RawTherapee
A free raw photo editor with fine control over colour and tone.
Instead of Lightroom, Instagram filters
Screenshot from rawtherapee.com, taken 2026-10-30, shown to help you recognise the tool. It belongs to its maker. Ask us to remove it.
Photographers used to develop film in a darkroom, and a raw file is the digital version of the negative. RawTherapee develops raw files from a camera with precise control over colour, tone and detail, and its edits live in small files next to your pictures. It is free and open source, and it runs on Windows, Mac and Linux.
RawTherapee scores a 5 on lock-in, self-direction and longevity, a 4 on footprint and power and a 3 on delivery.
It gives you many sliders and few shortcuts, so Delivery is a 3 and the learning curve is real.
Your pictures stay as they were, and what you did to each one is kept in a small file beside it.
- Develops raw camera files with precise control
- Edits are saved as sidecar files next to your photos
- Many sliders and a steep learning curve
What stands out
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For comparison, we also reviewed Snapchat (14/30) as a benchmark.
