Comparison

Luminar vs MergeHDR

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Luminar

This app offers powerful AI-driven photo editing tools for mobile devices. It features intuitive controls, smart enhancements for skies, lighting, and skin, and a range of editing options for composition and style. Supports RAW files and integrates with Apple devices.

Highlights
  • AI Sky Replacement
  • AI Photo Enhancement
  • AI Skin Retouching
  • AI Body Shaping
  • RAW File Editing
  • Intuitive Gesture Controls
  • Photo Filters
Features
Read full description

Luminar — Your all-in-one, on-the-go photo editor and creative companion for iPhone, iPad and Vision Pro. Explore powerful AI-driven tools and an interactive interface that responds to your touch, delivering a uniquely engaging photo editing experience. Streamlined design with unparalleled control Luminar's user-friendly design allows you to edit your photos with intuitive gestures, featuring smoothly gliding sliders and spinning dials that respond realistically to your touch with motion and sound. With Luminar, there are no complicated functions or processes. Less fuss, more creativity. Smart AI enhancements Powered by cutting-edge technology, Luminar is the revolutionary smart AI photo enhancer for your every need: - SkyAI: Seamlessly replace dull skies with brilliant ones for impressive backdrops - EnhanceAI: Effortlessly enhance photo quality with a single slide, adjusting color, tone and clarity for professional results in seconds - StructureAI: Unlock hidden details and clarity in your images, enhancing contrast and texture for striking visual impact - Light Depth: Add natural depth and dimension with AI-powered, depth-aware lighting - FaceAI: Automatically enhance face features, brighten the face and subtly refine proportions - SkinAI: Automatically retouch the skin and remove imperfections for a clean and smooth result - BodyAI: Shape a subject’s midsection in a realistic way by adding or removing volume - BokehAI: Blur backgrounds, adjust focus, customize bokeh shapes All-in-one powerhouse - Curves: Edit photos with precise color and tone adjustments, achieving the perfect balance and mood - Details: Enhance every detail with just a tap, bringing your images to life with clarity and sharpness - Crop: Easily trim, align, flip and rotate for the perfect composition, ensuring your images stand out - Landscape: Transform your landscapes with ease and enhance golden hour lighting, brighten foliage, or remove haze for breathtaking results - Monochrome: Convert your color photos to stunning black and white masterpieces, adding depth and mood to your images - Erase: Effortlessly remove distracting elements from your photos to place focus on your subjects - Photo Filters: Enjoy a diverse collection of photo effects that add a unique style to your shots - RAW File Support: Edit your RAW photos directly on your mobile, preserving maximum image quality Seamless integration with Apple devices Designed for the Apple ecosystem, Luminar makes it easy to edit photos taken on your iPhone or iPad, enhancing your editing workflow. On the iPad, you can add personal touches using the Apple Pencil for sharper details and convenient edits. Plus, discover a new immersive editing experience with Vision Pro, optimized for iPadOS and VisionOS. Luminar — Envision more Whether you're a beginner or a pro, the Luminar AI photo editor offers a range of features to suit your needs, including detail enhancement, photo retouching, color adjustment, and more. Try Luminar now and experience next-level photo editing at your fingertips. Compatibility Note: The Luminar picture editor is optimized for devices running iOS/iPadOS 17 and newer. Please note that on iPad 6-gen, certain advanced features such as Erase, Sky AI and Relight AI are not available. To access all features, you need to purchase one of the plans below: 1 Week subscription 12 Months subscription (+7 days free trial. Once the trial is over, you will be charged a yearly subscription) Lifetime license Subscriptions auto-renew at the cost of the chosen package, unless canceled 24-hours in advance prior to the end of the current period. The subscription fee is charged to your iTunes account at confirmation of purchase. You may manage your subscription and turn off auto-renewal by going to your Account Settings after purchase. Privacy Policy: https://skylum.com/legal Terms of use: https://skylum.com/legal-eula

About

MergeHDR

Automatically finds and merges exposure-bracketed photos from your library. Offers manual control over alignment, deghosting, and tone-mapping for professional HDR results. All processing happens on your device for privacy and offline use.

Highlights
  • Automatic exposure bracket detection
  • Manual alignment and deghosting
  • Adjustable tone-mapping styles
  • Per-exposure layer control
  • On-device processing
  • Export to HEIC
  • Universal Purchase
Features
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Your camera already shot the brackets. MergeHDR finds them. Point a camera at a sunset and a single exposure cannot hold it — either the sky burns out or the foreground falls to black. That is what auto exposure bracketing is for. The catch is what happens next: those 3, 5 or 7 frames sit in your library unmerged, because hunting them down and combining them by hand is a chore. MergeHDR does the hunting. It watches your photo library for exposure-bracket sets — frames shot seconds apart at stepped EVs — and flags every one it finds, reading the EXIF your camera already wrote. No manual sorting. No missed brackets. REVIEW BEFORE YOU COMMIT Every merge is yours to shape: • Alignment corrects the small shifts between handheld frames — no tripod required • Four deghosting levels handle moving subjects, rippling water and windblown leaves • Tone-mapping styles set the look, and you can switch after the merge without reprocessing the set • Per-exposure layers with opacity control, so you can see exactly what each frame contributed SEE THE MATH The merge report shows the exposure ladder, how many stops of headroom you recovered and how much of the frame was blown out before the merge — alongside the camera, lens, ISO and focal length read straight from the file. EXPORT Save the full-quality HDR result, or compress it straight to HEIC on the way out using the same on-device pipeline as our other app, RAWtoHEIC — far smaller files, same detail. Results land back in your library beside the originals, with capture date and location carried over. YOUR ORIGINALS STAY YOURS Nothing is deleted behind your back. If you choose to clear out the source brackets after a merge, they move to Recently Deleted with the usual 30-day safety net. EVERYTHING RUNS ON YOUR DEVICE No cloud. No account. No uploads. Detection, alignment, deghosting and tone-mapping all run locally on your iPhone, iPad or Mac. It works on a plane with no signal, and there is no server to breach because there is no server involved. The App Store privacy label reads what it should: Data Not Collected. WORKS WITH Bracket sets from any camera that writes standard EXIF exposure values — Canon, Sony, Nikon and Fujifilm RAW, plus iPhone ProRAW and JPEG. ONE PURCHASE, EVERY DEVICE MergeHDR is a Universal Purchase. Buy once and it unlocks on iPhone, iPad and Mac, with Family Sharing. FREE TO TRY Merge and preview as much as you like. Saving is free for your first 10 exports, up to 5 a day. After that, MergeHDR Pro unlocks unlimited saves. MERGEHDR PRO • Lifetime — $19.99, one-time purchase • Yearly — $9.99 per year, auto-renewing Payment is charged to your Apple Account at confirmation of purchase. A yearly subscription renews automatically unless it is cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period; your account is charged for renewal within 24 hours of the end of that period. Manage or cancel a subscription in your Apple Account settings after purchase. The lifetime option does not renew. Terms of Use: https://mergehdr.app/terms Privacy Policy: https://mergehdr.app/privacy

Screenshots

Luminar4 screens
MergeHDR4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Luminar at 4.8 against MergeHDR's 1.0. Luminar also leads on ratings volume (4.8K vs 1) and chart position (#170 vs unranked). On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Luminar sells 8 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per 7 days and MergeHDR sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $9.99 per year. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Luminar holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 1.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Luminar has 4.8K ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Luminar ships an update every 9 days, MergeHDR every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on November 4, 2026 and October 29, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 8 level
Luminar versus MergeHDR: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterLuminarMergeHDR
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (4.8K ratings) — better1.0 (1 ratings)
Positive reviews41.6% of reviews—
Number of ratings4.8K — better1
Update frequencyEvery 9 daysEvery 5 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
Best chart rank#170 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Vision ProiPhone, iPad, Mac
Requires iOS17.0 — better18.0
Further details — not scored
Size667 MB9 MB
Age rating4++4
DeveloperSkylumSandro Gumz

Customer experience

Luminar

All ratings4,700 ratings
Positive95.1%
Neutral1.3%
Negative3.5%
Written reviews817 reviews
Positive41.6%
Neutral13.7%
Negative44.7%

MergeHDR

All ratings1 ratings
Positive0.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative100.0%

Bugs and requests

Luminar

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Crashes and freezes
  • Issues with saving and exporting
  • Inaccurate AI-powered tools

Requested features

4 requests
  • Batch editing and presets
  • Raw file support
  • Masking and local adjustments
  • Export options (PNG, TIFF)

MergeHDR

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

8 purchases

Luminar

Subscriptions6
  • 1 Week2 variants$4.997 Days
  • 1 Month$14.991 Month
  • 12 Months7 Days trial$39.991 Year
Show 3 more
  • 1 Year7 Days trial$39.991 Year
  • Prime subscription$69.991 Year
  • 12 Months + Prime7 Days trial$79.991 Year
One-time2
  • Lifetime2 variants$69.99
  • Lifetime Web + Desktop$99.99
2 purchases

MergeHDR

Subscriptions1
  • MergeHDR Pro (Yearly)$9.991 Year
One-time1
  • MergeHDR Pro (Lifetime)$19.99

Questions

Is Luminar free?
Luminar is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is MergeHDR free?
MergeHDR is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Luminar or MergeHDR?
Luminar is rated higher. Luminar averages 4.8 out of 5 from 4.8K ratings, while MergeHDR averages 1.0 from 1 ratings.
Do Luminar or MergeHDR have ads?
Neither Luminar nor MergeHDR shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Luminar or MergeHDR?
Luminar ships an update every 9 days, and MergeHDR every 5 days. Most recently, Luminar was updated on November 4, 2026 and MergeHDR on October 29, 2026.

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