SoftOrbits is an image editing software development company founded in 2006 by Eugene Ustinenkov. Over the years, SoftOrbits grew from a small startup into one of the most prominent niche companies with over 300,000 users and over 1,000,000 yearly downloads. The team has also received recognition from leading industry players, including CNET, Softonic, and OISV — the latter named SoftOrbits among the top 10 software development companies of 2024.
Working consistently over almost 20 years, the team has managed to win over both beginners and experts, making its products universally appealing to anyone involved with photography. For SoftOrbits, achieving this level of recognition is not just about the work put into high-quality software, but the core idea behind it.
“To put it simply, most of our software focuses on dealing with routine, tedious, and genuinely boring tasks. Applying filters to a photo is a fun process; converting formats for 500 pictures you took isn’t. No matter whether you’re a pro or a complete newbie, that’s not why you explore this art, so if there’s a way to get rid of these tasks, you’ll gladly take it — and that’s what makes our utilities so appealing,” says Eugene Ustinenkov, CEO of SoftOrbits with over 10 years of software development expertise.
What makes SoftOrbits’ solutions great for both beginners and professionals
Apart from the fact that the general purpose of most SoftOrbits’ software is to deal with tedious and unpleasant tasks, another important aspect is its focus on user-friendliness, which is beneficial to any user. Visual clarity and simplicity combined with intuitive navigation, presets, and a lot of automated features streamline even the most complex tasks.
Not only that, but the team also puts great emphasis on convenience, providing batch-processing features. Recently, SoftOrbits also introduced AI tools designed to quickly deal with traditionally long manual tasks like changing lighting or removing unnecessary elements from the photograph.
“For beginners, our tools can do exactly what they need in a few clicks, and that’s invaluable. At the same time, experts can agree to automate a lot of tedious work as long as they see that the resulting quality is high. After all, there’s no reason to fix the lighting in the 116th picture from a certain wedding manually when an AI can do it in a matter of seconds. This is our golden ratio, and we’ll keep going with it,” says Eugene Ustinenkov, CEO of SoftOrbits and Candidate of Technical Sciences.
Overall, SoftOrbits offers over 25 tools designed to deal with the most common issues in photo editing: from retouching old photographs and removing backgrounds to restoring corrupted image files and converting photos to different formats.
While the recent addition of AI functionalities was mainly aimed at content creators, marketing teams, and general users, it has found surprising success among professional photographers. According to SoftOrbits’ internal data, professional photographers made up more than 28% of the users who purchased AI Image Editor.
“As some of our customers explained, the industry is changing rapidly, and even those professionals who oppose the idea of AI have to adapt to the new fast-paced market. Competition has increased significantly in recent years, with many players entering the field with cheap and quick offers. Some take the opposite approach and sell exclusively manual work, but most combine both approaches — which is why our AI Image Editor is on the rise,” says Eugene Ustinenkov, CEO of SoftOrbits and AlarmFront.
Servicing everyone: SoftOrbits and its future as SaaS
While SoftOrbits consistently finds success with its current distribution model, the team behind it is sure it can service its users even better by switching to a SaaS model. This way, the company will be able to expand its reach, delivering its solutions globally with no hardware requirements.
“As of now, we offer SaaS solutions to our corporate clients, but our goal is to expand this service and change our entire distribution model to make it available to everyday users. This way we can provide even more convenience, offering access to our software at any time. This level of accessibility and simplicity correlates with our core values as a company, so we’re anticipating the changes that will come soon,” says Hannes Jansen, writer and editor at SoftOrbits.
Want to connect with SoftOrbits?
Whether you’re a client interested in SoftOrbits’ products or a business owner willing to partner with the team, you can reach out at [email protected] or visit softorbits.net.
