# Darktable 77 Hacker News commenters recommended Darktable and 49 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 10 of 13 months; owners who said how long report a median of 9 years (10 owners). **Verdict:** Recommended as a free, powerful RAW photo editor with deep editing controls and reliable results; critics say its steep learning curve and clumsy UI make it hard to use. ## Why people recommend it - Powerful editing controls and capabilities (5 comments): "purely in terms of raw outcome and capabilities (to an extent), Dark table actually comes ahead of Lightroom" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45981329)) "darktable has a more comprehensive set of controls over editing. However, it is harder software to use." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50012843)) "the editing is much more powerful. However, it's also a completely different editing paradigm" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49102962)) - Replaces Lightroom for many users (4 comments): "i fucking love darktable. After 6 month I actually like it more than lightroom and never looked back." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48392126)) "I'm putting the effort into learning Darktable and look forward to canceling my Adobe subscription." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47839318)) "the wonderful right-click fine tune popup UI alone were enough for me to forget Lightroom" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49100718)) - Dependable results and consistent edits (4 comments): "opening a file processed years ago will still go through the pipeline with the base curve module and come out the same" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49103892)) "I can only recommend it, and there's nothing missing for me, even for editing thousands of RAW photos with presets" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49098654)) "Darktable is a critical part of her editing workflow. It's a truly outstanding piece of software." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49101996)) - Free and open source software (2 comments): "I cant beleive its a free product; you will do very well going to market with this." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49100238)) "there are open source tools that implement these things properly? Take Darktable" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48190768)) ## What people warn about - Steep learning curve, hard to use (5 comments): "Very steep, at least in my experience. Even compared to Cinema 4D and Blender which I grasp the basic just in 1-3 days." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49109656)) "darktable has a more comprehensive set of controls over editing. However, it is harder software to use." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50012843)) "darktable’s learning curve kept me from using it, not because it’s worse; it has far more control." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50013010)) - Poor UI and UX design (4 comments): "they have no one on the project doing any kind of user research or spending time thinking about what good UI/UX looks like" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50050866)) "forced through a bunch of changes that in his view took the product in a poor direction in terms of UX" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49100039)) "I put it in the same category as Darktable, which gives off that exact same bad first impression." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49328620)) - Weak default look and tone (3 comments): "compress contrast at the bright end in a way undesirable for high-key photos" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48407095)) "very weak default look. This is a problem because the default unedited look is the basis of further editing decisions" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48441572)) "fail incredibly with default options thus making this software inappropriate for photographers" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48426576)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [Capture One](https://hackerapproved.com/p/capture-one.md): 33 recommend - [RawTherapee](https://hackerapproved.com/p/rawtherapee.md): 29 recommend - [Fujifilm X RAW STUDIO](https://hackerapproved.com/p/fujifilm-x-raw-studio.md): 9 recommend ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "Darktable", https://hackerapproved.com/p/darktable/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).