If you love taking photos, you’re probably always looking for picture-perfect moments. Thanks to modern technology, smartphones now offer great optics and camera features so you can take sharp, vivid photos. But sometimes, the photos we take don’t always seem right even after a dozen clicks. The brightness, contrast, or orientation are often disappointing.
Thanks to photo editing apps, we can instantly make photos look more catchy and appealing. Yet, with thousands of photo enhancers in the market, you might be wondering which photo editing app is best for you.
We picked the best photo editors that are guaranteed to have vivid customization, a friendly user interface, impressive versatility, and social media sharing capabilities.
PicsArt


There are hundreds of reasons to love PicsArt, and we’re here to spill some of them. This photo editing app offers a sheer number of image-enhancing options. There’s a ton of apps with rich photo editing capabilities like PicsArt, but what makes this app stand out is that it does quite a lot more than its competitors.
Like most photo editors, you can snap photos in the app or grab an existing image from your photo library. Once your image is onscreen, you can play with the main features and explore the limitless possibilities that you can do to improve your photo.
You can rotate, crop, or resize your image. You can even cut your photo into a specific shape. Some of the other impressive features of this app are ColorSplash and paper effects.
Another reason to love PicsArt is that it has an online community with over 80 million users! You can follow other people and get to see their latest edited photos. You can explore the community, check out thousands of photos, and look for new ideas.
PicsArt has tons of amazing features, but sometimes it takes its toll. Your interface may be taken over by the controls and sliders. There are just too many buttons and icons, it may overwhelm users.
What to like about PicsArt:
- A comprehensive library of magic effects
- Complete image-editing tools
- Enables you to work with layers
- It has its own thriving social network of photographers and artists
- A rich list of clipart and stickers
- A sheer number of filters
The Gold subscription lets you unlock all other features of PicsArt, costing $8 a month or $47.88 a year.
zShot


Have you ever used a free photo editing app only to find out that you can only perform basic editing to your photos? Or perhaps you have tried using a free photo enhancer, but you were constantly bombarded with ads while you’re editing. Isn’t that frustrating?
The zShot app offers you vivid image editing tools — free of charge, and absolutely no ads at all. This picture editor is designed to make editing a doddle, which is why it is the perfect editing tool for both professionals and amateurs.
Not everyone is skilled at using topnotch editing software like Photoshop. And not everyone can master complex editing apps such as PicsArt. The zShot app has a user-friendly interface, as well as editing tools that are super easy to use.
zShot is not just a photo editing app. It is also equipped with other amazing features, such as a video editor, collage maker, slideshow maker, and document scanner. It’s your go-to all-in-one app.
Using the photo editor in zShot, you can crop, rotate, or duplicate your photos. It also has doodle capabilities, so you can draw over your image. You can also add text, stickers, filters, and different photo effects.
The app also allows you to save your photos as PNG (for translucent background) or JPEG. Once you are done editing, you may save your photo to your devices or share it on your social media accounts directly from the app.
What to like about zShot:
- Absolutely free of charge
- No ads to bother your work
- Packed with different filters and photo effects
- Enables you to share your photos via email, message, or on social media
- The canvas options are preset for social media requirements
- All-in-one photo editor, video editor, collage maker, slideshow makers, and document scanner
- Simple to use with a neat and user-friendly interface
Snapseed


A lot of photo enthusiasts love Snapseed because it offers an incredible level of control over its filters and effects. Snapseed is not your typical tap-to-apply photo enhancer. It is aimed for more discerning and serious photographers and loads all the photo editing features that you could want.
Being an app that’s supported by Google, we can expect this app to have high-quality features and impressive reputation. Snapseed lets you fine-tune things like contrast, shadows, curves, saturation, and brightness.
The app added several new tools, such as zoom controls, Lens Blur, Brush, and Spot Repair. Within the app, you can pull an image from your library or snap a new photo.
For every effect or filter you add to your photo, Snapseed adds them as layers (Stacks), which means you can always keep track of the changes you made. You can tweak or delete individual stacks at any time without ever affecting other edits that you have made.
What to like about Snapseed:
- The app is 100% free, no ads!
- User-friendly interface
- Capable of editing RAW files
- Packed with professional-grade tools and presets
Fotor Photo Editor


Isn’t it great when you have a compact and powerful photo editor anywhere you go? Fotor Photo Editor gives you the ease of enhancing your photos without having to download add-on programs.
It has equally powerful features such as Photoshop and other photo enhancers. Within the app, you can make basic adjustments to your images, such as the ability to lay over filters, change shades, change the brightness, and correct contrast. The app packs patented advanced HDR settings aimed for more serious photographers.
One of the best selling points of Fotor Photo Editor is that it has a considerably smaller learning curve. Compared to other image editing software like Lightroom and Photoshop, this app is simple, easy to use, and intuitive.
Fotor Photo Editor is available both on desktop and mobile. Like Snapseed, it supports RAW files. The Pro version of Fotor costs $8.99 per month. They do not have a free version, but they offer a free trial.
What to like about Fotor Photo Editor:
- Available on desktop and mobile
- Easy drag-and-drop editing
- Loaded with a variety of shape and clipart
- You can export your photo as different file type
PhotoDirector


Edit your photos and create amazing stories — all from the comfort of your smartphone. With PhotoDirector, you can enhance your captured moments wherever and whenever you need it. PhotoDirector is developed by Cyberlink, which is known as the maker of many award-winning digital media creation, sharing, playback, and entertainment applications for home and business PC.
The PhotoDirector app is available on mobile and desktop. Many believe that PhotoDirector is the best replacement for Photoshop. While that is a big and bold statement, there are many reasons to believe that. First, PhotoDirector is a chock-a-block editor, with a comprehensive list of tools for retouching photos.
PhotoDirector made sure that beautifying, correcting, and improving the quality of your photos is a breeze. It has proven to give excellent results. You can perform lots of editing using this app — from simple to complex.
Lifetime access to the pro version starts at $99.99 (or less; they usually offer discounts up to 30%). The mobile app offers a free version but is very limiting. The subscription to the pro version starts at $3.17 a month.
What to like about PhotoDirector
- User-friendly
- Has pic collage maker
- Filters, stickers, and effects are updated every month
- Includes seasonal stickers, effects, and filters
- Can save images in Ultra HD 4k camera resolution
- Free community content
So, which photo editing app is best for you?
The photo editors listed above are what we believe to be the best among the rest. Some of these apps require you to purchase the pro version to unlock all the premium features. If you need a photo enhancer that is equally powerful as the other tools, choose zShot or Snapseed. They don’t cost a dime and have all the features you could ever ask for.