(Last updated in May 2026 )
A common question I get is whether Snapseed is better than Lightroom, or vice versa.
I use and enjoy both apps, which is why I create tutorials for them. I personally use Lightroom most of the time.
The Snapseed 4.0 update is exciting. In this post, I’ll walk you through the new features and compare them to Lightroom Mobile.
Pros and Cons
We can all agree that Snapseed is the OG mobile app. It’s free and has no hidden costs, making it ideal for hobbyists who just want to quickly touch up their photos.
Lightroom Mobile is more popular, and it has more presets available. It also lets you sync your library across your laptop and mobile devices using the cloud. The app is free, but the paid plan unlocks extra features and gives you more cloud storage.
Snapseed Exclusive Features
- Double exposure
- Glamour Glow, Bloom, Halation
- Grunge Texture
Lightroom Exclusive Features
Color Grading wheels for Split Toning
Batch Editing
The latest Snapseed update lets you copy/paste edits from one photo to another. In practice, that brings Snapseed much closer to the batch workflow you get in Lightroom Mobile.
Features comparison
| Snapseed | Lightroom |
|---|---|
| Curves | Curves |
| Masking | Masking |
| Colour (New) | Color Mixer |
| Healing | Remove |
| HDR-scape | Texture, Clarity |
| Dehaze (New) | Dehaze |
| Portraits | Retouch |
| Frame | Export > Include Border |
Menu and Navigation
Snapseed
There are four tabs: All, Refine, Fix, and Style.
For basic exposure tweaks, use Develop (if it’s a RAW file). Tune Image and Tonal Contrast are also great.
Navigation in Snapseed is intuitive. Within each tool, scrolling left or right adjusts the strength of an effect, while scrolling up or down opens the related sub-menu.
Lightroom
There are six tab: Actions, Preset, Crop, Edit, Masking, Remove.
The Actions tab lets you apply one-click preset or automated edits to your photo, then adjust further if needed.
Exposure and color grading are in the Edit tab.
Film Simulations
| Snapseed | Lightroom |
|---|---|
| Grainy Films | Film Inspired Profiles |
In the Style tab, you can find options including Kodak, Fuji, Agfa, Polaroid, and Technicolor film rolls.
Customize options –
Style Strength, Grain, Grain Size, Grain Texture, Grain Blur
In Lightroom Mobile, you can find the Profile tab by scrolling all the way to the right.
Customize options –
Amount
Masking Tools
A mask enables you to modify specific areas of an image.
| Snapseed | Lightroom |
|---|---|
| Layers | Subject, Background |
| Auto Mask, Manual Mask | Sky, Linear Gradient, Radial Gradient |
| Selective | Color Range Mask, Luminance Range |
| Brush | Brush |
You’ll find “mask and layers” in almost every tool in Snapseed. It includes AI masking for subject and background.
You can also use auto-masking and then refine the selection by brushing directly on the image.
In Lightroom, masking has its own dedicated tab. That means you first create the mask, and then adjust the settings within that mask for more targeted edits.
Color Grading Tools
| Snapseed | Lightroom |
|---|---|
| Curves | Curves |
| Colour | Color Mixer, Point Color |
| Color Grading |
From a color grading standpoint, the new Snapseed update really stepped up big time. You can now change the Hue, saturation and luminance of a specific color. The only thing that is missing in Snapseed is Color Grading compare to Lightroom, that allows split toning for highlights, midtones and shadows.
Curves
Curves is an incredibly powerful tool that lets you adjust the RGB channels separately. You can customize it by adding multiple control points, giving you more precision than sliders. In Snapseed, you can use the “Presets” in Curves to create a faded matte tone easily.
Colour / Color Mix
You can adjust the hue, saturation, and luminance of a specific color. You can also use the eyedropper tool to select an exact color from the image.
Color Grading
This is exclusive to Lightroom. In the Color Grading tool, you’ll find 4 wheels:
- Global
- Shadows
- Midtones
- Highlights
Each wheel controls hue, saturation, and luminance.
By applying different colors to highlights and shadows, you can create split toning. For example, warm highlights and cool shadows.
Strengths
Snapseed
Great results from one-click or lightweight edits
Best for quick, creative styling (glow, film looks, texture effects)
Lightroom
More precise control over exposure, color, and details
Strong at removing/retouching specific areas
Other tools I’ve tested include the Portraits feature, which lets you brighten your face, smooth skin, and whiten teeth. It’s fairly straightforward. On the other hand, the Dehaze tool isn’t as strong as HDR-scape. The Healing tool is also not as good as Lightroom.
Finally, Halation is a film-based effect—it can be a great style choice for social media posts if you like bloom and that soft, glamour-glow look.
All in all, I’m genuinely happy with this update. The film simulation and the AI mask are a major step up and align closely with what we need for 2026. The color tool, similar to the Color Mixer in Lightroom, is exactly what we’ve wanted for a long time.
The art of color grading
