Adobe Lightroom review

Lightroom is the editor we would hand to a hobby photographer who shoots on both a phone and a camera. The free mobile app covers exposure, color, presets, background blur and batch edits, and Adobe describes it as a free AI photo and video editor. Paying for the Lightroom plan, listed on the US Mac App Store at $11.99 a month or $118.99 a year, adds the desktop app, cloud storage for full-resolution files and the heavier AI tools: Denoise, Super Resolution, one-click subject masks and the Remove tool. The real advantage is sync. An edit started on the phone during a trip shows up on the laptop at home with every slider intact, and AI search finds pictures without tagging. The drawbacks are cost and lock-in: there is no one-time license, and the desktop app stops after the 7-day trial if you do not subscribe. For people who want one library everywhere, nothing else on this list matches it.

Who it is for

Hobby photographers who shoot on a phone and a camera and want one library and one set of edits on every device.

Price

Free mobile app; Lightroom plan $11.99 per month or $118.99 per year as an in-app purchase on the US Mac App Store; 7-day free trial on desktop.

Lightroom Monthly Subscription $11.99
Quoted from the vendor pricing page on November 8, 2026.

Key features

• AI Denoise, Super Resolution and one-click subject selection
• Masking and adaptive presets for selective edits
• AI-powered Remove tool for distractions and objects
• Edits sync across mobile, web and desktop at full resolution
• The same editing tools work on video clips

Strengths and weaknesses

• Strength: Edits made on one device appear on every other device
• Strength: Free mobile app covers the core sliders and presets
• Strength: AI search finds photos without manual tagging
• Weakness: Desktop app needs a paid Lightroom subscription after the 7-day trial
• Weakness: Most of the cloud storage and AI tools sit behind the paid plan
• Weakness: No one-time license option

Key facts

• Platforms: Mobile, desktop and web
• Free option: Free mobile app
• Desktop trial: 7 days
• Yearly price (US Mac App Store): $118.99
• RAW support: Yes

Where it ranks

Adobe Lightroom is No. 1 in our Best Photo Editing Apps verdict.