Having a mobile phone is like having an entire arsenal of creative tools all at your fingertips, and if you know how to use them correctly, you can almost channel the power of professionals. Of course, having top-notch gear and software may be essential to those at the top of their fields. However, the beautiful thing about art is that it isn’t about the things you have, but rather the things you create. VSCO is a great app that can help you along your creative journey, and it is beloved by casual instagrammers and serious photographers alike.

VSCO is a free app for both Apple and Android, but users also have the choice to subscribe to an upgraded version. For the sake of accessibility, this review will focus more on the free version.

The main allure of VSCO is the beautiful range of filter presets that bring new life to a normal photograph. From mysterious grayscales to nostalgic sepias, sunsoaked rainbows and vintage film grains, VSCO has it all. No matter what look you are going for, VSCO has a versatile selection of filters that can help you achieve that. Each filter is also highly customizable, giving you a full range of control over basic settings and more advanced elements of the photo as well. If that is still not enough, VSCO also has some filter packs available to purchase.

One downside is that VSCO’s free selection is pretty limited compared to all the beautiful filters available in the paid packs and to VSCO X subscribers. Some of the free filters also look rather drab, but the rest of the suitable filters do make up for this deficiency.

In addition to offering a great selection of filters and editing tools, VSCO also has its own photo sharing platform. It feels more lowkey than Instagram, so people tend to post more personal photos without the pressure to show their most perfected image. It is also a treasure trove of beautiful photography, partially thanks to the well crafted filters, but also due to the crowd of creative that the platform attracts.

Although there is a slew of other apps that specialize in other photography functions, VSCO is a great one to add to your editing tools because of the creative filters that it offers.