Best Free and Open Source Alternatives to Adobe Lightroom

Last Updated on October 13, 2023

Adobe is a large multinational computer software company with over 26,000 employees. Its flagship products include Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Premiere Pro, XD, Acrobat DC, and the Portable Document Format (PDF). The products are wrapped up and marketed as the Creative Cloud, a subscription-only way of accessing more than 20 desktop and mobile apps and services for photography, design, video, web, UX, and more.

We are long-standing admirers of Adobe’s products. They develop many high quality proprietary programs. It’s true there are security and privacy concerns in relation to some of their products. And there’s considerable criticism attached to their pricing practices. But the real issue is Adobe Creative Cloud does not support Linux. And there’s no prospect of support forthcoming.

What if you are looking to move away from Adobe and embark on a new world of online freedom, where you are not tracked, monetised and attached to Adobe’s ecosystem. We only recommend free and open source alternatives. Our recommended software don’t necessarily replicate every feature of their Adobe counterparts but they offer sufficient functionality for many tasks.

Adobe Lightroom (officially Adobe Photoshop Lightroom) is a creative image organization and image manipulation software. Its main uses include importing/saving, viewing, organizing, tagging, editing, and sharing large numbers of digital images.

What are the best free and open source alternatives?

1. darktable

darktable is a free and open-source photography application software and raw developer. It comprises a subset of image editing operations specifically aimed at non-destructive raw image post-production.

The software is primarily focused on improving a photographer’s workflow by facilitating the handling of large numbers of images.

2. RawTherapee

RawTherapee is a RAW converter and digital photo processing software. All changes can be applied and batch processed at a convenient time.

3. digiKam

digiKam is an advanced digital photo management application which makes importing and organizing digital photos a “snap”. The photos are organized in albums which can be sorted chronologically, by folder layout or by custom collections.

4. LightZone

LightZone is a digital photo editor software application. Its main purpose is to handle the workflow when handling images in various RAW formats.

Rather than using layers in the way that other photo editors do, LightZone lets the user build up a stack of tools which can be rearranged, readjusted, turned off and on, and removed from the stack.

5. Shotwell

Shotwell is a personal photo manager.

With Shotwell users can quickly and easily import, organise, edit and view pictures. And users can share your favourite snaps on all popular photo sites and social networks.

All articles in this series:

Alternatives to Adobe's Products
	Acrobat Reader is a multi-platform PDF reader. It lets users view, print, sign and comment on PDF documents.
	After Effects is digital visual effects, motion graphics, and compositing software used in the post-production process of film making, video games and television production.
	Animate is a multimedia authoring and computer animation. Animate is used to design vector graphics and animation for television series, online animation, websites, web applications, rich web applications, game development, and more.
	Audition is a digital audio workstation featuring both a multitrack, non-destructive mix/edit environment and a destructive-approach waveform editing view.
	Bridge is a creative asset manager that lets you preview, organise, edit and publish multiple creative assets quickly and easily.
	Character Animator is software that combines real-time live motion-capture with a multi-track recording system to control layered 2D puppets based on an illustration drawn in Photoshop or Illustrator.
	Digital Editions is an e-book reader software program. It lets you acquire, manage, and read e-books, digital newspapers, and other digital publications.
	Dimension is 3D rendering and design software. It's designed to build brand visualizations, illustrations, product mockups and other creative work.
	Dreamweaver is a web development tool. It includes a code editor that supports syntax highlighting, code completion, real-time syntax checking, and code introspection for generating code hints to assist the user in writing code.
	Fill & Sign lets users fill out PDF documents on a smartphones and tablet and share them directly with others.
	Firefly is software which uses generative AI and simple text prompts to generate images. Its Firefly generative AI models are trained on licensed content, such as Adobe Stock, along with public domain content where copyright has expired, and images from Wikimedia.
	FrameMaker is a document processor designed for writing and editing large or complex documents, including structured documents.
	Fresco is a vector and raster drawing and painting app. It's primarily used for digital painting by artists, illustrators, animators, and sketchers.
	Illustrator is a vector graphics editor and design tool. The software lets you create everything from web and mobile graphics to logos, icons, book illustrations, product packaging, and billboards.
	InCopy is a professional word processor that integrates with InDesign. The software enables editors to write, edit, and design documents.
	Indesign is a desktop publishing and page layout designing application. The software is used to create posters, flyers, brochures, magazines, newspapers, presentations, books and ebooks
	Lightroom is a creative image organization and image manipulation. Its main uses include importing/saving, viewing, organizing, tagging, editing, and sharing large numbers of digital images.
	Lightroom Classic is a creative image organization and image manipulation software. This photo editing app is optimised for the desktop.
	Media Encoder is an encoding engine for Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe After Effects, Adobe Audition, and Adobe Character Animator.
	Photoshop is a raster graphics editor with multiple layers, masks, alpha compositing. It edits and composes raster images in multiple layers and supports masks, alpha compositing and several color models.
	Photoshop Express is a mobile and Windows app made for all-in-one photo editing and sharing.
	Premiere Pro is a timeline-based video editing tool. It is geared towards professional video editing.
	Scan provides a portable scanner that recognizes text automatically (OCR) and allows you to save to multiple files formats including PDF and JPEG.
	XD is a prototyping tool for user experience and interaction designers. Adobe XD features are used for creating wireframes, prototypes, and screen designs for digital products.