FastStone Image Viewer vs. MaxView vs. Photo Resizer: Which One Do You Need?

FastStone.org offers three separate image tools, and the difference comes down to what you do with your photos. FastStone Image Viewer is the full-featured browser, converter, and editor for everyday work. FastStone MaxView is a fast, minimal viewer built for opening images quickly — including images inside password-protected archives. FastStone Photo Resizer is a batch tool for converting, renaming, resizing, and watermarking many files at once. If you only install one, pick Image Viewer for general use; pick MaxView if you mostly just look at files; pick Photo Resizer if you process images in bulk.

The three products side by side

FastStone Image Viewer: the default choice

This is the product most people mean when they search for FastStone. It combines an image browser, a converter, and an editor in one program.

What it does well:

• Opens the widest range of formats of the three, including HEIC, WEBP, PDF, PSD, and camera RAW files
• Handles day-to-day tasks: viewing, file management, side-by-side comparison, red-eye removal, emailing, resizing, cropping, and color adjustments
• Includes a musical slideshow for presenting images

Choose it if you want one program that covers browsing, light editing, and format conversion — for example, sorting a folder of mixed JPEG and RAW shots, fixing red-eye, and exporting a few resized copies for email.

Skip it if you never edit or manage images and only need to glance at files, or if your entire workflow is bulk processing hundreds of files with identical settings.

FastStone MaxView: for looking, not editing

MaxView is described as a fast, compact, and innovative viewer. Its distinguishing capability is that it can open images inside password-protected ZIP, RAR, and 7-Zip archives instantly — no need to extract the archive first.

What it does well:

• Quick viewing of all major graphic formats
• Direct access to images inside encrypted archives
• Basic handling: viewing, rotating, resizing, cropping, annotating, and printing

Choose it if you frequently receive images packaged in password-protected archives, or you want the lightest possible tool for reviewing images without a full browser interface. For example, if a client sends a locked ZIP of proofs and you just need to flip through them, MaxView avoids the extract-then-open detour.

Skip it if you need format conversion, batch operations, or serious editing — those live in the other two products.

FastStone Photo Resizer: for bulk work

Photo Resizer is an image converter and renaming tool built around batch mode. You point it at many files and apply the same operations to all of them.

What it does well:

• Converting between formats
• Renaming files in bulk
• Resizing, cropping, and rotating
• Changing color depth
• Adding text and watermarks

Choose it if your task is repetitive and volume-heavy — for example, converting a folder of PNG screenshots to JPEG, resizing them all to a fixed width, and stamping a watermark before publishing.

Skip it if you need to view, compare, or individually retouch images. Photo Resizer is a processing pipeline, not a browser or editor.

How to decide

• General photo work — browsing, light editing, format conversion: FastStone Image Viewer.
• Just viewing, especially inside encrypted archives: FastStone MaxView.
• Batch converting, renaming, resizing, or watermarking: FastStone Photo Resizer.
• More than one need: the tools are separate downloads, so installing Image Viewer plus Photo Resizer covers most workflows. Note that Image Viewer and Photo Resizer are listed as free for personal use, while MaxView and FastStone Capture are one-time purchases — check the current terms on each product page before relying on a license for commercial use.

One product not covered above is FastStone Capture, a screen capture and screen recording tool (windows, objects, menus, full screen, rectangular and freehand regions, scrolling windows and web pages, plus MP4 recording of screen, sound, and webcam). It is a one-time purchase and sits outside the image-viewing comparison — relevant only if your task is capturing the screen rather than working with existing image files.