Software Alternatives & Reviews

Darktable VS PixInsight

Compare Darktable VS PixInsight and see what are their differences

Darktable logo Darktable

darktable is an open source photography workflow application and raw developer.

PixInsight logo PixInsight

A powerful deep sky stacking application for astrophotography.
  • Darktable Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-10-18
  • PixInsight Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-07-28

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

PixInsight videos

Stacking Shootout - Pixinsight vs DSS vs Nebulosity. Also Cybertruck.

More videos:

  • Review - Explaining PixInsight #1 | OSC Workflow | Pre-Processing
  • Review - DeepSkyStacker vs. PixInsight Stacking

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Darktable and PixInsight)
Graphic Design Software
100 100%
0% 0
Time Tracking
0 0%
100% 100
Image Editing
100 100%
0% 0
Invoicing
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

Share your experience with using Darktable and PixInsight. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
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Reviews

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

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

PixInsight Reviews

We have no reviews of PixInsight yet.
Be the first one to post

Social recommendations and mentions

PixInsight might be a bit more popular than Darktable. We know about 8 links to it since March 2021 and only 8 links to Darktable. 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.

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
View more

PixInsight mentions (8)

  • When it comes to software what do you use and can you go a little bit into detail on how to use it
    PixInsight - Stacking and image processing. It's pricey but really the best processing software out there for deep sky pics imo (DeepSkyStacker / Siril / GIMP are commonly used free alternatives). Source: 10 months ago
  • Asahi Ubuntu: does it support PixInSight and Gimp?
    Dear friends of Asahi, I was planning to get a laptop mainly for astrophotography postproduction while traveling, and other normal tasks. Apps required for astrophoto elaboration are just 2: PixInSight and Gimp. An M1 cored MacBook seem a very good machine but I really dislike macOS. I was wondering before spending time and money looking for suitable offer from refurbished market if Asahi Linux should run both... Source: 11 months ago
  • The Horsehead Nebula from my front yard
    Subs were calibrated and integrated for each filter using SiriL. In PixInsight I started by cropping the three stacked images, used automatic background extraction, and then combined the three into a colour image. BlurXTerminator on the combined image and StarNet v2 to separate the stars.. Separate multi scale linear transform on starless and luminance, more aggressive on the starless image. Unsharpmask applied to... Source: about 1 year ago
  • Files for the NGC 3132 Nebula
    PixInsight (costs money and I haven't tried a free trial). Source: almost 2 years ago
  • North America Nebula, NGC 7000
    PixInsight; stacking, calibration, noise reduction. Source: almost 2 years ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

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

GIMP - GIMP is a multiplatform photo manipulation tool.

Siril - Siril is an astronomical image processing tool, able to convert, pre-process images, help aligning...

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

DeepSkyStacker - DeepSkyStacker is a freeware for astrophotographers that simplifies all the pre-processing steps of...

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

APT (Astro Photography Tool) - APT stands for "AstroPhotography Tool" and it is like Swiss army knife for your astro imaging sessions.