The Best Lightroom Plugins in 2025

Lightroom ist ein vielseitiges Programm, das Bildverwaltung und Fotobearbeitung ideal kombiniert. Genau deshalb nutze ich es seit über zehn Jahren – und bin immer noch davon überzeugt. Lightroom bietet viele großartige Funktionen, aber in manchen Bereichen stößt das Programm an seine Grenzen. Trotzdem möchte ich nicht darauf verzichten – ich nutze es seit über zehn […]

AI in Photography: Your Essential (and Balanced) GuideAI in photography image generated by DALL-E

These days, we photographers can’t go two minutes without encountering an opinion about AI. It’s usually negative and often extreme (e.g., “AI will ruin photography forever”), and I can certainly empathize. After all, one of the most well-recognized forms of artificial intelligence in photography—AI image generation—threatens to reduce the value of photography (and photographers) by […]

Announcing Excire Foto Office Edition: The Affordable Photo & Video Manager for Businesses

Big news from Excire—we’re thrilled to introduce Excire Foto Office Edition, a cutting-edge photo-management solution designed specifically for businesses and teams! After receiving countless requests from professionals in marketing, architecture, PR, museums, libraries, and beyond, we’ve built a network-enabled program that makes managing photos and videos across a shared database so much simpler. Excire Foto […]

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We’re excited to release the latest version of our standalone photo-management program, Excire Foto 2025, which offers major new features for sorting, culling, and organizing files, in addition to our state-of-the-art search functions. Excire Foto 2025 pushes the boundaries of AI-powered photography software yet again, allowing photographers and content creators to accelerate (and even bypass) […]

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Image organization may not get the same level of attention from photographers compared to, say, post-processing, but it sure is important – assuming you ever want to find, edit, and share your images weeks, months, and years from now, that is! Because here’s a hard truth:  A disorganized photo collection is effectively worthless. If you […]

The Essential Guide to Photo TaggingTags on Getty Images photo

If you’re serious about keeping your image database both organized and searchable, then I highly recommend you incorporate tagging into your workflow.  As a photographer myself, I can understand why image tagging is generally viewed as tedious, time-consuming, and downright unpleasant; after all, who wants to spend hours each week carefully applying tags to images […]

The Best Google Photos AlternativeThe best Google Photos alternatives Lightroom

Keep your photos safe and secure with a robust backup solution! A comprehensive exploration of image backup options for photographers.

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

Language & version

Supported languages

German & English

Current version

1.1.1

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

Language & 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!

Language & version

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

4.1.1

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 Search 2022 - Trial

Language & 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.

Language & 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!

Language & 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

Language & 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

Language & 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.