Adobe Lightroom Classic

Name: Adobe Lightroom Classic
Rating: 8.5

starStaff Pick

by Adobe

Industry-standard photo editing and catalogue management

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“My daily driver for 15+ years. Everything goes through Lightroom Classic — import, cull, edit, export. I've tried every alternative and keep coming back. The Photography Plan with Photoshop at $9.99/mo is the best value in creative software. The catalogue gets sluggish at 100k+ images but Smart Previews solve most speed issues.”

auto_awesomePixelfetch Take

Lightroom Classic is the app most photographers open first and close last. It's not the flashiest editor, and Adobe's subscription model still irritates people, but nothing else combines RAW processing, cataloguing, batch editing, and Photoshop integration this seamlessly. The Photography Plan at $9.99/mo remains the best value in creative software. If you're a working photographer, you probably already use it. If you don't, you should at least understand why everyone else does.

Our Take

Pros

✓Industry-standard ecosystem with massive preset and plugin community
✓Non-destructive RAW editing with excellent colour science
✓Powerful batch processing and smart previews for speed
✓Deep Photoshop integration via round-trip editing
✓Photography Plan at $9.99/mo includes Photoshop — best value in creative software

Cons

✗Subscription only — no one-time purchase option
✗Catalogue performance degrades noticeably at 100k+ images
✗Cloud sync is a separate product (Lightroom CC)
✗Interface feels dated compared to newer competitors

Verdict: Still the default choice for most photographers. The Photography Plan at $9.99/mo is hard to beat when you factor in Photoshop. If you hate subscriptions, look at Capture One or DxO. If you love the ecosystem, nothing else comes close.

Composite Score

8.5

Capterra

4.5/5(520 reviews)

4.5/5(1,150 reviews)

How we calculate this score

The composite score is a weighted average of ratings from major review platforms, normalized to a 0-10 scale. Each platform rating (out of 5) is doubled to fit the scale. Manual overrides may be applied by the editorial team.