Photomator is tempting me to quit Adobe after 11 years

For the past 11 years, I’ve been a satisfied subscriber to the Adobe Photography Plan. It’s been a staple in my workflow, and the €11.89 I pay each month has always seemed like a fair deal. With access to Lightroom, Photoshop, and 1 TB of cloud storage, the plan has delivered consistent value for over a decade. I’ve never seriously questioned it—until now.

Lately, Adobe has started advertising the same plan at a monthly cost of €23.79. That’s double the price I currently pay. While I’ve managed to hang on to my original rate, it’s probably only a matter of time before my subscription renews at the higher tier. That happens in November. Which means I have until then to decide: do I stay the course, or is it finally time for a change?

Photomator is a photo editing app developed by the makers of Pixelmator Pro. What drew me in at first wasn’t just the clean design or the Apple-native performance—it was the pricing. While Photomator does offer a monthly and yearly subscription, it also gives users the option to purchase a lifetime license. That’s not something you see often in the world of creative apps anymore.

The numbers make you stop and think. For roughly the same cost as 12 months of Adobe’s Photography Plan, I could own Photomator outright. I wouldn’t be getting the Photoshop equivalent or the 1 TB of cloud storage, but since I already pay for 2 TB of iCloud storage, the latter isn’t a dealbreaker. And if I really needed a Photoshop alternative, Pixelmator Pro only costs around €59. From a financial standpoint, the switch makes a lot of sense.

But it’s not just about the money. There’s something appealing about the way Photomator is built. It’s clearly made with Apple users in mind. Everything from the interface to the performance feels tailored for iOS, macOS, and even visionOS. Its integration with Apple Photos means I can avoid exporting edited images back into my camera roll, cutting down on unnecessary duplicates. And, most importantly, almost all the features I rely on in Lightroom are already present in Photomator.

I can still use all the sliders I’m familiar with. I can denoise images, copy and paste edits, rate my photos with stars, work directly with local files, and apply masks when needed. At a glance, it offers nearly everything I want.

However, it’s not quite a perfect replacement. There are some significant gaps that hold me back.

One area where Photomator still falls short for me is in how it handles presets. Technically, presets do exist in Photomator, but they’re organized differently from Lightroom’s familiar layout. What’s more frustrating is the lack of a straightforward way to migrate my existing Lightroom presets.

The best workaround I’ve found so far involves converting them into LUTs using a third-party app, a clunky, overly technical solution for something that should be simple. It’s the kind of roadblock that disrupts an otherwise smooth transition. Ideally, Photomator should move away from its proprietary .adjustments file format and adopt the more widely used .xmp standard, which would immediately open the door to easier import and compatibility with presets photographers have already built their workflow around.

Then there’s the lack of smart search. While Apple Photos does a decent job of identifying people, pets, or locations, Photomator doesn’t yet tap into that functionality.

Another feature I’d miss is Perspective Guide Lines. For someone who photographs architecture or urban scenes, this is an essential tool. It helps straighten lines and maintain a sense of realism. Right now, Photomator can’t do that.

Then there’s HDR and Panorama merging. Lightroom handles both without any fuss. In Photomator, I’d have to turn to free software like Hugin to stitch panoramas together. While Hugin is capable, it introduces an extra step into what is currently a smooth, single-app workflow.

Photomator also lacks the ability to add or edit metadata like titles, captions, alt text, or extended descriptions. This may sound niche, but when I receive film scans from the lab, I like to annotate the files with the camera, lens, and film stock used. Without this feature, I risk losing that context. Another small but meaningful omission is the inability to compare two photos side by side—something I use more often than I realized.

These are just the features I’ve identified during my brief testing. But there’s one other thing keeping me tied to Lightroom, and that’s muscle memory. After 11 years in the system—eight of which have been spent in Lightroom’s modern interface—I know exactly where everything is. I can navigate it with minimal thought. Photomator, despite its clean interface, still feels unfamiliar. Some tools go by different names, and I often have to pause and search for what I need. It’s not a dealbreaker, but the learning curve is real.

I also wonder about the pace of development. Adobe updates Lightroom frequently. There’s always something new—better masking tools, new camera profiles (by the way, Photomator doesn’t have this), enhanced AI features. That stream of regular improvements helps justify the subscription fee. With Photomator now being part of Apple, it’s unclear whether updates will continue at a similar pace. Apple’s track record with creative tools is mixed. While they support some apps well, others get minimal updates for years.

So where does that leave me?

Right now, I’m watching. I’m still on the Adobe plan. But I can’t ignore how attractive Photomator is becoming—especially if its developers manage to close the feature gap even slightly. If they add support for presets, metadata editing, and maybe a few other pro tools, the decision could become very easy. Until then, I’ll keep exploring. And come November, I’ll have to decide whether to renew my long-standing loyalty to Adobe or embrace something new.