Best Photo
Collage & Layer App

After my journey to Portugal in January, I had tons of fabulous photos. Therefore, I decided to use them for creating eye-grabbing collages for my blog, following the example of other bloggers. I began searching for a collage maker app that would allow me to quickly pick a few photos, select a frame or layout, and create a clean, stylish composition. I also wanted an app that respected my privacy and didn’t require access to my entire photo library.

I invited my colleagues to join me in testing several apps to find the best one for making photo collages. We used nearly the same photos to compare which app had the best templates for my vacation pictures.

I wanted a free app that could help me create trendy, fresh designs my audience would enjoy, using free templates. By collaborating with my colleagues, I gained different perspectives, which helped us choose the app with the most user-friendly design and the best quality results.

This year, creating collages has emerged as a major trend, driven by the growing demand for creative freedom and personalized content. Instead of sticking to simple and photos, people are turning to the free collage apps to craft more dynamic and engaging narratives. By merging multiple images into a single composition, these apps offer a visually striking and expressive way to highlight moments, memories, and ideas.

The ease of creating photo collages on mobile devices is one of the factors driving this trend. While Instagram and TikTok provide basic editing tools like cropping, filters, and adjustments, these options can feel restrictive.

This can make editing feel boring and unoriginal. However, collage apps offer more creativity with customizable layouts, lots of templates, and fun effects that make photos come to life.

The increasing popularity of Instagram carousels is closely connected to the growing trend of collages. Users have discovered that collages allow them to communicate more details or emotions in a single post, making their content more engaging and distinctive.

By using carousels with collages instead of single images, creators can deliver a more dynamic and narrative-driven experience. This is why influencers and content creators are increasingly turning to collage apps - they provide a visually captivating way to connect with their audience and encourage them to swipe through the content, making each post more interactive and memorable.

Clay is another great app for making photo collages, featuring a stylish and modern design. It includes ready-made templates that are perfect for fast and easy content creation.

• I used this tool to make a trendy collage featuring the atmosphere of the city’s architecture. One of my close friends has been a Clay user for nearly two years, and she can’t stop praising its reliability and functionality. She regularly turns to it to craft simple two-image collages for her social media content.

Not only that, the app is intuitive, but its range of advanced editing features is very restricted. Besides, if compared to other filter apps, Clay’s selection of filters is not so vast.

Adobe Express, has a strong collage-making feature that works well for both beginners and pros. It keeps your photo quality sharp while editing, making it a top pick for creating high-quality collages without losing resolution.

If you're familiar with making a collage in Photoshop, you’ll love how Adobe Express simplifies the process. It offers similar customization options but in a much easier and more user-friendly way.

• The process was straightforward: I just uploaded my pictures, chose a template, and the app created a collage from them automatically. I loved the wide range of layouts and how simple it was to switch images or tweak the design. It’s also one of the best apps to enhance photo quality with tools to sharpen and fine-tune photos for a professional finish.

The main downside is that you can only upload up to 15 photos at once, which might not work for bigger projects. If you have more, you’ll need to resize or reorganize them before uploading.

FixThe Photo Body Editor&Tune is a functional selfie app with strong features suitable for both retouching and crafting original collages.

• I selected individual retouching and explained exactly how I wanted my collage to look. The retouchers quickly understood my idea and sent the final result in just a few minutes. Earlier, I had also requested them to remove defects from my photos, and the edits were done perfectly.

It’s a great layout app for creating professional content, offering both advanced retouching and custom collages. It also works as a top-notch Instagram photo editor, with tools to enhance your images and give your feed a cohesive, stylish look.

Lift is a good app to make photo collages for content creators. I discovered it while browsing top-rated apps on the App Store. After reading so many positive reviews, I was urged to try it. This is also a great app for photographers because it offers tools to create stunning collages and visual content that showcase your photography skills.

• The app’s functionality is extensive and includes tools for creating amazing Instagram stories, Reels, posts, collages, and more. Besides, it stands out with a vast selection of templates for different purposes like e-commerce, events, and travel blogs. I used it to make a collage with an ocean theme, blending beach photos and calming elements to capture the seaside vibe.

Although the app offers a wide variety of templates, I noticed one downside: finding the ideal style or aesthetic can take some time because many options feel somewhat repetitive or too similar.

I was eager to include as many photos as possible in the collage to preserve all the memories from my trip. It turned out that PhotoCollage, a free photo editing app, was an excellent option. It provided a wide range of templates, enabling me to add numerous photos while keeping the design neat and unified.

• The app offered templates that could fit anywhere from 1 to 9 photos, making it easy to find the ideal one to tell my story. I could customize the layout, resize and reposition photos, and even add playful stickers and text. With its wide range of effects and extensive customization features, it’s undoubtedly one of the best apps for collages, which delivers top-level results.

One minor drawback, however, is that the app tends to slow down a bit when processing multiple photos with complex effects.

I decided to try Canva, the most popular collage maker app, after hearing so much about it, curious to see how it compares to the other apps I’ve used.

• While the app offers a great selection of free templates and plenty of customization features for designing unique collages, the mobile version tends to feel somewhat clunky and less user-friendly.

Navigating the app on my phone feels a bit challenging because the interface appears cluttered, especially compared to other apps. If possible, I’d rather use Canva on my computer, where the tools are easier to access and the overall experience is far smoother.

Naturally, I couldn’t evaluate all the apps by myself, as to review them thoroughly I required varied viewpoints. Along with my team, I carefully tested several top collage-making apps. To ensure a comprehensive and detailed assessment, I also collected feedback from a diverse group of testers, ranging from creative professionals to casual users.

We tested the apps in real-life situations, from creating fast social media posts to handling more complex, professional projects. Some testers prioritized simplicity and speed, while others focused on advanced tools like layering, customization, and image quality. The insights from each tester were crucial in identifying which apps excelled and which didn’t meet expectations.

Together, we tested the apps to see how flexible they were with design options and how well they handled high-quality images. We also checked how they performed on different devices, like phones and tablets, to make sure they worked smoothly.

We also evaluated the editing tools and customization features. A good collage app goes beyond simply combining photos, as it should let users edit single photos, use filters, add effects, and adjust layouts. We looked for apps with strong editing tools, giving users full control over their designs, like resizing, cropping, rotating images, and changing the collage’s background.

We also checked if the apps made it easy to save and share collages on social media platforms or cloud storage. Quickly exporting images as PNG or JPG and sharing them directly from the app is a big help for creatives with tight deadlines.