Excire Blog

The Best Photo-Organizing Software in 2024 (for Mac and Windows)

If you’re struggling to organize your photo library – so that every file is categorized, tagged, rated, and easily retrievable – then I understand your pain. 

I’ve been a passionate photographer since I was 15. When you consider my love of shorebird photography (which involves the liberal use of my camera’s burst mode), handheld macro photography (which requires a lot of trial and error), wide-angle street photography (where I often take dozens of images of the same scene), and landscape & cityscape photography (where I frequently bracket and focus stack, often at the same time), you’ll be unsurprised to learn that I’ve produced a mountain of images. 

(In case you’re wondering, my current file count is 1,102,351, and that’s not including a few old hard drives I have yet to connect to my computer).

But while I love taking photos, I’m terrible at managing them. Applying keywords, adding files to collections, culling my photoshoots, and deleting duplicates is frustratingly tedious, not to mention time-consuming. And after a long day at work or in the field, I rarely have the energy to sit down and slowly go through my files, even if I can find the time. 

That’s where class-leading photo-organization programs come to the rescue. The best image-management software simplifies the organization process by offering intuitive, fast, and streamlined solutions (often with help from cutting-edge AI models). These top DAM programs are designed for photographers who need to get their images under control but want more functionality than a desktop file manager. They’re what I regularly use to wrangle my million-plus photos into a well-organized, highly accessible catalog, and I’m betting they can do the same for you.

Over the last couple of years, I’ve tested over a dozen image-management programs – some out of personal interest, others as part of my work as a writer. And out of the photo organizers I’ve tested, only a handful have stood out. The programs I include on this list have been chosen for varying reasons: sleek interfaces, innovative cataloging solutions, intuitive tools, AI-powered search, automatic keywording, and more. 

But they all have one thing in common: For the right photographer, each of my recommended organizers can save time while also ensuring an efficient, effective workflow. So which photo-management software should you use to organize your photos? Here are my top choices, starting with:

1. Excire Foto 2024: The Best Dedicated Photo-Management Program

Excire Foto 2024 photo organizer main layout

I might be biased, but I truly believe that Excire Foto 2024 is the best image organizer on the planet. Not only is it ridiculously fast and intuitive to use, but it packs an array of AI-powered photo-organization tools that are straight out of a science-fiction novel, including automatic keywording (where Excire’s software intelligently adds a variety of tags to your images), people & face search (so you can organize and retrieve photos using powerful facial-recognition software), and duplicate search (so you can quickly identify duplicate and near-duplicate files for culling and cleanup).

Excire’s AI-powered image-management solutions have been turning heads for a few years now, but the latest standalone program, Excire Foto 2024, takes image organization to a whole new level, thanks to the addition of two new features:

  1. Prompt-search AI, which lets you type in a description of the photo you’re seeking, then immediately retrieves it from the depths of your catalog. (This is a personal favorite of mine; not only is it unbelievably good at finding images based on a textual description, but it’s ridiculously fast, too!)
  2. X-tetics AI, which expertly ranks your files based on aesthetic appeal, so that you can bypass manual culling and quickly identify the best images from each new photoshoot.
Excire Foto 2024 photo organizer prompt-search tool
Excire’s prompt-search tool is astonishingly effective (and it’s fast, too!). It’s a great way to find photos hidden deep in your image archives.

Of course, the program also includes all the image-organizer essentials, including star ratings, color labels, flagging, and metadata filtering, so if you’ve used other photo-management programs, the basic workflow will already feel familiar. 

The biggest downside to Excire Foto 2024 is the lack of built-in editing capabilities, but the program can be easily integrated with your favorite post-processing program. I’ve had no trouble using Excire Foto alongside Skylum Luminar Neo, and going back and forth between Excire and Lightroom is similarly simple (though dedicated Lightroom Classic users can also use Excire’s cutting-edge plugin, Excire Search 2024; see the section on Lightroom Classic below!)

Bottom line: If you need an insanely powerful image manager that’ll make your life a whole lot easier, then you can’t go wrong with Excire Foto 2024. And for just 189 USD, you can grab yourself a lifetime license!

2. Capture One Pro: The Best Photo Organizer for Professionals

Capture One Pro photo manager

For some, Capture One Pro is the leading image-management program on the market thanks to its unique workflow features. Personally, while I think the program is well made, and while it certainly deserves its place on this list, I’ve resisted incorporating it into my own workflow. 

Why? First, it’s expensive; a perpetual license costs almost 300 USD, and if you were to go the subscription route instead, you’d pay a whopping 24 USD per month ($34 per month if you need additional features, such as access to the Capture One mobile app). But more importantly, Capture One caters to a particular type of photographer: working professionals who require a reliable tethering setup and/or regularly do portrait or commercial photoshoots. 

Therefore, if you need a program that’ll allow for consistent tethered shooting, and/or you need to organize your files around sessions for clients, Capture One’s sophisticated tethering module and session-based organization workflow make it an easy choice. You can tether within Capture One, and then quickly cull files thanks to the program’s Session Folders (which are specifically designed to help you categorize images for delivery or disposal). Capture One also boasts sophisticated exporting options that allow you to prepare images for a variety of purposes – your portfolio, your Facebook page, your Instagram feed, your client gallery, etc – and export them all at once.

Capture One Pro does offer one more feature worth mentioning: Snap to Eye, which uses AI to identify the eyes of portrait subjects, and then lets you check the sharpness in a magnified window. It’s a handy feature if you need to go through the files from a portrait shoot and would prefer to avoid constantly clicking and zooming on your subject’s face, though it doesn’t offer much for non-portrait shooters like myself. 

At the end of the day, Capture One offers outstanding image organization tools for working professionals, especially those who regularly conduct photoshoots for clients. However, if you’re a hobbyist photographer, or you’re a professional who specializes in other forms of photography (e.g., landscapes or street scenes), Capture One may not be worth the cost, and you’d be better off considering a different program on this list.

3. FastStone Image Viewer: The Best Free Image Manager for Windows

FastStone Image Viewer main layout

FastStone Image Viewer is a free photo organizer available for Windows users, but while the program is rather limited in its features, what it lacks in flair, it makes up for in speed. 

Not only can you use the program to access images from your desktop folders without spending extra time on an import/export process, but the FastStone Image Viewer is blisteringly fast. Scrolling through my images in the FastStone interface was exhilarating (or as exhilarating as scrolling through images can be!) simply because the program was ridiculously responsive. Thumbnails appeared instantly, and I was able to zoom in and view full-sized images with astonishingly little lag.

As long as you ignore the slew of icons along the top of the program, you’ll find the basic image-management workflow to be pretty intuitive; I was applying ratings and labels to my photos about a minute after I first launched the software. But what I love most about FastStone’s image manager is the full-screen view, which lets you sort through your images with zero distractions, and also allows you to bring up toolbars by hovering your cursor over the edges of the frame. The Compare Selected Images tool – which lets you view up to four images side-by-side – is another handy addition, especially if you often find yourself struggling to pick the perfect image for sharing on social media or your portfolio website.  

Full-screen view in FastStone Image Viewer
I love using FastStone’s full-screen view to keep my focus on the images themselves.

I do think that the interface could do with an update, and the capabilities are a little lackluster, but if you’re a Windows user in search of a completely free photo manager, FastStone Image Viewer is certainly worth a try. (And if you don’t like it, you can always try one of the other programs on this list instead!)

4. Adobe Lightroom Classic (With Excire Search 2024): The Best Adobe Image Organizer

Adobe Lightroom Classic main layout of the Library module

No list of image-management software would be complete without Adobe Lightroom Classic, the editor/organizer that practically every photographer has heard of. And there’s a lot to love about Lightroom Classic’s DAM features: the ratings, labels, and flags, the ability to create Collections and Smart Collections as required, not to mention the ability to organize and edit files without ever leaving the program.

As a regular Lightroom Classic user, I like the software, but I’m also well aware of its drawbacks. The interface feels outdated, plus database management operations are annoyingly slow (once you have a large catalog of images, simply switching between Collections goes at a snail’s pace). More importantly, despite Adobe’s huge market share, the program lacks the AI-powered features offered by other options on this list (chiefly Excire Foto 2024, but also ON1 Photo RAW and ACDSee Photo Studio Ultimate, featured below). 

Fortunately, there is a workaround: in addition to Foto 2024, Excire sells a second program, Search 2024, which is designed as a Lightroom Classic plugin. Excire Search 2024 integrates seamlessly with Lightroom Classic, so you can combine Lightroom’s standard DAM tools and popular editing tools with Excire’s cutting-edge image-management features. 

Lightroom Classic with Excire Search's text-prompt search dialog
I’ve added the Excire Search 2024 plugin to Lightroom Classic, which lets me use the Search by Text Prompt tool to instantly retrieve images in my Lightroom catalog.

In other words, with Excire Search 2024 installed in Lightroom, you get practically everything offered in the standalone Excire Foto 2024, including automatic keywording, prompt search, aesthetic ratings, facial-recognition technology, duplication detection, and more. It’s the perfect choice for photographers who are already married to a Lightroom workflow, as well as photographers who need Lightroom’s editing capabilities but desire Excire’s class-leading organization and search tools.

To use the programs together, you’ll need to buy the Excire Search 2024 plugin in addition to subscribing to one of Adobe’s Photography plans. But the Search 2024 plugin is well-priced (a lifetime license costs 189 USD), and the amount of time you save behind the computer is well worth the cost.

5. ON1 Photo RAW: The Best Budget Image Manager

ON1 Photo RAW main layout

There’s just something special about ON1 Photo RAW. I don’t know if it’s the sleek interface, the comprehensive feature set, or the huge number of presets, but I always love testing ON1’s latest releases, and (no surprise!) Photo RAW 2024 impressed me more than ever.

First, there’s the new AI Keywords feature, which automatically tags your files so that you don’t have to. It did a good job in my tests, though it does seem to go for volume over accuracy; an image of a production plant surrounded by snow, for instance, was tagged with over a dozen keywords, including “building,” “fence,” and “snow,” but also “fire hydrant” and “tree” (neither of which appeared in the photo). Regardless, the tool should certainly cut time off your keywording workflow, and if you don’t regularly keyword your images, it should get you off to a good start.

ON1 Photo RAW image with AI keywords
The AI-generated keywords for this image had mixed accuracy; „building“ and „snow“ are perfect, while „fire hydrant“ isn’t quite right. (Perhaps the AI got confused by the grill on the right-hand side.)

As I mentioned above, I’m a fan of the ON1 Photo RAW interface. Not only is it very easy on the eyes, but it’s also just simple to use – even if you’re completely unfamiliar with photo organizers, you can browse through files, apply ratings and labels, create albums, and switch back and forth between the editor and your image library without much trouble. The developers did a great job of packaging the program’s many features in a way that makes it highly usable, even for beginners.

Do I wish that ON1 Photo RAW included other tools to streamline image management? Sure. But the program is wonderfully designed, and at just $85 USD for a perpetual license, it’s a great choice, especially for beginners and other users in need of a full-featured budget photo organizer.

6. Adobe Bridge: The Best Free Photo Organizer for Mac

Adobe Bridge loupe view

Adobe Bridge has faded in popularity in recent years, especially as a variety of programs with cutting-edge features exploded onto the scene, but Adobe’s dedicated file organizer deserves mention, and not just because it bears the Adobe name.

Despite its polished interface, the program is completely free to use. Back when I first got into photography, after purchasing a camera and lens, I couldn’t afford a Lightroom license, so I organized my images entirely with Adobe Bridge. It worked for me relatively well; back then, Bridge included all the standard metadata filtering, keywording, star ratings, and labeling features, and for a beginner with a relatively small collection of images, that was enough.

Since then, Bridge has undergone a significant redesign, but the core features are still there, and it still offers beginners a good starting point for image organization. Bridge doesn’t include the time-saving AI-powered tools offered by Excire, ON1, and ACDSee, but if you’re only dealing with a small number of files, or you can’t justify the cost of a more powerful photo manager, Bridge will get the job done.

Adobe Camera Raw accessed directly from Adobe Bridge
You can access Adobe Camera Raw directly from Bridge, which lets you use plenty of editing tools to enhance your photos.

Adobe Bridge isn’t only ideal for beginners on a budget, however. It offers unique integration with both Adobe Camera Raw and Adobe Photoshop; from within the Bridge interface, you can open an image in either of those programs with a single click, which makes it a good choice for users who regularly use Adobe programs and who a) dislike Lightroom, or b) need a central hub that can store a variety of creative assets, including photos, graphics, and video files.

Bottom line: For users heavily invested in Adobe products, as well as beginners looking for a free image manager, Bridge is a solid choice. Just bear in mind that while Bridge itself is free to download, if you want access to Adobe Camera Raw and Photoshop, you’ll need to pay for a Creative Cloud Photography subscription.

7. ACDSee Photo Studio Ultimate 2024: The Best Do-Everything Photo Manager

ACDSee Photo Studio Ultimate main layout

I first tested ACDSee Photo Studio back in 2019, and I was instantly a fan of the program’s editing capabilities – but while ACDSee’s photo-organization tools were fine, I can’t recall being especially impressed. Fast-forward five years, and it’s a whole different ball game; my retest of ACDSee Photo Studio Ultimate left me impressed, not just due to the program’s range of editing tools, but also its image-management features. 

In addition to the standard DAM workflow tools – flagging, rating, keywording, etc – ACDSee now offers several AI-powered capabilities to speed up your workflow. For instance, the program’s facial-recognition tech now identifies faces and even allows you to type in names for easy categorization. The AI Keywords feature – which automatically applies relevant keywords to your images so you can avoid tedious manual tagging – is also very cool, though I did find it to be limited in terms of its effectiveness. (My image of a great egret, for instance, was only tagged with “Animal” and “Bird,” and a leaf close-up was given the keywords “Nature” and “Tree.”) 

Great egret image in ACDSee Photo Studio Ultimate
Technically, the AI-generated keywords „Animal“ and „Bird“ are correct, but they’re a bit more general than I would’ve liked.

In general, ACDSee’s AI-powered DAM features are useful, but it’s important to keep your expectations in check, and if you’re after class-leading AI organization software, Excire Foto 2024 is undoubtedly the better choice. For me, what makes ACDSee Photo Studio Ultimate 2024 so special isn’t the image-management features or the editing features alone. Rather, it’s the combination of the two, which turns Photo Studio Ultimate into a one-stop shop for editing and photo organization – and at just $90 USD for a perpetual license, the program is a steal.

Pick a Photo Manager and Clean Up Your Catalog!

Each of the programs on this list offers a variety of impressive image-management features, including – but not limited to – automatic keywording, facial-recognition tech, AI-powered culling tools, and the futuristic prompt search. At the end of the day, however, picking the perfect photo organizer is as much about your needs as a program’s capabilities. So before you hit that “Buy” button, you have to ask yourself: What matters to me most? What do I want from my image-management software?

If you’re looking for an ultra-powerful dedicated organizer, Excire Foto 2024, with its time-saving AI features, is an amazing choice. On the other hand, working professionals who also need top-notch tethering capabilities should consider Capture One Pro; yes, it’s expensive, but the advanced workflow capabilities are worth the cost. 

For folks seeking a budget image manager, ON1 Photo RAW 2024 is a good pick, while FastStone Image Viewer is a great free alternative. And if you’re set on Adobe software, consider using Lightroom Classic with the Excire Search 2024 plugin, which combines Excire’s next-level AI tools with Adobe’s popular interface.

So pick an image organizer, then spend some time getting your photos keyworded, rated, and categorized. Thanks to these programs, it’ll be easier than you think!

Excire Foto Office Edition

The Excire Photo Office Edition is a special solution for companies and team use. In addition to the usual AI power for simple and intuitive photo management, it has the following additional features:

  • Hide option for irrelevant keywords
  • Function to adopt folder names as keywords
  • Sharing via SFTP
  • Two-stage role concept
  • Right-of-use period as a supplement to the metadata and corresponding filter option
  • Shared database on a network drive

Sprachen & Version

Supported languages

German & English

Current version

1.0.0

Minimum system requirements

Processor

Mehrkernprozessor mit 64-bit und AVX Unterstützung
Multi-core processor with 64-bit and AVX support. Older AMD processors like the AMD Phenom™ II X6 1100T and AMD Phenom™ II X (also known as AMD Athlon II X4 640) are not supported. Intel Core 2 Duo processors are not supported.

Operating system

macOS 11 (or newer) or Windows 10 (64-bit) or Windows 11 (64-bit)

Memory

Minimum 8GB RAM is required. However, 16GB or more is recommended.

Hard disk

The Excire databases require about 250 MB for 100,000 photos.
The preview storage will then be about 25 GB
at the highest quality, including raw formats,
and when a preview is generated for each photo.

Excire Search 2024 - Trial

Sprachen & Version

Supported languages
German, English, French, Italian and Spanish
Current version

4.0.0

Minimum system requirements

Processor
Multicore processor with 64-bit and AVX support Older AMD processors like AMD Phenom(tm) II X6 1100T and AMD Phenom(tm) II X (also known as AMD Athlon II X4 640) are not supported. Intel Core 2 Duo processors are not supported.
Operating system
macOS 10.14 (or newer) or Windows 10 (64-bit) or Windows 11 (64bit)
Memory
8GB RAM. However, for large catalogs (> 100,000 photos) we recommend 16GB or more
Hard disk
375 MB of free hard disk space for the base installation and additional memory for image signatures. For example, an Adobe Lightroom catalog of 100,000 images requires about another 800 MB of additional memory.

Excire Search 2024

Excire Search is the perfect solution for all Adobe Lightroom Classic users. The smart Lightroom plugin analyzes and tags photos automatically and extends Lightroom with powerful AI search functions. With just a few clicks, Excire Search finds exactly the photos you are looking for. This makes image management fun again and hours of image searching a thing of the past. 

Available for Windows and macOS and now brand new in the 2024 version with integrated duplicate finder!

Sprachen & Version

Supported languages
German, English, French, Italian and Spanish
Current version

4.0.0

Minimum system requirements

Processor
Multicore processor with 64-bit and AVX support Older AMD processors like AMD Phenom(tm) II X6 1100T and AMD Phenom(tm) II X (also known as AMD Athlon II X4 640) are not supported. Intel Core 2 Duo processors are not supported.
Operating system
macOS 10.14 (or newer) or Windows 10 (64-bit) or Windows 11 (64bit)
Lightroom (Classic)
Version 6 (or newer)
Memory
8GB RAM. However, for large catalogs (> 100,000 photos) we recommend 16GB or more
Hard disk
375 MB of free hard disk space for the base installation and additional memory for image signatures. For example, an Adobe Lightroom catalog of 100,000 images requires about another 800 MB of additional memory.

Excire Search 2022 - Trial

Sprachen & Version

Supported languages
German, English, French, Italian and Spanish
Current version
3.1.1

Minimum system requirements

Processor
Multicore processor with 64-bit and AVX support Older AMD processors like AMD Phenom(tm) II X6 1100T and AMD Phenom(tm) II X (also known as AMD Athlon II X4 640) are not supported. Intel Core 2 Duo processors are not supported.
Operating system
macOS 10.14 (or newer) or Windows 10 (64-bit) or Windows 11 (64bit)
Memory
8GB RAM. However, for large catalogs (> 100,000 photos) we recommend 16GB or more
Hard disk
375 MB of free hard disk space for the base installation and additional memory for image signatures. For example, an Adobe Lightroom catalog of 100,000 images requires about another 800 MB of additional memory.

Excire Foto 2024 - Trial

Note for existing Excire Foto customers: Excire Foto users have to keep in mind for testing that the previous Excire database will be modified when the program is started for the first time. Thus a switch back to older versions is not possible without a backup. We therefore recommend creating a backup before using Excire Foto 2024. How to do this is described here.

Sprachen & Version

Supported languages
German & English
Current version

3.2.0

Minimum system requirements

Processor
Multi-core processor with 64-bit and AVX support Older AMD Prozessoren like AMD Phenom(tm) II X6 1100T und AMD Phenom(tm) II X (also known as AMD Athlon II X4 640) are not supported. Intel Core 2 Duo processors are not supported.
Operating system
macOS 10.14 (or newer) or Windows 10 (64-bit) or Windows 11 (64bit)
Memory
Minimum 8GB RAM is required. However, 16GB or more is recommended.
Hard disk
The Excire Foto databases will take up approx. 250MB for 100,000 photos, and the previews approx. 25GB if highest-quality previews are generated for each photo.

Excire Search 2022

Excire Search is the perfect solution for all Adobe Lightroom Classic users. The smart Lightroom plugin analyzes and tags photos automatically and extends Lightroom with powerful AI search functions. With just a few clicks, Excire Search finds exactly the photos you are looking for. This makes image management fun again and hours of image searching a thing of the past. 

Available for Windows and macOS and now brand new in the 2022 version with integrated duplicate finder!

Sprachen & Version

Supported languages
German, English, French, Italian and Spanish
Current version
3.1.1

Minimum system requirements

Processor
Multicore processor with 64-bit and AVX support Older AMD processors like AMD Phenom(tm) II X6 1100T and AMD Phenom(tm) II X (also known as AMD Athlon II X4 640) are not supported. Intel Core 2 Duo processors are not supported.
Operating system
macOS 10.14 (or newer) or Windows 10 (64-bit) or Windows 11 (64bit)
Lightroom (Classic)
Version 6 (or newer)
Memory
8GB RAM. However, for large catalogs (> 100,000 photos) we recommend 16GB or more
Hard disk
375 MB of free hard disk space for the base installation and additional memory for image signatures. For example, an Adobe Lightroom catalog of 100,000 images requires about another 800 MB of additional memory.

Excire Foto 2024

Excire’s flagship program boasts dazzling new features and enhanced AI technology. All-new tools offer AI-powered free-text search, GPS-search, and intelligent aesthetics assessment of individual photos. Additionally, AI upgrades ensure better results in facial recognition, similarity search, and automatic keywording.

Excire Foto 2024 retains all core features from Excire Foto 2022, and the Excire Analytics extension is now fully integrated into the new program.

Highlights of the 2024 version include:

  • X-prompt AI for powerful free-text image search
  • X-tetics AI for instant evaluation of photos
  • GPS-based search and editable GPS coordinates
  • Intuitive slideshow maker for professional photo displays
  • New status labels for folders and collections
  • Improved AI-search performance thanks to revamped AI models

Excire Account Management and Activation

Sprachen & Version

Supported languages
German & English
Current version

3.2.0

Minimum system requirements

Processor
Multi-core processor with 64-bit and AVX support Older AMD Prozessoren like AMD Phenom(tm) II X6 1100T und AMD Phenom(tm) II X (also known as AMD Athlon II X4 640) are not supported. Intel Core 2 Duo processors are not supported.
Operating system
macOS 10.14 (or newer) or Windows 10 (64-bit) or Windows 11 (64bit)
Memory
Minimum 8GB RAM is required. However, 16GB or more is recommended.
Hard disk
The Excire Foto databases will take up approx. 250MB for 100,000 photos, and the previews approx. 25GB if highest-quality previews are generated for each photo.

Excire Foto 2022

Excire Foto 2022 is a powerful and innovative software designed for easy photo management and quick content-based browsing. Numerous smart features help you get organized and find the photos you are looking for.

These are the highlights of the new 2022 version:

  • Duplicate finder with numerous setting options
  • Support of PSD files
  • match accuracy for similarity searches is now adjustable
  • the maximum number of search results has been increased to 50,000
  • Support of Windows network paths


We recommend Windows users to install the Microsoft Raw image extension: Download

Sprachen & Version

Supported languages
German & English
Current version

2.2.4

Minimum system requirements

Processor
Multi-core processor with 64-bit and AVX support Older AMD Prozessoren like AMD Phenom(tm) II X6 1100T und AMD Phenom(tm) II X (also known as AMD Athlon II X4 640) are not supported. Intel Core 2 Duo processors are not supported.
Operating system
macOS 10.14 (or newer) or Windows 10 (64-bit) or Windows 11 (64bit)
Memory
Minimum 8GB RAM is required. However, 16GB or more is recommended.
Hard disk
The Excire Foto databases will take up approx. 250MB for 100,000 photos, and the previews approx. 25GB if highest-quality previews are generated for each photo.