You may lose your prized pictures due to accidental deletion, corruption, virus attack, etc. Fortunately, there are professional photo recovery tools available in the market. But the task of finding the right photo recovery software for your needs can be stressful. To help you make the right decision, we have handpicked the best paid photo recovery software you can trust. You’ll also find a comprehensive table at the end for a quick comparison of all software mentioned in this article.
These professional software are secure and free from malware. Keep reading to get a complete understanding of their features, benefits, disadvantages, cost, and overall rating.
Top 13 Best Photo Recovery Software [Paid]
1. Stellar Photo Recovery
Stellar Photo Recovery is one of the best photo recovery software available. It comes with a user-friendly interface that helps recover multiple types of photos, videos, and audio files. The software serves as a DIY recovery tool in all photo loss scenarios such as deletion, formatting, corruption, malware-attack, etc. Stellar Photo Recovery supports recovery from memory cards, SDXC, SDHC, microSD cards, etc., inserted in various devices DSLR, CCTV, drone, or dash cams from Nikon, Canon, Sony, Panasonic, Canon, Olympus, DJI, Parrot, etc. Using the software, you can perform SD card recovery from all famous brands such as SanDisk, Kingston, Sony, Samsung, and others. It also lets you add a new file type with a unique extension for recovery. The tool scans your drive and finds lost files that can be recovered. At any point during the scan, you can save the scan information and resume it later.
Additionally, to fasten the recovery process, you can select and scan a particular drive/volume or location and the type of data you want to recover rather than scanning the entire system. Stellar Photo Recovery can also recover photos from drives encrypted with Windows’ BitLocker tool.
The software is also available in two other versions – Professional and Premium. While Stellar Photo Recovery Professional can also repair corrupt photos, including RAW images, Stellar Photo Recovery Premium can repair both corrupt photos and videos along with the recovery feature.
Pros:
- Simple and user-friendly interface
- Free trial available
- 100% accurate recovery results
- File preview option available
- Retrieves photos from BitLocker encrypted drives
- Customized file recovery available
- Quick and deep scanning options available
- Supports Windows 11 and macOS Monterey
Cons:
- Recovers photos, videos, and audio files only
- The free version recovers up to 10 media files
Price: You can buy Stellar Photo Recovery Standard Edition at $49.99 with a 1-year license. Its Professional and Premium Editions are available at $59.99 and $69.99, respectively. The software offers free photo recovery of up to 10 files.
2. Recoverit Photo Recovery
Recoverit Photo Recovery by Wondershare is an efficient tool that can restore deleted pictures, videos, and audio files. It supports many file systems, including NTFS, ReFS, APFS, RAW, etc. It works in all photo loss situations such as accidental deletion, system crashing, formatting, partition loss, virus attack, and more. You can easily install the software and scan the location, drive, or the entire desktop to find lost or deleted files.
It offers a free version that can restore up to 10 files. Technical support is available only for the paid versions.
Pros
- Simple interface with better user experience
- Supports recovery from hard drives, USBs, SD cards, etc.
- Supports 1000+ file types and formats Recovery from formatted, RAW, lost, or damaged partition
Cons
- The free version can recover only up to 10 files
- Preview file feature is limited to only a handful of image file formats
- Several duplicates in the scan results
- Bootable media recovery is available with Standard and Advanced versions
Price: Recoverit Photo Recovery software has 3 editions — Essential, priced at $69.99/year for 1 PC; Standard at $79.99/year with a bootable kit; and the Premium version with files recovery and repair feature for 2 PCs at $99.99/year.
3. Disk Drill Photo Recovery App
Disk Drill by Cleverfiles is an efficient paid photo recovery software with intuitive GUI and advanced user-friendly features. Its Windows and macOS versions recover your deleted photos from SD cards, HDD, SSD, pen drives, flash drives, and more. It can undelete photos from formatted and corrupt hard drives or removable media using NTFS, FAT32, exFAT, Ext2, Ext3, Ext4, HFS+ file systems.
You can filter the scan results based on file size and last deleted duration, such as 1 week, 1 month, 2 months, 1 year, and so on. Like Stellar Photo Recovery, it has an impressive grid view and sorting feature. Additionally, the software recovers deleted videos, audio files, and documents.
The multifunctional Disk Drill not only recovers but also searches for lost partitions; provides data backup by creating disk image; data protection via Recovery Vault, and shares SMART health status of your connected disk.
However, on the downside, Disk Drill doesn’t let you scan for specific file types like only for images or videos — a feature that could have reduced scanning time. Unlike Stellar Photo Recovery, it scans the complete drive for all types of files. You can select and view the desired file types after scanning.
Disk Drill offers free photo recovery up to 500MB. It offers a comparatively expensive license key with a lifetime upgrade at $89. With a single-user license, you can install Disk Drill on up to 3 computers.
Pros
- Deep Scan mode
- Allows preview of recoverable files
- Often fails to recover from >1 TB drives
- Supports Windows 11 and macOS Monterey
Cons
- Scans the entire system. No option to select and scan drive’s volume/ partition.
- Customized scanning absent
- Preview of recoverable files is not always accurate
- Expensive
Price: Disk Drill Photo Recovery with lifetime license costs $89, while its Enterprise edition is available at $499.
4. Ontrack EasyRecovery Photo
Ontrack EasyRecovery Photo is another DIY photo recovery software that you may use to restore all the media files lost due to deletion, formatting, corruption, and so on. It works with all the major brands of cameras, drones, computers, laptops, memory cards, USB flash drives, external storage drives, etc. Similar to Stellar Photo Recovery, it helps you create an image of the selected media or volume you scanned to recover your files. It is available for both Windows and Mac systems.
Advanced features such as RAW file recovery, Unicode file recovery support, video and photo repair, and Save scan information & resume recovery are available in the paid Professional and Technician editions of Ontrack EasyRecovery.
Software free trial is available, but you need to fill a form with your basic details.
Pros
- Easy-to-use interface
- Quick Scan and Deep Scan
- Recovers from cameras, drones, PCs, memory cards, USB flash drives, and more
- Supports recovery for FAT32, ExFAT, and NTFS file systems
Cons
- Free trial version can’t recover any data
- No option to scan files by file type
- No file preview option
- No support for CD, SSD, RAID recovery
Price: Ontrack EasyRecovery Professional is available at $50/ year for 1 PC, while the Technician Windows version costs $66.95. The Technician macOS edition is available at $83.90.
5. Remo Recover Media
Another photo recovery software in our top 10 list is Remo Recover Media. This DIY software is available for both Windows and Mac and provides advanced scanning option to restore files from formatted or deleted drive partitions. It can work with a wide variety of file types as well as file systems. The software can also restore photos, videos, and audio files from external storage drives such as SD cards and USB flash drives. The tool also has a built-in preview option; however, it doesn’t properly work on Excel, PDF, and Word documents.
The software is available in Media and Pro Edition. The Media edition enables you to run a deep scan, whereas the Pro edition retrieves pictures, videos, etc. even from a formatted drive.
Pros
- Dual scanning – Quick and Deep Scan available
- Deep scan can detect deleted partitions
- Preview file option available
- Available for both Windows and Mac
Cons
- Free version doesn’t let you save recovered files.
- Doesn’t support optical storage recovery
- Preview feature doesn’t work for documents
Price: The Windows Media edition of Remo Recover Media is at $49.94 while the Pro edition is priced at $99.94. The standard Mac version of the software is available at $69.94, while its Pro edition is of $179.94
6. EaseUS Photo Recovery
EaseUS Photo Recovery is one of the top 13 paid photo recovery software. The software can retrieve the lost or deleted files from all memory cards, HDD, SSD, USB, and other storage drives. You may restore photos from corrupted, formatted, or lost drive partitions. It has an intuitive interface with many advanced features such as Preview File, RAW file recovery, and support for recovery from all popular DSLRs like Canon, Nikon, Sony, etc.
It can restore deleted JPG/JPEG, PNG, BMP, GIF, TIFF/TIF, PSD, CRW, CR2, NEF, ORF, SR2, MRW, SWF, WMF, SVG, RAF, DNG, DCR, RAW, and others.
Pros
- User-friendly GUI
- Preview files option available
- Restore photos from PCs and storage drives
- Recovers photos from deleted, lost, or RAW partition
Cons
- Slow scanning
- Preview available only for files smaller than 100 MB
- Technical assistance only for paid versions
Price: The Pro monthly, annual, and lifetime versions of EaseUs Photo Recovery software costs $69.95, $99.95, and $149.95, respectively.
7. Recuva Photo Recovery
Recuva image recovery software by Piriform retrieves photos from HDD, camera SD cards, pen drives, CD/ DVD, etc. Additionally, it can recover documents, videos, audio files, emails, and other file types. The Windows photo recovery software works efficiently on formatted and corrupt storage drives to retrieve lost files.
It has an easy-to-navigate wizard with an efficient deep scan feature. Select the drive for scan. Choose pictures in the user interface to scan for image files only. Wait until the scanning finishes. Select and preview the images. Recuva image previews are not in full screen as in Stellar Photo Recovery. It offers a limited preview. Next, save the desired pictures at your chosen location on your PC or laptop.
Pros
- User-friendly GUI
- Offers a Deep Scan feature
- Recovers all popular image file types
Cons
- Slow scanning
- Updates not frequent
Price: The Professional version of Recuva costs $19.95 with a 1-year premium subscription.
8. Minitool Photo Recovery
Minitool Photo Recovery appcan help you extract multiple photos/videos from different types of storage devices and digital cameras. It supports recovery from Windows as well as Mac systems. You can also retrieve audio files and other media files. You can use this tool to recover files from hard disks, SD cards, USB disks, etc. The software also restores files from lost, damaged, formatted disks, and even bad disks.
However, the interface of this do-it-yourself (DIY) software is not user-friendly. Also, being an SD card recovery software, it lacks a few advanced features such as drive monitoring, creating a disk image, and RAW drive recovery.
Pros
- Supports recovery from SD cards and camera
- Available for both Windows and Mac systems
- Plus, recovers audio and video files
Cons
- GUI not user-friendly
- Free version only recovers up to 1 GB on Windows and 1 MB on Mac
- Lacks advanced recovery features
- Bootable media recovery available with the paid version
- Windows 11 support absent
Price: MiniTool Photo Recovery Standard (1 year) version is priced at $49.00, while the Deluxe (lifetime upgrade) edition costs $59.00 for 1 PC. The Ultimate version costs $99.00 for 3 systems with lifetime upgrade.
9. PhotoRescue
PhotoRescue by DataRescue is an affordable picture recovery software. It is easy to install and has a straightforward, user-friendly GUI. The software can extract missing photos, videos, music files, and more from a digital camera, smartphone, SD card, XD cards, MP3 player, etc. It supports several file systems and lets you retrieve media files lost due to corruption, formatting, and virus attack.
The software supports recovery of JPG/JPEG, TIFF, GIF, and BMP. In addition, it can recover camera RAW file formats — NEF, ORF, CR2, CRW, RAW, RAF, and MRW.
Unlike other image recovery software, PhotoRescue doesn’t let you save the recovered deleted files in its demo version. However, the demo shows full preview of the found pictures.
While it may have several benefits, it has its drawbacks too. The software interface is not clean and user-friendly and has so much text written all over it. Moreover, displaying bad sectors blocks during scanning is not necessary; it makes the interface complicated for less tech-savvy users.
Pros
- Supports Windows and Mac systems
- Recovers from corrupted removable media and external hard drives
- Shows full preview of recoverable files
Cons
- Can’t recover vector file types like SVG, PSD, AI files, etc.
- No support for CD/DVD recovery
- No data recovery with the demo version
Price: PhotoRescue is priced at $29.95 with a non-expiring license and 1 year free downloadable upgrades.
10. Disk Doctors Photo Recovery
Disk Doctors Photo Recovery can get your photos and other media files from all sorts of SD cards similar to other photo recovery apps. The interface is simple and easy to navigate. The process of file recovery is also simple. It features the ‘Create Disk image’ option to create a replica of the drive with bad sectors for secure recovery. Also, like Stellar Photo Recovery, it lets you save your scan progress and resume the scan anytime. Whether you lost photos due to accidental deletion, formatting, corruption, or malware attack, you may use this software to recover deleted/lost/missing photos, videos, and audio.
However, the software only supports the recovery of deleted JPG, JPEG, TIF, PNG, BMP, GIF, and RAW files. Plus, you can recover RAW files— CRW, CR2, NEF, SR2, SRF, ORF, MRW from Canon, Nikon, Sony, Olympus, and Minolta digital cameras. The installation process takes a lot of time. The drive scanning process is also slow.
Pros
- Supports CD/DVD recovery
- Recovers deleted/lost/missing photos, videos, and audio files
- Supports Windows and Mac systems
- Preview file option available
- Support for DSLR-generated RAW photo file types
Cons
- Limited image file support
- Slow scanning speed
Price: Disk Doctor Photo Recovery Windows is available at $58.96, while the macOS version costs $82.56. Note that the software free updates would be available for the first year of purchase.
11. O&O MediaRecovery 14
O&O MediaRecovery 14 is another reliable photo recovery software solution that can extract photos, videos, and audio files from different types of storage drives. The software lets you restore the media files from formatted, corrupted, or malware-infected storage drives and systems. You can see the preview of the files before saving them. It can recover deleted files of JPEG, TIFF, PNG, and other formats. The tool also has a ‘Filter’ option, enabling you to sort the types of files you want to retrieve for quick recovery. It also creates a report of data recovered, which is saved in Rich Text Format (RTF) and can be viewed in text editing programs such as Microsoft Word.
Pros
- Easy-to-use
- Recovers from external storage devices
- Supports over 80 media file types
- Shows image preview before saving
Cons
- Limited RAW file support
- Longer installation time
- Doesn’t support Windows 11
- No macOS version
Price: You can get O&O MediaRecovery 14 application for 1 PC at $49.95 while the advanced edition for up to 5 PCs costs $89.95 with perpetual license.
12. Hetman Photo Recovery Software
Hetman Photo Recovery is an easy-to-use software that restores digital photos captured from cameras, smartphones, and tablets. You can retrieve common image file types like JPEG, RAW, PNG, TIFF, GIF, CR2, CRW, NEF, PEF, X3F, and more deleted from storage devices. The software supports image recovery from HDD, USB flash drives, and SD cards configured to FAT and NTFS file systems.
The Hetman’s application allows you to search photos by date and file size. You can save the recovered photos from Hetman Photo Recovery on a hard disk or removable media directly in drive, through zip, or FTP to transfer files on network. The photo recovery tool can successfully recover photos in case of accidental file/ partition deletion. It can also retrieve lost image files from corrupt drives.
This image recovery software offers 2 download options for its users — Installation file (14 MB) and Portable version (20 MB). With its portable version, you can launch the software without installing it on your PC.
Pros
- Recovers RAW files from Canon, Nikon, Pentax, etc.
- Image preview available
- Multiple saving options
Cons
- No Mac version, only for Windows
- Doesn’t recover videos or audio
Price: Hetman Photo Recovery Home edition is priced at $18.95 while the Office and Business version cast $54.95 and $94.95, respectively.
13. Ashampoo Photo Recovery 2
Ashampoo Photo Recovery 2 tool for Windows only scans your storage drives and removable media for deleted photos. It can recover lost pictures from corrupt and formatted hard disks, memory cards, USB drives, etc.
The software can retrieve popular image file formats such as JPEG, JPG, PNG, TIFF, GIF, HEIF, RAW, WEBP, and others. In addition, Ashampoo can restore graphic files like TGA, PCX, SGI, PSD, etc., and can find images in PDF, EXE, or word files.
Ashampoo is an uncomplicated tool with a clean GUI. You have to simply select the drive for scanning and choose ‘Search Photos’ button. You can also customize your scan based on image file size. Next, select the desired photos from the scan results to save them on your hard disks. The photos marked unselected automatically move to the Recycle Bin of your PC. The software shows thumbnail preview of recoverable images.
Pros
- Recovers 20 RAW digital camera files
- Recovers raster graphic files
- Supports Windows 11
Cons
- Free trial not available
- Shows only Thumbnail preview
- Doesn’t support from Mac systems
Price: Ashampoo Photo Recovery 2 is priced at $39.99.
Which Photo Recovery Software to Choose?
Irrespective of the reason for photo loss, you may recover them back with the best photo recovery software listed here. Pick the one which suits your needs.
Don’t ignore the free trial before making the purchase decision. Look at the photo recovery success rate of the software you’re considering. Besides, price is also an important factor. So compare all the features and choose wisely!
Comparison table — Best Paid Photo Recovery Software
| File Types | Photo Formats | Windows/ Mac support | Price | |
| Stellar Photo Recovery Free Edition | Photo, video & audio files | JPEG, PNG,TIFF, HEIC, GIF, RAW, CR2, SR2, REF, NEF, DNG, KDC, etc. | Win & Mac | Standard: $49.99 Professional: $59.99 Premium: $69.99 |
| RecoverIt Photo Recovery | Photo, video & audio files | JPG, BMP, GIF, TIFF/TIF, PNG, CRW, CR2, NEF, PSD, ORF, RAF, SR2, WMF, etc. | Win & Mac | Essential: $69.99 Standard: $79.99 Premium: $99.99 |
| Disk Drill Photo Recovery | Photo, video, audio & documents | JPEG, HEIC, JPG, PNG, TIFF, BMP, PSP, PSD, DNG, and AI | Win & Mac | Standard: $89 Enterprise: $499 |
| Ontrack Easy Recovery | Photo, video, audio & documents | JPEG, HEIC, JPG, PNG, TIFF, BMP, PSP, PSD, DNG, and AI | Win & Mac | Professional: $50 Technician Win: $66.95 Technician Mac: $83.90. |
| Remo Recover Media | Photo, video & audio files | ARW, NEF, KDC, K25, NRW, J6I, CR2, DNG, CRW, MRW, SR2, ORF, PEF, RAW, RAF etc. | Win & Mac | Media Win: $49 Media Mac: $69.94 Pro Win: $99.94 Pro Mac: $179.94 |
| EaseUS Photo Recovery | Photo, video & audio files | RAF, DNG, JPEG, PNG, BMP, GIF, TIFF, RAW, CRW, CR2, and NEF, etc. | Win & Mac | Pro monthly: $69.95 Pro annual: $99.95 Pro lifetime: $149.95 |
| Recuva | Photo, video, documents, audio, emails, etc. | JPG/JPEG, TIFF, GIF, BMP, PNG, etc. | Win | Pro: $19.95 |
| Minitool Photo Recovery | Photo, video & audio files | JPG, JPEG, TIFF, ARW, PSP, PNG, GIF, DCR, DNG, PSD, BMP, CRW, etc. | Win & Mac | Standard: $49 Deluxe: $59 Ultimate: $99 |
| PhotoRescue | Photo, video & audio files | JPG/JPEG, TIFF, GIF, BMP, NEF, ORF, CR2, CRW, RAW, RAF, and MRW | Win & Mac | $29.95 with non-expiring license |
| Disk Doctors Photo Recovery | Photo, video & audio files | JPG, JPEG, TIF, PNG, BMP, GIF, CRW, CR2,NEF,SR2, SRF, ORF, & MRW | Win & Mac | Win: $58.96 Mac: $82.56 |
| O&O Media Recovery 14 | Photo, video & audio files | JPEG, PNG, TIFF, GIF, etc. | Win | For 1 PC: $49.95 Up to 5 PCs: $89.95 |
| Hetman Photo Recovery Software | Photos | JPEG, RAW, PNG, TIFF, GIF, CR2, CRW, NEF, PEF, X3F, etc. | Win | Home edition: $18.95 Office: $54.95 Business: $94.95 |
| Ashampoo Photo Recovery 2 | Photos | JPEG, JPG, PNG, TIFF, GIF, HEIF, RAW, WEBP, TGA, PCX, SGI, PSD, etc. | Win | $39.99 |
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