Looking for a Lightroom-style macOS photo editor with no subscription

[Vlad9696]

Hi everyone!

I’m looking for a photo editor for macOS that works similarly to Lightroom, but without a subscription — just a one-time purchase.

I’m not a pro photographer — I’m a dentist — and I mostly edit:

- dental clinical photos,
- portraits,
- and some macro photography (focus stacking would be a big plus, but not essential).

I usually use basic tools like:
- white balance,
- exposure,
- shadows/highlights,
- HSL,
- linear gradients,
- and local adjustments.

So far I’ve tried or considered:

- **Luminar Neo** – seems OK, but AI features expire after a year unless I renew.
- **Photomator** – good UX but quite expensive ($150) for my low-volume use.
- **Capture One** – too expensive for what I need.
- **Darktable** – great features but overwhelming and complex.
- **RawTherapee** – no linear gradient support.
- **Affinity / Pixelmator Pro** – great apps, but more like Photoshop.
- **ON1 Photo RAW** – looks promising, but I’m not sure about real-life performance.

Any suggestions? I’d love something simple, intuitive, affordable, and macOS-native.

Thanks so much in advance!

 

[Matt2134]

Hi everyone!

I’m looking for a photo editor for macOS that works similarly to Lightroom, but without a subscription — just a one-time purchase.

I’m not a pro photographer — I’m a dentist — and I mostly edit:

- dental clinical photos,
- portraits,
- and some macro photography (focus stacking would be a big plus, but not essential).

I usually use basic tools like:
- white balance,
- exposure,
- shadows/highlights,
- HSL,
- linear gradients,
- and local adjustments.

So far I’ve tried or considered:

- **Luminar Neo** – seems OK, but AI features expire after a year unless I renew.
- **Photomator** – good UX but quite expensive ($150) for my low-volume use.
- **Capture One** – too expensive for what I need.
- **Darktable** – great features but overwhelming and complex.
- **RawTherapee** – no linear gradient support.
- **Affinity / Pixelmator Pro** – great apps, but more like Photoshop.
- **ON1 Photo RAW** – looks promising, but I’m not sure about real-life performance.

Any suggestions? I’d love something simple, intuitive, affordable, and macOS-native.

Thanks so much in advance!

I'd say Photomator is your best bet. If you use it for work can you not offset some cost? And besides, what's 150 bucks to a dentist ;-)

 

[Philip Eihuyar]

Hi everyone!

I’m looking for a photo editor for macOS that works similarly to Lightroom, but without a subscription — just a one-time purchase.

I’m not a pro photographer — I’m a dentist — and I mostly edit:

- dental clinical photos,
- portraits,
- and some macro photography (focus stacking would be a big plus, but not essential).

I usually use basic tools like:
- white balance,
- exposure,
- shadows/highlights,
- HSL,
- linear gradients,
- and local adjustments.

So far I’ve tried or considered:

- **Luminar Neo** – seems OK, but AI features expire after a year unless I renew.
- **Photomator** – good UX but quite expensive ($150) for my low-volume use.
- **Capture One** – too expensive for what I need.
- **Darktable** – great features but overwhelming and complex.
- **RawTherapee** – no linear gradient support.
- **Affinity / Pixelmator Pro** – great apps, but more like Photoshop.
- **ON1 Photo RAW** – looks promising, but I’m not sure about real-life performance.

Any suggestions? I’d love something simple, intuitive, affordable, and macOS-native.

Thanks so much in advance!

I have not tried all in your above list however, my choice of photoediting sotware which works for me is a combination of a RAW developer DxO elite and then exporting (opening) the finished developed RAW image into a pixel editing app of Affinty. [IF needed]

DxO Photolab is Pricey at $230 but non-subscription and worth it (IMO).

I think if you compare the total price for the above combination with the subscription application alternatives, , you will find a cost saving.over a rather short amount of time.

There are excellent tutorials available to get started in Affinity btw.

Affinity photo is $65 (also Affinity has excellent apps for Publishing and Design that are price competative.)

 

[s_grins]

Hi everyone!

I’m looking for a photo editor for macOS that works similarly to Lightroom, but without a subscription — just a one-time purchase.

I’m not a pro photographer — I’m a dentist — and I mostly edit:

- dental clinical photos,
- portraits,
- and some macro photography (focus stacking would be a big plus, but not essential).

I usually use basic tools like:
- white balance,
- exposure,
- shadows/highlights,
- HSL,
- linear gradients,
- and local adjustments.

So far I’ve tried or considered:

- **Luminar Neo** – seems OK, but AI features expire after a year unless I renew.
- **Photomator** – good UX but quite expensive ($150) for my low-volume use.
- **Capture One** – too expensive for what I need.
- **Darktable** – great features but overwhelming and complex.
- **RawTherapee** – no linear gradient support.
- **Affinity / Pixelmator Pro** – great apps, but more like Photoshop.
- **ON1 Photo RAW** – looks promising, but I’m not sure about real-life performance.

Any suggestions? I’d love something simple, intuitive, affordable, and macOS-native.

Thanks so much in advance!

I recommend ON1 software just because it works for me, and I got used to work with is it

As a side note, I would not recommend buying any software in your list without free trial, also I would not read all these heated discussions about what software is better

Just use trial period to find out what's best for you.

Regards

S.

 

[ishwanu]

**ON1 Photo RAW** – looks promising, but I’m not sure about real-life performance.

What does performance mean in this context? What are you unsure about?

 

[Jim B (MSP)]

Hi everyone!

I’m looking for a photo editor for macOS that works similarly to Lightroom, but without a subscription — just a one-time purchase.

I’m not a pro photographer — I’m a dentist — and I mostly edit:

- dental clinical photos,
- portraits,
- and some macro photography (focus stacking would be a big plus, but not essential).

I usually use basic tools like:
- white balance,
- exposure,
- shadows/highlights,
- HSL,
- linear gradients,
- and local adjustments.

So far I’ve tried or considered:

- **Luminar Neo** – seems OK, but AI features expire after a year unless I renew.
- **Photomator** – good UX but quite expensive ($150) for my low-volume use.
- **Capture One** – too expensive for what I need.
- **Darktable** – great features but overwhelming and complex.
- **RawTherapee** – no linear gradient support.
- **Affinity / Pixelmator Pro** – great apps, but more like Photoshop.
- **ON1 Photo RAW** – looks promising, but I’m not sure about real-life performance.

Any suggestions? I’d love something simple, intuitive, affordable, and macOS-native.

Thanks so much in advance!

ACDSee Photo Studio Ultimate | Layered Editing, RAW Photo Editing, Digital Asset Management

ACDSee Photo Studio Ultimate is the all-in-one solution for anyone who takes and edits a lot of photos, and wants to keep them organized. Try ACDSee today!

www.acdsee.com

Has a couple of different levels you can buy.

I don't use it, but have recommended people with basic needs look at it.

 

[Vlad9696]

Hey, yeah Photomator does seem pretty solid, I agree.

But honestly, it just doesn’t feel logical for me to drop $150 on an app I don’t use daily.

If it were under $100 — max — I’d probably go for it.

Let’s see if they ever run a discount.

By the way, why wouldn’t ON1 be a good fit in this case?

I mean, it seems to have a lot of similar tools, and pricing-wise it might make more sense for someone like me who edits less frequently.

 

[ishwanu]

By the way, why wouldn’t ON1 be a good fit in this case?

Indeed, why wouldn't ON1 Photo RAW be a good fit?

I mean, it seems to have a lot of similar tools, and pricing-wise it might make more sense for someone like me who edits less frequently.

I asked you earlier what 'performance' aspects you're unsure about.

 

[Vlad9696]

Good question — and you’re right, ON1 does seem solid on paper.

It has all the tools I’d need, and the price is definitely more reasonable than Photomator’s one-time $150.

My hesitation is mostly about performance. I’ve read a bunch of mixed reviews saying it can be laggy or slow, especially on Macs, and that the interface isn’t always the most intuitive.

I haven’t tested it myself yet, so maybe I’m being overly cautious — but if I’m going to invest time learning a new tool, I just want to be sure it won’t frustrate me after a few days.

Still, I haven’t ruled it out completely — just trying to make the most logical choice for casual (but quality) photo editing.

 

[ishwanu]

Indeed, why wouldn't ON1 Photo RAW be a good fit?

My hesitation is mostly about performance. I’ve read a bunch of mixed reviews saying it can be laggy or slow, especially on Macs,

It could be slow on Macs. Works fine on my modest Windows system. But it's powerful and draws on a lot of system resources, so is not a good fit for really old or dinky systems.

and that the interface isn’t always the most intuitive.

It's quite different from other apps that I've used, and it took time to get even halfway comfortable with it. Frequent consultation of the user manual and the many video tutorials published by the company were required.

I haven’t tested it myself yet, so maybe I’m being overly cautious — but if I’m going to invest time learning a new tool, I just want to be sure it won’t frustrate me after a few days.

These are the things you listed earlier:

I usually use basic tools like:
- white balance,
- exposure,
- shadows/highlights,
- HSL,
- linear gradients,
- and local adjustments.

All but the last one are pretty straightforward, but there's a massive assortment of tools for local adjustments, and they will take time to understand. A few days are not nearly enough to gain a comfortable depth of knowledge about them.

Still, I haven’t ruled it out completely — just trying to make the most logical choice for casual (but quality) photo editing.

 

[Vlad9696]

Thanks for the info — I’ll give it some thought.

 

[bakubo]

You may want to read through this thread about the free new RapidRAW app:

https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/68344591

 

[Abbott Schindler]

Since you're on a Mac, have you tried Apple Photos? (it came with your Mac)

If yes, then what's it missing that you need?

If no, then why not give it a try? Price is right and it's not subscription.

 

[surrealalex]

Just today I found this helpful software, which is still in the making, but already functionally good enough to fill your requirements:

RapidRAW -------> github project page

download from here: github repository

It's pretty good, so far. It is reasonably fast, has many tools, even some AI masking and a built in directory browser or some form of database. It can't do versioning and virtual copies. It doesn't work with all cameras and it cannot read my Nikon files (yet).

It is very close to being a Lightroom and LuminarNEO clone.

 

[teph]

Nitro by Gentlemencoders would be an option. Perpetual licence and it works well. I use it on a Macbook.

 

[ishwanu]

Just today I found this helpful software, which is still in the making, but already functionally good enough to fill your requirements:

RapidRAW -------> github project page

download from here: github repository

It's pretty good, so far. It is reasonably fast, has many tools, even some AI masking and a built in directory browser or some form of database. It can't do versioning and virtual copies. It doesn't work with all cameras and it cannot read my Nikon files (yet).

It is very close to being a Lightroom and LuminarNEO clone.

It's worth a look, but it's nowhere near being a 'clone' of Lightroom or any other complete photo processing package with layer support, printing tools, DAM capability, etc. There are already two threads about it in this forum:

https://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/4809461

https://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/4809771

Even the most full-featured and mature free open source products like RawTherapee, digiKam, and darktable shouldn't be called 'clones' of anything.

 

[s_grins]

This RapidRaw is still raw and needs some cooking and an experienced chef.

 

[jrp50635]

The built-in Apple Photos app may well meet your needs.

 

[Night Pixel]

Where did you get $150 from? I paid $69.99 for a lifetime license on sale. Now that Apple owns the app I don't know is there be another BF sale. Regular price is now $119 for a LT license.









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"A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you the less you know." - Diane Arbus

 

[gossamer88]

Any suggestions? I’d love something simple, intuitive, affordable, and macOS-native.

Thanks so much in advance!

You already have the built-in Photos app that seems exactly what you need. You can even add plugins.