Photo collages are a hugely popular way to collate your photos – and this should be no surprise as we all carry a camera around with us at all times and take more snaps than ever before. Gathering these images in a collage is a great way to present your image library or a snapshot of your life on one page.
But photo collage making can be a laborious (if rewarding) task if you use Photoshop CC or similar – you may need the assistance of some Photoshop tutorials to get you started. However you could take some of the effort out with a collage maker.
Here is the definitive guide to the best around, covering online, desktop, iOS (that’s iPhone and iPad), Android, and Windows Phone.
01. PicsArt Photo Studio
- Platform: iOS, Android, Windows
- Developer: PicsArt
- Price: Free with IAP
PicsArt’s collage maker is just a small part of an app that also includes hundreds of photo editing features, customisable filters, text options and a camera. You can also use it as a digital art suite, with plenty of brushes and effects to choose from that’ll take your creative options to the next level.
02. Canva Collage Templates
- Platform: Web, iPad
- Developer: Canva
- Price: Free
Canva is an all-round design package that you can use in the browser or as an iPad app; you sign up for free and add features as you need them, some of them free and some of them paid. Amongst its tools are plenty of collage templates – again, some free and some paid-for – that look great and are easy to use, and you can spice up your collages with Canva’s enormous selection of effects, filters, fonts, shapes and more.
03. PicMonkey Collage
- Platform: Web
- Developer: PicMonkey
- Price: Free (Basic), $4.99/month (Premium)
Part of the PicMonkey suite – a Flash-powered web app that also offers image editing, touch-up an design tools – PicMonkey collage is a fast and powerful way to organise your images into attractive shapes. It can import from your computer or connect to online services such as Facebook, OneDrive, Dropbox and Flickr to get photos, and it features a decent selection of free and premium templates. It’ll auto-add images (or you can just drag and drop), and you can fine-tune your collage adjusting the spacing and corner rounding of your layout as well as changing the background and cell colours. You can even adjust the exposure of your photos, while premium users have access to a bunch of extra effects to really bring things to life.
04. Picture2Life
- Platform: Web
- Developer: Picture2Life
- Price: Free
Picture2Life’s free collage tool feels a little utilitarian, but once you get a feel for its ways you’ll find it’s a great way to create simple collages without unwanted frills. There’s a sizeable range of templates to choose from, plus an assortment of extra graphic elements that you’ll probably take a quick look at then never return to again, and option to add text elements with plenty of control over fonts, colours, background and drop shadows. The results can be just a little basic, but it’s easy to use and, of course, free.
05. Instagram Layout
Facebook-owned Instagram has released Layout, an app designed to help people create collages of their images and share their creations via social media. Although only on iPhone just now, an Android version of Layout is reportedly in the tubes and scheduled to arrive soon.
Layout lets you select and rearrange images by dragging and dropping. You can also control the size of images by pinching. When you’re done, you can easily save, and share your collage across your social media networks.
06. Picture Collage Maker 3.5
- Platform: Mac OS X 10.6 or later
- Developer: PearlMountain
- Price: $39.90
Picture Collage Maker is a powerful yet easy-to-use collage maker that enables you to create stunning collages on both Mac OS X, and it has recently undergone a major update. There are hundreds of new templates for all kinds of occasions and lots of customizable features: lock/unlock, group/ungroup, page margin, rotate, resize, crop, duplicate, reflection, etc.
You can create multiple pages within the same window, use rich elements such as text, calendar, shape, background, clipart, frame, mask, and more. It’s pricey at nearly $40 but the wealth of features will make it worthwhile for many people.
07. PhotoVideoCollage
- Platform: Mac OS X 10.8 or newer
- Developer: Bits&Coffee
- Price: Free (Premium $9.99)
PhotoVideoCollage brings the classic photo collage to the next level. Not only can users add photos but also videos, and mix the soundtracks with their favorite music.
The user can select a layout template from a multitude of presets. Photos and videos can then be added to the layout, and additional settings like border width, curvature, color, and texture can be set. The placement of the photos and videos inside the collage can be easily changed with drag and drop.
08. Capcam
- Platform: iOS
- Developer: GBKS limited
- Price: $0.99
The guys behind Capcam – called Germany’s Best-Kept Secret (and they may well be) – reckon that the best way for us all to tell our life stories is with collages and captions. That’s why the collage maker takes centre-stage in this cool iPhone app, which makes collating and captioning your treasured images simpler than a simple thing.
09. PhotoCollage
- Platform: Web
- Developer: Zygomatic
- Price: Free
PhotoCollage has a nice does-what-it-says-on-the-tin name, and the web-based collage maker is no less simple to use. It works on Mac, Windows, Android and iOS platforms including touchscreens, and you can choose from collage templates or use your skills to create freeform collages. A neat feature is the Facebook banner and Google+ header templates so you collage-ify your favourite social network’s profile page.
10. Fotor
- Platform: Web
- Developer: Fotor
- Price: Free
Fotor is a professional-level web-based photo editor which includes a specific online collage maker. You can choose from four types of photo collage – template collage, photo stitching, photo montage, and funky collage – and you can create collages in five simple steps from opening the web page to saving and sharing your creation. Plus you can use all of Fotor’s image-editing tools to instil some added perfection.
11. Photovisi
- Platform: Web
- Developer: Photovisi
- Price: Free
Photovisi is a stand-alone collage maker with no fripperies and no photo editing tools to distract and confuse – and it’s all the better for it. It is the easiest to use of all the apps on this page – you select a collage design, add your photos and drag them around till you’re satisfied, then download it. What could be easier?
12. Google Photos
- Platform: Mac/Windows, Chrome app
- Developer: Google
- Price: Free
Google Photos, previously known as Picasa, is an image organiser and photo editor, but did you know it comes with a built-in collage maker? You can experiment with six different collage types in the hands-on collage creation screen, and they will be saved in your ‘Collages’ folder.
13. Collagelt
- Platform: Mac/Windows
- Developer: PearlMountain
- Price: Free (Pro version $19.90)
PearlMountain’s second collage offering is a great, simple photo collage maker that makes collages automatically while still allowing you plenty control. You can choose from its various templates to suit several page sizes, or you can start from a completely blank sheet – it’s up to you! Its real-time preview means it is easy to use for people of all experience levels and you can share your creations on Flickr and Facebook.
14. Ribbet
- Platform: Web
- Developer: Ribbet
- Price: Free
Visit Ribbet’s froggy-themed site and you’ll find an online photo editor that contains a dedicated collage maker. There are hundreds of layouts to choose from and loads of customisable settings, so you have good odds of making an unique collage. You can add text, stickers, borders and effects to your collage and share it directly to Facebook or Flickr, or download them.
15. BeFunky
BeFunky claims to be the world’s best photo editor, and it certainly has one of the world’s simplest collage maker tools. It has tons of templates, awesome effects, and seamless integration with the BeFunky Photo Editor, plus it has a great interface. As well as an online tool, BeFunky is available as an app for iPhone, iPad and Android devices, and if the free versions are not good enough for you you can fork out less than $2 for Pro versions of the mobile apps.
16. piZap
The online collage maker piZap does not have the most attractive interface but you can’t deny the extreme simplicity of its offering. There are loads of fun collage layouts for you to choose from. After adding your photos you can add effects and filters, borders, frames, and stickers. There are also versions for iPhone, iPad, and Android so you can piZap on the move too.
17. Pic Stitch
- Platform: iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Windows 8, Facebook
- Developer: Big Blue Clip
- Price: Free, Windows Phone $0.99, Windows 8 $1.99
Pic Stitch allows you to stitch pictures (geddit?) to create cool collages. Choose from 232 different layouts and 15 different photo aspect ratios, plus you can apply rounded corners, patterns, shadows, and any number of other photo editing tricks then share your masterpiece on the usual social media networks including Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. It is also available on pretty much any device you can name, and only the Windows apps will cost you.
18. Shapecollage
- Platform: Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS
- Developer: Shapecollage
- Price: Free, iOS $1.99
Shape Collage is an automatic photo collage maker that creates collages in different shapes in just a couple seconds. You can create picture collages in the shape of a rectangle, heart, text, or logo, with just a few clicks of the mouse. It automates much of the process so you can just pick a shape, select your photos, and let Shape Collage do the rest – and it’s available as an iPhone app too.
19. Fotojet 2.0
- Platform: Web
- Developer: Pearlmountain
- Price: Free
FotoJet is a free online collage maker that enables you to create amazing collages, photo cards, posters, Facebook covers, Twitter headers, YouTube banners, fun photos and more. What’s more, they’ve just updated to version 2.0, with hundreds of additional new templates, equalling 500+ in total.
