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Photoshop is the industry standard for photo editing, but it comes at a cost. Pixlr, on the other hand, is free and easy to use. But can it really compete?
1Pricing and Platforms
you’re able to accessPixlrfor free, with ads. Pixlr is mostly browser-based, with offline options, but it has a desktop app and phone apps for Apple and Android devices. The desktop app is simply a copy of a browser-version, and not particularly worth using unless you need offline access.
Pixlr’s free version has limited saves and limited AI credits. Pixlr Plus costs $2.49 per month which removes ads, allows for unlimited saves, and includes 80 AI credits each month.
Pixlr Premium is $9.99 per month—with a 7-day free trial—it offers up to 1000 AI credits and includes a private mode for your AI generations—which stops them joining the public library of generated images available to all Pixlr users. This tier also offers more templates and assets for use in your designs. And finally, the Teams plan which is $16.99 allows for up to 5 seats on the account, plus all the other features.
Photoshop’s pricing and platform offerings are a little more confusing. Although Photoshop is available on Windows and Mac desktops, iPad and Android tablets, and iPhones, as well as a browser version, you can’t necessarily access all platform types.
The only free way to access Photoshop is to use the 7-day free trial or the free version of the Photoshop iPhone app. You need a Photoshop subscription—of which there are many types—to access the desktop app, web app, or iPad app. Some subscriptions allow you to use all platforms, and some are limited to just desktop, or phone and web combined.
Photoshop as a sole app is $22.99 per month for an annual subscription. The Photography plan is $19.99 per month for an annual subscription, which includes access to Lightroom too.
Any Photoshop plan includes all platforms available—such as Phone, iPad, web, and desktop—but there’s also a specific Photoshop Mobile and Web subscription exclusively for the mobile app and web-browser tools, with no access to the desktop app. This is $7.99 monthly for an annual plan.
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Pixlr offers a small toolbox of basic and expected image editing tools. With a handful of selection tools, there are also background removal options and crop tools.
Among the editing features, there are healing brushes, clone stamps, blur, distort, paintbrush, pen, and text tools. While some of the tools offered are similar to Photoshop, the methods of using the tools and the results are often not as strong as Photoshop.
In Photoshop desktop, you’ll find an abundant toolbox of constantly evolving photo editing tools. The main toolbar is similar to Pixlr, but with more tool variations. There are multiple selection tools, including AI selections, text tools including theAdobe font browser for more in-depth font selections, and other tools like brushes, pen tools, healing and clones, shapes, and more.
Photoshop has many other tools found in other parts of the software, including its popular layers panel with blending modes, filter library, andPhotoshop Actions panel to speed up your workflow.
Other Photoshop platforms have different tool libraries available. As a standard, you’ll find layers, complex selection tools, and filters.
In Pixlr, you’ll find an AI image generator, along with a library of images generated by various users or your own generated images. You can use previously generated images in new designs or to reuse the prompt yourself. It takes four credits to generate images—you’ll get four images from one prompt.
Alongside a generic image generator, there are other AI tools in Pixlr including AI face swap, generative fill, generative expand, AI cutout, generative transform, background generator, sticker maker, background remover, remove object, super scale, super sharp, and remove noise.Pixlr is similar to Canvafor its editing features and AI tools.
Photoshop’s AI tools are seamlessly integrated into various platforms from which you can access Photoshop. Not all the same AI features are available from each platform, with at least one feature exclusive to each platform type.
Largely speaking, you’ll always find AI generative expand, generative fill, smart selection tools, object removal tools of varying types, and more. Photoshop uses Adobe Firefly AI technology to provide high-quality results, and I’m always impressed whenever I use Photoshop’s AI features.
4Export Quality
Pixlr is limited in export file types. You can save raster images as JPEG, PNG, or TIFF. You can also save images in web format WEBP, or in Pixlr’s native file format: PXZ. You cannot save or export vector files or in other format types. You can open PSD files in Pixlr, too.
Photoshop has a host of export options, with its famed native PSD format as standard, you can save in both raster and vector formats—as well as importing vector formats. With the help of Camera Raw, you can also open RAW format images for editing in Photoshop, to export in whichever format you require afterwards.
The 7 Best Ways to Open a PSD File Without Photoshop
No Photoshop? No problem.
Pixlr doesn’t offer plugins to work within Pixlr; however, the way the tool is offered is like having five different tools in one, so you may pretend it’s like using plugins. You can, however, install your own fonts and brushes to Pixlr, so you’re not entirely stuck with only Pixlr’s native tools and assets.
Pixlr Premium users get access to more templates and assets, which may help with design workflows similar to adding plugins.
Photoshop famously has plugin options. you may addAI image retouching plugins from Retouch4Meand many other plugins. Adobe has alist of recommended pluginsand extensions, from FX software to beautifying tools. You can also purchase Photoshop plugins from many other vendors.
Photoshop plugins are only available for its desktop app and not available for web, tablet, or phone versions.
6Collaboration and Teams
Adobe has long implemented collaboration features into its software, and Photoshop is no exception. you’re able to sooncollaborate in Photoshop like a shared Google Doc—this allows teams to work seamlessly and concurrently on projects.
This feature isn’t live at the time of writing, but it’s a promised feature for the near future. Until then, Photoshop users can implement the Share for Review feature, which is another way to collaborate.
Alongside that, Photoshop files can be integrated easily across other Adobe platforms for a smoother workflow. This means you can open PSDs in Adobe Express, save files in the Creative Cloud to access from other platforms, and much more.
Pixlr doesn’t have collaboration features built in. It offers a Teams subscription plan for up to 5 seats but no collaboration tools.
Can Pixlr Replace Photoshop?
Despite its extra price, I think Photoshop is worth paying for and using over Pixlr. Pixlr’s browser-based app feels amateur and the editing results aren’t as accurate as in Photoshop—for example, using the AI selection background removal compared to Photoshop’s Subject Select tool—which makes it frustrating to use.
Pixlr is also more confusing with knowing which tool does what, rather than having all five Pixlr editors combined into one. Despite Photoshop having multiple platforms, they largely all offer the same tools and abilities, and there’s no second-guessing about which option to use, since it’s purely down to accessibility for Photoshop platforms.
