Raspy vs the iPhone Photos app
Published
This is the comparison Raspy exists for. On an iPhone, the Photos app is better: it is native, it is on every photo you take, and it has filters, portrait effects and clean-up tools Raspy does not. Raspy recreates the part of it that people actually use most, the Adjust sliders and the crop and straighten tools, and puts them in a browser so they work on a Windows PC, an Android phone, a Chromebook, or on a photo that should not be imported into anything.
| Raspy | iPhone Photos | |
|---|---|---|
| Runs on | Any device with a modern browser | iPhone, iPad, Mac |
| Where editing happens | On your device, in the browser | On the device; iCloud Photos is optional |
| Account | None | None to edit; an Apple account for iCloud sync |
| Adjustments | The same fifteen: exposure, brilliance, highlights, shadows, contrast, brightness, black point, saturation, vibrancy, warmth, tint, sharpness, definition, noise reduction, vignette | The same fifteen |
| Crop tools | Aspect ratios, rotate, straighten, flip | Aspect ratios, rotate, straighten, flip, vertical and horizontal perspective |
| Beyond Adjust and Crop | Nothing | Filters, Portrait lighting, Markup, Live Photo and video editing, Clean Up on supported models, RAW editing |
| Edits are | Saved as a new file; the original is untouched | Non-destructive on the library photo; Revert at any time |
| Metadata in exports | Always removed | Kept unless you turn off Location in the share sheet's Options |
What is the same
The fifteen adjustments, in the same order, with the same sign conventions: dragging Highlights to the right darkens them, as it does on the phone, and Vibrancy protects skin tones. The controls are rulers you drag rather than thin sliders, as on the phone. Press and hold shows the original. The crop tool offers the same ratios and swaps them to portrait when you rotate. Straighten covers the frame as it turns, so there are no empty corners. Undo and redo cover everything. Someone who edits on an iPhone should be able to open Raspy on a PC and not think about the interface.
What is missing
Everything outside Adjust and Crop. Raspy has no Filters tab, no Portrait lighting effects, no Markup, no Live Photo or video editing, no Clean Up, and no RAW or ProRAW support. It also has no library: it edits the file you open and saves a new file, rather than keeping a non-destructive edit on a photo you can revert later. That is a genuine loss compared to the phone. It is also what makes Raspy work on a photo that was never in any library.
When Raspy is the better choice
- You are not on an Apple device. Windows, Android, Linux and ChromeOS have no Photos app. Raspy is the same tools in a browser, and it opens the iPhone's HEIC files there without a codec or a conversion.
- The photo is not yours to import. A file a client sent, a photo on a shared computer, an image you want to fix and send back without it joining your iCloud library.
- You want the metadata gone. The Photos app keeps location unless you remember to turn it off in the share sheet each time. Raspy's export never carries it.
- A bigger screen. The same edit on a 27-inch monitor, with a mouse and keyboard, and arrow keys that nudge a slider one step at a time.
A note on the relationship
Raspy is an independent, open-source project. It is not made by, or affiliated with, or endorsed by Apple. It recreates how the Photos editor behaves because that behaviour is good and widely known, and so that the phone edit can happen on every other kind of computer. The source is public, so what it does and does not do can be checked rather than taken on trust. Open the editor to see for yourself.
Sources
Claims about the other product were checked against the pages below on 28 August 2026. Products change; if something here is out of date, the source is the place to confirm it.