Best Free Photo Editing Apps for iPhone & Android in 2023

 

15 Best Free Photo Editing Apps for iPhone & Android in

2023

We all try to take perfect photos right off the bat, but sometimes we just want to add that extra flash of pizzazz. Online photo editing softwares are great, but for most of us, using the best free mobile photo editor app for iPhone and Android is the way to go.

Many good photo editing apps are free to use, allow you to edit your photos on the go with a mobile-friendly experience, and they make it easy to save and share your photos on your favorite social media app.

Table of Contents

What Are the Best Free Photo Editing Apps?

Depending on your level of expertise, the best free photo editing app should make it easy to edit your photos exactly the way you want.

• For the beginner editor, that might mean preset filters and fun animations.
• For the aspiring influencer, it might mean more advanced settings and the ability to store your photos in the cloud.

Regardless of one’s aptitude and experience, the best photo editing app will cater to photo enthusiasts of all levels.

After taking several photo editing apps for a spin, we came to the conclusion that YouCam Perfect is the best app overall. It’s available for free download for both iOS and Android, has a wide selection of photo editing and beautifying tools that don’t require professional skills, and is updated quite often with new features and materials. Its high rating calculated based on opinions of other users further solidifies our opinion.

Top 3 Must-Have Free Photo Editing Apps

Check out three of our top picks for the best free photo editing apps for iPhone and Android users:

1. YouCam Perfect: Best Free Photo Editor App Overall

YouCam Perfect is the best free photo editing app for iOS and Android users. It provides all the powerful photo editing & beautifying tools you need. You can easily remove unwanted objects, remove and change backgrounds, apply aesthetic effects and filters, edit face shapes, and more!

2. YouCam Makeup: Best Free Photo Editor App for Selfies

YouCam Makeup is a popular selfie camera and face retouching app for iPhone and Android devices. Users can apply makeup to their selfies and edit faces with numerous beauty filters, makeup tools, and face-shaping tools naturally and easily.

3. PhotoDirector: Best Free Photo Editor App for Animations

PhotoDirector is a good photo editing app that lets you add  animations to  your photos with AI effects, collages, and other easy-to-use tools!

Discover Best Free Photo Editing Apps for iPhone & Android in 2023

Here’s our top list of the best free photo editing apps available for iPhone and Android in 2023:

1. YouCam Perfect
2. YouCam Makeup
3. PhotoDirector  
4. Photoshop Express Photo Editor
5. Snapseed
6. Picsart
7. Adobe Lightroom Mobile
8. BeFunky
9. VSCO
10. Instasize Photo Editor
11. Photo Editor Pro - Polish
12. piZap
13. Canva
14. Airbrush
15. Pixlr

1. YouCam Perfect - Best Free Photo Editor & Selfie App

Price: Free; provides photo editing & beautifying tools
Available: iOS and Android
Overall Rating: 10/10
Store Rating: 4.8 on App Store; 4.4 on Google Play
Key Features:

• AI Object Removal
• Body Tuner
• Cut Out & Remove Background
• Aesthetic Effects and Filter
• Hundreds of Collages
• Face Shaper

YouCam Perfect app is the best free photo editing app out there for you. This free app allows you to edit photos and make collages, among many other creative features. Photos can be edited on either iPhone or Android with a wide variety of effects, animations, frames, and much more.

It also supports double exposure, personalizing your stickers, and retouching of selfies. With YouCam Perfect, you can even change the background of your photo or replace the sky in your image with one of the dreamy options. If you need to make some natural edits to your body due to bad angle or poor lighting, YouCam Perfect’s Body Tuner feature can help you with that. Have a person or object in the background of your photos that you’d rather have removed? Look no further than our AI Object Removal tool.

▼ Easy-to-use Editing Tools

▼ Cut out & Create Fun Photos

Cons

• Not yet supports LUTs filter for professional photography usages
• Not yet supports split tone editing

Verdict

Lots of easy-to-use features allow users with little or no experience in photo editing to create amazing photos. Best for social buffs who always want their photos looking great on Instagram (or other social platforms). Adequate advanced editing features to help editing veterans to add the final touches to their pictures.

2. YouCam Makeup – Best Face Editing App for Selfies

▲ YouCam Makeup app interface

Price: Free; provides trendy makeup looks & retouching tools
Available: iOS and Android
Overall Rating: 9/10
Store Rating: 4.8 on App Store; 4.4 on Google Play

YouCam Makeup is a virtual makeover and selfie retouch editing app. You can change your hair color for a salon haircare experience and use tools for a complete makeover, including lip plumpers, teeth whitening, airbrush skin, etc. YouCam Makeup is an AR makeup camera app and selfie editor more than it’s a photo editing app. If you’re looking to retouch your photos like celebrities, this app is excellent.

Pros

• Several instant filter options
• Detailed editing options for all facial features
• Easy-to-use interface with little to no learning curve

Cons

• Mainly focus on selfie editing

Verdict

YouCam Makeup is a complete and fun-to-use makeup editor app. Most of the editing options are around beautifying or editing makeup. However, if you’re looking for a more advanced and comprehensive photo editing app, YouCam Perfect is the way to go.

3. PhotoDirector - Best & Creative Photo Editing App

▲ PhotoDirector app interface

Price: Free; $4.99 per month for premium features
Available: iOS and Android
Overall Rating: 10/10
Store Rating: 4.6 on App Store; 4.4 on Google Play

PhotoDirector combines complete creative control, a user-friendly interface, and built-in royalty-free stock library provided by Shutterstock and iStock. No matter your experience level with PhotoDirector's professional-quality tools you can transform a quick snap into a stunning image in seconds.  

It has all the basic editing tools you'll ever need like color grading, customizable collage templates, and object removal tools. Advanced tools include AI-powered sky replacement that lets you add flawless sunsets to your images. Or animate photos by drawing motion lines and placing anchor points for a customized animation or add already animated stickers and decor to delight your followers. PhotoDirector also makes the most popular Instagram effects easy to apply.   

Pros

• Light and color adjustment tools
• Quick apply filters and effects     
• AI sky replacement and light ray tools       
• Photo and beauty retouch tools       
• Animation tools and animated overlays       
• AI technology 
• Built-in stock libraries

Cons

• No teeth whitening feature 
• No LUTs filter support

Verdict

PhotoDirector's user-friendly interface and straightforward functions simplify the editing process. No matter if you're editing one photo or hundreds, you can quickly upload, adjust, and create on the go with your phone or seamlessly transition to your Chromebook or tablet for edits at home.  

Download to bring your snaps to life.

4. Photoshop Express Photo Editor - Best Photo Editing App for Advanced Edits

▲ Photoshop app interface

Price: Free; $4.99 per month for premium features
Available: iOS and Android
Overall Rating: 9/10
Store Rating: 4.4 on App Store; 4.3 on Google Play

The mobile version of the popular photo editing software packs a lot of features and is a logical choice for frequent Photoshop users. However, to gain access to all of its features, you will need to purchase a PS Express Premium subscription. The mobile editing app offers such handy picture editing tools as selective editing, background replacement, themes for photos and collage, scrapbook for collage, retouch and more.

Pros

• Wide selection of professional photo editing tools to enhance and adjust your images
• User-friendly interface
• Can edit RAW files

Cons

• Limited retouch options
• Need to pay to access a lot of features

Verdict

If you’re a devoted Photoshop fan, this app might be for you as it is closely related to the desktop version. Photoshop Express Photo Editor offers a decent selection of photo editing tools that go beyond most basic features, so you can freely express your creativity. However, if you’re not too familiar with Adobe Photoshop suite, there’s a bit of a learning curve and you might opt for a simpler photo editing app instead.

5. Snapseed - Free Photo Editing App for Quick Edits

▲ Snapseed app interface

Price: Free
Available: iOS and Android
Overall Rating: 8.5/10
Store Rating: 3.6 on App Store; 4.4 on Google Play

If you want a quick and easy way to edit your pictures that doesn’t require too much trial and error, Snapseed is a great option for iPhone and Android users. This free photo editor app with no in-app purchases is a product of Google, even allowing users to create “ presets” that can then be saved and used for future picture edits.

Pros

• Pro-level editing tools with color curves, RAW editing, de-noise and more
• Great selection of color filters for photos

Cons

• Plain selection of editing elements (i.e. photo frames)
• Lack of photo collage, stickers, templates. Most decorative elements are absent in Snapseed

Verdict

Snapseed provides lots of picture editing tools derived from the more traditional photography usages. If you are a user with some levels of professional photography knowledge, you’ll certainly find the tools in Snapseed highly familiar.

6. Picsart - Best Photo & Video Editing App

▲ Picsart app interface

Price: Free; $7.99 per month for premium features
Available: iOS and Android
Overall Rating: 8/10
Store Rating: 4.7 on App Store; 4.1 on Google Play

For those iPhone or Android users who are looking for a bolder and striking picture editing app, Picsart is a good bet. With over 100 fonts, templates, and stickers available for free, and more than 1,000 with the paid subscription, there is no shortage of ways you can customize your photos.

Pros

• Lots of downloadable content for photo editing
• Great selection of tools for photo editing and portrating retouch
• Easy-to-use with pre-made templates

Cons

• Most free downloadable content are not professionally made
• Live retouch is not available in camera mode

Verdict

Picsart a good all-round photo editing app for everyday uses. However, if you are looking for a more advanced and more sophisticated camera mode with live retouch capabilities, there are better options to choose (e.g. YouCam Perfect).

7. Adobe Lightroom - Best Pro Photo Editing App

▲ Lightroom app interface

Price: Free; $4.99 per month for premium features & 100GB cloud storage
Available: iOS and Android
Overall Rating: 8/10
Store Rating: 4.8 on App Store; 4.6 on Google Play

Professional photographers who are already integrated with the Adobe suite of software — Photoshop, Lightroom, and more — will find no learning curve with the Adobe Lightroom app. If you’re already familiar with Adobe products, this might be a good product for you, but newbies will want to explore one of the previous options.

Pros

• Pro-level camera (manual adjustments for ISO, Exposure, and more)
• Pro-level photo editing features (requires good levels of photography knowledge to make good use of it)

Cons

• Beautify and retouch features are absent
• Lack of photo collage, stickers, templates, backgrounds. Most decorative elements are absent in Lightroom

Verdict

Lightroom app is obviously targeting the highest skill level users. Professional photographers will find it right at home when using the editing app. Average users may find editing features in Lightroom difficult to understand.

8. BeFunky - Best Photo Editing App with Unique Features

▲ BeFunky app interface

Price: Free (with in-app purchases); basic editing is free

Available: iOS and Android

Overall Rating: 7.5/10

Store Rating: 4.6 on App Store; 4.3 on Google Play

BeFunky is a free photo editing app with unique features that allow you to add color splash effects, design your own graphics, and create custom collages. Basic editing is free, but some features require a subscription.

Pros: 

• Unique editing features
• Customizable collages
• Photo enhancer

Cons: 

• Some features require a subscription

Verdict:

If you're looking for an easy to use photo editor with some unique features, BeFunky is a great option. The downside is that some of the best features require a subscription.

9. VSCO - Best Photo Editing App for Filters

▲ VSCO app interface

Price: Free; $7.99 per month for premium features
Available: iOS and Android
Overall Rating: 7.5/10
Store Rating: 4.7 on App Store; 3.4 on Google Play

While VSCO app became very popular for the “VSCO girl” vibe, its success came more from the ability to offer editors easy and trendy photo editing options. This best free photo editing app is a good choice for iPhone or Android users who have their own unique style, and who know how they want to show it in their photos.

Pros

• Excellent LUT filter support
• Great selection of color filters for photos and videos
• Good split tone tool
• Include basic video editing features (available for paid users only)

Cons

• Lack of other photo editing features besides color filters

Verdict

VSCO is made to target users with a very specific need for color filtering (for photo and video). If you want more picture editing features than color filters, look elsewhere.

10. Instasize - Best Social Photo Editing App

▲ Instasize app interface

Price: Free; $4.99 per month for all features and tools
Available: iOS and Android
Overall Rating: 7/10
Store Rating: 4.6 on App Store; 4.3 on Google Play

Some of you might have used this photo editor app when you were trying to post a full-sized photo on Instagram without cropping it. In addition to resizing options, Instasize offers a variety of filters, common adjustment and beautifying tools, text feature, collages, and basic frames. However, in order to access some of the app’s best features, you need to purchase a premium subscription. Also, Instasize allows you to edit videos as well, which is a nice bonus.

Pros

• Works equally well for photos and videos
• Simple and straightforward user interface
• Quick and easy social content creation

Cons

• A lot of features require premium subscription
• No stickers, object removal, or animation features

Verdict

Instasize is a useful app when you need to quickly edit your photos or videos for social media and, most importantly, make sure that they fit the required dimensions without cropping. The app delivers good user experience, but in terms of editing features, there are many apps out there that offer more advanced and versatile editing & beautifying capabilities.

11. Photo Editor Pro - Polish - Comprehensive & User-Friendly Photo Editing App

▲ Photo Editor Pro - Polish app interface

Price: Free (with in-app purchases)

Available: Android only

Overall Rating: 7/10

Store Rating: 4.9 on Google Play

Photo Editor Pro is one of the best free photo editors on the market. It's packed with features, including one-touch filters, advanced editing tools, and tens of millions of user-created stickers. And best of all? It's completely free to use, with no catches.

Pros:

• Packed with features
• User-friendly interface
• Completely free to use

Cons:

• In-app purchases can add up

Verdict:

If you're looking for a comprehensive and user-friendly photo editing app, Photo Editor Pro is a great choice.  However, be aware that in-app purchases can add up if you're not careful.

12. piZap - Fun & Easy to Use Photo Editing App

▲ piZap app interface

Price: Free (with in-app purchases)

Available: iOS and Android

Overall Rating: 6.8/10

Store Rating: 4.7 on App Store; 4.3 on Google Play

Pizap is a fun and easy to use photo editor that's perfect for quick edits and one-off projects. It's packed with features, including filters, advanced editing tools, and millions of user-created stickers. And best of all? It's free to use, with no catches. However, be aware that in-app purchases are required to unlock some of the more premium features.

Pros:

• Packed with features
• Fun and easy to use
• Free to use (with in-app purchases)

Cons:

• In-app purchases required for some features

Verdict: 

Pizap is a great choice for quick and easy photo editing. It's packed with features and is free to use, although you'll need to make in-app purchases to unlock the best stuff.

13. Canva – Free Photo Editing App for Graphics

▲ Canva app interface

Price: Free; $12.99 per month for premium content
Available: iOS and Android
Overall Rating: 6.8/10
Store Rating: 4.9 on App Store; 4.8 on Google Play

Canva is a free photo and video editor app focused on graphic design. You can create anything from social media posts, videos, flyers, photo collages, etc. Canva features thousands of templates to help you edit your photos. The photo editing feature lets you crop, flip, and adjust details in a few steps. Canva was created to make everyone feel like a graphic designer, so don’t be discouraged if you don’t find many photo editing features like you would in most apps.

Pros

• Several template options to choose from          
  
• Free text, graphic, and photo options

Cons

• Limited photo editing options       
• Several premium-only features        
• The mobile app is challenging to use

Verdict

Overall, Canva is a fantastic graphic design tool for non-professionals. However, when it comes to photo editing, the options are limited. Besides adjusting brightness, saturation, and other fundamental elements, Canva lacks many of the features available in popular photo editing apps.

14. AirBrush - Best Photo Retouch Editing App

▲ Airbrush app interface

Price: Free; $3.99 per month for all features
Available: iOS and Android
Overall Rating: 6.5/10
Store Rating: 4.9 on App Store; 4.3 on Google Play

AirBrush is a versatile photo editing app ideal for selfies and portraits. It offers a bundle of picture editing and beautifying tools that will help you create aesthetically pleasing selfies. There are some unique features, such as Relight and Prism, as well as classic retouch tools and even virtual makeup and hair options. You can also erase objects from your photos and choose an alternate background. Similarly to the apps mentioned above, premium subscription is required to access a lot of features.

Pros

• Quick and easy selfie photo editing with retouch and makeup tools
• My Kit option for faster access to favorite editing tools
• User-friendly interface

Cons

• Works best for portraits and selfies; general photo editing tools are quite limited
• Many features require premium subscription

Verdict

If you’re looking for a free photo editor app to enhance your selfies on iPhone or Android phones, AirBrush could be a good choice. It has a wide selection of beautifying tools that will take your portraits and selfies to the next level. Also, you can easily share edited photos on your favorite social media platforms. However, if you need a more advanced photo editor to work on different types of images, you might want to explore other options.

15. Pixlr - Best Photo Editing App for Beginners

▲ Pixlr app interface

Price: Free; $1.99 per month for premium features
Available: iOS and Android
Overall Rating: 6/10
Store Rating: 3.6 on App Store; 4.2 on Google Play

Pixlr (formerly Pixlr Express) is a photo editing app with premium design tools and image animation features. Edit photos and create stunning designs from your browser or mobile phone. With Pixlr, you can remove backgrounds, instantly create collages, and choose from a hundred filters and effects to elevate your photos to the next level.

Pros

• Quick and easy background removal features
• Tools are easy to use and understand by beginners
• Pre-designed templates

Cons

• Users report constant crashes
• The app isn’t as comprehensive as the desktop version

Verdict

Pixlr is a great free app on your phone for quick image editing. Other apps on this list might be more suitable if you’re looking for more professional or advanced features.

Why We Picked These Apps?

No photo editing app is created equal and there seems to be more options to choose from than stars in the sky. Undoubtedly, finding the right photo editing app for your needs can be time consuming and overwhelming. So, when compiling our list, we decided to focus on certain criteria that we hope will make the decision making process much easier. We took into consideration such indicators as: 

• User interface and how easy it is to navigate the app
• Frequency of app updates
• Rating
• Cost
• Number of photo editing features and app’s versatility

Why Should You Edit Your Photos?

When it comes to photography, it’s hard to get it right on the first try. That’s why photo editing is so important. It allows you to fix common camera errors, correct colors, change the background, add a personal touch, as well as develop personal style and aesthetic, which is particularly important in the age of social media.