Cost: One Subscription, Two Apps
Both applications are available only via a Lightroom subscription, and you can't get them separately. As such, our comparison here focuses more on which has the features and characteristics you need for your work. A Lightroom subscription starts at $119.88 per year, which works out to $9.99 per month. If you want to pay monthly with an annual commitment, it goes up to $11.99 per month. With no annual commitment, it’s $17.99 per month. All plans include 1TB of cloud storage for syncing your photos and 250 monthly generative AI credits.
Alternatively, the Photography Plan adds Photoshop and costs $239.88, $19.99, and $29.99 for those same time commitments. This subscription also unlocks 1,000 monthly AI credits.
Winner: Tie
Interface and Ease of Use: Lightroom Wins on Simplicity
The newer Lightroom unquestionably has a slicker, more streamlined user interface compared with Lightroom Classic. The latter remains highly usable, but it looks much busier and feels more complex.
Lightroom Classic uses modes, meaning its interface changes depending on the active function. For example, it includes modes for importing and organizing (Library mode) and adjusting images (Develop mode). Book, Print, Map, Slideshow, and Web modes round out the options. Lightroom dispenses with that interface convention, simply showing a panel on the left for organization and one on the right for editing and image info. Editing options include Edit, Crop, Heal, Masking, and Presets. The info area includes subsections such as AI Edit Status, Comments, Tags, and Versions.
One thing in Classic that I’m a fan of is how it lets you collapse organization and editing panels (as well as the filmstrip view of your photo collection at the bottom) with a single click. Lightroom has buttons for these functions, however, so it’s not far behind. Both, however, share the same quirks when zooming in and out of a photo. Many other apps let you simply use your mouse's scroll wheel (sometimes in combination with the shift key) to move in and out. When you try this in Lightroom, you get a selection box, and the program often moves the image to an unhelpful position. The programs do have a zoom slider, but I prefer the simple conventions of Capture One, DxO PhotoLab, and Zoner Studio.
Winner: Lightroom
Importing and Raw Support: No Significant Differences
Both programs generally require you to import photos before you can work on them. Some competitors, like ACDSee Photo Studio, DxO PhotoLab, and Skylum Luminar, spare you this hassle. I should note one exception for the modern Lightroom; it lets you browse and work on images from your hard drive, but not your camera card. Lightroom initially forced you to upload everything to Adobe’s cloud storage, but you can now import to a local hard drive. Just note that you lose some organization and search tools that cloud syncing enables.
For converting raw camera files into viewable, editable images, both programs (and Photoshop) use the same Adobe raw conversion engine. Each lets you use Raw Profiles, including an intelligent Adaptive Color option. Adobe calibrates these to bring the most appealing or lifelike colors. Alternatively, you can also stick with your camera’s default profile or use a special effect profile in the Artistic, B&W, or Vintage groups.
Winner: Tie
Photo Organization: Catalogs vs. Cloud Libraries
Lightroom Classic employs an overarching photo organization level called the catalog. This database contains each photo’s non-destructive edits and metadata, along with all the underlying organizational information. You might want to create multiple catalogs if you have completely different photo sets. For example, a wedding photographer might make a catalog for each client. Most people stick with a single catalog, however, for simplicity. The non-Classic Lightroom spares you from having to think about catalogs.
Both programs offer a way to group images: Classic uses Collections, while Lightroom uses Albums. You can create Smart versions of either of these, which automatically add all photos that meet specific criteria. One important difference is that (unless you’re using it with a local library) Lightroom doesn’t show your hard disk folders in its left panel.
Either app can group photos by people, but Lightroom Classic also has a Map mode that places markers on a map to show where you snapped each photo. Of course, this works only for photos with location data. Lightroom can't match this functionality exactly, but you can see a small map at the bottom of a photo's Info panel that links to Google Maps. The newer app also lets you search for photos based on their associated locations.
Another feature present in the Classic version but not in the newer one is the ability to view full EXIF and IPTC metadata.
Winner: Tie
Photo Search: Lightroom's AI Gives It the Edge
If you opt to upload your photos to the cloud, Lightroom lets you search by the AI-analyzed contents of your photos. That means you can, for example, search semantically for all shots with cats, trees, or water. Lightroom’s simple search box drops down all your options—a big help when you’re looking for a photo from a long time ago.
Lightroom Classic lets you search only by text in the filename and metadata (such as camera, lens, and shot settings), as well as by attributes such as color code, edit status, rating, and export status.
Winner: Lightroom
Editing: Both Have All the Tools You Need
When it comes to actual photo adjustments and edits, the two programs are now at parity. You get all the color, lighting, and retouching features you could possibly want in both. I don't have the space here to catalog every one of their features, but you should check out our reviews of each for a more in-depth look at how some of their most prominent ones perform in real-world testing. Their noise reductions and geometry correction tools are highly effective, as are the AI-powered features for replacing backgrounds or skies and removing distracting objects. The apps also offer editing curves, HDR and HSL panels, lens-profile-based corrections, and masking tools.
Winner: Tie
AI Tools: Both Benefit From Adobe's Latest Advances
Nearly every photo app can now automatically remove a photo's background or objects and generate imagery that recreates a plausible scene. As mentioned, both Lightroom apps can automatically detect people in a shot and replace them with appropriate content.
Assisted Culling is a new AI feature in both applications that aims to select the best photos in an import group and reject the bad shots. You can choose which attributes the tool should look for, such as exposure issues, open eyes, misfires, and sharp subject focus. The feature is still in active development, and my initial testing results were far from satisfactory, but subsequent updates have improved performance.
Winner: Tie
Professional Capabilities: Classic Still Owns the Pro Workflow
Several features make Lightroom Classic indispensable for some professional photographers: support for catalogs, plug-ins, and tethered shooting. I already discussed that first item in an earlier section, and integrating EXIF and IPTC metadata is just as important.
Tethered shooting is a type of photography in which you set up a direct connection (either wired or wireless) from your camera to the computer running your photo editing software. You control the camera from the computer, and the software imports photos directly. Plug-ins can be invaluable for both editing (think specialized denoisers or filters) and outputting your work (e.g., integrations with online photo sites like SmugMug or photo printers). Lightroom Classic supports both capabilities, but the newer Lightroom doesn't.
Winner: Lightroom Classic
Output and Printing: Classic Remains the Better Finisher
One aspect of Lightroom has puzzled me since its inception: the lack of any printing features. Conversely, Lightroom Classic offers highly configurable printing options and layouts, along with soft-proofing—that is, showing image differences that result from a particular printer’s characteristics. Classic also includes a whole Book module that lets you design a book’s layout in detail. Ditto for producing the HTML code for a custom web gallery.
Both programs offer quick ways to share a photo, however. Lightroom’s Share menu offers a Get a Link option, and in Lightroom Classic, you can right-click on a photo to send it to an email contact (though this requires some setup with your default email application). As mentioned, Classic supports export plug-ins that let you, for example, directly share your images or collections to external photo services for storage or specialized processing. However, the newer Lightroom has convenient native Share choices (either from the Share icon or a right-click menu) that send your photos to Adobe Portfolio, Blurb (photo book printing), SmugMug, Printique, or WHCC (a photo printer).
You can export to a local folder with each, of course. Lightroom Classic gives you a bit more flexibility for this task.
Winner: Lightroom Classic
Collaboration, Community, and Help: Lightroom Broadens Your Creative Horizons
Lightroom Classic targets individual pro photographers, while Lightroom is far more social. Lightroom has a Learn choice in its left panel that provides a good selection of tutorials from photo professionals. These show you what actions you need to perform for a particular editing process right in the application’s interface. You can filter the tutorials by level, subject, tool, or topic.
Lightroom also has a Community section in which you can follow other users and share your edits and remixes—re-edits of your photos by others or your edits of their photos. Lightroom Classic lacks community features, and its help and in-app tutorials are limited.
Winner: Lightroom
Mobile App and Syncing: Lightroom Is Built for Access Everywhere
Although both applications use the same mobile app (available for Android and iOS), Lightroom makes it much easier to sync your collection so you can view it anywhere you sign in. Lightroom Classic can technically sync images, but the process isn't at all straightforward.
Winner: Lightroom
Web App: Surprisingly Powerful on Either Platform
You can sync photos from either version of Lightroom to a web interface that resembles the newer version and adds social features. You get an impressive number of editing capabilities, including AI background removal, automatic color and light fixes, cool sliders that intensify the background, natural ground, sky, or subject, and loads of presets.
The web version includes all the core color and lighting adjustments from the desktop versions, as well as profile-based lens corrections. You even get the generative AI Remove and Heal tools. Neither the automatic noise reduction tool nor Lightroom Classic’s professional features (see earlier section) appear here, however.
Winner: Tie