# RawTherapee

29 Hacker News commenters recommended RawTherapee and 9 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 8 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Free, open-source raw photo editor that covers most needs for many users. Main caveat: complex to learn and weaker denoising.

## Why people recommend it

- Covers everyday photo needs well (3 comments): "as an amateur photographer I have found that RawTherapee covers all my needs" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50054605)) "it gets the job done for all of my needs" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46805671)) "It works well provided your needs are simple." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47502789))
- Free open-source alternative to Lightroom (3 comments): "I can also recommend Raw Therapee as an open source raw editor." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49099410)) "No need to pay Adobe and no need to ditch editing completely." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47509947)) "Both are excellent alternatives to LR." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47762367))
- Better than Darktable for some users (2 comments): "I found more usable than Darktable for reasons I don't recall" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49098099)) "RawTherapee ends up being better editor for mr" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47762600))
- Good for raw correction (2 comments): "it's dedicated tool for photo processing and if you are just correcting, not editing it's probably better one too" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48191425)) "RawTherapee for RAW editing" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47773359))

## What people warn about

- Complex and hard to learn (4 comments): "I'm a long time user of raw therapee, that i found both awesome and complex." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49101740)) "Mostly it came down to interface, learning curve, enjoying using the software vs. struggling to get photos to look awesome." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46809008)) "it wasn't intuitive enough and i had to tweak a lot" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47761017))
- Weak denoising (2 comments): "Denoising is a weak part of RT, but I find with proper lighting it is rarely needed" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47475623)) "The denoising is nowhere near as good" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47465804))
- Feels weird compared to Lightroom (2 comments): "RawTherapee feels better, but it still feels weird compared to Lightroom." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50050879)) "And, no, DarkTable, or RAW Therappe are not equivalent to Lightroom or Capture One." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45940155))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Darktable](https://hackerapproved.com/p/darktable.md): 77 recommend
- [Capture One](https://hackerapproved.com/p/capture-one.md): 33 recommend
- [Fujifilm X RAW STUDIO](https://hackerapproved.com/p/fujifilm-x-raw-studio.md): 9 recommend

## Cite as

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