Free Web Photo Editors to Try If You Don’t Want to Pay for PicMonkey
Last week my favorite web photo editor PicMonkey started charging users. As it turns out, PicMonkey was also a hit with many of my Lifehacker colleagues. It’s simple, lightweight, and makes small edits like resizing photos or creating collages (which we do here quite often) very easy. I have been using it almost every day, several times a day for many years.
So when PicMonkey asked me for $ 4 a month to keep using it and be able to export and save my photos, I thought about it for a second and then pulled out my credit card. I use it as hell and $ 4 a month is not a ton to give to the developers who keep it working. If you, like me, are a big user of something like this, then it’s not so absurd for the company to ask you to start paying a few dollars to keep things going. Perhaps I should have given them money for years.
However, if I only used it once or twice a month, it would be much more difficult for me to convince myself that it is a good investment. So what if you use PicMonkey but don’t use it enough to guarantee payment? We have come up with several alternatives. In my opinion, none of them looks as pretty as PicMonkey, but they will do the job.
(Before we dive into that, it’s worth noting that the payment requirement only applies to the web product for now, so if you’ve used PicMonkey on your phone, continue.)
BeFunky
BeFunky was the place where many turned Lifehacker editors. It doesn’t have the same aesthetic appeal as PicMonkey, but it has most of the same features and a similar feel. If you’re just trying to do some basic picture adjustments and cropping, then BeFunky will get the job done.
It also supports collages and has a lot of weird features like the ability to whiten teeth in photos or add blush to your cheeks in the free version (you can add lipstick and mascara in the paid Plus version). I personally don’t care for any of this, but if you enjoy getting creative with your photos, then the menus in BeFunky are worth checking out.
Aside from that, you also get tons of different filters to try, some frames and some overlays that seem to cover 90% of your image, and I can’t figure out why you would ever want to use.
Fotor
Fotor can handle basic photo editing actions like resizing and cropping images, it also has a collage tool and a number of other features to customize your photos. If you were in awe of this blush feature that I mentioned in BeFunky, Fotor has it too, except it’s only available to paid premium users.
In the free version, you get a remedy for blemishes, a wrinkle remover, and a tool to help you look slimmer (it really is). There are also a few basic Instagram-style filters you can use with your photos, and there is the option to add text to an image or add a set of built-in stickers (both free and paid) to your photos.
Pixlr
Pixlr was my least favorite of the various web photo editors I’ve tried, but arguably the most reliable. In the photo editor, I am looking for something to quickly handle the simplest edits. Pixlr can do that, but it’s more like Photoshop than some of the other options, and has so many different features that finding the one you want takes a little work.
After all, you can do some pretty amazing things with it, like add layers, replace colors, and transform objects. If you’re a big fan of Photoshop and looking for a free web-based photo editor, then this one is for you. If the whole reason you use PicMonkey is because you want something simple and intuitive, then you should stay away from Pixlr.
However, there is also a Pixlr Express product that allows you to make basic changes and add filters. This option is much closer to the PicMonkey experience, but I don’t think it is as intuitive and easy to use as the other two options.