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Adobe offers a range of tools, Photoshop and Photoshop Elements being two options with very similar features. If you don’t know much about Photoshop Elements, this article will provide valuable insights to help you determine which of the two suits you best.
What Is Adobe Photoshop?
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past 30 years, you likely already know whatPhotoshopis—Adobe’s flagship image editing software. While it began as a disk you’d purchase (and own) to install on your computer, it now exists as part of the Adobe Creative Cloud plan.
Photoshop is designed primarily for photo editing, but you can alsoanimate GIFs in Photoshopfor creating short videos, illustrate, or do web design.Photoshop goes hand-in-hand with Adobe Lightroomas a photographer’s best toolset.
Using Photoshop, you can create photo composites, make light or heavy edits to images, use theever-expanding Adobe AI toolsintegrated into the software, or even just crop and straighten images. Photoshop’s options are pretty much limitless.
What Is Adobe Photoshop Elements?
This software flies under the radar compared to Photoshop’s main desktop variant.Adobe Photoshop Elementsis a one-time-cost software that has many attributes found in Photoshop, but pared down some.
Photoshop Elements is available on desktop, browser, and mobile, so you may access it anywhere that you’re able to log in regardless of having the software installed on your system.
Photoshop Elements includes a handful of AI tools, but not as many as the main version of the software. you may edit photos by using filters and effects, quick touch-ups, collages, resizing and recomposing images and elements, and adding text.
How Much Do Photoshop and Photoshop Elements Cost?
Both Photoshop and Photoshop Elements can be accessed from a desktop app, web browser, or mobile app for the same major operating systems and platforms, but the cost is different for each. Elements is in beta for web and mobile at the time of writing.
The Adobe Creative Cloud All Apps plan, which includes all the 20+ Adobe software available in Creative Cloud, is priced at $19.99, $59.99, or $89.99 per mont for an annual contract, depending on your subscription type (student, professional, business). If you cancel or choose not to renew your plan, you’ll lose access to the software.
Adobe Photoshop Elements runs on a different pricing model reminiscent of old Adobe software where you owned the program outright. Photoshop Elements allows you to own the software for three years—this license provides a sense of security that exceeds the monthly rental subscriptions tied to annual contracts.
You can purchase the three-year license for Photoshop Elements for $99.99, and if you’re updating an existing license, you’ll pay only $79.99. You can also get the Adobe Elements Bundle consisting of both Photoshop and Premiere Elements—for video editing and image editing—for a total of $149.99 or discounted to $119.99 to upgrade an existing license.
The Best Adobe Photoshop Features
Photoshop is a powerful editing tool that lets you create anything you can imagine, Here are some of its best features:
Generative AI
Generative AI features came to Photoshop in 2023 with the introduction of Adobe Firefly in much of Adobe’s software. Photoshop received the bulk of generative AI tools, in the form of Generative Expand, Generative Fill, and Remove Distractions.
Its older AI tools are also fantastic, such as Subject Selection and Neural Filters (using machine learning combined with AI).
Heavy-Duty Layer Use
You’ll find layers in many Adobe programs—including Photoshop Elements—but the heavy-duty nature of Photoshop allows you to use countless layers of large sizes.
You can create incredible photo manipulations, collages, animations, non-destructive edits, and AI content all using Photoshop’s layers. The Layers panel is a prominent part of a Photoshop workflow, and it’s easy to navigate and use.
Adjustments and Blend Modes
Photoshop really shines when it comes to the simple ways to edit your images. You can use its Adjustment tools found under the Image tab or as an Adjustment Layer in the Layers panel to change your images with a myriad of styles. Adjustments affect color, light, contrast, tone, and much more.
Along with various ways of adjusting your images, using Photoshop’s extensive Blend Modes in the layers will give you more flexibility. There are Blend Modes in Photoshop Elements too, but Photoshop offers a larger range with more control over the results.
The Best Adobe Photoshop Elements Features
While Photoshop Elements is pared down compared to the main software, it offers some fantastic features for users.
Quick Tools
Photoshop Elements' Quick Tools allow you to apply a multitude of edits to your image with speed and accuracy. you may select entire subject areas using its AI selection, then realistically recolor the selected object, all within a minute or less.
This is only one of the Quick Tools, but the menu offers plenty more, such as depth blur, smart fix, background tools, subject selection tools, and color options to name a handful.
Perfect Portrait Guided Edit
The Guided Edit features in Photoshop Elements help you move through a sequence to achieve the best results using certain features. The Perfect Portrait tools let you edit your photo in the right order to achieve subtle, but effective, portrait enhancements.
Perfect Portrait tools include skin smoothing, teeth whitening, the ability to open closed eyes, blemish removal, head straightening or aligning, and more. The results are subtle enough not to look over-edited, similar to the results you may achieveusing AI portrait plugins in Photoshop.
Photoshop Elements is not like Adobe Express or Canva, but it does offer some design templates for creating image collages, slideshow presentations, or simple image composites for various uses. The template library isn’t as loaded as other software, but it’s nice to have the option built into the app.
Subtle Animated Elements
I like this feature because it was unexpected. Despite the fact you can animate GIFs in Photoshop, I was pleasantly surprised to find a small animated elements library in Photoshop Elements.
The2025 version of Photoshop Elements introducedfour new animated elements—a small blinking heart, a sparkles overlay, an animated pink frame, and a subtle motion zoom—which can add that something extra you didn’t realize your image needed.
Although the editing tools are basic, you’re able to mask areas of your photo to choose how and where your animation appears. I was also surprised that each motion graphic comes complete with a small audio tune, for extra fun.
Photoshop or Photoshop Elements: Which Is Right for You?
For the majority of users who wish to heavily edit photos and images, Adobe Photoshop’s main desktop software would be the better choice. Although it can be pricey, the tools and features available are second to none. The price is outweighed by the results and versatility Photoshop offers.
For a non-subscription tool, Photoshop Elements doesn’t offer enough to beat non-Adobe competitors such as Canva, in my opinion. While it has some creative uses, it doesn’t provide more than you’ll get elsewhere for free or cheaper. This is especially the case if you’re trying to avoid paying the Adobe corporation as a whole, whether it’s a subscription or a longer-term license.
There’s nothing you can do in Photoshop Elements that you can’t do better in Adobe Photoshop.
