Design & Creative / Photo Editing & RAW Verified 26 Apr 2026

darktable

Open-source RAW developer with non-destructive edits, scene-referred color and OpenCL acceleration

Heidelberg, Germany · Founded 2009 · Open source
A European alternative to Adobe Photoshop Adobe Lightroom Affinity Photo Luminar Neo

About darktable

darktable is an open-source photography workflow application and RAW developer, released under the GPL-3.0-or-later licence. It runs on Linux, macOS and Windows and acts as a virtual lighttable for browsing and a darkroom for non-destructive editing, keeping the original RAW intact and storing edits as parameters until export. Features include a scene-referred colour workflow, GPU acceleration via OpenCL, built-in ICC profiles, RAW loading via rawspeed, HDR support and database-backed image management. Development is community-driven on GitHub with contributors worldwide; the project is free and aimed at enthusiast and pro photographers.

Quick facts

Pricing model Open source
Free trial
Open source Yes
Self-hostable Yes
Public API No
Target audience B2B
Company size fit All
DPA available Yes
Data stored in EU Yes
Last verified by eubuilt.eu on 26 Apr 2026 — re-checks every 6 months Flag listing → Read our criteria →