Price and license
€229 buys one Excire Foto 2027 license. $59.99 buys PhotoCore Full for every Mac in your family through Apple Family Sharing. Both are one-time purchases with no subscription.
Comparison
PhotoCore vs Excire Foto 2027
Excire Foto 2027 and PhotoCore both analyze your photos on your own computer, with no cloud, and both sell a one-time license. The differences are price, platform and scope. Excire Foto 2027 costs €229 (VAT included, FastSpring checkout, September 15, 2026), runs on Mac and Windows and is built for photographers who manage large catalogs. PhotoCore Full costs $59.99 / €59.99, runs on Apple silicon Macs only, indexes NAS shares and unplugged drives, archives your iPhone and your Apple Photos library with verified copies, turns selections into shareable Stories, and includes Family Sharing.
Both on deviceBoth one-time licenses€229 vs $59.99Mac and Windows vs Mac only
Direct Comparison
Feature comparison
Two honest one-time licenses. The table shows where they overlap and where they part ways.
| Feature | Excire Foto 2027 | PhotoCore |
|---|---|---|
| Price | €229 one-time for Excire Foto 2027. Excire Search 2026, the Lightroom Classic plugin, costs €199 | Free (Light, up to 200 photos) / $59.99 one-time, Family Sharing included |
| Platform | Mac and Windows | macOS 26.4 or later on Apple silicon (M1 or later). No Intel Macs, no Windows |
| Where your photos live | Folders you add are analyzed; files stay where they are | Folders are indexed in place, read-only; nothing is moved or changed |
| Search by description | Yes, on device, plus search for text visible in photos | Yes, on device with SigLIP 2 via Core ML, 100+ languages, under 50 ms on 10,000 photos |
| Text inside photos (signs, documents) | Yes, new in the 2027 version | No |
| Unplugged drives and NAS | Analyzed photos stay searchable; NAS shares are not called out by the vendor | Yes: external drives and NAS shares stay searchable while disconnected |
| Face recognition | Yes, on device | Yes, on device, off by default, face data deletable per person |
| iPhone and Apple Photos archive | No | Phone Archive verified byte for byte; Apple Photos archive verified with SHA-256 |
| Share without uploading | Selections and exports | Web Story, PDF photo book, vertical Short, Constellation and Poster, all built on the Mac |
| Photo editing | No editing tools | No editing; RAW files are read through their embedded preview and never changed |
| Distribution and privacy label | Sold on excire.com through FastSpring; local AI, no cloud, per the vendor | Mac App Store, App Sandbox, privacy label “Data Not Collected” |
| Try before buying | Free trial from the vendor | Light edition, free, up to 200 photos, no time limit |
Sources and dates. Excire prices come from the Excire checkout (FastSpring, Italy) on September 15, 2026: Excire Foto 2027 €229, Excire Search 2026 €199, VAT included. Platform and feature notes come from excire.com on the same date. PhotoCore figures come from this site and the Mac App Store. Prices and features change; check the vendor's page before you buy.
Where each one fits
What each app is built for
Excire Foto is a catalog tool for photographers. PhotoCore is a private home for a whole photo life on a Mac.
Drives in the drawer and NAS
PhotoCore indexes external drives and NAS shares in place and keeps them searchable after you unplug them. Excire keeps analyzed photos in its catalog; the vendor does not call out NAS shares.
Archive first, then search
PhotoCore copies your iPhone and your Apple Photos library to a drive you own, verifies every file, and indexes the result. Excire Foto starts from folders that already exist.
Text in photos and Windows
Excire Foto 2027 reads text visible in photos and runs on Windows. If either matters to you, Excire is the better fit.
How to choose
Which one is right for you
Choose Excire Foto if
You will be happier with Excire Foto when:
- you work on Windows, or on both Mac and Windows
- you want the Lightroom Classic plugin (Excire Search 2026)
- you need to search text visible inside photos
- you manage a large photographer's catalog with keyword tagging as the core workflow
Choose PhotoCore if
PhotoCore is the better choice when:
- you use an Apple silicon Mac and want the lower one-time price
- your photos sit on external drives and a NAS, and you want to search them even when unplugged
- you want a verified copy of your iPhone and your Apple Photos library on a drive you own
- you want to share a Story, a photo book or a Short without uploading anything
- one purchase should cover the whole family
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Is Excire Foto cheaper than PhotoCore?
No. On September 15, 2026 the Excire checkout listed Excire Foto 2027 at €229, VAT included. PhotoCore Full costs $59.99 / €59.99 and includes Family Sharing. Both are one-time purchases.
Do both apps work offline?
Yes. Excire states that its AI runs on your computer with no cloud. PhotoCore runs search, face recognition, quality scoring and Stories on the Apple Neural Engine, and everything keeps working with the network off.
Does PhotoCore run on Windows or on Intel Macs?
No. PhotoCore needs an Apple silicon Mac (M1 or later) with macOS 26.4 or later. Excire Foto runs on Mac and Windows.
Can I use Excire Foto and PhotoCore on the same archive?
Yes. Both index folders in place and leave the original files unchanged. You can keep Excire for keyword tagging and use PhotoCore for NAS search, phone and Apple Photos archiving, and Stories.
Get started free
Try PhotoCore: free up to 200 photos
Download PhotoCore for free. The Light edition indexes up to 200 photos with no time limit. PhotoCore Full is a one-time purchase of $59.99, with Family Sharing included.