Aurora HDR is discontinued. Here is what to use instead on Mac.
Aurora HDR was discontinued by Skylum in mid-2022. The last major version was Aurora HDR 2019. You cannot buy it any more.
If you still have a licence, it may still run. It is no longer updated, so each macOS release is a risk. This page covers what to move to.
Last checked August 2026Linked sources verified
What Skylum did with it
Skylum did not delete the technology. The Quantum HDR engine from Aurora is now the HDR Merge extension for Luminar Neo.
Two things to know:
- The extension only runs inside Luminar Neo. There is no standalone Aurora replacement.
- Pricing: free if you subscribe to Luminar Neo. $49 if you own Luminar Neo perpetually. Aurora HDR 2019 owners were offered it free and a discount on Luminar Neo.
So the official path is not a like-for-like swap. You are moving from one app to an extension inside a bigger app.
Options, by what you actually need
If you want a standalone app that just merges brackets
HDR Forge. Mac App Store, $9.99 one-time for Pro. Free tier does full processing but exports JPEG at half resolution.
It auto-detects bracket sets by exposure value, timestamp and filename. It batches hundreds of sets. Presets include Natural, Dramatic, Real Estate, Architecture, Interior, Exterior. GPU-accelerated. Exports full-resolution JPEG, HEIF with gain map, 16- and 32-bit TIFF, OpenEXR and DNG, with custom naming templates.
Requires macOS 15 Sequoia or later, Apple Silicon recommended. If you are on an older Mac or an Intel Mac, check before buying.
This is the closest thing to "Aurora but standalone and cheap".
If you used Aurora's tone-mapping controls heavily
Photomatix Pro 7. €89 one-time. Mac and Windows. No subscription, and HDRsoft states the licence never expires. Photomatix Pro 7 includes a free upgrade to Pro 8.
Photomatix has the deepest tone-mapping controls of anything here, and it is the only option on this page that runs on Windows. Its batch mode processes a source folder and can auto-detect a varying number of bracketed frames per set.
If you liked pushing Aurora's sliders, this is your move. If you found Aurora's presets already too strong, this is not.
If you want a full editor, not just a merger
Luminar Neo plus the HDR Merge extension. This is the official successor and the only route to the actual Aurora engine.
Reasonable if you want one app for merging and finishing. Less reasonable if you only ever used Aurora to merge, because you are buying an editor to get an extension.
If you are already paying for Lightroom Classic
Use the built-in merge. Select a bracket, press Cmd+Shift+H for a headless merge with no
dialog. Results are natural rather than tone-mapped, and everything stays in your catalogue.
It is genuinely limited at volume — you cannot select all your stacks and merge them in one action. We wrote up exactly where it breaks.
If your problem is windows, not merging
If what you liked about Aurora was recovering a blown window, no merger on this page is your answer.
Use Autoenhance.ai. They ship automated window pull and AI sky replacement, and their v4.4 release improved both. It is cloud-based and subscription-priced, and your images go to their servers. If window pull is the job, they do it and the tools on this page do not. We do not do it either, and we are not going to pretend otherwise.
Comparison
| HDR Forge | Photomatix Pro 7 | Luminar Neo + HDR Merge | Lightroom Classic | Hauscrate (in development) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standalone | Yes | Yes | No — extension | No — catalogue app | Yes |
| Platform | macOS 15+ | Mac + Windows | Mac + Windows | Mac + Windows | macOS |
| Price | $9.99 one-time | €89 one-time | $49 extension + Luminar Neo | Subscription | €99 one-time, planned |
| Auto bracket grouping | Yes | Yes | Yes | Time-gap stacking only | Planned, per room |
| Unattended batch | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Planned |
| Tone-mapping depth | Presets + basic sliders | Deepest here | Deep | Natural only | Exposure fusion, few controls |
| Perspective / vertical correction | Not documented | Not documented | Manual | Manual, per image | Planned |
| Per-room colour cast removal | No | No | No | Manual, per image | Planned |
| Portal export sizing | Not documented | Not documented | Manual | Manual preset | Planned |
| Window pull / sky replacement | No | No | Partial (AI sky) | No | No, and not planned |
| Runs offline | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Honest summary
Most former Aurora users should buy HDR Forge for $9.99 and stop there. It does the thing Aurora did, standalone, on Mac, for a tenth of what Aurora cost.
Buy Photomatix if you need Windows or deep tone-mapping. Buy Luminar Neo if you want a full editor. Use Autoenhance if the real job is window pull.
Where we fit
We are building Hauscrate, a Mac app for real-estate photographers. It takes a folder of brackets from one property shoot and returns a delivery-ready set: brackets grouped per room, merged with exposure fusion, verticals straightened, colour cast removed per room, exported at portal sizes with sequential names in one folder per address. Everything runs on your Mac.
We are not trying to be a better merger than HDR Forge. Merging is close to a solved problem at $9.99. We are building the steps after the merge.
If the work after the merge is what costs you your evenings
Hauscrate is in development. No release date, no users yet, nothing to download. Planned price is €99 one-time.
Leave your email and we will tell you when there is a build to try.
Join the early-access list →