Luminar Overview

Luminar is an AI-operated photo editor. Its easy-to-use minimalistic interface makes it very popular among beginners.

Luminar is divided into three parts:

1. Catalogue - where you do the photo browsing

2. Templates - where you process your images

3. Edit - where you will find the editing tools.

Speaking of editing tools, they can roughly be categorized into:

• Essential - Enhance AI, Erase, Light, Structure AI, Color, Black and White, Vignette tools, etc.

• Creative - Sky AI (sky replacement), Augmented Sky, Atmosphere AI, Sunrays, Mood, Toning, Glow, Film Grain, etc.

• Portrait - Portrait Bokeh AI, Face AI, Skin AI, and Body AI.

• Professional - Optics, Supercontrast, Dodge and Burn, Clone, etc.

Thus, Luminar has you covered in many photo-editing areas.

However, Luminar doesn’t have the Layers option. 

Furthermore, although it does have a wide range of photo editing tools, it lacks some basic ones, such as Exposure and Noise Reduction.

Luminar also doesn’t have Remove Powerlines and Remove Dust Spots.

Overall, Luminar remains an impressive photo-editing tool that combines tools for more basic and advanced photo editing.

Luminar Advantages

✔️ Robust photo-editing tool

✔️ Easy-to-use

✔️ Pre-installed templates.

Luminar Shortcomings

❌ Slower load time sometimes

❌ Lacks some basic fine-tuning tools

❌ Slower processing time of images

❌ No Free Plan.

Pricing

Luminar offers two Premium plans but no Free Plan.

Luminar Scoreboard

We’ve created a scoreboard for all the alternatives in terms of their performance, UX/UI, features and price. 

This way you can gain a clearer and more informative understanding of the functionality of the Luminar tool and its alternatives.

Now let’s see what Luminar alternatives we have in store for you.

4 Luminar Alternatives to Edit Photos

1. Glorify

Glorify is a graphic design tool that manages to close the gap between complex tools like Adobe and less robust tools by offering advanced but easy-to-use tools.

Furthermore, unlike many graphic design tools that only photo edit, Glorify offers sets of features that provide a great base for creating marketing campaigns and raising brand awareness.

But since our topic today is photo editing, let’s check which of these features Glorify has to offer:

• Background Remover helps you eliminate unwanted background or parts of it and you can do it either automatically or manually.

• Shadows and Reflections help your product or images stand out more by adding elements like drop shadow, ground shadow, reflections, etc. As a result, they will get a more realistic vibe.

• Highlight Product Feature or Annotation Tool is handy for emphasizing the most prominent product’s features. You can also use it to create professional-looking charts.

• Image Resizer enables you to automatically resize one image to multiple sizes without distorting it.

• Pre-made Template Bundles that provide you with templates to use across platforms and marketing campaigns.

And this is just a glimpse at photo-editing tools.

How Glorify Works?

For starters, Glorify’s dashboard is minimalistic yet intuitive. 

All the tools are accessible through the left-side and the right-side panel.

1. Find many tools for eCommerce – Brand Kit, logo creators, mockups, infinite canvases, etc.

2. Upload an image - Choose an image from Glorify Gallery.

3. Edit by clicking on the desired icon – You can change or remove background, colors, effects, text, fonts, etc.

4. Export and save your design in multiple formats.

Now that we know how it works, let’s discover Glorify’s pros and cons.

Glorify Advantages

✔️ Great for beginners and non-designers.

✔️ Has both photo editing tools and marketing tools under one umbrella.

✔️ Has a Free Plan. 

Glorify Shortcomings

❌ Fewer templates than some other competitors, but their number is constantly growing

❌ The app can freeze sometimes.

❌ Doesn’t have video editing tools, but it is coming soon.

And where does Glorify stand when it comes to pricing?

Pricing

Glorify offers three plans, two Premium and one Free.

 Glorify Scoreboard

Moving on to the next Luminar alternative.

2. Picsart

Picsart is another software for editing pictures and videos. It offers photo editing tools, filters, effects, and more.,

When it comes to photo editing tools, you can find:

• BG Remover

• Background changer

• Image Upscale

• Remove objects

• Photo effects, etc.

Additionally, Picsart allows you to make collages, stickers, and drawings. 

Various templates are available, including marketing, social networking, personal, and business templates. You can also choose images from its Free Photo Library.

What makes Picsart interesting is that it offers video editing tools such as:

• Video trimmer

• Slideshow maker

• Video resize

• Adding text, subtitles and audio

• Crop videos, etc.

Picsart primarily focuses on social media, making it a good choice for influencers or bloggers.

Picsart Advantages

✔️ Good for both photo and video editing.

✔️ Useful for creating social media material.

✔️ A great range of templates.

Picsart Shortcomings

❌ A Free plan comes with only basic photo editing tools.

❌ A Free plan comes with ads which are distracting.

❌ Slow interface and crashes at times.

Pricing

Picsart offers two Premium plans and one Free plan.

Let’s check what Picsart’s scoreboard looks like.

Picsart Scoreboard

We’re halfway through our list so let’s check what app comes next.

3. Fotor

Fotor is a photo editing and graphic design tool that offers a wide range of basic photo editing features. Furthermore, you can also create collages with it.

Some of Fotor's features are:

• Stock Image Library

• Shape and Clip art

• Image Scaling

• Text and Font edits

• Various filters, etc.

In addition, it functions on a drag-and-drop principle making it easy to use.

To get a clearer picture of whether Fotor meets your needs, let's see its advantages and shortcomings.

Fotor Advantages

✔️ Good for classical photo editing ( filters and retouching).

✔️ You can create collages.

✔️ Good for quick edits.

Fotor Shortcomings

❌ A Free version isn’t ad-free.

❌ Desktop version isn’t as intuitive as an app.

❌ Lacks more advanced editing options.

Fotor Scoreboard

And last but not least on our list is Pixlr.

4. Pixlr

Pixlr is software for creating and enhancing photographs. It can operate in your browser, phone or desktop.

Currently, it has three editors: Pixlr X, Pixlr E, and Photomash Studio.

These are some of the Pixlr’s tools you can use:

• Photo editor with crop, trim, merge, draw, resize and other options

• Retouching tools

• Pre-made templates

• Batch editor that applies the same edits on multiple images, etc.

Pixlr Advantages

✔️ Batch editor which applies the same edits on multiple images

✔️ Drag-and-drop editor.

✔️ A great number of templates. 

Pixlr Shortcomings

❌ Limited editing options

❌ No teamwork possibilities

❌ Watermark on free designs.

Pixlr Pricing

Pixlr comes in three plans, two Premium ones and one Free.

Pixlr Scoreboard

Now that we've come to the end of our Luminar alternatives, let’s see them all together in our Comparison Table.

Comparison Table

Which Luminar Alternative to Choose?

We’ve covered 4 Luminar alternatives, each of them having its distinctive features. The right choice primarily depends on your needs.

If you don’t need any further or more complex photo edits, you might choose Fotor of Pixlr.

On the other hand, in case you are more focused on social media posting or want to edit videos, Picsart will probably work best for you.

However, if you are looking for a tool that offers robust tools even in its Free plan, and helps you tackle both photo editing and marketing aspects, then your choice would most likely be Glorify.

With Glorify, you can create more polished and professional images specific to your business and audience.

As a result, you will improve your brand visibility and increase brand awareness.

Furthermore, high-quality images that tell your brand's story are more likely to attract attention and create credibility.

Do you want to create compelling visuals and marketing material without wasting too much time and effort?

Sign up for Glorify so you can reap all the benefits that supreme photo editing brings.