# Ansel

9 Hacker News commenters recommended Ansel and 3 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 4 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Recommended as a cleaner, easier fork of Darktable that fixes its UX problems. Critics point to regressions during its development and a tone they dislike.

## Why people recommend it

- Fixes Darktable's UX and workflow problems (4 comments): "The ansel fork seeks to remedy a lot of the bad design and workflow choices." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49111133)) "addresses a lot of the UX issues that has been in the works for a few years" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49099883)) "where they try to roll back lot of these ux mishaps" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47762600))
- Leaner and less cluttered than Darktable (2 comments): "Ansel is what Darktable 4.0 could have been if it didn’t die of feature creep" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49098087)) "I find Ansel a bit easier to operate." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47772552))
- Developer's tutorials and steady progress (3 comments): "I think the Ansel developer has a YouTube series with tutorials on how to edit in Darktable" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46575256)) "he did a great job on that from what I've seen so far" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49100039)) "Yes it is stabilising, IME." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49105731))

## What people warn about

- Stability issues and regressions (2 comments): "Yes it is stabilising, IME." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49105731)) "the amount of regressions introduced was wild" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49100013))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Photopea](https://hackerapproved.com/p/photopea.md): 84 recommend
- [Adobe Lightroom](https://hackerapproved.com/p/adobe-lightroom.md): 68 recommend
- [Pixelmator Pro](https://hackerapproved.com/p/pixelmator-pro.md): 29 recommend
- [DaVinci Resolve Photo Editor](https://hackerapproved.com/p/davinci-resolve-photo-editor.md): 23 recommend
- [PhotoCraft](https://hackerapproved.com/p/photocraft.md): 22 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Ansel", https://hackerapproved.com/p/ansel/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).