Picture Perfect: 8 Best Free Photo Editors Online

Photography is an integral part of your brand identity. It’s rare for a photo to be perfect from the get-go. Photo editing ensures that your content is clean, consistent, and professional—whether it involves editing product shots, resizing photos for social media posts, or color-correcting a batch of images for your website.

Not all businesses have the budget, desire, or time to hire a professional photo editor. Thankfully, a plethora of free online photo editors are available to help you easily create beautiful images for your ecommerce business.

8 best free online photo editors

1. Canva
2. Pixlr
3. Photoshop Express
4. GIMP
5. Fotor
6. Photopea
7. Darktable
8. BeFunky

These free online photo editors are almost as good as the paid versions. The best option comes down to your particular needs—some are more user-friendly, and others provide more advanced features. 

Here’s a breakdown of the top free photo editing options:

Canva

Boasting both photo editing tools and graphic design templates, Canva is an all-in-one tool allowing you to improve image quality, organize your shots for posters or brochures, and design logos. The free version offers millions of templates, five gigabytes of cloud storage, and limited use of AI tools.

Best for: 

• Simple image adjustments including tint, contrast, brightness, and vignette 
• Graphic design templates and organization for product photos and newsletters
• Logo design and merchandising

Unique features:

• User-friendly interface designed with beginners in mind 
• Feature-rich free version provides you with most of the tools necessary to edit and create content for your business in one place 
• Free cloud storage

Pixlr

Pixlr offers many of the same tools as Photoshop in an interface that is far easier to navigate. The Pixlr Suite gives access to Pixlr Editor, Pixlr Express, Pixlr Designer, Batch Editor, and Remove BG, providing you with a plethora of editing tools for everything from enhancing images to removing backgrounds. 

Best for:

• Quick photo edits for social media posts
• Removing backgrounds from product shots or portraits
• Batch edits for consistent style across multiple images

Unique features:

• Comprehensive tutorials make for an easy learning curve for beginners
• Smartphone and web browser compatibility
• Text-to-image AI tools
• Similar to Photoshop, the industry standard

🌟Resource: Website Image Size Guidelines for 2024

Photoshop Express

Developed by Adobe, Photoshop Express is a completely free foray into the Adobe Suite user interface. It boasts generative AI, a suite of adjustment sliders, and simplified Photoshop tools, so you can easily hit the ground running with your edits. Think of it as Adobe’s answer to Canva, rather than a free version of Photoshop.

You can provide a prompt like “remove the background” and immediately see your image against a solid background without the hassle of selecting individual layers. Plus, the animator makes social media content creation a snap, allowing you to create GIFs and stylized animations with your own photos. 

Best for:

• An all-around editor for product images, documents, animations, graphics, and generative AI
• Those who are familiar with or want an introduction to the Adobe Creative Cloud

Unique features:

• Versatile tools to adjust brightness, remove redeye, and add text overlays to both photo and video formats
• Smartphone-compatible for editing on the go 
• Large catalog of templates to choose from

GIMP

GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) is one of the most advanced free photo editors. GIMP is known for its advanced features like masks, custom brushes, perspective shifts, curves, and levels. The learning curve can be steep for beginners, but GIMP allows you to perform complex edits not possible with most free photo editing software.

Best for:

• Experienced photo editors who want to make advanced edits using nearly all the tools of Photoshop (Adobe’s own free online photo editor, Photoshop Express, is more beginner-friendly but offers less customization options)
• Those who want freedom in the creative process

Pros:

• Continuously adding new features and plug-ins to keep up with industry standards
• No ads
• Compatible with Photoshop plug-ins
• Cross-platform software for Linux, Mac OS, and Windows

🌟Resource: What Is Image Optimization? 8 Tips For Your Website

Fotor

Known for its wide array of high-quality filters, Fotor is a great tool for making quick changes with just a click. Email marketers, bloggers, and social media content creators will appreciate the ease of use when it comes to retouching portraits, removing unwanted objects from a background, and batch editing multiple photos for consistency across platforms. 

Plus, Fotor may be one of the fastest web-based editors, so there will be no need to worry about it slowing down your computer during editing sessions.

Best for:

• Social media managers and digital marketers who need to make basic adjustments and image collages 
• Beginners looking for a fast, intuitive platform

Unique features:

• Ability to use RAW files straight from your camera
• Easy-to-use interface
• AI text-to-image generator

Photopea

With a Photoshop-inspired layout and user experience, Photopea is a great option for adding effects, superimposing text, applying filters, and cropping pictures. You can create graphics like social media banners and vectors to keep your brand’s style front and center over product images.

Photopea also has seamless compatibility with Google to import your docs or photos from shared drives, making collaboration a breeze for Google-based businesses.

Best for:

• Simple image editing and graphic creation for social media distribution or brand logos

Unique features:

• Able to import and export PSD (Photoshop-compatible) files and edit RAW images
• ABR files can be uploaded to use your own custom brushes
• Smartphone, tablet, and desktop versatility 

🌟Resource: 36 Best Free Stock Photo Sites

Darktable

Darktable is a virtual light table and darkroom and a huge time-saver for processing large amounts of images at once. Whether you need to crop, spot correct, or adjust tints, darktable is a go-to application for ensuring consistency across hundreds of RAW product photos.

Best for:

• Photographers dealing with large numbers of RAW photos

Unique features:

• Fast processing speeds for RAW image formats
• Non-destructive editing, meaning your original images are never permanently altered during the editing process
• Stellar organization and sorting capabilities to easily find a singular photo or set of images

BeFunky

Designed with social media creators in mind, BeFunky is an easy-to-use collaging, color correction, cropping, object removal, and background replacement tool. For those who shoot a lot of content on their smartphones, the image enhancer can save photos that may have turned out a bit blurred.

Best for:

• Influencers and marketers looking for an easy way to stylize their photos, blogs, and other digital assets

Unique features:

• Efficient workflow makes batch editing a breeze
• Easy-to-use interface is great for basic editing options on the go
• AI-powered effects are available for photo-to-art capabilities in various styles