Get Iris.
$24 — a one-time purchase, no subscription.
Every Iris v1 update included, and free to try for 14 days.
$24 — one-time purchase
- Try it free for 14 days. No account, no credit card.
- Your license arrives by email, usually within minutes.
- One license covers your whole household, on every Mac you own.
- 60-day money-back guarantee, handled personally by me.
- When a paid v2 ships someday, direct customers get an upgrade discount.
Secure checkout via Stripe. Instant delivery.
Prefer the Mac App Store?
Same app, same $24 — purchased through your Apple account, with Family Sharing for up to six people.
The App Store version doesn't offer the free trial — but you're welcome to take the direct trial for a spin first, then buy wherever suits you.
Which one should I pick?
Whichever you like — it's the exact same app either way, and I keep both up to date together. Buy direct if you'd like to try Iris first, want refunds and support to come straight from me, or want the upgrade discount whenever a paid v2 arrives. Choose the App Store if you share purchases with your family, or simply like keeping everything in your Apple account. There's no wrong answer.
What people are saying.
I have been testing Iris for a couple of months and I think it is delightful...it lets you explore your tens- or hundreds-of-thousands of photos in a way that treats each of them as little memory boxes...Iris is great, old-school, indie Mac software.
This is literally the app I've dreamt of for a very long time — a photo browser that can handle multiple sources with a UI as polished as Apple Photos. I already love every pixel of it.
Installed it on a trial basis, fell in love with it right away, and bought it immediately.
As a former Aperture Apple software engineer, I'm impressed.
This sort of software fit, finish, care and love is the whole reason I’m an Apple and Mac user all these decades.
This UX detail from Iris when creating a person is lovely (raise your hand if you’ve ever cried when a carousel unexpectedly showed you a photo of a late friend). I love when humans make software for humans 🧡
I am so happy to finally find a beautiful and fast consumer-grade photo library that doesn’t insist on reorganizing my files or rely on the cloud. This is something I have sorely missed since I moved away from Lightroom years ago.
Questions people ask.
Can I try Iris before I buy?
Yes. The free trial is the full app, free for 14 days — no account and no credit card. When you're ready, buy a license direct or get Iris from the Mac App Store; either way, it's the same app.
What happens when the trial ends?
The 14 days start the first time you launch Iris. When they're up, Iris stops opening your library until you enter a license — but everything it built (the faces you named, the search index, the transcripts) stays safe on your disk, so buying later picks up exactly where you left off. Your photos themselves were never touched either way.
What's the difference between buying direct and the Mac App Store?
Buying direct includes the 14-day free trial, a license delivered by email, my 60-day money-back guarantee, and an upgrade discount whenever a paid v2 ships. The App Store version supports Family Sharing for up to six people and keeps the purchase in your Apple account, alongside your other apps.
Will I have to pay again for version 2?
There's no subscription, ever — your $24 covers every Iris 1.x update, bug fixes and new features alike. If a paid version 2 ships someday, it will be a paid upgrade, and customers who bought direct will get an upgrade discount. (Apple doesn't support upgrade discounts on the App Store, which is one more reason I recommend buying direct.) Either way, your copy of v1 keeps working.
What if Iris isn't for me?
If you bought direct, email me within 60 days and I'll refund you — no questions asked. App Store purchases are refunded by Apple; you can request one anytime at reportaproblem.apple.com.
Does Iris move or modify my photos?
No. Iris reads your files in place and stores everything it learns in its own database. Your originals are never copied, moved, renamed, or modified.
Will Iris change or reorganize my Apple Photos library?
No. When you add an Apple Photos library as a source, Iris opens it read-only. It reads your photos, videos, and metadata to build its own separate library on your Mac — but it never writes back. Your albums, edits, favorites, keywords, People, and the entire structure of your Photos library are left exactly as they are. You can keep using Photos.app at the same time; it's completely unaffected. Iris even reads your existing favorites during the first scan, so they become your new favorites in Iris — a one-way read, never a change to Photos.
My photos are in iCloud. Does Iris work for me?
Yes. Iris works best when your originals are downloaded to your Mac — in Apple Photos, that's Settings → Download Originals to this Mac. If your library is optimized instead, Iris falls back to the best thumbnail Photos has on hand, so everything still appears in your library; full resolution and the sharpest machine-learning results just need the originals.
Does one purchase cover more than one Mac?
Yes — a direct license covers your entire household, on every Mac you own. On the App Store, Family Sharing extends your purchase to up to six family members, too.
Can two Macs share the same photo library?
They can, but each Mac maintains its own database and processing state — Iris isn't designed to sync metadata between machines. The companion apps are a better way to browse the same library from more than one device.
My external drive is unplugged. What happens to those photos?
Their metadata and thumbnails stay in Iris. You can still browse thumbnails, see metadata, navigate by date, etc.
How long does initial processing take?
It depends on library size and the speed of your Mac:
- A few thousand photos: a few minutes
- Tens of thousands: an hour or two for the basics, several hours for ML
- Hundreds of thousands: up to a few days with all ML and transcription features enabled
You can use Iris while processing runs or leave it open in the background.
What happens to my photos if I stop using Iris?
Nothing. Your photos were never inside Iris — they stayed in the folders and libraries where you put them, untouched, the whole time. Delete the app and every original is exactly where it has always been. What you'd lose is the work Iris did on top of them: the faces you named, the transcripts, the search index. Never the photos.
Ready when you are.
$24, once. Or try the full app free for 14 days — no account, no card.
Buy Iris — $24 Try free for 14 days
Or get it on the Mac App Store — same app, same price.