If you sell online, post on social media, or run any kind of product-based business, your photos matter. Clear, professional images can make your products look more trustworthy, more desirable, and more premium. But editing photos and protecting them with watermarks can take time unless you have the right tools. That is why choosing the right app can make such a big difference!
Our top picks are: Canva, GIMP, Photoroom and Watermarkly.
All of these apps offer useful ways to improve your images, and each one has its own strengths depending on how you work.
Canva offers both free and paid plans, GIMP is fully free and open source, Photoroom offers free and paid plans, and Watermarkly also offers free and premium options.
Canva: great for easy editing, branding and quick designs
Canva is one of the easiest tools to use if you want something quick, visual and beginner-friendly. It is designed for people who want to create polished graphics without needing advanced editing skills. Canva’s free plan lets users create designs at no cost, while Canva Pro adds access to premium content, brand tools and extra design features. Canva also explains that Free users may need to pay a one-off fee to use certain Pro content, whereas Pro users get access to Pro content under Canva’s licensing model.
One of Canva’s biggest advantages is convenience. You can quickly resize images, add text, apply simple branding, create product collages, build social posts, and prepare website banners all in one place. It is especially useful if you want your photos and graphics to look visually consistent across your website, social media and email marketing. For many small business owners, Canva is less about heavy photo retouching and more about speed, branding and presentation.
Available options:
- Desktop browser version
- Desktop app
- Mobile app
GIMP: best free option for more advanced editing
If you want a more powerful editor without paying a subscription, GIMP is a fantastic option. GIMP is a free, open-source, cross-platform image editor available on Windows, macOS and Linux.
GIMP is ideal if you want more control over your editing. You can work with layers, masks, selections, colours and detailed adjustments in a much deeper way than in simpler apps. That makes it a strong choice for anyone who wants to clean up product photos carefully, remove distractions by hand, fine-tune lighting, or create more custom edits.
Because it is completely free, it is also one of the best-value tools available for small businesses and hobby sellers alike.
Available options:
- Desktop browser version
Photoroom: excellent for product photos and background removal
Photoroom is especially useful for product sellers because it focuses heavily on fast photo editing and listing-style visuals. Currently, the Free plan includes 250 exports per month when using features like Background Remover, Retouch, Templates and limited AI tools.
The paid versions unlock more features and flexibility, so the free plan is a good starting point if you want to test it before deciding whether it fits your workflow.
If you regularly remove backgrounds, create simple mockups, or want your products to look more polished without spending ages editing them manually, Photoroom can be a huge time-saver. It is one of the easiest tools here for turning ordinary product photos into something that looks much more professional.
Available options:
- Desktop browser version
- Mobile app
Watermarkly: one of the easiest and best tools for watermarking in bulk
If your main goal is adding watermarks quickly, Watermarkly is the most directly focused tool on this list.
With this app you can create custom text or logo watermarks, choose from hundreds of fonts and visual effects, and watermark images in batches online. Watermarkly also offers a free version, while premium access removes Watermarkly branding and unlocks extra features.
This makes Watermarkly particularly useful if you have a lot of photos to protect and do not want to edit them one by one. Batch watermarking can save a huge amount of time, especially if you upload multiple product photos at once.
And the best part about their paid version?
You can choose to only pay the fee once!
For only £33.95 one-off payment you get a LIFETIME ACCESS!
Ever since getting the paid version, this app has become my best friend for watermarking my images!
You can use it on your desktop or download their handy mobile app.
Available options:
- Desktop browser version
- Mobile app