Photomator review

Best for

Mac, iPhone and iPad users who want a cheaper Lightroom alternative

Price

Freemium · from $29.99/year
Free: Free to download; full editing needs a subscription

Platforms

iOS, Mac

Made by

Apple (Pixelmator Team), Vilnius, Lithuania · since 2007

App store ratings

iOS 4.5★ (3.8K)

What it is

Photomator, from the Pixelmator team that Apple bought in 2025, is a fast, Lightroom-style photo editor for Mac, iPhone and iPad. Its machine-learning tools include automatic subject, sky and background selections, Super Resolution upscaling, Denoise and Smart Deband, and it edits your Apple Photos library directly.

Latest: February 2025: Apple completed its acquisition of the Pixelmator team.

What the AI does

• AI selections for subjects, skies and backgrounds
• ML Super Resolution upscaling
• ML Denoise
• Smart Deband
• ML auto-enhance

Pros and cons

How it scores

Polished and good value for Apple users, but no generative tools and no Windows, Android or web versions.

Feature checklist · 3 of 9

• –Remove unwanted objects or people (no)
• –Background removal or replacement (no)
• ✓AI subject or sky selection and masking (yes)
• –Generative fill or expand (no)
• –Edit by describing changes in text (no)
• ✓AI enhance, denoise or upscale (yes)
• –AI portrait and face retouching (no)
• –Free version with useful editing tools (no)
• ✓Available on both mobile and desktop or web (yes)

How we score apps →

Alternatives

See all Photomator alternatives, ranked →

• Google Photos 8.4/10Anyone who wants quick, free AI fixes on the photos already on their phone
• Adobe Lightroom 8.3/10Photographers who want pro-grade editing and a synced photo library on every device
• Canva photo editor 8.2/10Non-designers who edit photos to use in social posts, slides and marketing
• Adobe Photoshop 8.1/10Designers and retouchers who need full control over complex edits and composites

Google Photos vs Photomator

Sources

• Photomator on the App Store
• Pixelmator (Wikipedia)