7 Best Free Image Croppers to Crop an Image in 2023

The crop image tool is probably the most used photo editing tool there is. 

We’ve all been there - the best picture ever taken of you and your ex is in it. Things did not end well. You don’t want to be reminded of him/her every time you look at the picture. But you aren’t about to delete it…it’s a really good picture! You look amazing in it! It was taken that time you met that celebrity/climbed Mt. Everest/attended your sister’s wedding. 

With a free image cropper, you can crop out that pesky ex and post your amazing pic - without people assuming you are back together. Use a crop image tool to zoom in on the subject of the photo while removing distracting elements. And by “distracting elements,” we mostly mean photo bombers and of course, exes. 

There are a lot of software out there that include a crop image tool. Almost all photo editors have it. But finding the easiest and best crop image tool to use can take a lot of time. To help, we have found the 7 best free image croppers to help you keep your memories while letting go of the past. 

• Top 3 Free Image Croppers Snapshot
• What Does an Image Cropping Tool Do?
• 7 Best Free Image Croppers to Crop an Image in 2023
1. PhotoDirector - Best Overall Choice
2. Pixlr - Best Online Editor
3. Movavi Picverse - Best for Photo Management
4. inPixio - Best for Object Removal
5. Ashampoo Photo Commander - Best Basic Editor
6. Batch Photo - Best for Batch Editing
7. Fotor - Best for Beginners
• Best Free Image Cropper Comparison Chart
• How to Crop Images With PhotoDirector
• Download the Best Photo Cropper for Free
• Free Image Cropper FAQ

Top 3 Free Image Croppers Snapshot

1. PhotoDirector - Best Overall Choice

All-in-one free photo editor with the best crop image tool, amazing special effects, beautification tools, text, stickers, and so much more with guided edits for beginners and a user-friendly interface. Detailed Review >

2. Pixlr - Best Online Editor

Online photo editor and template designer for every kind of social media post. Pixlr comes with a full kit of editing tools, including a crop image tool, animation, effects, and layering. Detailed Review >

3. Movavi Picverse - Best for Photo Management

A photo editor and image cropping tool with automatic image management. Detailed Review >

What Does an Image Cropping Tool Do?

An image cropping tool allows you to select an area of a digital photo and delete everything outside of the chosen area. The best photo croppers will give you multiple options for choosing the crop area, including freeform, a chosen aspect ratio, size, or resolution. 

People choose to crop pictures for a multitude of reasons, mostly to either zoom in on a subject, or cut out unwanted objects or people.

7 Best Free Image Croppers to Crop an Image in 2023

1. PhotoDirector - Best Overall Choice

Compatibility: Windows and Mac

Overall Rating: 10 / 10

Image Cropping Tools: 10 / 10

Key Features:

• Thousands of stickers, filters, frames, and effects
• AI sky replacement and object segmentation
• Photo touch up
• Animation tools

PhotoDirector is the best all-in-one free image cropper for both organizing and editing your images. It’s designed to be easy enough for novices and powerful enough for professionals.

The crop image tool is available under the Adjustment tab, where you can quickly crop images, make edits, and improve the look of your photos with a few clicks. If you just want to do simple changes like crop photos, correct the color of your image, or remove red-eye, they can be done here. 

Intermediate and advanced users can find an image cropping tool in the Edit tab, where they can also take advantage of layer editing. You can choose to crop images using an aspect ratio, freeform, or resolution. You can also use a Tool Overlay like Triangle, Grid, or Diagonal to help you crop photos in interesting shapes. There’s even a straightening tool that comes with the free image cropper, with a slider so you can choose a precise angle. 

PhotoDirector allows you to animate photos, remove unwanted objects, change backgrounds, and edit with amazing special effects. There are even beautification tools like body-slimming, face smoother, teeth whitening, and eye bag removal. With so many editing tools and effects, PhotoDirector is surprisingly easy-to-use, with guided edits and tutorials when you need them. 

Download the best overall photo cropper today.

2. Pixlr - Best Online Editor

Compatibility: Web Browser

Overall Rating: 8 / 10

Image Cropping Tools: 9 / 10

Key Features:

• Animations
• Stock images
• Drawing tools
• Picture collage maker

Pixlr is a free online photo editor, image cropping tool, and template designer. Because it is online, there is nothing to download and it takes up very little computer space. You can log in to your account and use it on your desktop, tablet, or phone. It includes templates for social media posts and a stock image library. 

We like that you can choose right away whether you need a quick and easy design editor (Pixlr X), or an advanced photo editor (Pixlr E), thus removing any unnecessary items from the interface. Both editing interfaces include a crop picture tool. The crop photo tool in Pixlr X is a bit easier to use, but the editor is significantly scaled back. The Pixlr E editor has more features, but the crop photo tool is intimidating to first-time photo editors.

Like PhotoDirector, Pixlr is a good free image cropper because it offers an image cropping tool for both beginners and advanced photo editors. However, most of the good features and tools are reserved for Premium. You can buy effects individually for about $1 a piece if you don’t want to pay for a subscription.

3. Movavi Picverse - Best for Photo Management

Compatibility: Windows, Mac

Overall Rating: 8 / 10

Image Cropping Tools: 6 / 10

Key Features:

• Effects and filters
• Retouching and restoration
• Text
• Sharpness adjustment

Movavi Picverse is a good free image cropper for beginner or professional photographers who need photo management. Automatic Image Management will sort photos by name, date, GPS location, or facial recognition.   

We found the crop image tool to be pretty basic. It has the least predefined aspect ratios of all the crop photo tools on this list. If you know the exact dimension, this won’t be a problem, but it can be a bit frustrating.

Movavi Picverse comes with some advanced editing features like AI tools, background and object removal, and color correction. Overall, it isn’t a bad free image cropper, but there are easier-to-use choices with more features, such as PhotoDirector or Pixlr, which is why it ranks 3rd on our list. 

4. inPixio - Best for Object Removal

Image from inPixio Blog.

Compatibility: Windows, Mac

Overall Rating: 7 / 10

Image Cropping Tools: 7 / 10

Key Features:

• Text and stickers
• Color effects
• Tilt-shift
• Sharpen tool

inPixio is a free image cropper and photo editing software with an emphasis on object and background removal. You can use the Erase Objects function to get rid of unwanted signs, people, wires, and more from your images, then use the Clone Stamp to fill in the removed area of the picture. We found the remove background tool works well. It comes with a retention cursor so you can retain fine details with precision.  

If you’d prefer to crop pictures to get rid of unwanted objects, you can do that instantly with inPixio’s image cropping tool. It comes with handy presets so you can crop pictures to the right size for social media. 

inPixio is focused on helping you get rid of unwanted objects and people in your photos, whether through the free image cropper, object remover, background remover, or sky replacement. However, we found this narrow focus means the software has neglected other photo editing features - for instance the sharpness and noise reduction tools didn’t change our images at all. Better to choose a more well-rounded free image cropper like PhotoDirector. 

5. Ashampoo Photo Commander - Best Basic Editor

Compatibility: Windows

Overall Rating: 6 / 10

Image Cropping Tools: 7 / 10

Key Features:

• Set and edit geotags
• Batch processing
• Mirror effects
• Repair pen

Ashampoo Photo Commander is a basic photo editor and free image cropper that helps you organize your pictures and turn them into collages, cards, calendars, and slideshows. It has a solid set of essential editing tools and allows you to export your projects in 4K.

The free image cropper is easy to use. The crop image tool is handy when creating projects to make sure your images fit within the templates. Other features in Ashampoo Photo Commander include removing scratches, red-eye, and digital noise, plus paint and drawing tools. 

Ashampoo Photo Commander is great for making basic edits and photo projects. One drawback however is that the organizational tools don’t include face tagging. This crop picture software is also light on advanced features. 

6. Batch Photo - Best for Batch Editing

Compatibility: Windows and Mac

Overall Rating: 6 / 10

Image Cropping Tools: 6 / 10

Key Features:

• Resizing
• Color correcting and touch-ups
• Watermarking
• Borders and frames

Batch Photo is a batch-processing free image cropper that contains over 50 edit actions and can make changes to a large number of photos at once. It is simple to use and hands-off once an action has been set up. 

This free image cropper has two modes for cropping photos, Auto Crop and Crop. With Auto Crop, photos are automatically cut to predefined ratios. With Crop, you can define the exact region to crop photos by specifying the coordinates in either pixels or percentages.

The software does not have a lot of advanced features but includes all the essential tools you need to adjust your photos. Because you can easily save settings to use repeatedly, Batch Photo is great for simple, time-sensitive jobs.  

7. Fotor - Best for Beginners

Image from Fotor.

Compatibility: Web Browser

Overall Rating: 5 / 10

Image Cropping Tools: 7 / 10

Key Features:

• Wide format support
• Batch processing
• Clone tool
• Retouching tools

Fotor is an online photo editor and free image cropper for beginners. Navigating the menu and finding tools is quick and easy. Since there are limited features, they are all laid out so you can see everything at once. All edits are done with one click, and a slider is provided to adjust intensity. 

It’s a good tool to use to crop images because Fotor offers lots of ways to crop. Choose either freeform, a preselected aspect ratio, an original ratio, or a crop image shape, such as circle, triangle, or heart. There are also tons of social media presets like Facebook Cover and YouTube Thumbnail. 

Though you can use Fotor for free, many of the best features are not free. Fortunately, it does have a free image cropper. And although it promises batch editing and the ability to upload 50 photos at once, we couldn’t get even one photo to upload, even after multiple tries. Whereas Pixlr, the other online photo editor on our list of best photo croppers, uploaded our photo in seconds. Instead, we were forced to try out Fotor’s features on a stock image. 

Best Free Image Cropper Comparison Chart

How to Crop Images With PhotoDirector

You can easily crop images with our choice for the best image cropper, PhotoDirector, download it below and follow these steps: 

1. Open your photo in the Adjustment tab. 
2. Under Regional Adjustment Tools, select the first option for Crop and Straighten.

3. You can choose a predefined ratio from the Aspect Ratio drop-down. 

For example, if you plan to post to Instagram, there is 1:1 for the feed and 9:16 for Stories.


4. Use the Crop Box in the Preview Window to adjust the size of your crop. 

If you want to unlock the aspect ratio to freeform crop, just deselect the Lock icon.


5. Once you have your crop just right, click Done.

For more information on using PhotoDirector to crop images, click here. 

Download the Best Photo Cropper for Free

With so many free image croppers out there, it can be hard to find the right one for your needs. We think PhotoDirector is the all-around best photo cropper. The crop image tool is precise, quick, and easy to use. It includes a range of different ways to crop photos for users any skill level.

Plus, with PhotoDirector, you can do more than simply crop photos. With the free download for both Windows and Mac, you can access advanced features like AI tools, background and object removal, body slimming, animated effects, and more.

Create professional-looking works of art with ease, even if you’re a novice, using the PhotoDirecter Guided editing modules.

Download PhotoDirector today and start creating studio-quality edits. 

Free Image Cropper FAQ

1. How Do I Resize an Image on Mac and Windows?

If you would like to resize an image using the PhotoDirector desktop program, follow these steps: 

1. Upload your photo. 
2. Edit as needed. 
3. Click Save/Share in the bottom left corner.
4. Click Save as a New Photo File.
5. Click Resize to Fit and fill in the numbers for Width and Height.
6. Click Export.

For information on resizing video, click here.

2. How Do I Rotate an Image on Mac and Windows?

If you would like to rotate an image using the PhotoDirector desktop program, follow these steps: 

1. Open your photo in the Adjustment tab.
2. Click the Rotate Icon above your image (it looks like a square with a down arrow).
3. Choose which way you want the photo to rotate from the drop-down menu.   

For information on rotating video, click here. 

3. What is the Golden Ratio?

The Golden Ratio is a mathematical ratio often found in nature that is pleasing to the eye. Artists have been using it for centuries, and it is seen in works of art like the pyramids or the Sistine Chapel ceiling.

A line is divided into two parts, and the longer part (a) divided by the smaller part (b) equals 1.618, and a + b divided by a also equals 1.618. 

For images, we can apply it several times to a rectangle and get this: 

Add a spiral (The Golden Spiral), and it looks like this:

How does this apply to image design? Use the Golden Ratio to layout images on a gallery wall or a collage. If dealing with several elements on one image, use the Golden Ratio to decide where the negative and positive space should be. Put critical information in the heart of the spiral, as that is where the eye naturally goes first. 

The Rule of Thirds is a simpler version of the Golden Ratio used to crop images. 

Set up all horizontal and vertical lines equally, 1:1:1. Then align essential elements around the central rectangle. PhotoDirector has grid lines that will automatically appear with the touch of a button in crop image mode. 

4. What are the Best Free Image Cropper Apps?

The best free image cropper apps are

1. PhotoDirector
2. VSCO
3. Snapseed
4. Photo Crop
5. Picsart

For more information on the best photo cropper apps, visit 5 Best Crop Picture Apps for Android and iOS.

5. What Other Features Should I Look for in a Free Image Cropper?

Features to look for in the best photo cropper are

1. Input/Output options
2. Text
3. Grid Lines
4. Overlays
5. Beautification Tools

If you’re looking for a free image cropper that checks all of these boxes, we recommend PhotoDirector.