FastStone Image Viewer vs IrfanView
FastStone Image Viewer
faststone.orgIrfanView
irfanview.comSide by side
| Figure | FastStone Image Viewer | IrfanView |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | $18/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 4 | 4 |
| Spec score · Photo Viewer Software | 8.3 (#5) | 8.0 (#9) |
| Spec score · File Viewer Software | 8.3 (#5) | 8.0 (#9) |
| Spec score · File Reader Software | 8.4 (#6) | 8.1 (#9) |
| Spec score · Photo Editing Software | 8.1 (#70) | 8.1 (#66) |
| Editing | Its editing tools include resizing, rotation, cropping, color adjustments, sharpening, blur, Clone Stamp, and Healing Brush. | The feature list includes painting tools, effects, watermarking, IPTC editing, and multipage TIFF editing. |
| Formats | It supports major graphic formats and popular camera RAW formats, including HEIC, WEBP, PDF, SVG, and JPEG XL. | The maker describes support for many file formats and offers plugins for formats including AVIF, PDF, SVG, WebP, and camera RAW. |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Headquarters | Alberta, Canada | Wiener Neustadt, Austria |
| Product | FastStone Image Viewer is an image browser, converter, and editor. | IrfanView is a fast, compact graphic viewer for Windows designed to be simple for beginners and powerful for professionals. |
| Support | FastStone lists technical support by email at [email protected]. | The maker invites users to email bug reports and problems with supported formats, and provides a forum and FAQ. |
Plans
FastStone Image Viewer
- Personal and educationalPrice not published
- Commercial lifetime license$34.95 a month
- FastStone Image Viewer (personal and educational use)Free
- FastStone Image Viewer (commercial license)$34.95, paid once
IrfanView
- Freeware for private, non-commercial usePrice not published
- Commercial license$18 a month
- FreewareFree
- Single commercial license$18, paid once
In their own words
FastStone Image Viewer
FastStone Image Viewer is a Windows image browser, converter, and editor for individual images and collections. Editing tools include resizing, rotation, cropping, color adjustment, sharpening, blur, Clone Stamp, and Healing Brush. It supports major graphic formats and popular camera RAW formats, including HEIC, WEBP, PDF, SVG, and JPEG XL. The Compare Images feature displays up to four pictures side by side, while batch tools convert and rename collections. Slideshows offer more than 150 transition effects and music. The program can acquire images from scanners and batch scan to PDF, TIFF, JPEG, or PNG. Users can launch external editors from within Image Viewer, and a portable version can run from removable storage. FastStone lists personal and educational use as free and a commercial lifetime license at $34.95 as a one-time purchase, with upgrades free. Another plan listing gives a price of $34.95 a month, so the commercial license terms should be confirmed before purchase. The product is listed for Windows, and FastStone provides technical support by email.
IrfanView
IrfanView is a Windows graphic viewer with tools for viewing, editing, and processing images. It can convert and process files in batches, rotate and crop JPGs without loss, create slideshows, scan, print, and capture the screen. Editing features include painting tools, effects, watermarking, IPTC editing, and multipage TIFF editing. The maker describes support for many file formats, with plugins adding formats such as AVIF, PDF, SVG, WebP, and camera RAW. Other plugins add OCR, FTP transfer, video playback, Photoshop filters, and PDF support; some require additional software or files. A Shell Extension adds image actions to Windows Explorer and other file managers. IrfanView is listed for Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, 10, and 11, in 32-bit and 64-bit versions. Private, non-commercial use is free. Commercial use requires a license; the listed single commercial license costs $18 as a one-time purchase and is perpetual. The maker’s privacy policy says the software does not collect or transmit personal data.