Lightroom Classic vs Lightroom: What’s the Difference?

Both are Adobe apps for editing and organising photos, both are included in Creative Cloud, and both are called “Lightroom.” The confusion is fair — here’s the actual difference and how to pick between them.

Lightroom Classic: desktop-first, folder-based

Lightroom Classic stores your photos on your own computer’s hard drive (or an external drive), organised into folders you control directly. It’s built for photographers with large libraries — tens of thousands of RAW files — who want full control over where files physically live and don’t want to rely on cloud sync for their entire archive. Editing tools are the most complete of the two.

Lightroom (cloud): sync-first, works everywhere

The cloud version of Lightroom stores your photos in Adobe’s cloud rather than a local folder structure. Edit on your desktop, and the same edited photo shows up automatically on your phone and tablet. It’s built for photographers who shoot and edit across multiple devices and want everything synced without manually moving files — at the cost of depending on your storage allowance and internet connection.

Which one should you use?

• Choose Lightroom Classic if you have a large existing photo library, shoot professionally, or want full control over file storage and backups.
• Choose Lightroom (cloud) if you shoot mostly on your phone, want to edit on the go across devices, and don’t have an existing folder-based archive to manage.

You don’t actually have to choose

Both apps are included in the Creative Cloud All Apps plan — you’re not paying extra for one or the other. Plenty of photographers use Lightroom Classic as their main library and occasionally use cloud Lightroom on mobile for quick edits while travelling.

Storage to keep in mind

Lightroom Classic uses your own drive space, so it’s effectively unlimited (as much as your hard drive holds). Cloud Lightroom counts against your Creative Cloud storage allowance — the All Apps plan includes 100GB, which is enough for tens of thousands of standard JPEGs but can fill up faster if you’re syncing full-resolution RAW files.

Frequently asked questions

Can I move photos between the two?

Yes, Adobe provides a migration tool, though large libraries can take a while to sync.

Is Lightroom Classic being discontinued?

No — Adobe continues to update and support both versions in parallel.

Do I need Photoshop as well?

Not necessarily. Lightroom covers most photo editing needs on its own; Photoshop is for more advanced pixel-level editing and compositing.

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