iPhone’s built-in Lift Subject (free)
In Photos, Safari, Quick Look, and other places, you can touch and hold the subject of a photo until an outline appears, then choose Copy, Share, or Add Sticker, or drag the subject into another app. It runs on your device and costs nothing.
It’s enough when the automatic outline is right and you just want to paste the subject into a message, note, or document, or make a sticker for Messages. Try it first.
It falls short when the outline is wrong and you need to fix it, you want some subjects but not others, you need a white or colored background with a specific crop, or you need a saved full-resolution PNG file for a design or print job. There are no editing controls.
remove.bg
The best-known web background remover, run by Kaleido (part of Canva). You upload an image in a browser; it returns a cutout in seconds. Free downloads are previews up to 0.25 megapixels. Full-resolution downloads (up to 50 megapixels) use credits: a Personal subscription listed 40 credits a month for $9 ($8.10/month billed yearly), and pay-as-you-go listed 10 credits for $9. The site notes that processed files are discarded after 60 minutes.
Better pick when you process many images, need an API or Zapier-style automation, or work on Windows, Mac, Linux, or Android. remove.bg does not list an official iPhone app, and App Store apps with “remove.bg” in their name are from other developers.
Trade-offs: your photo is uploaded, on the smaller plans each full-resolution image works out to roughly $0.20 to $0.90, and you need an account for full resolution. remove.bg vs. this app, in detail.
Photoroom
A full product-photo studio: background removal plus AI backgrounds, shadows, templates, batch editing, and marketplace-sized exports. On the web, Pro listed $7.50/month billed yearly (Max $20.99/month billed yearly). The U.S. App Store lists several Photoroom subscription options, priced from $5.99 to $249.99. Photoroom’s help center lists 100 exports a month on the free plan and a 2400 × 2400 pixel export limit on iOS for free users (4032 × 4032 on paid plans).
Better pick when you sell online and want styled scenes, shadows, and batch edits of whole catalogs. For a store with many listings each week, it can easily be worth it.
Trade-offs: subscription, account, and cloud processing. Photoroom’s privacy policy says it processes and uses images you upload to improve and train its products (images sent through its API are excluded).
Canva
A complete design tool. Its Background Remover is marketed as a Canva Pro feature. The U.S. App Store lists Canva Pro subscriptions from $14.99 to $18.00 a month and $119.99 to $143.99 a year. Canva’s own pricing page blocked automated checks, so confirm the web price there.
Better pick when the cutout is one step in making a finished graphic, such as a social post, flyer, or presentation, especially if you already pay for Canva Pro. Then you already have a background remover.
Trade-offs: subscription and a cloud account for a single task, if a cutout is all you need.
Adobe Express
Adobe’s pricing page lists “Remove Image Background” as a quick action on the free plan, with Premium at $9.99/month (the U.S. App Store also lists a $99.99/year option). You need an Adobe account.
Better pick when you want a free, capable option and don’t mind signing in and working in Adobe’s cloud. For many occasional users, this is the best free choice after Lift Subject.
Trade-offs: an Adobe account is required, and the quick action is built for speed rather than detailed hand correction.
Background Remover: PNG Cutout (this app)
$3.99 once in the U.S. App Store, with no in-app purchases. It detects subjects with Apple Vision on the device, lets you keep one or several, fix the edge with Restore and Erase brushes, set a clear, white, black, or custom background, crop to Original, 1:1, 4:5, or 3:4, and export at the original resolution as PNG or JPEG.
Better pick when you want the file, not a design suite: a transparent PNG you corrected yourself, made without uploading the photo or creating an account, for a one-time price.
Where it’s weaker: one photo at a time, no AI backgrounds or shadows, no templates, no video, and iPhone/iPad only. Automatic detection is the same class of on-device technology as Lift Subject, so the first cutout won’t be magically better. The difference is what you can do after it.
Sources
- remove.bg pricing and free-preview limits: remove.bg/pricing; official apps and integrations: remove.bg/tools-api
- Photoroom pricing: photoroom.com/pricing; export limits: help center; resolution limits: help center; privacy: photoroom.com/legal/privacy; App Store listing: Photoroom on the App Store
- Canva Background Remover: canva.com/pro/background-remover; App Store in-app purchase list: Canva on the App Store
- Adobe Express plans: adobe.com/express/pricing; App Store listing: Adobe Express on the App Store
- Lift Subject: Apple iPhone User Guide
- This app: App Store listing and app facts
All checked September 25, 2026. Spotted something out of date? Email [email protected] and I’ll fix it.