Review Insights · App Store
Luminar: Image Editor&Enhancer
Skylum · 3,979 ratings · ★ 4.7
4.7
★★★★★
3,979 ratings
🎯 Build a better version
Top complaints - extracted from 58 negative reviews
Recurring phrases mined from 1-2★ reviews. The bigger the percentage, the more users have the same problem. Fix the top 2-3 in your version and you have product-market fit on day one.
1
"subscription"
14 negative reviews mention this · 24% of all complaints
★★★★★ "It’s not bad. What is bad is a friend suggested I try it. So I played with it on a couple of pics and decided it just isn’t my app- I am an adobe girl - so I canceled the subscription after less than one week. Now it’s trying to charge me 39.99 for a on…" - Weathergirl1
2
"money"
13 negative reviews mention this · 22% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Garbage. Money grab. iOS does better.." - AshFallenBrightly
3
"photo"
11 negative reviews mention this · 19% of all complaints
★★★★★ "⚠️ (ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻. Buggier than Apple's trash photo editors, heats up my iPad Pro M2 much worse with a single jpg image, I can imagine what it'll do with a RAW. Loading up a single photo and AI features take so long that it feels like it's trying to create or…" - Jeshua.gtz
4
"support"
9 negative reviews mention this · 16% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Privacy issue: storing your images. They keep your images you send them for AI purposes,I’m assuming indefinitely since policy does not state any period otherwise. If you’re cool with them keeping your pictures for Ai changes on their servers then 5/5 stars Response June 16…" - QuantumHit
5
"scam"
9 negative reviews mention this · 16% of all complaints
★★★★★ "DO NOT PURCHASE. I have cancelled the traditional way several times. I have emailed to cancel. I was on the weekly payment for a trail to see if I wanted to purchase. We are now on week five where they have deducted the $6.99 from my account - again. Althou…" - JEMPoetry
6
"luminar"
9 negative reviews mention this · 16% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Beautiful App, Zero Guidance. I was genuinely excited to try Luminar Mobile and even considered buying the lifetime plan, so I’m glad the 7 day trial exists. Unfortunately, after about 30 minutes I canceled and won’t be continuing. The layout looks clean and the tools s…" - iPhoneGee
7
"save"
8 negative reviews mention this · 14% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Watch out. They let you tweak one of your photos but, you can’t keep it. If you try and save it, you get the subscription page. Classless. Deleted it immediately" - Sharpfinger
8
"charged"
8 negative reviews mention this · 14% of all complaints
★★★★★ "BEWARE!!!. I was under the impression that the yearly subscription included a free 1-week trial and I did not intend to be charged immediately. The app presentation led me to believe I could use the service during the trial period without payment. Thi…" - bertrandleclercq
9
"cancel"
8 negative reviews mention this · 14% of all complaints
★★★★★ "It’s not bad. What is bad is a friend suggested I try it. So I played with it on a couple of pics and decided it just isn’t my app- I am an adobe girl - so I canceled the subscription after less than one week. Now it’s trying to charge me 39.99 for a on…" - Weathergirl1
10
"service"
7 negative reviews mention this · 12% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Privacy issue: storing your images. They keep your images you send them for AI purposes,I’m assuming indefinitely since policy does not state any period otherwise. If you’re cool with them keeping your pictures for Ai changes on their servers then 5/5 stars Response June 16…" - QuantumHit
11
"free"
7 negative reviews mention this · 12% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Way overpriced. Way overpriced subscription garbage. There's far better free options." - Photo411
12
"editor"
7 negative reviews mention this · 12% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Waste. Not any different than editor on iPhone. Quality is practically the same. Trying to remove any objects is terrible. Waste of $$" - Melissa mom of 2
📋 All 58 negative reviews
Every 1-2★ review we fetched. Use the copy button to grab them all for your own analysis (paste into ChatGPT/Claude with a prompt like "summarize core user problems, group by theme, ignore bugs, focus on missing features").
Garbage
Money grab. iOS does better..
Privacy issue: storing your images
They keep your images you send them for AI purposes,I’m assuming indefinitely since policy does not state any period otherwise.
If you’re cool with them keeping your pictures for Ai changes on their servers then 5/5 stars
Response June 16:
Directly from your privacy policy:
Data retention: Personal data (including uploaded content) is kept only as long as needed for the service, legal obligations, support, or disputes-typically tied to your subscription/account duration plus a limited period (e.g., up to 6 years post-subscription in some cases).
And that’s doesn’t even include what the third parties retention policies are.
If you’re cool with them keeping your pictures for Ai changes on their servers then 5/5 stars
Response June 16:
Directly from your privacy policy:
Data retention: Personal data (including uploaded content) is kept only as long as needed for the service, legal obligations, support, or disputes-typically tied to your subscription/account duration plus a limited period (e.g., up to 6 years post-subscription in some cases).
And that’s doesn’t even include what the third parties retention policies are.
Way overpriced
Way overpriced subscription garbage. There's far better free options.
⚠️ (ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻
Buggier than Apple's trash photo editors, heats up my iPad Pro M2 much worse with a single jpg image, I can imagine what it'll do with a RAW.
Loading up a single photo and AI features take so long that it feels like it's trying to create or export a movie.
Great for beginners, not for experienced editors
Loading up a single photo and AI features take so long that it feels like it's trying to create or export a movie.
Great for beginners, not for experienced editors
Not Free to Use
Great ad on social media that draws people in but is incredibly deceptive. But then you download the app and find out you have to pay to use it. Garbage! Gemini is free and does the same thing!
Watch out
They let you tweak one of your photos but, you can’t keep it. If you try and save it, you get the subscription page.
Classless. Deleted it immediately
Classless. Deleted it immediately
BEWARE!!!
I was under the impression that the yearly subscription included a free 1-week trial and I did not intend to be charged immediately. The app presentation led me to believe I could use the service during the trial period without payment. This is probably made on purpose.
They keep milking the cow (you)
You’ll buy it only to buy another upgrade 8 month later. Greedy people
DO NOT PURCHASE
I have cancelled the traditional way several times. I have emailed to cancel. I was on the weekly payment for a trail to see if I wanted to purchase. We are now on week five where they have deducted the $6.99 from my account - again. Although, I have cancelled repeatedly. There is no way to contact them directly, as they do not answer email. I’m going to have to take the time to have my bank stop payment. It’s a scam.
Almost a scam
Forces you to pay money to do anything. The erase feature is laughably bad. Want my money back
Wish I could get my money back
Absolutely Terrible ! Such a waste of money. Wish I could get my money back because I’ll never use this. Too many better options. Don’t buy into all of the influencer hype
Love the promise, disappointed in the delivery
I have had the mobile version for a while now so I went ahead and bought the perpetual cross device Luminar Neo for my MacBook. My mobile app and MacBook app will not sync. I have chatted with two support reps and they couldn’t help. I was promised it would be escalated and I would get an email from tech support. Has not happened. This is ridiculous. My next step is to demand a refund I’ll stick with Lightroom. Snapseed has been easier to work with. Disappointed.
Price not as advertised
I purchased the pro mode and it said it was 50% off but I was charged full price. Now they aren’t responding to my emails 🤷🏼♂️
Love the app, hate the support
If it wasn’t for the poor support, this would be 4-4.5 stars, but I originally had the weekly subscription, and then found a lifetime subscription deal and took it, but they keep charging me weekly with no clear way to unsubscribe and zero response from support.
License confusion
I purchased the week long license for 4.99 to try it out. When I opened it, it offered a lifetime license for 99 dollars for Desktop+ and mobile. I bought that and restarted my device. On IPAD, I cancelled my 1 week subscription because I figured I now had the inclusive license for both desktop and mobile. It pops up and ask me to resubscribe to mobile for an additional 49.99 lifetime.That’s just plain false advertising in my book and a rip off.
Trash
They sell you a lifetime then try to sell you bunch of add ons constantly. Regretting buying this horrible product.
This is A Do Not Buy
I bought a week of access and cancelled the first day. The app is like LR Mobile with a different UI. The worst part is the charge for renewal was taken from my account the follow week, even after cancelled. I contacted the company, no refund option from them nor from Apple. That doesn’t sit right and makes me unwilling to purchase or even try anything from this company again. I had to remove an account from the App Store to end recurring payments.
Greedy
I was all right to write a glowing review. Although the app does what 1 million other apps will do, I really like the way they have organized the tools and the information design. I particularly love the way you can move the lighting for a photo.
The fact that they had a lifetime price instead of subscription also made me almost ready to buy.
Then I tested it and found they will not let me download my results at all nor will they let me take a screenshot of it without being a paying member.
This makes for a horrible experience and breeds mistrust about the developer. It’s reasonable that they don’t want people to be able to use everything and take advantage of them. But what they could do is allow five or 10 downloads or a day of downloads and then you have to pay after.
I so much wanted to love and buy this app but that’s a dealbreaker for me.
The fact that they had a lifetime price instead of subscription also made me almost ready to buy.
Then I tested it and found they will not let me download my results at all nor will they let me take a screenshot of it without being a paying member.
This makes for a horrible experience and breeds mistrust about the developer. It’s reasonable that they don’t want people to be able to use everything and take advantage of them. But what they could do is allow five or 10 downloads or a day of downloads and then you have to pay after.
I so much wanted to love and buy this app but that’s a dealbreaker for me.
2026 Update
Read that Skylum made some updates and I was HOPING the UI had changed to "usable" format. No such luck. It's pathetic! Dials and swipes through spaces--what were developers thinking? If it had been good, I would purchase for the one-time fee. Interface is still horrible. Please, Skylum, see Adobe Lightroom to see what an iPad Photo Editor app is supposed to look like!
This is awful
This is awful tricks you at first your like *great app* until you try to download pictures
👎
This company lets you test out the software but won’t allow you to export a modified photo for closer examination and comparison to the ORIGINAl, UNLESS YOU PAY UP FRONT. NO THANKS.
IF THEY WANT YOU TO PURCHASE THEY SHOULD AT LEAST GIVE THE USER A REASONABLE TEST PERIOD. EVEN ONE (1, as in UNO) HOUR OF WORKING WITH IT WOULD SUFFICE.
What are they afraid of?
My opinion is they care more about getting your money and LESS about true value for the hard earned dollars of the consumer….
IF THEY WANT YOU TO PURCHASE THEY SHOULD AT LEAST GIVE THE USER A REASONABLE TEST PERIOD. EVEN ONE (1, as in UNO) HOUR OF WORKING WITH IT WOULD SUFFICE.
What are they afraid of?
My opinion is they care more about getting your money and LESS about true value for the hard earned dollars of the consumer….
Garage
Download the files and then when I remove the SD card the software says file not found. Cumbersome to download and save the pictures in your computer.
Limited
No aspect ratio options other than 1:1. No develop tab like the example video.
Overpriced Hipstamatic wannabe
I can’t say much except unless you spend money, you get to edit one type of film and you can’t shoot with it. Only post production. Which is fine, but I would rather be able to change up my style of film during actual shooting.
I’m certainly not cheap when it comes to apps. I’m not going to say how many Photo and audio apps I have or that I beta test, but it is quite a bit. I wanted to like this app, but just not a fan.
There’s actually a new version of Hipstamatic, which should be cheaper and you get access to at least 100 or so lenses, about 80 of types of film, 25 different flashes,
and more than this app will ever give you. Plus, if you get a subscription to the new Hipstamatic, you have access to all those lenses, films, and flashes in the app - which you don’t have to do anything and post.
I’m certainly not cheap when it comes to apps. I’m not going to say how many Photo and audio apps I have or that I beta test, but it is quite a bit. I wanted to like this app, but just not a fan.
There’s actually a new version of Hipstamatic, which should be cheaper and you get access to at least 100 or so lenses, about 80 of types of film, 25 different flashes,
and more than this app will ever give you. Plus, if you get a subscription to the new Hipstamatic, you have access to all those lenses, films, and flashes in the app - which you don’t have to do anything and post.
You can’t even try it without buying
How do I know it’s not another garbage photo editor without trying?
Terrible customer service
I have never written a negative review in my life until now. The product is fine but the customer service is horrible. This was partially my fault and I admit it but this was the issue. Their website had the perpetual cross-platform license listed as the same price as just the perpetual license on the App Store. Cross platform meaning the desktop software includes use of the mobile app. When I came over to the App Store to buy it after seeing the price, I was under the impression I was getting the cross-platform version. I didn’t realize this until I tried to use the mobile version and I didn’t work. After 4 attempts reaching out to the company the only replies I received were them telling me to go buy the mobile version. There last reply was
“I completely understand your frustration, and I`m so sorry for the inconvenience.
Have a marvelous day!
Andrii,
Skylum Support Team”
“I completely understand your frustration, and I`m so sorry for the inconvenience.
Have a marvelous day!
Andrii,
Skylum Support Team”
Mediocre at Best
First, I admit I made a mistake. I had apparently done the trial at some point in the past. Obviously, I wasn’t impressed then, either. I clicked on the year subscription this time thinking that I was getting a 7 day trial. With no warning that I wasn’t, I was charged the full amount. I used it for a few minutes and started to delete it. Instead, I’m going to make some videos demonstrating it to let as many people as I can not to get ripped off too. It will probably be a popular app with teenage girls because it has a lot of features, and you can do the usual extremely fake-looking editing that is popular with them. I tried the face shine removal, and it’s worthless. I did the blemish removal, and it makes the skin look plastic. There is a body reshaping tool, and instead of smooth, gradual changes they are abrupt with no real control. I have no idea how this app has good reviews. They won and got my money, but I will never use it again except to demonstrate how bad it is to other people. There are so many great apps available, but this one is a massive waste of money. Editing this to add to the bad, although with a company like this, they probably don’t let the bad reviews be seen. I decided to try this one more time since I had been ripped off for $32, and I realized even more about how ridiculous it is. A great example is that there is a feature that “allows” you to change the exposure of the background independently of the foreground. I had a model sitting and wanted to darken the background behind her. It did it by apparently putting a radial gradient from the top down. It darkened the model’s face and top half of her body too. This is probably the most embarrassingly bad app I’ve ever used.
Will NOT STOP BILLING
I cancelled this app immediately and I am still be billed over and over again. I have emailed - no response. I have gotten credit card to reverse charges but I have done that 5 times now. DO NOT USE THIS APP UNLESS YOU WANT A LIFETIME Of CHARGES
Thought this app was gonna be different. When I saw people using this on desktop it’s so different
Thought I’d be getting a similar product but it’s not at all the same as when I watched a youtube video of luminar. Also just got a new phone and it keeps wanting me to buy it even though I already did. Save your money and just use snapseed honestly
Disappointed
This app tricked me into a free trial and now I’m unable to cancel under my subscriptions. I was unable to cancel and still am unable to cancel. They charged me 49.99
Placement of everything
I’m not thrilled with this app at all I am used to face tune great apps, click a button easy this I cannot even find Go to edit at the bottom left of the screen it’s like I’m either missing something. It’s ridiculous. It doesn’t offer much in the retouch You filters I don’t know not thrilled yet
Repeated Unauthorized Charges - Serious Billing Problems
I want to warn others about a major and ongoing billing issue with Skylum. I downloaded the app, tried it for about an hour, and canceled the trial immediately through Apple to avoid being charged. Canceling the subscription did not stop Skylum from charging me.
After that, I began receiving repeated, unauthorized $4.99 charges directly to my credit card. These charges continued even though I had canceled properly and had no active subscription. They did not match anything in my Apple account, and Skylum’s own website shows no invoices, no receipts, and no financial history for the charges they made.
The billing continued for months - sometimes multiple times in a single day - and I ultimately had to involve my bank’s fraud department to block the merchant. Canceling did nothing.
This is not a customer error. You can read many other App Store reviews describing the exact same problem. This is a company issue, and users deserve to be warned before signing up for a “trial” or providing any payment information.
The software may be good, but the billing practices are predatory, and consumers should proceed with caution.
After that, I began receiving repeated, unauthorized $4.99 charges directly to my credit card. These charges continued even though I had canceled properly and had no active subscription. They did not match anything in my Apple account, and Skylum’s own website shows no invoices, no receipts, and no financial history for the charges they made.
The billing continued for months - sometimes multiple times in a single day - and I ultimately had to involve my bank’s fraud department to block the merchant. Canceling did nothing.
This is not a customer error. You can read many other App Store reviews describing the exact same problem. This is a company issue, and users deserve to be warned before signing up for a “trial” or providing any payment information.
The software may be good, but the billing practices are predatory, and consumers should proceed with caution.
Scam
You should make it paid app if i can't save any edit i made
CHANGE IT BACK!!!
The new update makes editing photos on my iPad twice as long. Before the picture selection had a menu to the left and all of m albums were there and I could select a picture, edit and save that image. Now it saves a whole new image. Every time I have to start the image selection process over. It was so simple before the new update. Going back to Lightroom.
Luminar 3.0 ruined the app
What did you do? 3.0 made the app WORSE. What happened to Photos App integration?
Does not work
Photos never load even after giving access to all.
Scam
Seems good until you want to save a copy of your work. Then they want $50!
Horrible!!! Beware
There’s not a way to cancel your subscription through Apple App Store or inside the app itself. You’re throwing money away.
Greed pricing and data tracking
Ruined a perfectly good app with greed and privacy violations
Cancel
Please cancel my subscription for Weekly Luminar Mobile Photo Editor immediately and confirm by reply. I did not knowingly agree to a weekly recurring payment.
They will steal your money! Avoid this app at all costs
This app is a complete scam in my experience. I authorized one initial payment for Luminar Mobile, and ever since then I’ve been repeatedly billed unauthorized $4.99 weekly charges through a shady third-party outfit called Shinyfields Limited (Cyprus) via Stripe . Despite repeated attempts to cancel, the charges keep coming.
Customer service is nonexistent. Skylum/Luminar doesn’t provide a real cancel button. Instead, they funnel you into a useless support form, never respond, and keep charging your card. It’s a deliberate runaround designed to trap people in subscriptions.
On top of that, the app quality is terrible. Luminar Mobile offers only a fraction of the functionality and polish of Adobe Lightroom. The editing tools are clunky, the UI feels amateurish, and the results don’t come close to professional standards. For the same price (or less), Lightroom Mobile is infinitely better, stable, and backed by a real company with real support.
Skylum/Luminar comes across as an immature company with garbage service, hiding behind shell billing companies and ignoring customers. Until they overhaul both their product and their ethics, I’d advise anyone considering Luminar to stay far away.
Save yourself the headache and go with Lightroom or another professional editor. Luminar is not worth the hassle, frustration, or risk of unauthorized charges.
Customer service is nonexistent. Skylum/Luminar doesn’t provide a real cancel button. Instead, they funnel you into a useless support form, never respond, and keep charging your card. It’s a deliberate runaround designed to trap people in subscriptions.
On top of that, the app quality is terrible. Luminar Mobile offers only a fraction of the functionality and polish of Adobe Lightroom. The editing tools are clunky, the UI feels amateurish, and the results don’t come close to professional standards. For the same price (or less), Lightroom Mobile is infinitely better, stable, and backed by a real company with real support.
Skylum/Luminar comes across as an immature company with garbage service, hiding behind shell billing companies and ignoring customers. Until they overhaul both their product and their ethics, I’d advise anyone considering Luminar to stay far away.
Save yourself the headache and go with Lightroom or another professional editor. Luminar is not worth the hassle, frustration, or risk of unauthorized charges.
Horrible customer service
I asked them to cancel it but they keep changing my card
STAY AWAY
IT IS A SCAM
STAY AWAY
IT IS A SCAM
Scum alert‼️🚨🚨🚨‼️‼️‼️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️scum alert
Pathetic support trying to hard justify why they scum. watch out they steal money !
First impression
I have this error when I try to login “At internal error has occurred, check your internet connection or contact support”. It doesn’t matter if you use WiFi or cellular.
Free Trial not so free
Installed the app with free trial and within 5 mins of trying, I decided to cancel my trial. App still charged me once after I cancelled.
Good, not great
This app used to be wonderful, but honestly given the price of their premium editor, I’d say pass. Takes forever to load edits, only to find that the edits are not good. Perhaps that is a problem with the speed or performance of my desktop, but I’d at least expect the edits to come out the way I hoped after waiting 5 minutes to erase an object. iPhones standard object removal works better. And honestly I couple plug a photo into ChatGPT and prompt it with something as simple as “make this photo a little better” and it will almost instantly spit out a photo that is better. Disappointing to pay premium pricing for a tool like this that is lagging behind in quality. That said, other functions within the editing tools are elite, but only if you need to get that granular. And if you do need to get that granular, I’d suggest exploring more advanced creative tools such as Adobe.
No Support and No Refunds, Licensing Scam!
Stay clear of the Offers to go Cross-device
Perpetual License, they never Honored the License for Android or iPad, Only the Windows activation Works. No return emails from Support, I only got canned responses for “Verify you are using the email address you purchased with” and about them going to follow up after the initial Ticket. "30 days money back guarantee"……..that’s a Ticket as well, still haven’t heard from them, Support is there only to run out the clock!
Perpetual License, they never Honored the License for Android or iPad, Only the Windows activation Works. No return emails from Support, I only got canned responses for “Verify you are using the email address you purchased with” and about them going to follow up after the initial Ticket. "30 days money back guarantee"……..that’s a Ticket as well, still haven’t heard from them, Support is there only to run out the clock!
SCAM - CHARGES YOU DIRECTLY
Luminar (Skylum) charges you directly, not via Apple, so you cannot unsubscribe via your Apple account. This is clearly in breach of the App Store’s terms of service. I’ve tried to cancel my subscription via a complaint and they still haven’t done so, and they just charged me yet again.
Ugly app from ugly devs
The app leaves an extremely negative impression. The developers have crossed the line by mixing language and politics, using openly offensive and discriminatory approaches. Instead of a useful service, the user gets aggressive propaganda and humiliation. Such an attitude alienates even those who were neutral at first.
On top of that, the app itself is poorly made: everything works so badly that even the added “effects” like clouds and lightning look like pixelated garbage - big squares are visible to the naked eye. When you try to remove an object, you end up with a mess instead of a clean background. Almost all of the functions this app offers are already available for free on iOS, and they are implemented there far better. This product deserves neither attention nor a positive rating.
..
La aplicación deja una impresión extremadamente negativa. Los desarrolladores han traspasado los límites al mezclar idioma y política, utilizando enfoques abiertamente ofensivos y discriminatorios. En lugar de un servicio útil, el usuario recibe propaganda agresiva y humillación. Esa actitud aleja incluso a quienes al principio eran neutrales.
Además, la aplicación en sí está mal hecha: todo funciona tan mal que incluso los “efectos” añadidos, como nubes y rayos, parecen basura pixelada - los cuadrados se ven a simple vista. Al intentar eliminar un objeto, lo que queda es un desastre en lugar de un fondo limpio. Casi todas las funciones que ofrece esta aplicación ya están disponibles gratis en iOS, y allí están implementadas de manera mucho mejor. Este producto no merece ni atención ni una valoración positiva.
On top of that, the app itself is poorly made: everything works so badly that even the added “effects” like clouds and lightning look like pixelated garbage - big squares are visible to the naked eye. When you try to remove an object, you end up with a mess instead of a clean background. Almost all of the functions this app offers are already available for free on iOS, and they are implemented there far better. This product deserves neither attention nor a positive rating.
..
La aplicación deja una impresión extremadamente negativa. Los desarrolladores han traspasado los límites al mezclar idioma y política, utilizando enfoques abiertamente ofensivos y discriminatorios. En lugar de un servicio útil, el usuario recibe propaganda agresiva y humillación. Esa actitud aleja incluso a quienes al principio eran neutrales.
Además, la aplicación en sí está mal hecha: todo funciona tan mal que incluso los “efectos” añadidos, como nubes y rayos, parecen basura pixelada - los cuadrados se ven a simple vista. Al intentar eliminar un objeto, lo que queda es un desastre en lugar de un fondo limpio. Casi todas las funciones que ofrece esta aplicación ya están disponibles gratis en iOS, y allí están implementadas de manera mucho mejor. Este producto no merece ni atención ni una valoración positiva.
COMPLETE SCAM!
After attempting to sign up for the free trial, I was charged SEVEN times for the annual fee! Was not even able to use the free trial features as it never synced with my account. Instead of refunding the charges, they charged me SIX more times!!
+ 8 more in the clipboard copy
Sentiment summary
95%
Positive (4-5★)
1%
Neutral (3★)
4%
Negative (1-2★)