Software Alternatives & Reviews

Adobe Lightroom VS Darktable

Compare Adobe Lightroom VS Darktable and see what are their differences

Adobe Lightroom logo Adobe Lightroom

Adobe Lightroom is a family of image organization and image manipulation software.

Darktable logo Darktable

darktable is an open source photography workflow application and raw developer.
  • Adobe Lightroom Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-01-25
  • Darktable Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-10-18

Adobe Lightroom videos

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Darktable videos

Free Lightroom Alternative: Darktable Review

More videos:

  • Review - darktable 3.0 How Good is it in comparison to other editing programs?
  • Review - Lightroom vs Darktable - the Key Difference ? 2019

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Adobe Lightroom and Darktable)
Image Editing
44 44%
56% 56
Graphic Design Software
38 38%
62% 62
Digital Drawing And Painting
Photos & Graphics
43 43%
57% 57

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Adobe Lightroom and Darktable

Adobe Lightroom Reviews

Top 8 Apps to Effectively Make Blurry Pictures Clear
As we all know, Adobe is a leader in image processing. As a well-known brand in the industry, Adobe has the most professional and comprehensive desktop application for image processing. However, in order to optimize the user experience, Adobe has also introduced Adobe Lightroom CC, an app for blurry photos. Its main feature is to provide faster editing, and users can process...
Best free and paid photo editing apps for iPhone and Android
Adobe Lightroom remains an industry standard for professional photographers and the mobile version is much the same. You'll find no stickers, animations or emoji here, but you will get fine grain control over your image and the same set of tools you'd find in Lightroom on desktop. It's the app I use the most to edit my own images on my iPhone and iPad, not least because the...
Source: www.cnet.com

Darktable Reviews

Our 6 Favorite Free Photoshop Alternatives (2022 Update)
Darktable is a free, open-source photo editing software that is used by photographers and editors and is a wonderful alternative to the likes of Photoshop and Lightroom.
5 Best Linux Photo Management Software
Darktable is more of a photo editing application than an organizer. Darktable stands out for its own user interface regardless of the desktop environment you might be using, and of course for its editing capabilities. The basic features include:
Source: itsfoss.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Adobe Lightroom should be more popular than Darktable. It has been mentiond 29 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Adobe Lightroom mentions (29)

  • Lightroom Classic Sync Issues - Many Solutions Already Tried
    - navigating to https://lightroom.adobe.com/ and checking for sync errors (none appear). Source: 7 months ago
  • Hey guys! Couple of questions on Lightroom CC
    Third Q - is it possible to create/use the lightroom.adobe.com web albums feature from Lightroom Classic, or is this feature only for Lightroom cloud? Source: 11 months ago
  • Will my collections w/ original RAWs be intact in LRC if I delete my cloud library?
    Go to http://lightroom.adobe.com/, log in, click on your profile picture, then account info. In the pop-up window is a button to delete your lightroom library. Source: 11 months ago
  • Suddenly two catalogues
    What happened here and which one is the correct one? MyCatalog.lrcat is the one I have used, but it now tells me sync is switched off because the catalog on lightroom.adobe.com is supposedly not the same. Source: 11 months ago
  • Future of Lightroom Mobile for Android Tablets
    Considering even Lightroom Web (lightroom.adobe.com) looks and functions pretty much like a direct port of Lightroom for Desktop (not Classic), I was so surprised that I honestly thought I downloaded the wrong thing. I googled it a bit and realised that Samsung's Galaxy Store has a Lightroom version called Lightroom for Samsung. Naturally, I immediately downloaded that, hoping to be greeted with that beautiful... Source: about 1 year ago
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Darktable mentions (8)

  • Photomator for Mac
    I'm pretty new to photography. I understand a lot of the basics (ex-wife shot as a professional hobbyist for a few years) but never really paid much attention to her editing workflow. Adobe already gets me for $20/mo for Illustrator (because designers) and I looked at alternatives. I've been using darktable http://darktable.org since I got my camera about a month ago and it's nice enough for me. - Source: Hacker News / 12 months ago
  • Nudibranch (Nembrotha cristata), Verde Island, Philippines, April 2023
    Thank you! The shot was gently edited in darktable. More TG-5 / single strobe examples here. Source: about 1 year ago
  • I've seen it with Adobe
    No, unfortunately not. But check out the free Darktable app which is similar on darktable.org and also this list https://petapixel.com/best-free-raw-editing-programs/. Source: over 1 year ago
  • Exporting a RAW file. Is it possible without the format changing? If I export to another folder on my mac it becomes a .jpeg, to Lightroom it becomes a .jpg, to Photoshop it becomes a .tiff. I want to be able to edit the RAW file, a .dng in another app that is not Apple proprietary.
    It sounds like you might want non-destructive editing. Look at something like darktable.org or Lightroom. You can edit your RAW files in multiple different ways, i.e., effectively keeping multiple copies of edited RAW files around. Source: almost 2 years ago
  • Software to edit and enhance Photos (JPG and RAW).
    If you're looking to learn more complicated software without having to rent it while you do, there's Darktable. Rawtherapee is another app in the same category, and usually appeals to people who don't like Darktable's interface. Source: about 2 years ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing Adobe Lightroom and Darktable, you can also consider the following products

Adobe Photoshop - Adobe Photoshop is a webtop application for editing images and photos online.

GIMP - GIMP is a multiplatform photo manipulation tool.

Sketch - Professional digital design for Mac.

Adobe Illustrator - Adobe Illustrator is a vector graphics editor.

Affinity Photo - Affinity is the imaging and design suite for creative professionals exclusively for Mac.

RawTherapee - RawTherapee is a free RAW converter and digital photo processing software.