Is the new PicMonkey Royale worth the monthly fee? at Cool Mom Tech

Thursday 20 December

Is the new PicMonkey Royale worth the monthly fee?

Is the new PicMonkey paid service worth it?

I'm a huge fan of PicMonkey, which is how I've created everything from fun holiday themed photos to cool photo collages, as well as using it simply to edit some of my favorite photos.

Now, on top of their basic free service, they've launched a new monthly membership program for $4.99/month because, hey, what they offer is pretty darn awesome.

As an avid PicMonkey user, I took a closer look at their new Royale service to see whether it's worth the upgrade, and here's what I think.

The new PicMonkey Royale service offers members access to all of PicMonkey's awesome frames, collages, and photo editing features, as well as a completely ad-free experience. So this means that if you don't want to pay, you will be losing access to a number of the features that you may have come to love.

As far as the editing features go, free users will still have access to lots of cool tools, actually, like their basic edits, fonts and frames; in fact, the only stark difference for Royale members are in regards to the effects (aka filters) and overlays, where you only get a few of the basic offerings. And if you're looking to touch-up a photo for free, that feature is pretty much now only reserved for Royale members only.

If you tend to use PicMonkey for collages, I found really only a few templates that were off limits for free members, most of which were the more involved ones, like Pinterest-y and Jigsaw. Of course, those also happen to be ones I use often but you might not.

The other benefit is that Royale members will have a completely ad-free experience, which is nice considering the ads are a bit large at the bottom of the screen.

Bottom line: As someone who just uses PicMonkey for quick basic edits and fun collages, it probably isn't worth it for me to upgrade. However, if it's a go-to editing tool for you that you use say in lieu of purchasing PhotoShop (pricy!), or to create intricate collages for your website, blog, or Pinterest, then I'd say $4.99/month is a good deal--although it would be nice for a little discount on a prepaid yearly membership.

And hey, a subscription might even make a cool holiday gift for your favorite shutterbug. -Kristen

You can learn more about the new PicMonkey Royale program on their blog.

Editor's Note: PicMonkey Royale is now $33/year for the annual plan (or $4.99/month if you choose to subscribe monthly).

Find More: Helpful Services, Photography 2.0

6 Comments

Leave a comment | Comment Policy

Sarah | December 21, 2012 4:19 AM | Reply

Thank you for info about PicMonkey Royale.
But I've found it little bit pricey for my needs.
So, Google showed me another good onile editor http://ipiccy.com/. Here you'll find almost everything from PicMonkey and for no price at all.

Nathy | December 22, 2012 7:38 PM | Reply

I'm so mad about this. I used PicMonkey for the occasional wrinkle remover and nip tuck. So angry that it's now $4.99 a month. That's $60 a year- more than I'm willing to pay. I might just have to invest in Adobe Photoshop.

Mae McGarry | December 23, 2012 9:06 PM | Reply

Hmm, the features were nice, and I could see paying $2.00 a month but almost $60? pass I will upgrade my adobe for that price, it's not not worth all that. Thanks Sarah for sharing ipiccy, it's amazing!!!!!!

Alessa | December 25, 2012 1:49 PM | Reply

I personally switched very easily to Picadilo photo editor. They're free and they've got tons of photo effects and retouch tools, as well as textures and text tools that are just as good as Picmonkeys', if not better!

Livius replied to comment from Alessa | December 31, 2012 8:43 PM | Reply

I use Picadilo too! It is super-fast and has all the tools I need to edit my photos in just a few clicks. I relly like the fact that you can work with multiple photos simultaneously and that you cna count on their MAgicWand tool!

Cathy Larkin replied to comment from Nathy | February 27, 2013 10:05 AM | Reply

You might try Adobe Photoshop Elements. It is normally $99. Keep an eye out - it goes on sale for $50 most years at Christmas time, but I think I've seen it on sale one other time a year.

Comment Policy: In an attempt to maintain a positive, productive, supportive community at Cool Mom Picks, we have the right to reject comments that are off-topic, self-promotional, inflammatory, or that bum us out for any reason. But you wouldn't do that anyway - you're too cool.