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Lightroom has been favored by photographers due to its easy and powerful editing tools. Its friendly editing tools and a wide variety of presets are also one of the reasons why users appreciate it. There is also a Lightroom Mobile app for people who need to edit photos on their phone anytime, anywhere.
Lightroom Mobile app supports basic editing tools like crop & rotate light adjustment and color adjustment. However, it lacks some advanced editing tools, you might need to use Photoshop as well if you want to make additional changes like layer editing, background change, and more.
Luckily, many great Lightroom alternatives provide similar features and even more! In this article, we will introduce the four best free Lightroom alternative apps for iPhone and Android users for quick and easy mobile photo editing.
Read more: 20 Best Free Photo Editing Apps and Online Tools in 2024
4 Best Free Lightroom Alternative Apps for iPhone and Android
Keep reading to understand more about the YouCam Perfect app and the other three alternatives to Lightroom Mobile for iPhone and Android in 2024!
- YouCam Perfect: Best Lightroom Alternative for iPhone
- Snapseed: Free & Basic Lightroom Alternative
- Photoleap: Artistic Lightroom-Like App
- Prequel: Aesthetic Lightroom-Like Editor
1. YouCam Perfect: Best Lightroom Alternative for iPhone
Available For: iOS and Android
Cost: Free
Our number one pick for the best Lightroom alternative is YouCam Perfect. That’s because it offers all the features Lightroom does — and more. Any image you visualize can be created with YouCam Perfect. The possibilities are endless!
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With YouCam Perfect, customizing your selfie or other photo is easy. You can use one of the hundreds of preset filters and effects and adjust the intensity depending on the vibe you’re going for.
Cropping out unwanted people or objects is easy with the AI object removal tool. Just highlight the things you want going from your photo, and like magic, they’ll disappear.
You can even add animations and stickers to your snaps, blend images, replace the sky, and even change the background to make your photos truly stand out. All in all, we like this app because it packages everything you could ever dream up into one, simple-to-use software.
Best For: Those looking for a free Lightroom alternative with myriad editing features to take their photos to the next level.
2. Snapseed: Free & Basic Lightroom App
Available For: iOS and Android
Cost: Free
‘Snapseed’ by Google is a pretty basic alternative to Lightroom. It allows you to tweak the appearance of a photo, but not much else. There are a few aesthetic filters available that we recommend you try, including:
- Drama
- Grunge
- Vintage
- Center-focus
- Frames
- Tilt-shift
Overall, while Snapseed does offer some personalization, it’s pretty limited. You’ll probably find it doesn’t offer a ton more than your phone’s native image editor.
Best For: Those looking for an entirely free option and aren’t concerned about portrait editing.
3. Photoleap: Artistic Lightroom-Like App
Available For: iOS only
Cost: Free
If your goal is to take your photo into a fantasy world, then Photoleap might be right for you. It provides not only the basic editing tools that Lightroom Mobile offers but also specializes in photo layering that you can use to create a unique composition. You’ll have the chance to create an artistic masterpiece using graphic design, street art, and more.
Because of these intense features, it’s a little harder to use than these other free Lightroom alternatives, and it’s also more limiting. If you just want to tweak your photo for upload or add a cool filter, this isn’t the app for you. Not everyone is a virtual Van Gogh, so most people would prefer something a little less artsy (like YouCam Perfect).
Best For: Those wanting to make an artistic creation by layering photos.
4. Prequel: Aesthetic Lightroom-Like Editing App
Available For: iOS and Android
Cost: Free
Prequel is a dual-purpose photo and video editor with one significant advantage over Lightroom Mobile: various filters and effect templates. But to be honest, most of its photo effects are pretty lackluster. They’re one-size-fits-all for Instagram stories, meaning you can’t customize a filter at all once you’ve applied it. That being said, we’d recommend a few filters including:
- VHS
- Stardust
- Disco
- Monroe
- Retro
- Vintage
Where Prequel does shine is its video editing. You’re able to add text and music to your videos for compelling Instagram story clips. Still, since Instagram comes with its own native video editor, we can’t really recommend this app to many people.
Best For: Those looking to add music to their videos for an Instagram-ready story.
Best Free Lightroom Alternative App Overview
Here’s how our comparison of these four apps stacks up when it comes to user reviews, features, ease of use, and cost.
With so many alternatives on the market, We've reviewed all the best Lightroom Mobile alternatives for you to find the most suitable photo editing app. The YouCam Perfect app is the best option out there for you to try!
Related Posts:
Lightroom Alternative Apps FAQs
What is the best free alternative to Lightroom?
These are the 4 best Lightroom alternative apps that we recommend to try for photo editing. They are also free to use on iPhone or Android!
You can also learn more in our review of the best free photo editing apps for Android and iOS that we’ve done earlier this year.
What can I use instead of the Lightroom app?
YouCam Perfect is the best choice for you to use instead of Lightroom! It offers every editing tool you will need and even more! You can also read more about our 5 most popular features and see how you can turn your photos into art!
Is there a cheaper version of Lightroom for iPhone and Android?
YouCam Perfect is a much cheaper version of Lightroom and its basic option is free to download and use. Despite such low costs, the app offers a wide selection of photo editing and beautifying tools for all your creative needs. You can also read more about our review of the best free photo editing apps for Android and iOS this year.
