which one is right for you?

Adobe offers a number of tools, Photoshop and Photoshop Elements are two options with very similar features. If you don’t know much about Photoshop Elements, this article will provide you with valuable information to help you determine which one is best for you.

What is Adobe Photoshop?

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past 30 years, you probably already know what Photoshop is – Adobe’s flagship image editing tool. While it started out as a disc that you buy (and own) and install on your computer, it now exists as part of the Adobe Creative Cloud plan.

Photoshop is primarily for photo editing, but you can also animate GIFs in Photoshop to create short videos, illustrate, or create websites. Photoshop goes hand in hand with Adobe Lightroom as the best set of tools for photographers.

With Photoshop, you can create composite photos, perform light or heavy image editing, use the ever-expanding Adobe AI tools built into the software, or even just crop and straighten images. The possibilities of Photoshop are almost limitless.

What is Adobe Photoshop Elements?

This software flies under the radar compared to the main desktop version of Photoshop. Adobe Photoshop Elements is a one-time software that has many attributes in Photoshop but limits some.

Photoshop Elements is available for desktop, browser and mobile, so you can access it from anywhere you can log in, regardless of whether you have the software installed on your system.

Photoshop Elements includes a few AI tools, but not as many as the main version of the software. You can edit photos with filters and effects, quick edits, collages, resize and compose images and elements, and add text.

How much does Photoshop and Photoshop Elements cost?

Both Photoshop and Photoshop Elements can be accessed from a desktop app, web browser, or mobile app for the same major operating systems and platforms, but each is priced differently. Elements is in beta for web and mobile at the time of writing.

Adobe Photoshop is part of Adobe Creative Cloud under a subscription-based pricing model. Despite the many subscription plan options, the costs for long-term users add up over time, which is often why people don’t want to subscribe to Creative Cloud.

If you only want to subscribe to Photoshop, you’ll pay $22.99 per month for a one-year contract. There’s also a photography plan that includes access to Photoshop, Lightroom, and Firefly for $9.99 or $19.99 per month depending on cloud storage.

The Adobe Creative Cloud All Apps plan, which includes all 20+ Adobe software available in Creative Cloud, is priced at $19.99, $59.99, or $89.99 per month for an annual contract, depending on your subscription type (student, professional , company). If you cancel your plan or choose not to renew, you will lose access to the software.

Adobe Photoshop Elements runs on a different pricing model reminiscent of the old Adobe software where you owned the program outright. Photoshop Elements allows you to own the software for three years – this license provides a sense of security that goes beyond monthly rental subscriptions tied to annual contracts.

You can purchase a three-year license for Photoshop Elements for $99.99, and if you upgrade your existing license, you’ll only pay $79.99. You can also get an Adobe Elements Bundle consisting of Photoshop and Premiere Elements – for video and image editing – for a total price of $149.99, or discounted to $119.99 for upgrading your existing license.

The best features of Adobe Photoshop

Photoshop is a powerful editing tool that lets you create anything you can imagine. Here are some of its best features:

Generative AI

Generative AI features came to Photoshop in 2023 with the introduction of Adobe Firefly to most Adobe software. Photoshop received most of the generative AI tools in the form of Generative Expand, Generative Fill, and Remove Distractions.

Its legacy AI tools are also fantastic, such as subject selection and neural filters (using machine learning combined with artificial intelligence).

Use in heavy layers

You’ll find layers in many Adobe programs—including Photoshop Elements—but the demanding nature of Photoshop allows you to use countless layers of large sizes.

You can use Photoshop layers to create incredible photo manipulations, collages, animations, non-destructive editing and AI content. The Layers panel is an important part of the Photoshop workflow and is easy to navigate and use.

Adjustments and blending modes

Photoshop really shines when it comes to simple ways to edit images. You can use its editing tools, found in the Image tab or as an adjustment layer in the Layers panel, to change your images with a myriad of styles. Adjustments affect color, light, contrast, tone, and more.

Along with different ways to edit images, using Photoshop’s extensive blend modes in layers gives you more flexibility. There are also blend modes in Photoshop Elements, but Photoshop offers a greater range with more control over the results.

The best features of Adobe Photoshop Elements

Although Photoshop Elements is limited compared to the main software, it offers users some fantastic features.

Quick tools

Photoshop Elements’ quick tools allow you to make a large number of adjustments to your image quickly and accurately. You can select entire areas of a subject using AI selection and then realistically recolor the selected object, all in a minute or less.

This is just one of the quick tools, but the menu offers much more, such as depth blur, smart correction, background tools, subject selection tools, and color options, to name a handful.

Perfect portrait editing with a guide

Guided editing features in Photoshop Elements help you step through a sequence to get the best results with certain features. Perfect Portrait tools allow you to edit your photo in the right order to achieve subtle but effective portrait enhancements.

Perfect Portrait’s tools include skin smoothing, teeth whitening, the ability to open closed eyes, remove blemishes, straighten or align the head, and more. The results are subtle enough to not look overdone, similar to the results you can achieve with Photoshop’s AI portrait plug-ins.

Templates

Photoshop Elements is not like Adobe Express or Canva, but it offers some design templates for creating image collages, presentations or simple image composites for various uses. The template library isn’t as loaded as other software, but it’s nice to have this option built into the app.

Subtle animated elements

I like this feature because it was unexpected. Despite the fact that you can animate GIFs in Photoshop, I was pleasantly surprised to find a small library of animated elements in Photoshop Elements.

The 2025 version of Photoshop Elements introduced four new animated elements—a small flashing heart, a sparkling overlay, an animated pink border, and a subtle motion zoom—that can add that extra something you didn’t realize your image needed.

Although the editing tools are basic, you can mask areas of the photo and choose how and where your animation appears. I was also surprised that each motion graphic comes with a little sound tune for extra fun.

Photoshop or Photoshop Elements: Which is Right for You?

For most users who want to do extensive photo and image editing, the main desktop software Adobe Photoshop would be a better choice. Although it can be expensive, the tools and features available are second to none. The price is outweighed by the results and versatility that Photoshop offers.

For a non-subscription tool, Photoshop Elements doesn’t offer enough to beat non-Adobe competitors like Canva in my opinion. While it has some creative uses, it doesn’t provide more than you can get elsewhere for free or for less. This is especially true if you’re trying to avoid paying Adobe as a whole, whether it’s a subscription or a longer-term license.

There’s nothing you can do in Photoshop Elements that you can’t do better in Adobe Photoshop.