iLoveIMG is the image-side sibling of iLovePDF, and it's a handy one-stop shop: compress, resize, crop, convert, watermark, remove backgrounds. People go looking for an alternative when they run into the per-task caps, when they'd rather not upload client or family photos, or when the tool they need is one of the limited ones. Most iLoveIMG jobs can be done in your browser with nothing uploaded, using our Image Compressor, Image Cropper and Background Remover. Below is what the free plan really allows, eight free alternatives, and a tool-by-tool swap list.
The limits differ by tool. Here's the October 2026 pricing page, free versus Premium, for the tools people use most.
| iLoveIMG tool | Free: images per task | Free: size per task | Premium: images per task |
|---|---|---|---|
| Compress, resize, convert, rotate, watermark | 30 | 200 MB | 120 (4 GB) |
| Crop | 1 | 90 MB | 1 (4 GB) |
| Blur face | 10 | 100 MB | 120 (4 GB) |
| Remove background | 3 | 6 MB | 3 (6 MB) |
| Upscale | 1 | 6 MB | 3 (6 MB) |
| Photo editor | 1 | 50 MB | 1 (50 MB) |
Premium is €5 a month billed yearly (€60), or €9 if you pay month to month, which works out to €108 over a year. It removes ads, adds workflows and 2,000 AI credits, and lets you pick a processing region. Notice that Premium doesn't raise the background-removal or upscale file cap. Those stay at 6 MB.
The task caps sound generous until you do the math on a real job. A 400-photo product shoot at 30 images per task is 14 separate rounds of uploading and downloading. That's not a dealbreaker, but it's slow.
Everything gets uploaded. iLoveIMG says processed files are deleted automatically within two hours, and it holds ISO/IEC 27001 certification. That's a solid policy. Still, ID scans, kids' photos, unreleased product shots and client work often shouldn't leave your device at all, and some contracts forbid it.
Big batches. 30 per task is fine for a blog post and tedious for a catalog.
The 6 MB ceiling on AI tools. A straight-from-the-camera photo can be bigger than that, so background removal and upscaling refuse it until you shrink it first.
Ads and upsells. Free pages carry ads, and some features nudge you toward Premium.
| Tool | Where it runs | Uploads your file? | Batch | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ToolAspect image tools | Browser | No | One image at a time (HEIC to JPG does batches) | Quick private jobs: compress, convert, crop, rotate, watermark |
| Squoosh | Browser | No | No | Fine control over compression with a side-by-side preview |
| Photopea | Browser | No, edits locally | No | Layer editing, blur, retouching, Photoshop files |
| GIMP | Windows, Mac, Linux | No | Via plugins or scripts | Full photo editing for free |
| XnConvert | Windows, Mac, Linux | No | Yes, whole folders | Resize, convert, rotate and watermark hundreds of files |
| IrfanView | Windows | No | Yes | Fast viewing plus batch conversion |
| ImageMagick | Command line | No | Yes, scriptable | Developers and repeat jobs |
| Your OS (Preview, Photos) | Mac, Windows | No | Preview can resize a selection | Crop, rotate and quick resizes without installing anything |
Two licensing notes. XnConvert is free for private and educational use, and so is IrfanView for non-commercial use. If you're using them at work, check whether you need a license. Photopea is free with ads and keeps your files on your own machine.
If you only use one or two iLoveIMG features, this is the quickest way to replace them. The first column is the iLoveIMG tool, the second is the free no-upload pick.
| iLoveIMG tool | No-upload swap | Good to know |
|---|---|---|
| Compress IMAGE | Image Compressor | Quality 1 to 100. PNG output is lossless, so switch to WebP for big savings |
| Resize IMAGE | Image Compressor (max width and height) | Use XnConvert for whole folders |
| Crop IMAGE | Image Cropper | Presets for YouTube, Instagram and more |
| Rotate IMAGE | Image Cropper | Rotate 90° or 180° and flip in the same step |
| Convert to and from JPG | Image Compressor | Outputs JPEG, PNG or WebP. iPhone photos go through HEIC to JPG |
| Watermark IMAGE | Image Watermark | Text only, with opacity and diagonal tiling |
| Remove background | Background Remover | Tuned for people; fine hair and glass come out soft |
| Upscale image | Image Upscaler | 2x up to 2,000 px input, 4x up to 1,200 px |
| Blur face | Photopea or GIMP | We don't have a face-blur tool. Pixelate or box it in an editor |
| Photo editor | Photopea | Closest free match to a full editor in a browser tab |
Images headed into a document? JPG to PDF builds the PDF in your browser too, and our iLovePDF alternatives guide covers the PDF side of the family.
Don't take any site's word for it, ours included. Open the page, press F12 and click the Network tab, then drop in a photo. If a request appears that's roughly the size of your file, it was uploaded. If the only traffic is the page itself and its scripts, the work is happening on your machine.
A quicker test: load the tool, switch off Wi-Fi, then use it. A true in-browser tool keeps working. The one catch is that some tools download a model on first use (our background remover and upscaler both do), so run them once while you're online.
For a handful of non-sensitive images, iLoveIMG is quick and well made. Its batch-of-30 tools are easier than most desktop apps for a one-off. Switch when the photos are private, when you're dealing with hundreds at once, or when you keep bumping into the 6 MB cap on the AI tools. For most people the sensible setup is a browser tool for one-offs and XnConvert or IrfanView for the big jobs. Our best free image tools roundup lists the rest of the kit, and the TinyPNG alternatives guide goes deeper on compression.
Yes, the basic plan is free. As listed on its pricing page in October 2026, free users can compress, resize or convert up to 30 images per task with 200 MB per task, remove backgrounds from 3 images at a time and upscale 1. Premium costs €5 a month billed yearly (€60) or €9 billed monthly.
iLoveIMG says processed files are deleted automatically and permanently within two hours. Your images are still uploaded to its servers to be processed, so if a file shouldn't leave your device, use a tool that works in the browser or a desktop app.
Yes. Both are run by the same Europe-based company, share the same security page and point to the same ISO/IEC 27001 certification. A Premium account also gives you mobile access through the iLovePDF apps.
A desktop batch tool. XnConvert runs on Windows, Mac and Linux and can resize, convert, rotate and watermark a whole folder in one pass, though it's only free for private and educational use. IrfanView's batch mode does the same on Windows.
Yes, but you'll need an editor. Select the face in GIMP or Photopea and apply a Gaussian blur or pixelate filter. Pixelating with large blocks is harder to reverse than a light blur, and painting a solid box over the face is the safest option of all.