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Both cover photo editing. Here is what separates them on price, billing, what you can take with you, and coverage.
| Aftershoot | ON1 Photo RAW | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | From $120 | From $99.99 |
| Pricing model | Free trial, then paid | One-time purchase |
| Free tier | No | No |
| Billing | Annual only | One-time purchase |
| Free trial | 30 days | Not stated |
| API | Yes | Not stated |
| Data export | Everything, in an open format | Not stated |
| Their cut | Not stated | Not stated |
| Runs on | macOS, Windows | macOS, Windows |
| Covers | Photo Editing, AI Content Tools | Photo Editing |
| Works with | Nothing in particular | Nothing in particular |
| Founded | Not listed | Not listed |
| Reader rating | No reviews yet | No reviews yet |
| Live deals | None right now | None right now |
Culls and edits a wedding shoot overnight
Aftershoot learns from edits a photographer has already made and then applies that style to a whole shoot, after throwing out the blinks, the blurs and the duplicates. For anyone delivering thousands of frames a wedding, culling is the job it saves most of. Plans are sold by how many images a year you put through it, and everything exports back into Lightroom or Capture One rather than replacing them.
Our note
The thirty days matter more here than on most trials, because the tool has to learn your style before the output is worth judging. Feed it a whole delivered wedding early rather than a handful of frames, or the trial will tell you nothing.
Only on this side
Raw editing and layers, bought once
ON1 Photo RAW covers browsing, raw processing, retouching, layers and masks in one application, which is the pitch: the two Adobe programs most photographers rent, without renting them. It runs on your own machine and keeps working when you stop paying, because there is nothing to stop paying. The catalogue handling is the part that divides people.
Our note
Now that Affinity is free, the case for paying anything at all for photo editing has narrowed to catalog handling and raw processing, which is exactly where ON1 is stronger. Try both before spending the money.
Ratings are the average of reviews readers left. The facts are stated by each tool’s own listing and are not verified by CloutStack. How we make money.