Selekt vs Aftershoot
Aftershoot uses AI to auto-cull your photos. Selekt gives you a fast, lightweight app where you make every creative decision yourself. Both solve the same problem: getting from thousands of images to your selects. They just approach it very differently.
Two different philosophies
Selekt: you drive
Selekt lets you organize shots into scenes, then compare and pick the winner from each group. You see every image and make every call. The app just makes the mechanical parts fast: instant previews, keyboard shortcuts, auto-advance.
- You keep full creative control
- No AI decisions to second-guess
- Mac and Windows now, iOS and Android coming soon
Aftershoot: AI drives
Aftershoot analyses your images with AI and auto-selects the best ones. It learns from your previous culling decisions over time. You review the AI's picks and override where needed.
- AI handles the first pass
- Personalizes to your style over time
- Also offers AI editing presets
Why photographers switch
$8/mo vs $480/yr
Selekt Pro costs $8/month ($12 AUD). Aftershoot's full suite runs up to $480/year. That's hundreds back in your pocket every year.
Lightweight, not Electron
Selekt is built on Tauri with a Rust core for image processing. No bundled Chromium, smaller footprint, lower memory usage. Aftershoot runs on Electron. You feel the difference scrolling through 3,000 images.
Desktop now, mobile soon
Selekt runs on macOS and Windows today, with iOS and Android apps coming soon. Cull on your desktop now, review on your iPad soon. Aftershoot is desktop only.
The AI culling tradeoff
Where AI culling works well
AI is excellent at flagging technical rejects: out-of-focus shots, blinks in group photos, severe motion blur, and duplicate bursts. If you shoot 10,000+ frames per event and your first priority is eliminating the obvious misses, AI culling genuinely saves time.
Where it falls short
AI struggles with the images that matter most: the slightly soft frame where the groom's composure breaks, the off-center candid that tells the story, the intentionally underexposed mood shot. These get penalized by algorithms trained on technical perfection. Aftershoot reports ~90% agreement with your manual selections, but that remaining 10% on a 2,000-image wedding is 200 images you need to verify, and they're disproportionately the edge cases that make your work unique.
A different approach
Selekt's scene-based grouping means you're never scrolling a flat grid of 3,000 images. You organize shots into scenes, then compare 5-15 frames side by side and pick the winner. With auto-advance and keyboard shortcuts, a 3,000-image wedding cull takes 40-60 minutes, and you've seen and decided on every single image yourself.
Feature comparison
| Feature | Selekt | Aftershoot |
|---|---|---|
| Photo culling workflow | ||
| Keyboard-driven culling (P/M/X/U) | ||
| Auto-advance on rate | ||
| Scene-based grouping | ||
| Side-by-side comparison | ||
| RAW file support (400+ cameras) | ||
| AI auto-tagging | ||
| AI face detection | ||
| AI auto-culling (hands-off) | ||
| AI editing presets | ||
| Personalized AI learning | ||
| Lightweight desktop app (no bundled Chromium) | ||
| Rust-powered image processing | ||
| iOS and Android apps | ||
| Free tier available | ||
| Works fully offline | ||
| AI smart crop for social | ||
| Social export presets (IG, TikTok) | ||
| Lightroom XMP export |
= Partial or limited
Pricing
Selekt
Free / $8/mo for Pro
Unlimited culling on the free plan. Pro ($8/mo, $12 AUD) adds AI tagging, smart crop, and social export presets. Available on Mac and Windows, with iOS and Android coming soon.
Aftershoot
$120/yr culling only / up to $480/yr
$10/month for AI culling. Higher tiers ($20-40/month) add AI editing presets and batch processing. Desktop only (Mac and Windows).
3-year cost comparison
Selekt Pro (3 years)
$288
Aftershoot full suite (3 years)
$1,440
Which one is right for you
Choose Selekt if you:
- Want to make every creative decision yourself
- Value a fast, lightweight app over AI automation
- Want mobile culling on iPad or phone (coming soon)
- Prefer scene-based culling over flat grids
- Want to save hundreds per year vs Aftershoot's full suite
Choose Aftershoot if you:
- Shoot 50+ weddings a year and need AI to do the first pass
- Want AI editing presets alongside culling
- Are comfortable reviewing AI decisions rather than making your own
- Don't need mobile culling
Common questions
Can I switch from Aftershoot to Selekt?
Yes. Selekt works directly with your image folders. Point it at the same directories you've been using with Aftershoot and start culling immediately. No migration, no import, no lock-in.
Is manual culling really as fast as AI culling?
With keyboard shortcuts and auto-advance, most photographers cull at 1-2 seconds per image. For a 2,000-image shoot, that's 40-65 minutes of active culling. Aftershoot's AI processes faster, but you still need to review its picks, which typically adds 20-30 minutes. The total time is comparable, but with Selekt you've seen every image yourself.
Does Selekt have any AI features?
Yes. Selekt Pro includes AI auto-tagging, face detection, and smart crop for social media. The difference is that Selekt uses AI to assist your workflow (surfacing information, automating exports) rather than making culling decisions for you.
What about Aftershoot's personalized learning?
Aftershoot trains a model on your past culling decisions, which improves its auto-cull accuracy over time. Selekt doesn't auto-cull, so personalization isn't needed. Your taste is the algorithm.
Try Selekt free
No credit card, no trial period. Import a shoot and see how scene-based culling feels. If it clicks, Pro is $8/month.
Download Selekt