Comparison
LightCraft vs Lightroom
LightCraft is a free, open-source rebuild of the Lightroom workflow. It already covers nearly all of Lightroom’s core editing, but not its AI tools, every camera profile or the cloud. Here is exactly where the line is, so you can decide whether to switch.
The short answer
Should you switch from Lightroom to LightCraft?
As a free Lightroom alternative, LightCraft is worth switching to if you mostly develop JPEG, DNG, Nikon, Sony or older Canon raws on one computer, want no subscription and no account, or work on Linux. LightCraft’s sliders, curves, color grading, masks and library work the way Lightroom users expect.
Stay on Lightroom if your work depends on AI masks, AI Denoise or Generative Remove, on exact camera color profiles and lens corrections, or on syncing with your phone. LightCraft’s own team rates it 60 to 70% of a daily Lightroom replacement today.
- 1.
Free and open source
MIT or Apache-2.0, no account, no cloud.
- 2.
Core editing is there
98% of the features its team marks as core.
- 3.
AI tools are not
No AI Denoise, AI masks or generative remove yet.
- 4.
Your edits carry over
Reads Lightroom’s XMP sidecars and presets.
Measured, not guessed
How much of Lightroom does LightCraft cover?
LightCraft’s team tracks 516 Lightroom features one by one and marks each as done, partly done or missing. These are its own numbers from 10 October 2026.
- Core features (200)
- 98%
- Important features (152)
- 95.7%
- Extras (163)
- 42.9%
- All 516 features
- 79.9%
Feature by feature
LightCraft vs Lightroom, side by side
Lightroom here means Adobe Lightroom and Lightroom Classic together. Partial means it exists with a real limit, noted in the cell.
| Feature | LightCraftFree | Adobe Lightroom |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free, open source | Subscription |
| Account and cloud | None; no telemetry, photos stay local | Adobe ID; cloud storage and sync |
| Runs on | Windows, macOS, Linux and the browser | Windows, macOS, iPhone, Android and web; no Linux |
| Library, albums, culling | Albums, smart albums, stacks, Compare and Survey | Yes |
| Light, color, curves, grading | All the familiar panels | Yes |
| Brush, gradient and range masks | Yes, with add, subtract and intersect | Yes |
| Subject, sky and people masks | Classical detection, not AI; object masks need a separate model download | AI masks |
| Noise reduction | Classic luminance and color noise | Plus AI Denoise |
| Remove, heal, clone | Yes, without generative fill | Plus Generative Remove |
| HDR and panorama merge | HDR, panorama and HDR panorama | Yes |
| Raw files | Own decoders for the major brands; some CR3 and compressed ORF files open as previews | Over a thousand cameras |
| Camera color profiles | DNG exact; other raws estimated from the camera’s JPEG | Measured for each camera |
| Lens corrections | Only corrections stored in the file (DNG, Panasonic, Leica) | Lens profile database |
| Presets | Built-in looks; imports XMP and .lrtemplate presets | Yes |
| Video, print, book, map | Contact-sheet PDF only | Yes (Classic modules) |
| Scripting and AI agents | CLI and MCP server; every slider scriptable | Plug-in SDK in Classic |
Be honest
Where Lightroom is still clearly ahead
These are the gaps LightCraft’s own team lists first. If one of them is part of your daily work, keep Lightroom for now.
AI tools
AI Denoise, Super Resolution, AI subject and sky masks and Generative Remove have no LightCraft equivalent yet.
Camera color
Lightroom has a measured profile for each camera. LightCraft is exact for DNG and estimates the rest from each file’s own JPEG.
Every raw format
Some newer Canon CR3 variants and compressed Olympus raws only open as their embedded preview in LightCraft today.
Phone and cloud
Lightroom syncs a library between computer, phone and web. LightCraft is local by design and has no mobile app.
And the other way round
What LightCraft does that Lightroom doesn’t
Free forever
No subscription and no trial. The licence allows commercial work.
Linux and the browser
Native on Linux, and the full app runs in Chrome or Edge with nothing installed.
Nothing leaves your computer
No account, no cloud and no telemetry. The catalog is a plain log of your edits that you can back up or read.
Built for scripts and agents
Every slider and menu is a command, so a script or an AI agent over MCP can cull, develop and export a shoot.
Switching
Move your photos and edits from Lightroom to LightCraft
LightCraft cannot open a Lightroom catalog (.lrcat), but it reads the edits Lightroom writes next to your files.
- 1
Write your edits into XMP sidecars
In Lightroom Classic, select all photos and choose Metadata › Save Metadata to File. In Lightroom, export with File › Export › Original + Settings.
- 2
Add the folder to LightCraft
Import the folder in place. LightCraft reads ratings, labels, keywords and the common develop settings from each sidecar.
- 3
Check a few photos
Values carry over, but LightCraft renders with its own color science, so the look is close rather than identical.
- 4
Bring your presets
Import XMP or .lrtemplate presets, or a zip of them; masks come along, and settings without a counterpart are listed.
Yes. LightCraft is free and open source under MIT or Apache-2.0, and its panels follow Lightroom’s layout. Its team counts 98% of Lightroom’s core features as done and 79.9% of all 516 it tracks, in its public parity tracker.
LightCraft is the closest open-source Lightroom so far: the same library, Develop panels and masks, written from scratch in Rust. darktable and RawTherapee are older open-source raw editors, but they work their own way rather than like Lightroom.
No. Importing a .lrcat file is out of scope. Save your edits to XMP sidecars in Lightroom first; LightCraft reads them when you add the folder.
Yes, mostly. LightCraft imports XMP and .lrtemplate presets, single or as a zip, including their masks. Settings it has no control for are listed after the import.
Close, not identical. The slider values carry over, but LightCraft has its own raw decoders and color science, and only DNG files get exact camera color today.
Yes. When LightCraft saves to a sidecar, it keeps Lightroom’s own develop settings in that file untouched and writes its settings separately, so Lightroom still finds its edits.
Not yet. It has classic noise reduction and classical subject and sky detection. Object masks based on an AI model exist, but the model is a separate download that is not offered from LightCraft’s own servers yet.
Yes. Open LightCraft online: the full app runs in your browser and your photos are never uploaded. For the desktop builds, see LightCraft downloads.
Try LightCraft on your own photos
Open a few raws you know well in LightCraft online and compare. Nothing to install, nothing uploaded.