, extreme lighting options, and nostalgic elements and filters are especially trendy. Advanced customization enables privy editors to create more authentic work. Read your photo editor’s blogs and sign up to their newspapers. You may be surprised by some of their new options.
Next Steps
There are several great photo editor apps to choose from. To get the best results, it’s best to choose the one more aligned with your purpose. For example, Facetune is especially good for influencers and creators editing high volumes of personal photos.
The good news is it is easy to try out different editors. You can use some of these apps’ features for free, or sign up for a free trial.
Download the app of your choice to start experiencing what it can do for you!
