Non-Subscription Lightroom and Photoshop Alternatives
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Not everyone is comfortable with paying an ongoing fee for subscription software. Initially we saw a lot more in the flow updates coming out of subscription models than from traditional license modes. The purpose of this article to to talk to an alternative for Lightroom and an alternative for Photoshop.
To make this work, I wanted to try to discover some perpetual license products that were available on both the Macintosh and the Windows platform.
Lightroom Alternative
Allow me to be clear, my proposed alternative is not the only one purported to be a Lightroom alternative. I looked to two Lightroom modules as my guide, the Library module and the Develop module. Finding alternatives to the Develop module is easy. There are myriad editors out there with a strong feature set. When we come to the Library module, we are really talking about a cataloging system that is an alternative to Lightroom’s very robust cataloging model. I do understand that there are Lightroom users who don’t like the Library module and prefer to handle their own storage discipline. If this is you, there are lots of options, but if you prefer the idea of a system structured catalog, then your alternatives are limited. There are packages that claim to offer digital asset management, but in reality, they don’t do as complete a job as Lightroom does. This does not mean that they do not work, but it does mean that there is more work for you.
ACDSEE
I have known of ACDSEE for a very long time. In the past, I looked at the product as an inexpensive editor with some nice features but didn’t deliver at the Lightroom level. Times have changed, and the current develop engine is really very good.
What makes the current release compelling is the presence of a well featured digital asset manager. It is different from Lightroom, but it does offer very strong cataloging functionality, including keyboarding, tagging, search and storage management.
There is a free trial available for those interested in trying it out.
ACDSee | Photo Editing Software
Photoshop Alternative
Photoshop is as most know, more than a pixel level photo editor. It does much more than photography and despite the name, was really built as a designer’s tool and still delivers that level of power, although most photographer users never go there.
In that context, I looked for a Photoshop alternative that delivered on the functions for photographers that mattered most. To Adobe’s credit, they have been adding more functionality to Photoshop which drives the entire market to keep up.
Pixel based editors are very powerful tools and so this is what I was looking for as part of the success criteria.
Affinity Photo
Affinity Photo comes from Serif who in addition to doing this Photoshop alternative have delivered excellent alternatives to Illustrator and inDesign. While I have been a full Adobe suite subscriber since they went subscription, I have moved my work from Illustrator and InDesign to the Affinity alternatives. I am using Affinity Photo more as well for when I would have gone to Photoshop for measuring purposes and am very impressed.
Affinity Photo is available for Windows and Macintosh and you are looking at around $100 for a perpetual license. Serif delivers regular updates to the product. You will also find regular coupon events that offer the product at significant discounts.
https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/photo/
Summary
This is not an exhaustive analysis of all the alternatives out there. It really is a synthethis of my research in these areas requested by readers. These options, I have looked at and found to be decent non subscription alternatives. Their operation and menus differ from Lightroom and Photoshop, but are still highly usable.
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I'm Ross Chevalier, thanks for reading, watching and listening and until next time, peace.
