The alternatives at a glance
We make Resly, so read this knowing that. MyHeritage's photo tools are good and genuinely useful if you're building a family tree. People look elsewhere when they have a few photos to fix and don't want an account, a subscription, or their family photos stored in a genealogy database.
| Option | Cost | Account | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Adobe Firefly | Cost: Free daily uses | Account: Free Adobe account | Best for: A free try on light damage |
| Canva | Cost: Free restore tool; colorizing needs Pro | Account: Free Canva account | Best for: People already using Canva |
| Resly | Cost: $1.99 a photo, 99¢ each extra in the same order | Account: None | Best for: A few photos to restore, colorize and print |
| Other pay-per-photo services | Cost: $1.49 (Pastlume) to $9 (Reviva) a photo | Account: Varies | Best for: A few photos, no subscription |
| Human retoucher | Cost: About $35 to $150 a photo | Account: Varies | Best for: Heavy damage or missing parts of a face |
| MyHeritage itself | Cost: A few photos free; Reimagine $7.99 a month or $49.99 a year | Account: Free MyHeritage account | Best for: A family tree and a whole box of photos |
Prices read from each service's own site. They change often and vary by country.
BeforeAfterStay with MyHeritage if
- You're building a family tree and want restored photos stored next to the people in them, where relatives can see them.
- You have hundreds of photos: a subscription with unlimited photos, plus the Reimagine app for scanning album pages, beats paying per photo at that volume.
- You want to animate faces with Deep Nostalgia or make LiveMemory videos, which other tools here don't do.
For a side-by-side of the two, see MyHeritage vs Resly.
Free alternatives
- 1
Adobe Firefly
Repairs tears, scratches, stains and fading from a short instruction, and can colorize. Free within a daily allowance on a free Adobe account; downloads up to about 2,000 × 2,000 pixels.
- 2
Canva
A one-click restore for creases, tears and discoloration on any Canva account. Its colorizing apps need Canva Pro.
- 3
Photopea or Photoshop, by hand
Slow but fully in your control, and nothing is invented. See restoring old photos in Photoshop.
Pay per photo instead of a subscription
For the handful of photos you want to frame or give, paying per photo is usually cheapest: three photos on Resly cost $3.97, less than one month of Reimagine, and there's nothing to cancel. Resly also needs no account, shows old photos as a free watermarked preview before you pay, and returns them sized to the print or frame you choose, extending the background instead of cropping heads off. Your photos are deleted two days after delivery and never used to train AI.
Other pay-per-photo services are compared in pay-per-photo restoration services.
When to pay a person instead
Every AI tool, MyHeritage included, has to guess where part of a face is torn or faded away, and the guess may not look like your relative. A professional retoucher can ask you what was there. Expect about $35 to $150 a photo; see how much photo restoration costs.