Unclaimed: Are you working at Adobe Photoshop?
Adobe Photoshop Reviews: 4.6/5 — Highly Rated
Arguably one of the best-known graphic design software tools used today, Adobe Photoshop is currently the go-to tool of many creative professionals. The software offers feature-rich tools for photo retouching, editing, and manipulation; and gives access to numerous brushes and textures. The platform is well known for having an ever-improving interface, supported by an extensive selection of tools, high customizable dashboards, collaboration options, and efficient file management options.
Adobe Photoshop is also often used as Photo Editing of choice in Marketing and UI/UX Design tech stacks.
| Capabilities |
AI
API
|
|---|---|
| Segment |
Small Business
Mid Market
Enterprise
|
| Deployment | Cloud / SaaS / Web-Based, Desktop Mac, Desktop Windows, Mobile iPad, Mobile iPhone |
| Support | 24/7 (Live rep), Chat, Email/Help Desk, FAQs/Forum, Knowledge Base, Phone Support |
| Training | Documentation |
| Languages | English |
Adobe Photoshop Pros and Cons
- Comprehensive set of tools for touch-up and retouching
- Extensive filters, brushes, and pre-sets
- Advanced color and background manipulation
- Extensive organization and image management tools
- Highly customizable
- Might present a steep learning curve for beginners
- Limited support for vector graphics
Adobe Photoshop is the industry standard for image editing, and the most useful thing a review can tell you is not whether it is good but which plan to buy. Buying Photoshop on its own costs more than buying the Photography plan, which includes Photoshop plus Lightroom and 1 TB of storage. That inversion catches people every year.
- What it is: Professional photo editing software for retouching, compositing, and digital art, available on desktop, web, and mobile.
- Best for: Photographers, designers, and retouchers who need the deepest pixel-level toolset available, and anyone working to industry file-format expectations.
- Pricing: Roughly $22.99 per month for the Photoshop single-app plan, about $19.99 for the Photography plan that includes it, and around $69.99 for Creative Cloud All Apps. See the verification note below.
- The honest catch: Adobe’s annual plans are commitments, not rolling months, and cancelling early typically incurs a fee. Buy the term you actually intend to keep.
What Is Adobe Photoshop?
Photoshop launched in 1990 and has been the default professional image editor for so long that its name became a verb. That dominance is not nostalgia. Layer-based compositing, masking, selection tooling, colour management, and non-destructive adjustment are deeper here than in any competitor, and the file format is what agencies, printers, and collaborators expect to receive.
In recent years the product has expanded well beyond the desktop application, adding web and mobile versions and a large set of generative AI tools built on Adobe Firefly. Generative fill and expand are genuinely useful for retouching work that used to take manual cloning, and Adobe’s position that Firefly is trained on licensed content matters to commercial users who need to know where their imagery came from.
The independent ratings are among the highest of any product we have reviewed, on very large samples: 4.8 out of 5 on Capterra across 2,433 reviews and 4.6 on G2 across roughly 13,210. There is no serious argument that the software is not excellent. The complaints are almost entirely about the commercial model.
How Photoshop Works
- Layers and masks. The foundation, and still the reason professionals stay. Non-destructive editing at this depth has no real equal.
- Selection tooling. Object selection, subject detection, and Select and Mask handle the hardest part of compositing, and successive AI improvements have made this dramatically faster than it was five years ago.
- Generative AI. Generative fill, generative expand, and neural filters, powered by Firefly. Useful for removal, extension, and background work.
- Camera Raw and colour management. Professional colour handling and raw processing that matters for print and commercial delivery.
- Cross-device. Desktop, web, and iPad, with cloud documents syncing between them. The web and mobile versions are capable companions rather than full replacements.
Photoshop Pricing
A verification note first. Adobe’s own pricing pages did not respond to automated requests during this review, and Adobe varies prices by region and runs frequent promotions. The figures below reflect current published US pricing as reported by multiple independent sources in July 2026, and you should confirm them on Adobe’s site for your own region before buying.
| Plan | Approximate US price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Photoshop single app | ~$22.99/month, annual plan billed monthly | Photoshop on desktop, web, and mobile, plus Adobe Express Premium |
| Photography plan | ~$19.99/month, annual plan billed monthly | Photoshop, Lightroom, Lightroom Classic, and 1 TB cloud storage |
| Creative Cloud All Apps | ~$69.99/month | Photoshop plus Illustrator, InDesign, Premiere Pro and the rest of the suite |
The things worth knowing before you choose:
- The Photography plan costs less than Photoshop alone and includes more. At roughly $19.99 against $22.99, it bundles Lightroom, Lightroom Classic, and 1 TB of storage. Unless you specifically need Adobe Express Premium instead, this is the better buy for almost everyone who wants Photoshop, and it is the single most valuable thing to know about Adobe’s pricing.
- Annual plans are commitments. The common “annual, billed monthly” option is a twelve-month contract paid in instalments, not a rolling subscription. Cancelling early normally triggers an early termination fee. Month-to-month plans exist at a higher rate for people who genuinely need flexibility.
- There is no perpetual licence. You rent Photoshop. Reviewers who left cite this directly, and it is a legitimate objection rather than a misunderstanding.
- Storage differs sharply between plans. The Photography plan’s 1 TB is the practical difference for photographers working with raw files.
- Prices move. Adobe adjusts pricing regularly and runs student, teacher, and seasonal discounts. Check for a current offer rather than assuming list price.
A free trial is available, and Adobe also offers a free web-based Photoshop tier with limited functionality.
Who Should Use Photoshop
- Professional photographers and retouchers. The Photography plan is close to an automatic purchase: Photoshop for pixel work, Lightroom for cataloguing and raw processing, at less than Photoshop alone.
- Designers working with agencies or print. PSD is what collaborators expect, and colour management is what printers require.
- Anyone doing serious compositing. Layer and masking depth is unmatched, and no alternative comes close for complex work.
- Teams already on Creative Cloud. If you need Illustrator or Premiere too, All Apps is the sensible route.
It is a poor fit for casual users who crop and adjust holiday photos, where free tools are entirely sufficient, for people who object to subscriptions on principle, since Affinity Photo sells a perpetual licence, and for teams whose real need is quick social graphics rather than image editing, where Canva does the job faster.
Honest Pros and Cons
Strengths
- Unmatched depth. Nothing else offers this much control over pixels, layers, masks, and colour.
- The industry standard file format. Practical value when working with clients, printers, and collaborators.
- Genuinely useful AI. Generative fill and improved selection have removed hours of manual work from routine retouching.
- Excellent ratings on huge samples. 4.8 on Capterra across 2,433 reviews and 4.6 on G2 across over 13,000.
- Cross-device workflow. Desktop, web, and iPad with cloud document syncing.
- Enormous learning ecosystem. Decades of tutorials, courses, and community answers for any problem you will hit.
Limitations
- Subscription only. No perpetual licence, and reviewers cite this as the reason they stopped upgrading.
- Annual commitment with cancellation fees. The most common source of billing complaints, and easy to agree to without noticing.
- A steep learning curve. Reviewers consistently note beginners need real time and tutorial support before becoming productive.
- Demanding on hardware. Large files and heavy filters need a capable machine.
- Confusing plan structure. The Photography plan undercutting the Photoshop plan is the clearest symptom of pricing that is harder to navigate than it should be.
- Support quality is criticized. Slow replies, long holds, and inconsistent resolution appear repeatedly in reviews.
Photoshop Alternatives and How It Compares
- Affinity Photo is the strongest alternative for people who want to own their software, with a one-off purchase and roughly 80% of Photoshop’s capability for most work.
- Canva is not a competitor for editing depth but is faster and easier for social graphics, presentations, and marketing assets.
- GIMP is free and open source, capable but with a less refined interface and weaker colour management for print.
- Pixlr and similar browser tools handle quick edits without a subscription.
- Lightroom, included in the Photography plan, is the better tool for cataloguing and batch raw processing, and pairs with rather than replaces Photoshop.
For a broader view, browse our photo editing software directory.
The Verdict
Photoshop is the best image editor available and has been for three decades, and its 4.8 Capterra rating across thousands of reviews reflects software that genuinely earns its reputation. If your work involves serious compositing, retouching, or professional delivery, there is no real debate about capability.
The decision that actually matters is which plan to buy, and here the answer is counterintuitive: the Photography plan at roughly $19.99 costs less than the Photoshop single-app plan at roughly $22.99, while adding Lightroom, Lightroom Classic, and 1 TB of storage. Unless you specifically want Adobe Express Premium, choosing the Photoshop-only plan means paying more for less. Check both before subscribing.
Then read the commitment terms. Adobe’s headline monthly prices usually describe an annual contract billed monthly, and leaving early carries a fee. That is the source of most billing complaints, and it is avoidable by choosing the term deliberately. If you object to renting software altogether, Affinity Photo is a credible one-off purchase, and for casual editing free tools will serve you perfectly well.
FAQ
How much does Photoshop cost in 2026?
US pricing is approximately $22.99 per month for the Photoshop single-app plan on an annual plan billed monthly, about $19.99 per month for the Photography plan, and around $69.99 per month for Creative Cloud All Apps. Adobe varies pricing by region and runs frequent promotions, so confirm current rates on Adobe’s site. Our automated checks could not reach Adobe’s pricing pages directly, so these figures come from current independent sources.
Is the Photography plan really cheaper than the Photoshop plan?
Yes, and it includes more. The Photography plan is typically around $19.99 per month against roughly $22.99 for Photoshop alone, and it bundles Photoshop, Lightroom, Lightroom Classic, and 1 TB of cloud storage. The single-app plan includes Adobe Express Premium instead. For most people who want Photoshop, the Photography plan is the better purchase.
Can you buy Photoshop outright instead of subscribing?
No. Adobe discontinued perpetual licences for Photoshop, and the software is subscription-only. This is the most common complaint from long-time users. If owning your software matters, Affinity Photo offers a one-off purchase that covers most of the same ground.
Can you cancel a Photoshop subscription at any time?
Not without cost on annual plans. Adobe’s common “annual, billed monthly” option is a twelve-month commitment paid in instalments, and cancelling early normally incurs an early termination fee. A genuine month-to-month plan is available at a higher rate. Choose deliberately, because this is where most billing disputes originate.
What is Photoshop best for?
Professional image editing: retouching, compositing, masking, and colour-managed output for print and commercial delivery. It is the right tool when depth of control matters, and considerable overkill for cropping holiday photos or making social media graphics.
Compare Adobe Photoshop with other popular tools in the same category.
Photoshop does an incredible job editing pictures to hire flaws, add color and team photos catch the eye of any viewer.
Photoshop lacks the design qualities for pamphlets and template designed projects.
Photoshop is beneficial in editing pictures and slicing together images to place into a design program like Dream Weaver.
The photoshop allows many ways to manipulate photos to create desired effect and design outcome
At the beginning it took time to learn to use
Creating images that are pleasing to the eye
the predefined templates and gradient varients
sometimes difficult to find the exact place of the tool
editing photos
Yes, Photoshop is still a "standard" image-editing application. With that, comes support for many different capabilities, image formats, and workflows.
In the face of stiff competition from emerging alternatives, it's hard to argue that there is any particularly compelling reason to use Photoshop at this point. When there is an alternative tool that will achieve the same goal, I'm likely to at least explore it at this point.
We use Photoshop to maintain compatibility with industry and client expectations.
It still offers the most options for photo editing
I’ve been using it for over a decade as a designer and some features are more difficult or offer less flexibility than in the past. I hate the way you pick colors now. You can’t easily enter a hex code or Pantone number. You have to load a pallete. I find it annoying.
Marketing Design for print web and multimedia
It's something I've worked with a lot, so it does do everything I need and does it well. It's powerful and serves as an all-in-one for the most part.
It's something I've worked with a lot, so it does do everything I need but it's overpriced compared to newer alternatives. It's also difficult to upgrade and support as a legacy version. I use CS5 and it seems that Adobe is actively trying to make it obsolete, pushing users towards a cloud based SaaS subscription. I paid > $1600 for the license I have, which makes this frustrating.
Web design, image manipulation, optimizations for web images, logo design and UI design.
I really love the capabilities of editing photos. It has quite more features than other software I’ve used. Through my graphic designing class, it really made it easy to merge photos, change backgrounds, and edit out things I didn’t want.
I do not like that I have to utilize a cloud to have the software. I do not like that it runs extremely slow on my Hp computer that was fairly new when I had this software.
Photoshop was primarily a need for my business and helping with the product photography and with graphic designing class.
I usually only use photoshop to export an image quickly in a different format.
There are almost too many tools and it's frustrating to do anything super quickly.
I think if you are exporting files it works really well to save for web.
I only use this software to crop pictures really.
I don't know how to use most of the features. I know that this software is quite powerful, but it is not intuitive to use.
Cropping pictures and very basic editing of pictures. I can make basic edits to pictures to get them how I want them to look.
Photoshop has its pros and cons. I, personally, think some photos are better left untouched.
It's kind of difficult to use... and I mean of course it would be better if it were free but that’s about it
I don't utilize PS at work. I do not teach anything technological.
Great way to design for web if you have 0 experience.
Seems a bit clunky. Would be great to be fully responsive without creating 3 layouts.
very quick for concepting
I can access Photoshop anywhere from the web. I don't have to be at my computer.
It is not easy to get the hang of. I wish there was a simpler version for easy design projects.
Graphic design work for advertising.
Adobe Photoshop has been around a long time. Whether you need to do simple photo color correction, retouching, or paint a digital masterpiece from scratch--even do video editing/rotoscoping or composite 3D models, Photoshop has the tools to do it. In terms of it's feature set, Photoshop is unquestionably the best. For users paying the subscription fee, you get customer support, and regular
The only bad thing about Photoshop (and all Adobe Software) is it's "ransomware" business model. Adobe charges a yearly subscription--and when you stop paying the yearly fee, your software deactivates. You will be unable to access your own work. Until about three years ago, one PURCHASED the software from Adobe--one could choose to not update, but still have access to old projects while giving up customer support and the latest/greatest version. With the advent of Adobe CC, you're RENTING the software. If you're willing to commit to paying Adobe year after year after year, then Photoshop is the best. If you'd rather pay one time and own your software, then other options like GIMP, Corel Paintshop Pro, Corel Painter or Project Dogwaffle Howler are the way to go.
As a multimedia artist, Photoshop is the standard for my industry. The bottom line is that i am expected to be able to send and receive Photoshop documents. Honestly, for my personal work, I am transitioning to other products. I have "parked" my Adobe software at version "CS6" (The last "purcahsed" version), and will not upgrade.
Editing photos to overlay in my print designs.
Completely different from the intuitive use of other Adobe Creative Suite products.
Editing Real estate photography and stock photos for print and web graphics.
The sheer power of Photoshop is impressive -- you can do just about anything with it. I like in particular how easy it is to make complex selections, fix errors and manipulate photographs. I also like the numerous export options available.
The user interface is very bloated with too many items I never use. Sometimes I can't remember where a function is that I want to use, and it's a pain to look for it. The interface really could use some simplification. Also operations like masking could be simplified -- Sketch does this well, and I think the designers of Photoshop could learn quite a bit from the Sketch interface.
Actually I am solving very little with Photoshop. I use it mainly for manipulating photos -- that's about it. Just about all the other graphical work I do is done in Sketch.
User friendly, easy to use, many manipulation options for beginners. This program works with Lightroom and Premiere to cut down on steps.
Don't open too many photos at once, can become unstable. For advance editing options I would always suggest Lightroom.
Easy to create lower thirds for videos or graphics. Saves stress of figuring out the same thing on Premiere with less options.
Layering and editing layers in Photoshop is easier than in any other program.
But I do believe with programs like Indesign and Illustrator that Photoshop is going the way of the dinosaur.
Photo editing
I like that you can do just about anything to a photo and publish it in any output (format). I like the compatibility between other products; it makes it easy to transfer and embed edited photos.
This is a complex tool and not very easy to master. It can be time consuming, especially when trying to align it to other templates or outputs. The layering of images can be cumbersome and complex when trying to do simple edits..
Keeping design and development cost effective is a high demand from business. Photoshop is not only costly, but it is also time consuming making it a less desirable tool. Although, it can do wonders when creating, editing. and publishing photos, it can also take a considerable amount of time before finding issues with publishing.
The business standard, there isnt much you can't do with Photoshop. Inrementally better every year, Smart substance arrangements are extremely fascinating
insufficient legitimate help for 3D finishing, awful that all the best business apparatuses are there however you need to utilize a third part answer for surface a 3D object. Doesnt run on Linux which is disappointing.
Really the main element complete programming so we use it for a large portion of our picture control needs. No 3D surface help is the principle special case.
I can edit my own pictures the way I want
It's expensive to buy a licenced software
I do my own editing rather than going for professional help, coz its expensive
Well established, ease of use, ability to export images in multiple formats, updated a lot, cross platform compatability.
The price. The move to subscription based payment. No native Linux distribution.
Most people will know what Photoshop is and how to use it for various image manipulation tasks.
The most helpful is layeringS. I also utilize the "save for web' feature. I do web development so when I need to export assets that my designers have created, this is very useful for me. I also like adjusting the resolution and this has always been seamless. Since the web ready images don't need to be high in resolution, I like faster load times so this is why I use the feature.
I dislike the fact that you don’t have to hold shift anymore to scale something proportionally. The least helpful for me is 3D just because I don’t use it.
It has given me the ability to not have to rely on others for images thus increasing efficiency throughout my workday. I don't have to constantly wait on others knowing that I have the ability to do it.
It has an endless supply of options, is easy to import and export things.
I found it really challenging to use. I am pretty beginner level when it comes to computers and I found the instructions were not enough to make it usable for me.
I used it to custom design clothing for our company, I found that since it is such a widely used program their were lots of youtube tutorials to help me when I ran into issues.
There are a lot of options and versatility.
It is not intuitive to use. It would be nice if it wasn't so expensive.
I used it to edit images for the customer user manual and testing pictures.
I liked the wide range of functions Adobe Photoshop afforded.
I disliked the amount of time it took to master Adobe Photoshop, in comparison to faster, more automated and user-friendly programs like Google Photos and Canva.
I used Adobe Photoshop to edit photos to be posted on social media.
Adobe Photoshop is compatable with almost every platform of media I use for work.
Very little help in walking me through the features of the program. I only learned the absolute basics, and had to spend a lot of money to buy a book that would teach me the rest.
Great ability to format plans into marketable assets for customers.
User friendly secure network great for novice users
Nothing it rocks and I won’t change. With experience it will be great
Slow and won’t load fast enough
Photoshop has pretty much every photo-editing feature under the sun.
Unfortunately, Photoshop has gotten more and more bloated with every release. Really wish there was a simple alternative that was becoming a standard the way Sketch is for vector graphics, but since everybody still uses Photoshop, I guess I'm stuck using it, too...
Editing photo assets before using them in UX/Prototyping software
I use Photoshop almost every day in school. I use it to make diagrams, graphics, edit sketches. I even use it to make my final presentation boards. Photoshop is extremely versatile.
There's nothing I dislike about photoshop.
I create diagrams for my projects. Photoshop allows be to blend and mask images to always create something unique.
Good quality editing and detailed design options
Somewhat complicated for what I’ve needed
Would use for basic design and benefited from array of editing options
