Fotor Vs. Photoshop: Which One To Choose?

Published by Color Experts International April 15, 2023

Key Features of Fotor Vs. Photoshop

Fotor is a quick tool to edit and enhance your photos to a professional level regardless of your competencies with photo editing software. It has a very convenient user interface with the image placed in the center and editing tools panel on the left.

There are three options to choose from in the top menu bar- edit, design, collage by selecting in the top bar. You can upload or drag the image to be edited, or use one that comes from the library. Only tools that are relevant to the specific option you have selected are available on the left side. There are some tools that only come with a premium subscription. These tools are not fully functional with the free version and put watermarks on the file.

Photoshop opens up with a home screen that could be a bit harder for a beginner to navigate gracefully but once accustomed to the interface it is very much customizable. On the left side, there is a grouped tools panel where many of the tools are kept hidden until you right-click on a particular tool icon.

The menu bar at the top displays all the options and commands related to files, editing, selections, and layers. There is also a panel on the right side that displays the layers and other work panels.

The parameter panel below the menu bar lists all the settings of the particular tool selected. The great news is that photoshop has workspace options that the users can predefine based on their preferences of which tools and panels to display and which to hide.

Editing: Fotor Vs. Photoshop

Editing in Fotor

Fotor offers basic editing options such as crop, resize, or rotate an image. You can adjust the brightness and color by simply dragging the slider to see the effects in real-time. There are four options in the basic adjustment settings- namely brightness, contrast, saturation, and sharpness. In the Fine Tune sections, there are additional options to adjust the exposure, highlights, and shadows. It is also possible to change the tint and temperature of the color.

There are advanced editing tools like Curves to adjust light and contrast, and smart tools like Clone to remove spots and blemishes. But the result might not be quite up to the mark as compared to Photoshop. In the paid version, you would be able to use the one-click image enhancement which might give you satisfactory results depending on your purpose.

For design purposes, you can use texts, frames, special filters and effects, and other elements that can produce amazing works with minimal effort.

Editing in Photoshop

Photoshop is the most comprehensive image editing software available in the industry. It has the most advanced photo editing and retouching tools as long as you know where to find them. It offers basic editing options like blur, sharpness, eraser, and cloning which can serve most of the editing needs.

The more advanced and in-depth editing can be achieved by working with layers, channels, and selections. Being the industry leader, the software has ample advanced features like color correction tools, brushes, selection tools that you can not describe fully in a single write-up.

Photoshop has a steep learning curve so it takes a substantial amount of time to master it. With this consideration in mind, developers are constantly trying to simplify Photoshop using AI technology. For example, features like automatic background removal, content-aware crop tool, etc. can save valuable time in certain cases.

After editing, it is possible to save the file in Creative Cloud where other users can also make changes to it. Cloud saves all the previous versions of the file as the editing goes on. Fotor also has a similar cloud saving option with its paid version but has some limitations compared to Photoshop.

Graphic Designs: Fotor Vs Photoshop

Fotor can be used for simple graphic design purposes such as designing banners, posters, flyers, social media covers, etc. It suits well for beginner-level designers as it does not require much design knowledge to create something beautiful. Fotor has a collection of tens of thousands of templates which make it easier to come up with designs that serve every purpose. It is also possible to create a photo collage combining multiple images on Fotor.

For those who are still using Powerpoint for creating presentations, Fotor can be a great alternative. It has a huge library of HD photos, and vector graphics that make the design procedure quite simple and effective. There is ample room to get creative as the entire process can be started from scratch as per imagination.

Photoshop has both raster and vector properties so both of these file types can be incorporated into a file. Besides, as it supports both RGB and CMYK color profiles, designs can later be adjusted for printing purposes.

Layers are the most important element for designing in Photoshop. It offers the most advanced features such as layer mask, object selections, content-aware fill, and other elements to craft a beautiful and effective design. In addition, there are plenty of options for integrations in Photoshop. But, Fotor currently does not directly support such integrations.

Price Comparison: Fotor Vs Photoshop

The basic version of Fotor is completely free, however with limited functionality. To avoid the watermarks and utilize the software’s full capacity, you can go for the Fotor Pro for US$8.99 per month.

Fotor pro plus offers more than 10000 visual elements which you can use for your designs. You can opt for Fotor Pro Plus that comes with US$19.99 per month without any concession. Fotor Pro Plus has a collection of over 1 million HD stock images and other elements that get updated every week.

If you want to use Adobe Photoshop, you may want to have Adobe Creative Cloud Subscription. There are several ways you can do so. Photographers can choose the photography plan which costs US$20.99 per month and includes Lightroom with it. But if your goal is to design creative visuals, you may want to have the Photoshop plan which is available at US$20.99 per month.

So we can see that the pricing of Photoshop is slightly higher than that of Fotor. But Fotor may only be helpful to beginners. For advanced designers, Photoshop will be more preferable.

Our Choice

Fotor is an online-based light application that anyone can use for editing, retouching, and designing purposes. Anyone with a bit of creativity can use this software to create beautiful visuals that create wow among the viewers. Since it does not require any hard skills, it suits perfectly for beginners.

Photoshop, on the other hand, is a multi-layered image editing software used for diverse design projects such as editing, retouching, etc. The only obstruction is that you need to invest some time in learning and mastering the software. But for serious designers learning this software is a must.

To Wrap It Up

Photoshop is undoubtedly the leading image editing and manipulation software in the industry. For expert designers, learning this software is a must. However, for the novices who are still at the learning stage, Fotor can be a great alternative. It is a great place to take inspiration and also design attractive visual elements while still trying to master Photoshop.