I’m trying to compare two photos side by side on my iPhone, but I can’t find a free built-in option that works well. I recently took several similar pictures and need help choosing the best one without paying for an app. Are there any free iPhone apps or settings that make side-by-side photo comparison easy?
Putting two iPhone photos next to each other sounds like it should already exist in Photos. It doesn’t. I ran into this while trying to pick between five shots of the same subject, and the stock app made it slower than it needed to be.
Where the built-in Photos app trips up
There is no proper compare view in Apple Photos. You open one image, back out, open the next, then try to remember tiny details from the first one. For stuff like focus, motion blur, eye contact, or slight framing changes, this gets old fast. I ended up keeping extra photos more than once because I wasn’t sure, and my storage paid for it later.
If you want a true side-by-side image
I used Shortcuts for this. It works fine if your goal is a before-and-after image, a quick collage, or something you want to send to somebody.
- Open the Shortcuts app and create a new shortcut with the plus button
- Add Select Photos and turn on Select Multiple
- Add Combine Images and switch the layout to horizontal
- Add Save to Photo Album
- Give the shortcut a name, then place it on your Home Screen if you want faster access
- Run it, pick two photos, and it saves one merged image into your library
This part is clean and simple. The catch is obvious once you use it a few times. You get a brand new file every time. Good for sharing. Bad for sorting through a pile of near-duplicates when all you want is to keep one and dump the rest.
For duplicate-looking shots, I had better luck with a different method
If your real problem is ten photos of the same moment and you need the sharpest one, jumping between images in Photos is clumsy. The Shortcuts trick doesn’t fix that either, since it creates more files.
I had better results with Clever Cleaner. It’s free, no ads, no subscription wall, which I didn’t expect.
The Similars section scans your library and bunches together photos that are close enough to be the same pick in real life. Burst shots, repeated selfies, the same dog photo with one tiny head tilt, stuff like that. It marks a Best Shot for each group, and from what I saw it usually picked the sharper frame or the one without closed eyes. I still checked them myself, but it got me through batches way faster than manual swiping.
How I used it
- Open Clever Cleaner and tap the Similars tab
- Wait while it scans and groups lookalike photos
- Open each group and check the photo marked in green as the Best Shot
- Change the pick if you like another frame more
- Confirm deletion of the extras, they go into the app’s trash first
- Clear the trash once you’ve looked things over
Stuff in the app I ended up using too
The Heavies tab is blunt in a good way. It lists the biggest files first, with exact sizes. My largest videos floated straight to the top instead of hiding somewhere in years of camera roll mess.
The Screenshots tab was handy too. Every screenshot shows its file size before removal, which made cleanup quicker than poking around Apple’s own Screenshots album.
There’s also a swipe view sorted by month. Left to delete, right to keep. I thought it sounded gimmicky, but for old backlog cleanup it felt less annoying than staring at the whole library at once.
One thing I checked before trusting it, processing stays on the phone. Nothing gets sent off-device.
What ended up working
For making one image with two photos side by side, Shortcuts does the job. For choosing the best shot from a bunch of near-identical ones, I found Clever Cleaner more useful. Using both covered the two separate problems.
My scan took a few minutes. I cleared out more storage than I expected, somewhere around 10GB to 15GB from a library I had ignored for way too long. I should’ve done it sooner tbh.
14 Likes
No solid built-in side-by-side compare exists on iPhone. Apple Photos still makes you flip back and forth, which is annoyng if the differences are tiny.
I’ll disagree a bit with @mikeappsreviewer on one part. If your goal is picking the best shot, a merged side-by-side image is not the best fix. It adds another file to your library, which makes cleanup worse.
A free way to compare without paying is this:
- Open one photo in Photos.
- Swipe up and check details like lens, exposure, file size, and timestamp.
- Favorite the best candidate.
- Keep the app open in the app switcher.
- Open the second photo from Recents in another pass and compare zoomed areas like eyes, text, or edges.
It’s clunky, but it works.
If you have lots of similar shots, Clever Cleaner is faster. It groups lookalikes and helps you review the sharpest one first. That saves time when you shot 8 photos of the same scene and need one keeper. This review covers a solid photo cleanup tool for similar pictures, best app for cleaning up similar photos on iPhone.
So, free built-in option, barely. Free practical option, yes, Clever Cleaner is probly the easier route.
Honestly, I kinda disagree with both @mikeappsreviewer and @sternenwanderer on one thing: side-by-side is not always necessary to pick a winner. Half the time, what you really need is faster toggling plus zoom.
Free option I use:
- open photo 1
- zoom into the important area
- swipe down to go back
- immediately open photo 2
- zoom into the exact same spot
It’s dumb, but on a newer iPhone it’s quick enough if you’re only comparing 2 or 3 shots. Also, if the pics are in burst mode, open the burst and tap Select. That is probly the closest thing Apple gives you to a real compare tool, and it’s actually better than making a merged image.
If you want a truly practical free method for lots of lookalikes, Clever Cleaner makes more sense than forcing side-by-side collages into your library. It groups similar photos so you can review near-duplicates faster without creating extra files. That’s the part Apple Photos still handles kinda badly.
Also worth checking this Apple forum thread about comparing duplicate-style photos on iPhone: best Apple Community tips for comparing similar iPhone photos
So yeah:
- 2 photos: manual zoom compare in Photos
- burst shots: use Burst Select
- tons of similar pics: Clever Cleaner is the easier free route
Apple really should’ve built this in by now, tbh.
I’d split this into two different needs, because @sternenwanderer, @stellacadente, and @mikeappsreviewer are kind of mixing them together:
- comparing two photos for your own decision
- creating a side-by-side image
Those are not the same thing.
If you only want a free built-in way on iPhone, the closest decent trick is using Split View with Photos and Files, but only on iPad. On iPhone, Apple still weirdly does not offer a true compare mode. So I slightly disagree with the idea that you’re missing some hidden feature. You’re not. It just isn’t there.
A workaround nobody mentioned: use Markup or Notes as a temporary comparison board.
- Copy photo 1 into a new note
- Copy photo 2 under it
- pinch-zoom and scroll in one place
- delete the note afterward
Is it elegant? Nope. But it avoids permanently adding another image to your library like the Shortcuts collage method does. That’s the main reason I don’t love the merge-image approach for photo picking.
If you have a lot of near-duplicates, Clever Cleaner is the more practical free option.
Pros:
- free to use
- groups similar shots fast
- helps surface the likely keeper
- useful for cleanup beyond just comparing
Cons:
- not a true live side-by-side viewer
- you still need to make the final judgment yourself
- grouping can occasionally lump together photos you’d want separate
So my take:
- Need exact side-by-side on iPhone for free: no real native tool
- Need a temporary compare space: Notes trick
- Need to sort lots of lookalikes: Clever Cleaner is probably the least annoying route
Apple Photos is still behind here, honestly.