The Photo and Video Editors Worth Your Home Screen

The phone replaced your point-and-shoot years ago. What took longer was the darkroom moving with it. Today the App Store is stuffed with editors promising studio results in one tap, and most of them are ninety percent paywall wrapped around a filter you could get for free somewhere better. The hard part is not finding an editor. It is finding the two or three that deserve a permanent slot instead of a graveyard folder you open once and delete.

So we went through the editors, camera apps, and design tools in our catalog and pulled the ones that hold up. Our editor score, marked out of five below, weighs how much the free tier actually gives you, how honest the app is about its paywall, and whether the tool does something genuinely worth the install rather than repackaging the same presets everyone ships. Here are eight that made the cut, and who each one is really for.

Snapseed - the free benchmark nothing has beaten

Snapseed is the app we measure the rest against, and it earns our highest score in this group at 4.7 out of 5. Google has stewarded it since 2011, and the current build hands you over thirty tools with no ads, no watermarks, and no subscription gate. That combination barely exists anymore. Its App Store rating sits at 4.86, and the selective-adjustment and healing tools alone punch well above what a free app has any business offering. If you download only one editor from this list, make it this one. The catch is honest and small: the interface leans on gestures that take a session to learn, and there is no cloud sync, so it lives and dies on your device.

Canva - the generalist that does a bit of everything

Canva has spent over a decade growing from a drag-and-drop poster tool into a platform that spans graphic design, photo editing, video, and AI generation, and it carries the highest store rating here at 4.88. At 140 MB it installs lean for how much it covers, and its Veo 3 video generation with audio reads to us as a real capability rather than marketing filler. We give it 4.3 out of 5 as the pick for generalists: the person making a social graphic, a quick promo clip, and a tidied-up photo in one sitting. It is free to start, and the deepest features push you toward the paid tier, so treat it as a platform you grow into rather than a one-and-done download.

Photoroom - the one for anyone selling something

Photoroom is narrower than the rest, and that focus is exactly why it made the list. Built around product photography rather than general creative editing, it turns a phone snapshot on a kitchen table into a clean studio-style product image, background removed and relit. For Etsy sellers, resellers, and small e-commerce operators, our 4.3 score reflects a tool that solves a real business problem fast. Be clear-eyed about the model, though: the free tier is a narrow preview, and getting consistent output means paying. If you are not selling anything, you do not need it.

Phlow - for the photographer who shoots RAW

Phlow is the enthusiast pick. Launched in early 2024, it has already earned a near-perfect 4.87 from around 3,000 ratings, and its pitch is PhlowRAW, a proprietary RAW workflow with non-destructive edits that sync straight back into Apple Photos. That sync is the feature that separates it from the crowd for iPhone photographers who want to grade their shots properly instead of slapping on a preset. We land at 4.2. The honest note is right in the name of the category: it is subscription-based, so this is a commitment for people who shoot deliberately, not a casual grab.

InShot - the video workhorse

Most people asking for a video editor want InShot, whether they know it or not. It has been around since 2015 and is one of the most battle-tested mobile editors going, packing trimming, transitions, speed control, and text into a 243 MB footprint with a 4.85 store rating. For social clips, reels, and quick cuts, it is genuinely hard to beat, which is why it takes 4.2 from us. Just go in knowing the free version leans on watermarks and upsells, and clearing those means paying. For casual creators that trade is usually worth it.

SnapEdit - the object-removal specialist

SnapEdit earns its spot by doing one thing cleanly. Released in early 2022 and still actively updated, this AI editor is built around removing objects and unwanted people from a photo without a learning curve. Tap the thing, and it fills the gap convincingly more often than not. We score it 4.2 as the tool to reach for when you need a photobomber gone in ten seconds. The paywall sits on its most powerful removal features, so the free tier is a capable teaser rather than the whole toolkit, but for the common case it delivers.

Google Photos - the safety net that also edits

Google Photos is on this list as much for what it protects as what it edits, and its 4.4 score is the second highest here. The free 15 GB of cloud storage plus AI search that actually finds "the receipt from last March" make it a genuine utility, and Magic Eraser and Unblur bring real cleanup power to a backup app. It earns its place as a default. The caveats are the usual Google trade-offs: 15 GB fills faster than you think, and you are handing your library to Google's ecosystem, which is a privacy call only you can make.

SCRL - for people who design their feed

SCRL closes the list for the layout-minded. Building quietly since 2017, it is a collage and grid tool for people who treat their social feed as a designed space rather than a photo dump, handling multi-panel carousels and story layouts that line up properly across posts. At 4.83 in the store and 4.2 from us, it is the specialist for anyone planning a grid, not just posting to it. Its one real knock is unclear in-app purchase labeling, so watch what you are actually unlocking before you commit.

Who should skip, and what we left off

A whole genre did not make it: the selfie-and-beauty cluster. Apps like Peachy, Perfect365, and BeautyPlus are competent and popular, but they cluster lower on our editor scores, lean heavily on facial and body reshaping, and push harder on upsells than we like to see. If virtual makeup is genuinely your use case, they are fine. For everyone else they are a folder you forget about.

The best editor is not the one with the most filters. It is the one you still open six weeks after installing it.

One honorable mention: if Canva feels too broad, Bazaart is a leaner AI design canvas covering background removal and prompt-based edits, though it too is best understood as a subscription product. Our advice overall stays simple. Put Snapseed on your home screen because it costs nothing and does the most, add the one specialist that matches what you actually make, whether that is video, product shots, or a designed grid, and let the App Store keep the other fifty.