Apple Killed Aperture, But There Are Four Great Alternatives to Use Instead

In 2014, Apple announced that it would no longer continue to develop its high-end photo editing application, Aperture. Many amateur and avid photographers loved the program. Its simple to use interface, affordable cost, and high-quality tools were among many of the reasons for its popularity. When Apple announced its demise, many people were shocked. The reasoning being, Apple decided to roll many of Aperture’s features into its built-in application, Photos. Although Photos is becoming more capable, it still hasn’t gained the same devotion as Aperture.

Since Apple announced the end of Aperture’s development, they have continued to support it with all of their recent OS updates, including Mojave. But now, that all has come to an end. They’ve recently updated one of their support documents to let people know that Aperture will no longer work past Mojave. If you have an Aperture library that you want to keep, you can migrate that library into the Photos app or you can migrate it into Adobe Lightroom Classic. Lightroom 5.7 and higher has a tool built into it for migrating Aperture libraries. But what if those apps won’t cut it? Let’s take a look at a few other options.

GIMP

This open-source, FREE, photo-editing tool has been around for years. GIMP’s development team focuses heavily on ease-of-use and they’ve done a great job of creating a clean and straightforward user interface. GIMP’s capabilities are on par with Photoshop and Aperture. GIMP is available for macOS, Windows, and Linux. Check out their website here for more information.

Pixelmator

One of the best alternatives to Aperture and Photoshop is Pixelmator. But it does come at a cost. The app is $29.99, which is much cheaper than many other professional options. One of its best features is that it fully integrates with macOS. It takes full advantage of the Retina display and has color profiles built specifically for Apple displays. It has excellent Touch Bar integration, can access iCloud Drive, uses Apple’s Automator app, and even offers extensions for Apple’s Photos application. Pixelmator can also load multi-layered Photoshop documents with no problem. Pixelmator and Pixelmator Pro (which has even more amazing utilities) make up #1 and #2 on the Mac App Store in the Graphics and Design category. They also offer a fantastic iOS app.

Photoshop for Mac

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We all knew this application would be listed here. Photoshop has been the leading graphics and photo editing app for years. It has top-of-the-line photo editing technology and has become the industry standard. Photoshop has a photography plan for $9.99 a month that includes Lightroom and Photoshop.

Photoshop for iPad

Adobe recently announced that they will release a full version Photoshop, not a slimmed down version, for the iPad. It isn’t a perfect replacement for Aperture, as it’s an iPad only version of the app, but it still has all of the capabilities of any other great photo editor. Adobe hasn’t announced pricing, release date, or which iPads will be able to run the app. But if you are interested in trying the beta when it becomes available, you can sign up to be considered for the trial here.