Technology is continually evolving and many products and services that were considered mainstays have disappeared. While social networking apps are usually the most volatile, products from technology power players such as Google® have also been discontinued. That’s exactly what happened to the photo-editing platform Picasa™. The image viewer was a streamlined way for everyday people to organize and edit their photos. Picasa™ has been discontinued for more than five years, and yet consumers are still searching for a replacement that provides the same functionality. For example, Google® Photos lacks many of the features that helped Picasa™ gain such a loyal following. Luckily many photo management software platforms have emerged to fill the gap left behind by Picasa™. If you’re looking for intuitive and versatile photo management software, here are the five best alternatives to Picasa™ that you can use in 2024.

1. ACDSee – Photo Studio Home

Photo Studio Home is a cloud-based, comprehensive photo management software system that includes advanced editing and management features. As a desktop photo organizer, it edits photos on your hard drive. Photo Studio Home also includes a large suite of useful tools, such as cropping, slideshow creation, blemish repair, red-eye correction, album categorization, and text controls. Additional features such as face recognition, light equalization, lighting/exposure controls, special effects, vignetting, sharpen/blur tools, and metadata help users to enhance and organize their photos like a professional. The creators of Photo Studio Home, ACD Systems, have more than two decades of experience creating photo and video editing software.

2. Adobe® Lightroom™ CC

Cameras in mobile devices continue to improve. As a result, more people are looking to edit and arrange their photography like a professional. Adobe® Lightroom™ CC is a great alternative to Picasa™, allowing users to easily edit photos imported from their desktop. A wide range of color editing and cropping features allows for unique photo customization. Photo organization is made easy on Lightroom™ thanks to its library feature. Lightroom™ users can also use the app on their phones, which directly links to the desktop version. There are many online tutorials to help users make the most of the platform, which provides consumers with professional editing capabilities. The platform’s shareable links allow you to easily send photos and include a free trial.

3. Luminar™ 4

Through the use of innovative artificial intelligence, Luminar™ 4 has created a powerful photo-editing program for both consumers and professionals. AI tools allow for automated editing of photographs, utilizing existing elements to quickly improve photo compositions. In Luminar™ 4, you can work with both RAW and JPEG photos, which can be edited with either the standalone app or added to Adobe® Lightroom™, Photoshop™ Elements, or Apple® Photos. The software had many different AI features, including AI Sky Replacement and AI Augmented Sky. These features allow users to create dramatic transformations to landscapes in their photos, that look natural and blend effortlessly. Additional features include AI SkinEnhancer and Portrait Enhancer to allow for accurate image retouching.

4. Google™ Photos

Google™ has created a web-based tool that allows users to automatically store and sync their photos and videos. This free software integrates with the entire suite of Google™ Apps. Because of its connection to Google™, search is one of the most powerful features of the Google™ Photos platform. It’s great for organization and offers some useful photo editing tools, including easy-to-apply filters. An AI assistant is also included, allowing for easy management of photos. The best feature of Google™ Photos is its unlimited storage, as long as you don’t mind a drop in resolution quality. While Google™ Photos doesn’t offer as many editing tools as some of the other platforms on this list, it’s great for consumers who want to easily access their photos from different devices.

5. Darktable

You may not have heard of Darktable before, but this open-source photography application continues to gain new fans. Darktable is free and has a layout similar to Adobe® Lightroom™. Users can easily manage RAW files for editing through Darktable’s simplified file management system. The software operates with minimal lag time and also offers a large range of powerful color correction tools. A series of tabs (such as Lightable) allows you to toggle between different features. It shows your photo library thumbnails at the bottom of the display screen. Darktable also allows you to edit JPEG images, which means you can also enhance photos taken with your mobile device. While Darktable doesn’t have all of the extended features available in Lightroom™, it is a great alternative to Picasa™ for photo editing.