Apple Photos
Ranked 3 of 8 photo managers by recommenders
People recommend it for on-device search across huge libraries and reliable sync across Apple devices. Common caveat: iCloud upsell and frequent interface changes.
People recommend it for on-device search across huge libraries and reliable sync across Apple devices. Common caveat: iCloud upsell and frequent interface changes.
153 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 66
- criticize it
- 87
- approval share
- 43%
Recommended in 12 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 66 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 0.7 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 12 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
On-device search across large libraries
“I’ve found unreasonable value in being able to search through hundreds of thousands of photos from my phone”
Comment from 11 Jan 2026 in “Open-source iCloud Photos Downloader (AKA escape from iCloud)” “searching "dog at beach" in the photos app on my iPhone returns a set of photos of my dog at a sandy beach”
Comment from 17 Aug 2026 in “Apple's App Tracking Transparency treated its own apps better than rivals” “you can describe what you want to find and it will consistently find it, even inside of videos”
Comment from 9 Jun 2026 in “Siri AI” - Comment from 2 Apr 2026 in “DRAM pricing is killing the hobbyist SBC market”
Handles large libraries reliably
“I've been syncing _my entire photos library_ to my Mac for years, since it was iPhoto even.”
Comment from 11 Jan 2026 in “Open-source iCloud Photos Downloader (AKA escape from iCloud)” “I use Photos for macOS daily and I've never run into a bug with my 50K+ photos library.”
Comment from 11 Jan 2026 in “Open-source iCloud Photos Downloader (AKA escape from iCloud)” “My photo library is larger than my iPhone's storage yet downloads fine on my Mac.”
Comment from 11 Jan 2026 in “Open-source iCloud Photos Downloader (AKA escape from iCloud)” Basic features are easy to find
“Apple generally makes it hard to do non-default things, but "basic" functionality is usually evident.”
Comment from 7 Jun 2026 in “How's Linear so fast? A technical breakdown” “iCloud, Photos, Music, all that stuff is fine, it meets the standard, it works”
Comment from 12 Jan 2026 in “2025 marked a record-breaking year for Apple services” “Basic photo editing works okay too, in Google Photos, Apple Photos, etc.”
Comment from 18 Jul 2026 in “LG monitors silently install software through Windows Update without consent” Useful built-in AI features
“Photos, for instance, makes better use of AI than any other photo management app in existence.”
Comment from 12 Feb 2026 in “Apple's Siri revamp reportedly delayed again” “I don't mind the subtle ML integrations that they have put in the photos app”
Comment from 10 Jul 2026 in “Apple Silicon Exec Explains Mac Mini AI Demand and On-Device Future”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Interface changes and confusing behavior
“They really like to screw around with the photos app such that "show me my photos most recently taken in time order" is somehow different set of taps year to year”
Comment from 24 Jul 2026 in “Nothing works and everyone is euphoric” “Then they should've left those things off by default, rather than messing with the expected flow of the application for everyone.”
Comment from 25 Aug 2026 in “MS Paint and Photos inivisibly watermark even locally generated output with GUID” “common workflows like “show me the picture I just took” or “copy the damned image file elsewhere” are completely broken”
Comment from 16 Oct 2026 in “Apple routed a graphite pipe through the iPhone Duo's hinge to dissipate heat” - Comment from 6 Apr 2026 in “Microsoft Hasn't Had a Coherent GUI Strategy Since Petzold”
- Comment from 2 Dec 2025 in “John Giannandrea to retire from Apple”
- Comment from 13 Jun 2026 in “Every Frame Perfect”
Slow with no progress feedback
“Photos is horrific for this. No progress, no indicators. And what little status you get has no connection to reality.”
Comment from 2 Dec 2025 in “John Giannandrea to retire from Apple” “Photos beachballs constantly, even when I do simple things like creating a new folder or naming a photo.”
Comment from 2 Dec 2025 in “Last Week on My Mac: Losing confidence” “adding a tag or removing from an album takes about 5 seconds for the UI to visually represent my change”
Comment from 14 Apr 2026 in “DaVinci Resolve releases Photo Editor” Pushes iCloud and hides originals
“I literally did not have some of my original files since apple shifts things off disk to preserve storage space.”
Comment from 2 Sep 2026 in “Saving money on Google Photos with Immich: Your own personal photo storage” “Photos comes with iCloud sync and storage upsell. Preferential treatment, promoting their own paid services and subscriptions.”
Comment from 18 Aug 2026 in “Apple's App Tracking Transparency treated its own apps better than rivals” “I'm unable to locate any button, status bar, or option to refresh or pull everything from iCloud in macOS Photos.”
Comment from 12 Jan 2026 in “Open-source iCloud Photos Downloader (AKA escape from iCloud)” Limited advanced editing features
“The native Photos app also doesn't have many advanced RAW tools for editing the RAWs.”
Comment from 19 Nov 2025 in “How two photographers transformed RAW photo support on Mac” “that has 15% extremely annoying and/or lack of features and functionality”
Comment from 15 Sep 2026 in “iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27” “the photo apps it offers are clearly inferior with less information density and less powerful features”
Comment from 25 Jan 2026 in “A Lament for Aperture”
Other photo managers people recommend
The four most recommended other photo managers, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Immich | 296 | 65 | 82% | 12 | 1 yr33 owners | Approved |
| Google Photos | 73 | 143 | 34% | 12 | — | — |
| Apple PhotosThis page | 66 | 87 | 43% | 12 | — | — |
| PhotoPrism | 10 | 4 | 71% | 4 | — | Approved |
| digiKam | 8 | 1 | 89% | 6 | — | — |
What people said
40 of the 171 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“There is some cool stuff you can do without sending your family's pics up to any of the frontier model providers.”
“common workflows like “show me the picture I just took” or “copy the damned image file elsewhere” are completely broken”
“that has 15% extremely annoying and/or lack of features and functionality”
“Currently, my wedding unfolds in the wrong order, and my kid turns 6 months old before being born.”
“I literally did not have some of my original files since apple shifts things off disk to preserve storage space.”
“Then they should've left those things off by default, rather than messing with the expected flow of the application for everyone.”
“Photos comes with iCloud sync and storage upsell. Preferential treatment, promoting their own paid services and subscriptions.”
“searching "dog at beach" in the photos app on my iPhone returns a set of photos of my dog at a sandy beach”
“They really like to screw around with the photos app such that "show me my photos most recently taken in time order" is somehow different set of taps year to year”
“Basic photo editing works okay too, in Google Photos, Apple Photos, etc.”
“I don't mind the subtle ML integrations that they have put in the photos app”
“a USB-C to USB-C cable can easily import to the photos app on an iphone with a decent UI”
“Apple Photos does let you export even if only in cloud. Open the library, select all, and File > Export”
“they are decent for their intended audience (definitely not flawless, but I don't think that exists anywhere”
“Something I've enjoyed more than I expected is Google and Apple photos sending me photo memories and compilations”
“scrolling through a photo album will show every image jumping around as it first shows them at some arbitrary scale”
“you can describe what you want to find and it will consistently find it, even inside of videos”
“Apple generally makes it hard to do non-default things, but "basic" functionality is usually evident.”
“dedicated black holes with better viewing features such as Raindrop.io, Apple Photos, and Eagle 4”
“adding a tag or removing from an album takes about 5 seconds for the UI to visually represent my change”
“Except in the Photo app, where it means "scroll to the top of the current section, or almost the top, or do nothing"”
“And it does the word search and image recognition locally, which is the killer feature for me”
“I also use my iPad (photos app, USB-C UHS-II reader, albums strategy) to do all my culling now, and couldn't be happier.”
“Photos, for instance, makes better use of AI than any other photo management app in existence.”
“I migrated from Apple Photos to Immich a couple of months ago, removing the iCloud subscription”
“Apple does some weird conversion from RAW in the background and it takes a lot of CPU time”
“the photo apps it offers are clearly inferior with less information density and less powerful features”
“sufficiently-user-friendly equivalents for a few other apps (eg: rubiTrack, Hazel, Photos.app) is a problem”
“iCloud, Photos, Music, all that stuff is fine, it meets the standard, it works”
“I'm unable to locate any button, status bar, or option to refresh or pull everything from iCloud in macOS Photos.”
“"export unmodified originals" will trigger the Photos app to download every file from iCloud into your local library”
“Repair function and wired Ethernet connection were biggest game changers to previous attempts.”
“I've been syncing _my entire photos library_ to my Mac for years, since it was iPhoto even.”
“I’ve found unreasonable value in being able to search through hundreds of thousands of photos from my phone”
“My photo library is larger than my iPhone's storage yet downloads fine on my Mac.”
“I use Photos for macOS daily and I've never run into a bug with my 50K+ photos library.”
“It was such a major UX downgrade from iPhoto that I could never get it to work without lots of mystery meat guessing”
“Photos beachballs constantly, even when I do simple things like creating a new folder or naming a photo.”
“Photos is horrific for this. No progress, no indicators. And what little status you get has no connection to reality.”
“The native Photos app also doesn't have many advanced RAW tools for editing the RAWs.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.