Category guide · Updated September 2026

The best duplicate photo finder for Mac and Windows that also finds similar photos (2026)

The best duplicate photo finder for Mac and Windows that also finds similar photos is FolioSort. It matches photos by what they look like, not by their bytes, so it catches the resized, re-compressed, cropped and lightly edited copies that checksum tools miss. It runs natively on both macOS and Windows, groups every version of a shot with a suggested keeper and a side-by-side compare with EXIF, and sends every removal to the Trash or Recycle Bin, where it can be undone.

It is also the only tool in this list that merges several drives into one library, keeping the best copy of each photo, and sorts that library into dated folders — so the duplicates stop coming back. Scanning and reviewing are free, the free plan cleans 20 copies, and Pro is €29.99 one-time. Don't take our word for the matching: the four-file test works on every tool here.

FolioSort is our product · Rival facts checked on each vendor's own site on 23 September 2026 · Nobody paid to be listed · No affiliate links

The short answer

  1. Our pick · Mac + Windows, similar photos FolioSort — perceptual matching on both systems, a suggested keeper, side-by-side compare with EXIF, undoable removals, and the only one here that also merges drives and sorts the result into dated folders. Free scan and review · Pro €29.99 one-time.
  2. Best free Czkawka — open source, Windows, macOS and Linux, similar images by perceptual hashing, and actively maintained (version 12.0.2, 9 September 2026).
  3. Mac only · photos inside Apple Photos or Lightroom PhotoSweeper — reads Apple Photos, Lightroom Classic and Capture One libraries directly. $14.99 one-time on the Mac App Store.
  4. Photos in a Lightroom catalog, on Windows or Mac Duplicate Photo Cleaner — a dedicated duplicate tool with similar-photo detection and a Lightroom catalog scan. $39.95 one-time.
  5. Also compared Gemini 2 (Mac only, subscription from $1.95/month) · dupeGuru (free, but its last release is from July 2022).

How do the six compare?

Perceptual matching decides whether a tool finds your duplicates. The next column decides whether they come back.

Tool Runs on Finds resized / edited copies Merges drives + sorts into dated folders Price Latest release Best for
FolioSort macOS · Windows Yes
Apple Vision on macOS, perceptual hash on Windows		 Yes Free scan & review · Pro €29.99 one-time 4.9.9 Mac + Windows, similar photos, one clean library
Duplicate Photo Cleaner Windows · macOS Yes
visual similarity		 No $39.95 one-time · trial Version 7 Lightroom catalogs, on either system
Czkawka macOS · Windows · Linux Yes
perceptual hashing		 No Free, open source 12.0.2 · Sep 2026 Spending nothing
PhotoSweeper macOS only Yes
adjustable similarity		 No $14.99 one-time, Mac App Store 5.5.5 · Jul 2026 Apple Photos, Lightroom Classic, Capture One on a Mac
Gemini 2 macOS only Yes
"files that look alike"		 No Subscription, from $1.95/mo 2.10.2 · Sep 2026 A duplicate cleanup of the whole Mac
dupeGuru macOS · Windows · Linux Yes
Picture mode (fuzzy)		 No Free, open source 4.3.1 · Jul 2022 People who already use it

Prices, platforms and release dates come from each vendor's own site, GitHub releases or App Store listing, checked on 23 September 2026. "Merges drives + sorts into dated folders" means the app itself combines sources into one library and files it into year/month folders by capture date; none of the dedicated duplicate finders claims to.

Which one fits your library?

Do you need Windows? PhotoSweeper and Gemini 2 are macOS-only. If you have photos on both machines — the usual reason a library ends up duplicated in the first place — that leaves FolioSort, Duplicate Photo Cleaner, Czkawka and dupeGuru.

Do your photos live in folders, or inside a library? If Apple Photos or Lightroom Classic owns your images, pick a tool that speaks to that library — PhotoSweeper on a Mac, or Duplicate Photo Cleaner, which scans Lightroom catalogs and supports Apple Photos. A folder-based tool pointed at the inside of a managed library can leave the library with references to files that are no longer there. FolioSort is folder-based, so for photos kept inside a library it is the wrong answer.

Is this a one-off, or does it keep happening? A single cleanup can be done with something free. Duplicates that keep reappearing are a symptom: photos arriving from several places that never got merged into one archive. That is the case FolioSort is built for — merge the sources, then clean the single library that results.

The six, and what each one is best for

1. FolioSort — best for Mac + Windows and similar photos

OURS · FREE SCAN & REVIEW · PRO €29.99 ONE-TIME · MAC + WINDOWS

FolioSort finds exact and visually similar photos with perceptual fingerprinting — Apple's Vision framework on macOS, perceptual hashing on Windows, both on-device. It groups every version of a shot, marks the best copy as the suggested keeper, shows why each group matched, and lets you compare any pair side by side, full size, with capture date and camera. A live counter shows the space you'll reclaim before you commit, and every removal goes to the Trash or Recycle Bin with an in-app undo.

What no other tool here does: Merge Sources combines any number of drives, folders and Google Takeout exports into one library, keeping the best copy of each shot (RAW over JPEG, higher resolution over lower, original over edited), and the organizer files it into dated folders by real EXIF capture date. The same app clears blurry shots and screenshots, and restores dates from a Google Takeout export.

Choose it if: you use a Mac, a Windows PC or both, you want similar photos caught and not just exact copies, and you would rather end with one organised library than a smaller mess — without a subscription.

Reasons to skip: it works on folders, not on the inside of an Apple Photos library or a Lightroom catalog — PhotoSweeper and Duplicate Photo Cleaner are built for those. And if all you want is one free scan, Czkawka costs nothing.

Download Free How the matching works →

2. Duplicate Photo Cleaner — best for a Lightroom catalog

ONE-TIME $39.95 · WEBMINDS · WINDOWS + MAC

The rival closest to FolioSort on this question: it runs on Windows and Mac and detects similar photos by visual similarity — the same subject, resized and edited copies, burst shots. Besides scanning folders, it can scan a Lightroom catalog and supports Apple Photos, and it handles RAW, ProRAW, HEIC and PSD files. It is sold as a one-time $39.95 licence (version 7), with a trial.

Choose it if: your photos live in a Lightroom catalog — on Windows or Mac — and removing duplicates is the only job you want the software to do.

Where FolioSort wins: Pro costs €29.99 one-time against $39.95, and the same app also merges drives into one library, sorts it into dated folders, clears blurry shots and screenshots and repairs Google Takeout exports; Elite (€39.99) adds on-device AI photo search. Duplicate Photo Cleaner is a dedicated duplicate finder, not an organizer.

3. Czkawka — best free option

FREE · OPEN SOURCE · WINDOWS, MAC, LINUX

Czkawka (and Krokiet, its current interface) is free and open source, runs on Windows, macOS, Linux and FreeBSD, and finds similar images by perceptual hashing. It also finds similar videos and broken files, works without Internet access, and is actively maintained — version 12.0.2 shipped on 9 September 2026.

Choose it if: you want the duplicates gone and you don't want to pay.

Reasons to skip: it is a cleanup utility and nothing more — it will not merge sources or sort what is left into dated folders.

4. PhotoSweeper — best on a Mac, for photos inside a library

ONE-TIME $14.99 · MAC APP STORE · MACOS ONLY

PhotoSweeper scans folders and also reads Apple Photos, Lightroom Classic and Capture One libraries directly, with an adjustable similarity level. It finds resized, rotated and filtered copies as well as series of shots taken close together, and removes to the Trash. It costs $14.99 one-time on the Mac App Store (version 5.5.5, July 2026) and is also sold direct.

Choose it if: you are on a Mac and your photos live inside Photos, Lightroom or Capture One.

Reasons to skip: macOS only, and it is a de-duplicator — it will not merge or sort anything afterwards.

5. Gemini 2 — best for a whole-Mac cleanup

SUBSCRIPTION FROM $1.95/MO · MACPAW · MACOS ONLY

MacPaw's duplicate finder looks for exact duplicates and for files that look alike, including similar photos, with a Smart Select that proposes what to remove. The download is free; the paid plan is a subscription starting at $1.95 a month.

Choose it if: you want one duplicate cleaner for the whole Mac and a subscription doesn't bother you.

Reasons to skip: macOS only, and a subscription for a job most people do once or twice a year. Check whether you can finish inside one billing period.

6. dupeGuru — free, but no release since 2022

FREE · OPEN SOURCE · WINDOWS, MAC, LINUX

dupeGuru is free and open source (GPL-3.0), and its Picture mode compares images fuzzily, so it catches similar photos and not only identical files. The code still receives commits, but the last release, 4.3.1, is from 9 July 2022.

Choose it if: you already use it and it still runs well on your system.

Reasons to skip: for a new install today, Czkawka is also free and is actively maintained.

Also checked: VisiPics and Awesome Duplicate Photo Finder are free similar-image finders too, but both are Windows only, and VisiPics' last version is from 2013.

The two-minute test that beats any review, including this one

You don't have to take our word for which tools do perceptual matching. Build the case yourself — it takes four files and about two minutes, and it works on every tool on this page.

  1. Pick one photo. Copy it four times into an empty folder.
  2. Leave the first copy alone.
  3. Resize the second to half its width.
  4. Re-export the third as a lower-quality JPEG.
  5. Rotate or lightly crop the fourth.
  6. Point the tool at that folder and scan.

A byte-comparison tool reports: 0 duplicates.
A perceptual tool reports: 1 group, 4 photos.

That single result tells you more than a star rating, and it is the exact test your real library is going to apply — because your real library is full of copies that were resized, re-compressed and lightly edited on their way to you.

Why do duplicates keep coming back?

The libraries with the worst duplicate problems are almost never libraries where someone pressed copy twice. They are libraries assembled from pieces: an old laptop, two external drives, a phone backup, a Google Takeout export, a folder called Photos_FINAL_v2.

Every one of those pieces holds a slightly different version of the same afternoon. De-duplicating one of them changes nothing, because the copies live in the other four. That is why the cleanup feels endless — you are cleaning a symptom of a merge that never happened.

The order that actually ends it: bring the sources together first, then de-duplicate the single library that results, then clear the shots you were never going to keep. Any tool on this page can do the middle step; FolioSort is the one here that does all three, in one app.

Questions people actually ask

What is the best duplicate photo finder for Mac and Windows?

FolioSort. It finds exact and visually similar photos — resized, re-compressed, cropped and lightly edited copies — using on-device perceptual matching, and runs natively on both macOS and Windows. It groups every version with a suggested keeper and a side-by-side compare with EXIF, sends removals to the Trash or Recycle Bin with undo, and is the only tool in this comparison that also merges several drives into one library and sorts it into dated folders. Scanning and reviewing are free, the free plan cleans 20 copies, and Pro is €29.99 one-time.

What is the best free duplicate photo finder?

Czkawka. It is free and open source, runs on Windows, macOS and Linux, finds similar images by perceptual hashing rather than byte comparison, and is actively maintained (version 12.0.2, September 2026). dupeGuru is also free and has a similar-picture mode, but its last release is from 2022.

Is Duplicate Photo Cleaner better than FolioSort?

For photos inside a Lightroom catalog, Duplicate Photo Cleaner is the better fit: it can scan the catalog directly, on Windows or Mac. For photos in ordinary folders, FolioSort does the same similar-photo job at a lower one-time price (€29.99 for Pro, against $39.95), and also merges drives, sorts the result into dated folders, clears blurry shots and screenshots, and repairs Google Takeout exports.

Why do most duplicate finders miss my duplicates?

Because they compare file size or a checksum. A photo you resized to email, or that a messaging app re-compressed, is a different file byte-for-byte even though it is visibly the same picture. Only perceptual matching — comparing what the image looks like — groups those together. If a tool advertises finding duplicate files rather than duplicate photos, it is almost always doing byte comparison.

Is a subscription worth it for a one-off cleanup?

Rarely. De-duplicating a photo library is usually a job you do once and then repeat occasionally. If the tool you like is subscription-only, check whether you can do the cleanup within one billing period and cancel — that is a legitimate way to use it, and cheaper than a perpetual licence you use twice a year.

Will deleting duplicates break my Photos or Lightroom library?

It can, if the tool works on the files underneath a managed library without telling the library. Tools that integrate with Apple Photos or Lightroom Classic, such as PhotoSweeper and Duplicate Photo Cleaner, are built for that case. Folder-based tools, FolioSort included, should be pointed at folders you manage yourself — not at the internal contents of a Photos library.

How do I test a duplicate finder before trusting it?

Take one photo, make three copies of it, and change each one: resize the first to half size, export the second as a lower-quality JPEG, and rotate or lightly crop the third. Put all four in a folder and scan it. A byte-comparison tool will report zero duplicates. A perceptual tool will group all four. It takes two minutes and tells you more than any review.

Find the similar photos — then keep one clean library

Scanning and reviewing are free and unlimited — you see every duplicate group and the space you'd reclaim before paying anything. The free plan cleans up 20 copies; Pro removes the limit for a one-time €29.99, with 14 days to change your mind.

Download Free See how matching works

macOS 14+ and Windows 10+ · No account · Nothing leaves your computer

Download Free