Lightframes vs darktable

Lightroom and Camera Raw are trademarks of Adobe. Lightframes is independent and is not affiliated with Adobe. darktable is a separate project.

Comparison

	Lightframes	darktable
Price	Free. No account and no paid tier.	Free.
Licence	MIT	GNU GPL, version 3 or later, stated in the source headers
Where it runs	Current Chrome, Edge, Brave, Firefox and Safari, including Chromebooks. Installable PWA. The editor interface is English.	Linux, macOS, Windows, BSD and Solaris, per the features page. Current macOS builds need 13.5 or later and are Apple silicon only; there is no official Intel Mac release (install).
RAW	Yes. LibRaw in WebAssembly opens ARW, CR2, CR3, NEF, NRW, DNG, RAF, ORF, RW2, PEF and SRW. The preview is a half-size 16-bit decode; export develops the sensor data again, up to 8192 px on the long edge, and falls back to the embedded JPEG if LibRaw cannot develop the file.	Yes. The features page lists standard, raw and HDR formats such as JPEG, CR2, NEF and RAF. Camera support is listed on the camera support page.
Lightroom .xmp presets	Import in the Presets tab. Mapped settings include exposure, contrast, highlights, shadows, whites, blacks, temperature and tint, vibrance, saturation, texture, clarity, dehaze, tone curves, HSL, colour grading or split toning, sharpening, noise reduction, vignette and grain. Camera profiles, lens corrections, calibration and local masks are not imported.	No. Presets (styles) from other programs are not compatible (FAQ).
.cube LUTs	Import a .cube file as a preset, with an intensity slider.	LUTs in several formats, as a way to share looks across programs (FAQ).
AI features	On device: background removal and a subject mask (models served by this site, about 45 MB and 5 MB for the upscaler), and object removal (MI-GAN, downloaded from Hugging Face the first time). Photos are not uploaded with the model.	The Flatpak build does not include darktable’s AI features, as of September 2026 (FAQ).
Privacy / uploads	Photos stay in the browser. Edits and presets are stored in IndexedDB on that device. Page visits use cookieless Vercel Web Analytics. The first object-removal download shows your IP to Hugging Face, like any download.	A local application. Originals are not modified; settings go to a database and XMP sidecars (features).
Batch	Copy and paste edits, apply a preset to a filmstrip selection, export a ZIP. There is no photo catalogue: the session lives in the browser.	Library search, ratings and labels, an export system (JPEG, PNG, TIFF, HDR) and Lua scripting (features).

When darktable is the better choice

Pick darktable when the job is a lasting raw library on your own disk. Its features page describes non-destructive editing, a 32-bit float pipeline, OpenCL, display colour management, tethered shooting for some cameras, and export to web galleries as well as files. The FAQ is explicit that this is a toolbox with a steep learning curve, not a Lightroom skin.

It is also the better choice on Linux when you want a native app from your distribution, an AppImage or a Flatpak. Remember the Flatpak limit on AI features noted above, and the macOS limit: official builds currently target Apple silicon on macOS 13.5 or newer.

When Lightframes is the better choice

Pick Lightframes when you already have Lightroom or Camera Raw .xmp presets, or .cube LUTs, and you want to apply them without installing a raw developer. Open the editor, use Presets → Import, and set intensity from 0 to 100%. The same session does batch paste and ZIP export, plus collage and carousel export.

It is the practical option on a Chromebook or a borrowed computer, because nothing is installed and the files are read from disk in the tab. Expect a look that is close, not identical: profiles, lens corrections and masks in the XMP are skipped. There is no lighttable database, no tethering and no Lua. For that, darktable is the honest recommendation, and the free Lightroom alternatives guide covers RawTherapee and Photopea as well.