Pixelmator Pro
mac-native image editor you can still buy outright for $49.99
Perpetual
This is the clearest case on the site of a one-time price quietly becoming the lesser tier. Apple's own page says the Warp Tool is exclusive to the subscription version, and the App Store now carries two listings: a paid Pixelmator Pro at $49.99 on version 3.8, and a free-to-download Pixelmator Pro: Edit Images tied to Apple Creator Studio on a later version. The $49.99 licence is real and yours, and the app keeps working, but expect the feature gap to widen. Mac only; the iPhone and iPad editors are separate apps.
Cost over five years
$50 once = 3 months of Adobe Photography plan. Over five years that is $1,200 rented against $49.99 owned — $1,150 kept, and you still have the app.
Adobe Photography plan priced at $240 a year — US$19.99 a month, or US$239.88 prepaid for the year. Checked 2026-09-22.
Pixelmator Pro is the Mac image editor Apple bought from the Pixelmator Team, and it still behaves like something written for the Mac rather than ported to it. Layers, masks, curves, non-destructive adjustments you can go back and re-edit months later, vector shapes, proper type, and a set of machine-learning tools — subject selection, denoise, super resolution — that do in one click what used to be an afternoon. It opens PSDs, so you are not cut off from anyone still in Photoshop.
For $49.99 once, this is the most app most people will ever need for image work, and it is fast on large files because it is Metal-based and Apple Silicon native.
The complication is what Apple has done around it. There are now two Pixelmator Pros on the App Store: the one you buy, and a free download that unlocks through Apple Creator Studio at $129 a year. Apple states outright that the Warp Tool belongs to the subscription. Your purchase does not expire and the app does not stop working, but you are buying the branch that gets the smaller share of new features.
If you want warp, or you also want the iPad and iPhone apps, price the subscription honestly instead. If you want a capable editor on one Mac and nothing recurring, buy the $49.99 version and ignore the rest.
What it looks like
What it does
- Layered editing with non-destructive, re-editable adjustments and effects
- ML super resolution, subject selection, denoise and background removal
- Opens and saves PSD, plus RAW, HEIC and SVG import
- Vector shapes and real type handling alongside raster tools
- Metal-accelerated and Apple Silicon native
Cancel instead
Also bought outright in design
The facts
- Price
- $49.99
- Licence
- Buy once, own forever
- What you get
- One payment. Updates included, indefinitely.
- Details
- $49.99 as a one-time purchase on the Mac App Store. The same app is also offered inside Apple Creator Studio at $12.99 a month or $129 a year after a 30-day trial, with educator and student subscriptions at $2.99 a month or $29.99 a year. The subscription version has exclusive access to the Warp Tool.
- Free trial
- Yes
- On Setapp
- No
- Minimum macOS
- not stated
- Developer
- Apple (originally Pixelmator Team)
- Price checked
- 2026-09-22
Check it yourself - Price band
- $30 to $60