These two mobile photo editing tools have a lot of similarities, but Snapseed comes out on top compared to Adobe’s Lightroom Mobile app. Here’s why.

What Is Lightroom Mobile?

Lightroom Mobile is the mobile version of Adobe’s photo editing software, Adobe Lightroom. Unlike the desktop versions,Lightroom Creative Cloud or Lightroom Classic, Lightroom Mobile is free. While the app is free, you’ll still need an Adobe account to log in and use it.

For a photo editing app on the go, Lightroom Mobile has lots of in-depth editing tools. It’s not just for superficial edits, but using machine learning and artificial intelligence, premium users can create perfect selections for detailed and precise editing.

Download: Lightroom Mobile forAndroid|iOS(Free, in-app purchases available)

What Is Snapseed?

Snapseed is a free photo editing app owned by Google and is available for iOS as well as Android devices. It benefits fromconnecting to Google Photos to back up your images.

Snapseed’s offerings lean more towards superficial editing with fun edits like grunge and vintage effects, rather than purely for photographic improvement. Although it also has plenty of tools focused on creating great photos.

Download: Snapseed forAndroid|iOS(Free)

How Does Snapseed Compare to Lightroom Mobile?

With Lightroom Mobile having both a free and premium option, how does the photo editing app compare to Snapseed’s entirely free offerings? And which app is best for your on-the-go photo editing?

Cost and Platform Availability

Snapseed is entirely free for all users. It’s available on both Android and iOS devices, including iPad, making Snapseed incredibly accessible. There isn’t a desktop version, soSnapseed is better for on-the-go editing. It also benefits from connections to Google Photos and other features found there.

Lightroom Mobile is available on both Android and iOS, including iPad. With some of the features locked behind a subscription, it brings accessibility down compared to Snapseed. It has plenty of tools available under the free plan, but the premium features are tools you may find for free in Snapseed, such as lens blur.

Lightroom Mobile premium benefits from connecting to the Adobe Cloud so you’re able to open other Adobe assets and save your images on the Creative Cloud. This allows for easy editing across both the desktop and mobile apps if you need to edit from a computer.

Editing RAW Images

To edit imported RAW images using Lightroom Mobile, you must be a premium user. However, free users can edit RAW images that were taken directly on their phones. Free Lightroom Mobile users can’t edit imported RAW photos, though—even if they’re in your Lightroom library from previous Premium subscriptions.

Snapseed allows users to edit RAW images, and the preset Looks and Tools work on RAW images, allowing for extra detail and restoration from over or under-exposure. The Tools have lots of refining options, so you’re able to easily take your RAW images from good to great, all from your phone.

Presets and Filters

Lightroom Mobile has Presets under three different tabs: Recommended, Premium, and Yours. The Recommended presets analyze your chosen image and provide presets that work best for your photo, under a list of categories including Cool, Subtle, and Cinematic, to name a few.

The Premium presets most often use AI for adaptive editing and, like the name suggests, are part of the Premium package. You can preview your image with the presets, but you can’t export them with a free subscription.

All Lightroom Mobile presets and filters have sliders to determine the strength of any effect used.

Snapseed’s presets or filters are called Looks, and there are 11 Looks available to apply to your images. Although it’s not obvious, Looks can be edited and refined. You can also apply new Looks on top of existing Looks for a multifaceted effect.

Under Snapseed’s Tools section, there are some filters such as Drama, Vintage, Black & White, Grunge, Double Exposure, and more. These filters have strength sliders, editable focus areas, and other ways you can change the results.

AI Editing Tools

Snapseed only has one AI-based tool, the Smart Expand tool. Compared to many other expand tools—such asPhotoshop and Canva’s expand tools—Snapseed’s Smart Expand leaves a lot to be desired. It works better for plain backgrounds or neutral colors and gives the best results when only expanding small areas at a time.

Lightroom Mobile incorporates some AI features, following in the footsteps of the desktop versions ofLightroom and Photoshop’s AI features. Lightroom Mobile’s AI tools are only available to Premium users; there aren’t any free AI features.

Some of the AI tools include Generative Remove—so you can erase or replace parts of your image—or one-tap AI presets to go with the usual presets. Lightroom Mobile’s AI Masking tool is another helpful AI feature, allowing for smart selections of subjects, skies, and creating lens blur. The app also uses AI to categorize your photos for easier organizing and searching.

Offline Abilities

Lightroom Mobile allows for most free features to be used offline; however, this is because the free features don’t use AI—all AI or premium features require an internet connection to use. you may save your images while offline, but you cannot use any sharing features.

All features of Snapseed can be used while offline, except the Share features which require an internet connection to share via external apps.

Extra Features

Snapseed has a few extra fun features, not directly related to photo editing, but that you might use for social media images. Firstly, it has an in-built QR code generator you can apply to your photos. This allows you to share the photo directly while using your image as a QR background.

You can add artistic frames to your image, and edit the size and style. There’s also a text library where you can change the opacity, mask the text to show your image through it, and change the color and font.

Furthermore,Snapseed has a built-in double exposure tool, so you can create authentic-looking double exposure images.

Lightroom Mobile’s features focus on photo editing. There are no layout design options to turn your photos into interesting social posts or collages. This means all the tools and features yield better results for your photos and prevent you from getting carried away by optional extras.

You can, surprisingly, edit videos in Lightroom Mobile if you’re a Premium user; however, the video features are limited and not a major focus of the app. You can’t edit long or complicated videos, and it’s probably best to use other software like Premiere Pro or CapCut.

Snapseed Is Better for On-the-Go Photo Editing

To make my comparison fair, I am looking at the free version of Lightroom Mobile for this comparison since Snapseed offers everything for free.

The apps have many similarities, and it is quite difficult to proclaim Snapseed as better, but when comparing everything that’s available for free, Snapseed surpasses Lightroom Mobile’s free features.

Snapseed lets you edit RAW photos, work easily offline with no compromise on features, and encourages the use of all its features for all users. You can use lens blur, smart expand, and a whole host of editable presets and tools without paying a penny. While the app is slightly slower than Lightroom Mobile, the difference is not very noticeable.

After exploring both apps, I find the menu and editing tools easier to navigate in Snapseed than Lightroom Mobile. It’s also very disruptive to come across roadblocks in Lightroom denying access to premium features when trying to explore tools and find out what they are.

When looking at the free stuff both apps offer, Snapseed comes out on top.