You have 50,000, 100,000, maybe 200,000 photos. You know Excire Foto can find “that photo of your dog jumping on the beach” in 3 seconds flat with its AI, but the price tag makes you wince. So, naturally, you’re searching for the best Excire Foto alternatives.
And today, you have options. Google Photos’ AI search is incredibly powerful. Apple Photos is now supercharged with Apple Intelligence. Even open-source tools like DigiKam are packing impressive AI-driven face recognition.
But are they really a replacement for Excire? We’ve tested the best options for you.
Who is Excire Foto For?
Excire Foto is designed specifically for photographers whose libraries have grown too large to manage with manual organization alone.
It targets professional and serious hobbyist photographers who have accumulated tens or even hundreds of thousands of images. The ideal Excire user is someone who needs to find photos based on their actual content, not just folders or filenames.
1. Peakto
Peakto takes the #1 spot because it is the only tool on this list that not forcing you to import your life’s work into another new library, Peakto acts as a “meta-catalog.” It unifies all your existing, scattered catalogs and folders into one powerful, supremely searchable view.
- True AI-powered prompt Search
- 100% Private, on-device AI
- It doesn’t compete with your editors, it connects them
Automatic AI organization
No-duplicate workflow
macOS Only
A specialist, not an all-in-one
2. Mylio
On paper, Mylio Photos appears to be an ideal private, local-first alternative to Excire. It runs powerful on-device AI (face tagging, “SmartTags”) and works across Mac, Windows, and mobile devices.
Cross-Platform: It works seamlessly across Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android
- It cannot read your existing Lightroom or Capture One catalogs. It forces you to import your photos and start your organization from scratch
3. Photo Mechanic
Photo Mechanic is legendary in the professional world, especially among photojournalists, for one primary reason: speed. It is not a traditional photo manager but a high-speed workflow tool designed for rapid ingestion, culling (sorting), and advanced metadata (IPTC) management.
Unmatched ingestion speed
Powerful metadata tool
Zero AI content search
4. Pixelmator Pro
Pixelmator’s iOS-inspired file manager simplifies the organization of your edited photos. By pressing hard on a photo or folder, you can either rename them or create new ones.
Simple iCloud sync
AI editing tools
No AI search
5. ON1 Photo RAW
ON1 Photo RAW is a robust, all-in-one photo editor positioned as a direct competitor to the Adobe suite. It offers powerful cataloging tools for manual organization, such as batch renaming, tags, ratings, and sub-keywords that are compatible with Lightroom.
All-in-one editor: It combines a RAW processor, a layered editor, and a cataloging system into a single application
- Focus on editing, not AI search
6. Adobe Bridge
Adobe Bridge is a robust and genuinely free media file manager, available even without a Creative Cloud subscription. It excels at browsing folders, previewing diverse file types (including PSDs and AI files), and manually managing metadata.
Truly free
Powerful manual sorting
Zero AI content search
A “Browser,” not a catalog
7. Apple Photos
For Mac users, Apple Photos is the free, built-in, and intuitive default. It excels at organizing photos by date and, thanks to powerful on-device AI, it can automatically recognize objects and scenes, making your library searchable. With the new Apple Intelligence features in 2025, it can even handle natural language search.
- Genuinely free & integrated
- Powerful AI search: Its ability to recognize objects, scenes, and faces
Apple photos only works with images inside its own library. You must import everything
All the powerful AI data (faces, objects, scenes) is locked inside the Photos database
8. Capture One
Capture One Pro is a high-end, professional photo editor and RAW processor, renowned for its industry-leading tethering (live shooting) and exceptional color rendering. Its workflow is built for studio photographers and professionals who need to manage shoots and deliver top-quality images.
- Allowing immediate review and adjustments
- Widely considered one of the best RAW converters, delivering exceptional color and detail
Its catalog is 100% manual
9. Monument Cloud
- Its AI runs locally (on the device) or in your own encrypted cloud
- Good organizational AI
Metadata search, not content search
Monument requires you to import your photos into its system, locking your library into yet another new platform
10. Google Photos
Google Photos is a cloud-based photo library and one of the most powerful free AI search tools available. It automatically backs up and syncs folders you select, sorts them chronologically.
- Automatic cloud backup: It provides a simple “set it and forget it” backup solution for your phone and designated computer folders
The “Free” 15GB Cap: It quickly forces you into a paid Google One subscription
The privacy cost: It analyzes your photos to gather data and train its AI models
It only organizes photos you upload to its cloud. It is a completely separate, locked ecosystem
Peakto: Our Best recommandation for your Alternative to Excire Foto
In conclusion, the biggest challenge in photo management is the “silo problem.” Your photos are fragmented across multiple catalogs (Lightroom, Capture One, Apple Photos) and hard drives.
This is precisely why Peakto is our top recommendation. It is not just another silo; it is the only “meta-catalog” that unifies all your existing libraries into one searchable view. Its powerful, private, on-device AI can search your entire collection, not just a single app.
Don’t just replace one silo with another. Choose the tool that finally brings them all together.
