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Design

Free and open-source Adobe Lightroom alternatives

Adobe Lightroom (Photo editing and RAW workflow) is a commercial product. These 2 tools do the same job and are free to use or to self-host.
Short answer: the best free alternatives to Adobe Lightroom are darktable and RawTherapee. Self-hosting is free; you pay only for the server (a small VPS is about $4–6/mo). Licenses and prices checked 2026-10-01.
  1. 1
    darktable

    Open-source photography workflow and RAW developer

    Non-destructive RAW developer and photo library.

    Open source (GPL-3.0) ·★ 13k GitHub stars · last commit 2026-10-07 · details

  2. 2
    RawTherapee

    Free open-source RAW photo processor

    Powerful RAW processor; no built-in catalog like Lightroom.

    Open source (GPL-3.0) ·★ 4.2k GitHub stars · last commit 2026-10-07 · details

Want paid options too? See all Adobe Lightroom alternatives or the full free alternatives list.

FAQ

Is there a free alternative to Adobe Lightroom?+

Yes. darktable and RawTherapee do the same job for free; darktable and RawTherapee are open source.

What is the best open-source alternative to Adobe Lightroom?+

darktable is the most starred on GitHub (13k stars). Non-destructive RAW developer and photo library.

Open source: OSI-approved license. Free to self-host: the code is public and free to run yourself, with limits in the license.