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Design, graphics & illustration

Pixelmator Pro

Price: $49.99 once

PerpetualUpdates included, forever

Buy direct App Store

Price read on apple.com, the page Buy direct opens.

The catch

The one-time build is drifting behind the subscription one, which gets the Warp Tool exclusively

The full picture

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.

Pays back in
3 months
Seats
No Mac count statedNo Mac count: the App Store purchase covers the Macs signed in to your Apple Account, and Family Sharing extends it to up to six family members.
Developer account
None needed
Buy once$49.99Rent 5 years$1,200

$1,150 kept over five years, and you still have the app.
Against Adobe Photography plan at $240 a year, US$19.99 a month, or US$239.88 prepaid for the year. Also replaces Apple Creator Studio at $129 a year and Adobe Photoshop.

What it looks like

Pixelmator Pro: The full Pixelmator Pro window: document title bar, the left tool strip, the right-hand vertical tool rail, and the Color Adjustments pane open with the ML Enhance button, preset thumbnails, and Hue & Saturation, Selective Color with its histogram and colour wheel, Color Balance, Levels, Curves and Replace Color sections, over a portrait with vector scribble artwork on the canvas. Shown on a MacBook mockup but the UI is large and legible.
The full Pixelmator Pro window. Mac App Store (id 1289583905)
Pixelmator Pro: The typography side of the app: a circular 'Golden Gate / San Francisco / Bridge' badge on the canvas with type-on-a-path control handles visible, and the inspector showing Path Type set to Custom, Font Lobster Regular at 260px, alignment controls, a colour swatch, and 'Shrink text to fit', 'Convert into Shape' and 'Convert into Pixels' buttons.
The typography side of the app. Mac App Store (id 1289583905)
Pixelmator Pro: Background removal in progress: the full editing toolbar across the top of the document window, a cut-out portrait on the checkerboard transparency canvas, and the Color Adjustments pane on the right with Chromatic presets, Hue & Saturation, Selective Color, Color Balance and a colour wheel.
Background removal in progress. Mac App Store (id 1289583905)
Pixelmator Pro App Store screenshot 1 of 3
Pixelmator Pro App Store screenshot 2 of 3
Pixelmator Pro App Store screenshot 3 of 3

3 screenshots published by the developer on the Mac App Store.

Images belong to their developers.

What you’re buying

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 owners report

Points that recur across the discussions below. A report of what users say, not our verdict: we don’t review software.

Praised

  • Owners repeatedly say they moved off Photoshop years ago and find Pixelmator Pro more intuitive and more Mac-shaped than what they left
  • Several long-time buyers describe the one-time purchase as one of the best software buys they have made

Criticised

  • Print and layout gaps come up again and again — no true CMYK editing, no artboards, and text layout that owners call thin
  • Owners repeatedly bring up Aperture and Final Cut as the reason they no longer trust Apple to keep an acquired app maintained

Details

The price in full

$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.

The Pixelmator Pro page at apple.com
The developer’s own page. apple.com, captured 22 Sep 2026
Free trial
Yes
Works offline
Yes
Apple Silicon
Native
On Setapp
No
Minimum macOS
not stated
Developer
Apple (originally Pixelmator Team)

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