7 Best Photo Restoration Apps for iPhone & Android (2025)

Not All Restoration Apps Are Created Equal

The App Store and Google Play are flooded with apps that claim to “restore old photos with AI.” Some of them are legit. Some of them are glorified Instagram filters with a restoration label slapped on. And a few are straight up bait-and-switch — they show you a gorgeous preview, then lock the actual result behind a subscription. I downloaded way too many of these so you don't have to.

How We Tested

To keep this fair, I used the same photo across all seven apps: a damaged family portrait from the 1970s with scratches across the faces, significant color fading, a crease running through the middle, and some water staining in the bottom corner. It's a tough photo. If an app can handle this one, it can handle pretty much anything in your family's collection. I ran each app's automatic restoration feature without any manual adjustments, because most people just want to tap a button and get a result.

1. ClearPastAI — Best Overall

Okay, obvious bias disclaimer: this is our app. But I genuinely ran it through the same test, and the results speak for themselves. ClearPastAI handled the scratches cleanly — even the ones crossing directly over faces, which trip up a lot of competitors. The color recovery brought back natural tones without that oversaturated look you get from some apps, and the face enhancement added real clarity without making everyone look like a smoothed-out AI rendering.

Processing took about eight seconds on an iPhone. The interface is dead simple: pick a photo, choose your restoration type, done. No confusing menus, no fourteen-step tutorials. And here's the big one — the free tier is actually usable. No watermarks, no low-res previews that force you to pay for the real output. You get genuine restorations for free. The premium tier unlocks higher resolution output and batch processing, which is worth it if you're working through a whole album. Available on iOS.

2. Remini — Popular, But…

Remini is probably the most downloaded photo enhancement app out there, and honestly, the face enhancement is impressive. If your main problem is a blurry face, Remini will sharpen it up nicely. It's particularly good at adding detail to eyes and hair in low-resolution photos. Available on both iPhone and Android.

But here's where I have issues. Scratch removal? Pretty basic. Our test photo still had visible scratch marks after Remini's processing, particularly in the background areas. Color restoration was okay but a bit heavy-handed — everything came out slightly too warm. And the subscription model is aggressive. You get a handful of free enhancements per day with ads between each one, and the app constantly nudges you toward the paid plan. The results are good enough to justify paying if face enhancement is your primary need, but for all-around restoration, there are better options.

3. PhotoDirector — Solid All-Rounder

PhotoDirector surprised me. It's primarily a full photo editor, so I wasn't expecting the AI restoration features to be that strong, but they're pretty decent. Scratch removal handled most of the light scratches on our test photo, though it struggled with the deeper ones over the faces. Color correction was natural-looking, and the app gives you manual adjustment tools if you want to fine-tune the AI's output.

The downside is that PhotoDirector is a big app. It does a million things — collages, effects, templates, social media tools — and the restoration features are buried in all of that. If you just want to restore old photos, it kind of feels like buying a Swiss Army knife to open a letter. Available on iPhone and Android with a free tier that covers basic restoration. The premium subscription unlocks everything, but it's priced more like a full editing suite than a simple restoration tool.

4. Fotor — Decent Free Option

Fotor has been around forever, and their AI restoration feature is a relatively recent addition. It does a respectable job with moderately damaged photos. Our test image came back with most scratches removed and color that looked close to natural. Face detail was improved, though not as dramatically as the top-tier apps managed.

The appeal of Fotor is that the free tier is genuinely functional. You can restore a photo at reasonable quality without paying anything or sitting through too many ads. The results won't blow your mind, but for a quick fix on a photo that's not severely damaged, it gets the job done. Available as both a mobile app and web tool on iPhone and Android. The paid plan removes ads and unlocks higher-resolution output.

5. YouCam Enhance

YouCam Enhance focuses heavily on face and portrait enhancement, similar to Remini. It's decent at what it does — faces come out sharper and cleaner. But the app leans hard into beauty-filter territory. Our test subjects came back looking noticeably younger and smoother than the original photo, which isn't really what you want from restoration. You want people to look like themselves, just clearer. Scratch removal and color restoration are basic. If your goal is specifically portrait touchups for recent photos, YouCam is fine. For actual old photo restoration, it's not the right tool. Available on iPhone and Android.

6. Face Restore

Face Restore does exactly what the name suggests — it enhances faces. And only faces. Our test photo came back with sharper facial features but all the scratches, color fading, and water damage in the rest of the image were completely untouched. If you're going to use this, you'll need a separate app to handle everything else. The face results are solid but not better than Remini or ClearPastAI. Free tier is very limited. Hard to recommend as a standalone solution when other apps do faces and everything else.

7. Renew

Renew markets itself specifically as an old photo restoration app, which set my expectations high. The reality is more mixed. It handled color correction reasonably well, and the interface is clean and easy to navigate. But scratch removal was inconsistent — it caught some and completely missed others on the same image. Face enhancement was minimal. And the app pushed the paid subscription hard, with the free version limiting you to pretty low-resolution output. Not terrible, but not competitive with the better options on this list. Available on iPhone and Android.

The Verdict — Which One Should You Download?

Look, if you're on iPhone and you want the best restoration quality without getting nickel-and-dimed, ClearPastAI is the move. It handles the full range of damage types, the free tier is genuinely generous, and the results are consistently clean. For Android users who need a solid all-rounder, PhotoDirector is your best bet — just be prepared for a bigger app with a lot of features you probably won't use.

Remini is worth it if your photos are mostly just blurry and you need face sharpening specifically. Fotor works if you want something quick and free for lightly damaged photos. The rest — YouCam, Face Restore, Renew — are fine for very specific use cases but don't really compete as general restoration tools.

The bottom line is that AI photo restoration has gotten genuinely good, but there's still a big quality gap between the apps that specialize in it and the ones that treat it as an afterthought. Don't waste time on mediocre results. Grab one of the top three options and your old photos will thank you.