Adobe Photoshop is the market leader when it comes to photo retouching, image editing, or even creating new images from scratch. However, for most people's uses, it may just be too many features to wade through, too much money to spend, or too complicated to use. Thankfully, there are plenty of powerful alternatives that also have tons of features. Here's a look at five of the best.

Popular Alternatives to Adobe Photoshop Lightroom CC for Mac. Explore 25+ Mac apps like Adobe Photoshop Lightroom CC, all suggested and ranked by the AlternativeTo user community. Adobe Photoshop Lightroom is designed by the Adobe Systems for Mac OS X and Windows operating systems; Adobe Photoshop Lightroom actually lets the users process their images by using the viewing, editing, retouching and organizing tools of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom.

Earlier this week we asked you which Photoshop alternatives you thought were the best, or which ones you preferred when you needed to do image editing or photo editing. You responded with a ton of great suggestions, but here are your top five, in no particular order.

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What's The Best Photoshop Alternative?

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The polls are closed and the votes are counted! To see which of these five great Photoshop alternatives took the top spot, head over to our hive five followup post to read more and discuss the winner!

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Most Popular Photoshop Alternative: GIMP

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GIMP (Win/OS X/Linux)

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The GNU Image Manipulation Program, aka GIMP, is well known and well loved for more than a few reasons. It's incredibly powerful, packing as many features as Photoshop itself, the fact that it's cross platform and supports Windows, OS X, and Linux machines with ease (and with feature parity across all devices), and of course, because it's completely free. It has a completely modular and customizable interface, so you can keep your most oft-used tools front and center. It also features image correction utilities that make photo manipulation and retouching easy.

Those of you who nominated GIMP praised it for coming in at the low low price of $0, but many of you also reported issues with its interface and usability. It's true, the interface certainly leaves more than a few things to be desired, and it can be difficult to get used to if you're more accustomed to other image editing tools. Some people love it, some people hate it, but everyone acknowledges that it's difficult to find a comparable feature-packed utility for free.

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Pixelmator (OS X)

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Pixelmator is a richly featured image editor for OS X. It'll set you back $30, but it often appears in bundles and app packs along with other useful utilities, so it can be had at a bargain. Pixelmator is remarkably powerful; packing a flexible, customizable interface that's designed for OS X, multiple layer styles and filtering/editing tools, and an adaptive engine that switches to the right tools or features when you need them. It's packed with photo and image editing and retouching features, so if you're looking to clean up photos before posting them to the internet, or getting them printed and framed, this app comes at a fraction of Photoshop's price and offers a ton of useful features.

There's a reason that we said that Pixelmator is a seriously good replacement for Photoshop, and while some people will always have a use case that requires Photoshop specifically, (eg, you need non-destructive editing, channel support, or adjustment layers) for the rest of us, Pixelmator is worth a look. Those of you who nominated it praised its RAW file support, and its depth of features, not to mention its price tag. Of course, it's Mac only, so those folks doing image editing on Windows or Linux machines don't have it as an option.

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Paint.NET (Windows)

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Paint.NET is one of our favorite image editing tools. Part of it is because the app is feature packed, offering layer editing, a customizable interface with plenty of room to work but also plenty of tools at your disposal, unlimited undo, tons of effects and filters, and a community of passionate users. Part of it is because Paint.NET is completely free, and for the vast majority of people looking to touch up a photo before they post it to the web, resize or crop an image, or do basic image editing, it's more than enough, and it's completely free. It doesn't have the same features as more advanced tools like Photoshop or even GIMP, but not every Photoshop alternative needs to have the same breadth of features—just the ones that matter.

Those of you who nominated Paint.NET noted this explcitly. Advanced users may run up against its limitations after a while, but advanced users probably already know the tools that have the features they need. The rest of us though, who just need to open a tool to do some basic work here and there and want a fast, flexible, and free utility to do it, Paint.NET Is the way to go.

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Adobe Photoshop Lightroom (Windows/OS X)

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Adobe Lightroom stands out from a number of the alternatives here partially because it's designed specifically for photographers, and has the broad variety of tools and features they need to get their photos edited, retouched, updated, and corrected before they're printed, framed, posted online, or even professionally judged. Color correct your images, remove objects or people, straighten images, and more. Lightroom is part of Adobe's Creative Cloud suite, so you have the option of buying access to it alone, or making it part of a larger subscription to Adobe's other utilities as well. The full version is $149, but it's frequently available with discounts.

We were initially surprised that another Adobe product, much less Lightroom, got the nominations for the top five. However, it makes sense if you're a photographer looking for a great image editing tool that's not quite Photoshop, and it looks like a number of you are doing just that—editing photos specifically, not just images, and not necessarily creating images from scratch.

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Pixlr Editor (Web)

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Pixlr Editor is actually part of a suite of Pixlr apps, including the previously mentioned mobile appPixelr Express, and photo filter and tweaking app, Pixlr-O-Matic. Pixlr Editor on the other hand is a richly featured webapp that offers a healthy dose of features for editing photos and images. It packs adjustments, layers, filters and effects, basic features like rotation, resizing, cropping and editing, area selection, and so on. It's not as feature-packed or as streamlined as a lot of other tools, but the fact that it's free and runs in your browser alone makes it worth your attention, and your use if you're away from a computer with a tool you already know installed.

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Those of you who nominated Pixlr highlighted that fact as well; it does just about everything the average user needs, and while professionals will likely find it lacking, amateurs and everyday users have a lot to like here. Plus, the fact that it's a webapp means it runs in any browser, on any OS, with the same features. Sign up for an account and you can save images for future work.

There you have it, your top five. Now it's time to put them to an all-out vote.

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Not much in the way of honorable mentions this week, with the exception possibly of Google Picasa, which some of you noted you use to touch up your images, do some light image editing before sharing them or posting them to the web, and also to organize and manage your photo library. Similarly, we should give a nod to SumoPaint, another free, cross-platform tool that's web-based and offers a ton of useful tools and features.

Have something to say about one of the contenders? Want to make the case for your personal favorite, even if it wasn't included in the list? Remember, the top five are based on your most popular nominations from the call for contenders thread from earlier in the week. Don't just complain about the top five, let us know what your preferred alternative is—and make your case for it—in the discussions below.

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The Hive Five is based on reader nominations. As with most Hive Five posts, if your favorite was left out, it didn't get the nominations required in the call for contenders post to make the top five. We understand it's a bit of a popularity contest. Have a suggestion for the Hive Five? Send us an email at tips+hivefive@lifehacker.com!

Photos by Robert Freiberger and Blake Patterson.

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There are dozens of free photo editors out there, so we've hand-picked the very best so you can make your pictures look amazing without paying a penny.

We've spent hours putting a huge range of photo editors to the test, and picked out the best ones for any level of skill and experience. From powerful software packed with features that give Photoshop a run for its money to simple tools that give your pictures a whole new look with a couple of clicks, there's something for everyone.

Many free photo editors only offer a very limited selection of tools unless you pay for a subscription, or place a watermark on exported images, but none of the tools here carry any such restrictions. Whichever one you choose, you can be sure that there are no hidden tricks to catch you out.

1. GIMP

The best free photo editor for advanced image editing

GIMP (the GNU Image Manipulation Program) is the best free photo editor around. It's packed with the kind of image-enhancing tools you'd find in premium software, and more are being added every day.

The photo editing toolkit is breathtaking, and features layers, masks, curves, and levels. You can eliminate flaws easily with the excellent clone stamp and healing tools, create custom brushes, apply perspective changes, and apply changes to isolated areas with smart selection tools.

GIMP is an open source free photo editor, and its community of users and developers have created a huge collection of plugins to extend its utility even further. Many of these come pre-installed, and you can download more from the official glossary. If that's not enough, you can even install Photoshop plugins.

2. Ashampoo Photo Optimizer 2019

Fuss-free photo editing with automatic optimization tools

If you've got a lot of photos that you need to edit in a hurry, Ashampoo Photo Optimizer 2019 could be the tool for you. Its interface is clean and uncluttered, and utterly devoid of ads (although you'll need to submit an email address before you can start using it).

Importing pictures is a breeze, and once they've been added to the pool, you can select several at once to rotate or mirror, saving you valuable time. You can also choose individual photos to enhance with the software's one-click optimization tool. In our tests this worked particularly well on landscapes, but wasn't always great for other subjects.

If you want to make manual color and exposure corrections, there are half a dozen sliders to let you do exactly that. It's a shame you can't also apply the same color changes to a whole set of pictures at once, but this is otherwise a brilliant free photo editor for making quick corrections.

For more advanced editing, check out Ashampoo Photo Optimizer 7 – the premium version of the software with enhanced optimization tools.

3. Canva

Professional-level photo editing and templates in your browser

Canva is a photo editor that runs in your web browser, and is ideal for turning your favorite snaps into cards, posters, invitations and social media posts. If you're interested in maintaining a polished online presence, it's the perfect tool for you.

Canva has two tiers, free and paid, but the free level is perfect for home users. Just sign up with your email address and you'll get 1GB free cloud storage for your snaps and designs, 8,000 templates to use and edit, and two folders to keep your work organized.

You won't find advanced tools like clone brushes and smart selectors here, but there's a set of handy sliders for applying tints, vignette effects, sharpening, adjusting brightness, saturation and contrast, and much more. The text editing tools are intuitive, and there's a great selection of backgrounds and other graphics to complete your designs.

4. Fotor

One-click enhancements to make your photos shine in seconds

Fotor is a free photo editor that's ideal for giving your pictures a boost quickly. If there's specific area of retouching you need doing with, say, the clone brush or healing tool, you're out of luck. However, if your needs are simple, its stack of high-end filters really shine.

There's a foolproof tilt-shift tool, for example, and a raft of vintage and vibrant colour tweaks, all easily accessed through Fotor's clever menu system. You can manually alter your own curves and levels, too, but without the complexity of high-end tools.

Fotor's standout function, and one that's sorely lacking in many free photo editors, is its batch processing tool – feed it a pile of pics and it'll filter the lot of them in one go, perfect if you have a memory card full of holiday snaps and need to cover up the results of a dodgy camera or shaky hand.

5. Photo Pos Pro

Advanced photo editing tools packaged in a simple interface

Photo Pos Pro isn't as well known as Paint.net and GIMP, but it's another top-quality free photo editor that's packed with advanced image-enhancing tools.

This free photo editor's interface is smarter and more accessible than GIMP's array of menus and toolbars, with everything arranged in a logical and consistent way. If it's still too intimidating, there's also an optional 'novice' layout that resembles Fotor's filter-based approach. The choice is yours.

The 'expert' layout offers both layers and layer masks for sophisticated editing, as well as tools for adjusting curves and levels manually. You can still access the one-click filters via the main menu, but the focus is much more on fine editing.

6. Paint.NET

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Looking a little dated, but still a dependable all-rounder

More is not, believe it or not, always better. Paint.NET's simplicity is one of its main selling points; it's a quick, easy to operate free photo editor that's ideal for trivial tasks that don't necessarily justify the sheer power of tools like GIMP.

Don't let the name fool you, though. This isn't just a cheap copy of Microsoft's ultra-basic Paint – even if it was originally meant to replace it. It's a proper photo editor, just one that lands on the basic side of the curve.

Paint.NET’s interface will remind you of its namesake, but over the years, they’ve added advanced editing tools like layers, an undo history, a ton of filters, myriad community-created plugins, and a brilliant 3D rotate/zoom function that's handy for recomposing images.

7. PhotoScape

Raw image conversion, batch processing and much more

PhotoScape might look like a rather simple free photo editor, but take a look at its main menu and you'll find a wealth of features: raw conversion, photo splitting and merging, animated GIF creation, and even a rather odd (but useful) function with which you can print lined, graph or sheet music paper.

The meat, of course, is in the photo editing. PhotoScape's interface is among the most esoteric of all the apps we've looked at here, with tools grouped into pages in odd configurations. It certainly doesn't attempt to ape Photoshop, and includes fewer features.

We'd definitely point this towards the beginner, but that doesn't mean you can't get some solid results. PhotoScape's filters are pretty advanced, so it's if good choice if you need to quickly level, sharpen or add mild filtering to pictures in a snap.

8. Pixlr X

A comprehensive browser-based photo editor for quick results

Pixlr X is the successor to Pixlr Editor, which was one of our favorite free online photo editors for many years.

Pixlr X makes several improvements on its predecessor. For starters, it's based on HTML5 rather than Flash, which means it can run in any modern browser. It's also slick and well designed, with an interface that's reminiscent of Photoshop Express, and a choice of dark or light color schemes.

With Pixlr X, you can make fine changes to colors and saturation, sharpen and blur images, apply vignette effects and frames, and combine multiple images. There's also support for layers, which you won't find in many free online photo editors, and an array of tools for painting and drawing. A great choice for even advanced tasks.

9. Adobe Photoshop Express Editor

A convenient way to correct lighting and exposure problems

As its name suggests, Adobe Photoshop Express Editor is a trimmed-down, browser-based version of the company's world-leading photo editing software. Perhaps surprisingly, it features a more extensive toolkit than the downloadable Photoshop Express app, but it only supports images in JPG format that are below 16MB.

Again, this is a Flash-based tool, but Adobe provides handy mobile apps for all platforms so you won’t miss out if you’re using a smartphone or tablet.

This free online photo editor has all the panache you’d expect from Adobe, and although it doesn’t boast quite as many tools as some of its rivals, everything that’s there is polished to perfection. Adobe Photoshop Express Editor is a pleasure to use. Its only drawbacks are the limits on uploaded file size and types, and lack of support for layers.

10. PiZap

A fun photo editor for preparing your pictures for social media

Free online photo editor PiZap is available in both HTML5 and Flash editions, making it suitable for any device. You can choose to work with a photo from your hard drive, Facebook, Google Photos, Google Drive, Google Search, or a catalog of stock images. This is an impressive choice, though some of the stock images are only available to premium subscribers, and you'll need to watch out for copyright issues if you use a pic straight from Google Images.

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piZap’s editing interface has a dark, modern design that makes heavy use of sliders for quick adjustments – a system that works much better than tricky icons and drop-down menus if you’re using a touchscreen device.

When you’re done, you can share your creation on all the biggest social media networks, as well as piZap’s own servers, Dropbox and Google Drive. Alternatively, you can save it to your hard drive, send it via email, or grab an embed code. You can only export your work in high quality if you’ve opened your wallet for the premium editor, but for silly social sharing that’s unlikely to be a problem.

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