The current version of DXO that I own is DXO photolab 6 which has served its purpose nicely for me these last few years… have a lot of new features been added/improved on, in version 9? How recently did ver 9 come out? I am worried that if I upgrade now and they come out with DXO 10 soon I will have wasted my money. Is there a release date for 10 yet or is that up in the air?
Thanks in advance 
The leap between 6 and 9 is significant. The biggest change from 8 to 9 was the new mask system. Yes, AI is the most-mentioned feature, but the whole masking engine got an overhaul which makes the other mask types more powerful.
Regarding PL10, experience says it will be released in the September-October timeframe, so you’re about 5 months away from that. Of course, no-one knows when it will be released except DxO and they may change things up this time.
PL10 will certainly have new features (otherwise it’d just be 9.x) but you won’t know what they are until it goes on sale. You might care about masks and nothing about those will change. You might care about the DAM and nothing about that will change. You just know there will be some changes.
What I would point out is this: you’re outside of the upgrade path, so there is no financial penalty to waiting. If you were currently on PL7, then you could get PL9 for the upgrade price, but not PL10. As it is, you’ll be paying full price whether you buy PL9 or PL10.
PhotoLab major versions release dates:
PL1 - 2017 Oct 26
PL2 - 2018 Oct 24
PL3 - 2019 Oct 24
PL4 - 2020 Oct 21
PL5 - 2021 Oct 20
PL6 - 2022 Oct 5
PL7 - 2023 Sep 27
PL8 - 2024 Sep 17
PL9 - 2025 Sep 3
I can list some of the changes which were important to me, as far as I remember:
You can find other new features listed in the release notes for each version, don’t know what’s important to you.
On the other hand, hardware requirements got higher and may grow even more in PL10 for “AI” things.
Please can you tell us what hardware you have? This is crucial information because the hardware requirements for PL have changed considerably since the days of PL6, see here:
https://support.dxo.com/hc/en-us/articles/4406558299537-System-requirements-for-DxO-PhotoLab
Thanks very much for your advice so far, all. I have a high end PC that I built myself ( Ryzen 9 7950X3D | RTX 4080 Super 16GB | DDR5 64GB 6400MHz) so no concerns about not being able to run later versions of the software. Given ver10 is only 5 months away I will probably wait until september/october then
Hardware can inded be a problem. Most releases of 9 relied in customers having the hardware to grunt though tasks by power but even then most had a lot of crashes. As the version has been updated the programing has improved so it now runs on more normat setups with much more stability. But this has been an extream version of PL new versions but no one knows if DXO has learnt to avoid it next time. So unless your set up will run 9 eaeasily you might have problems with 10. I have been using DXO prigrams befor PL and have no intention of repeating the problems of 9 with 10 so will sit it out for some updates and will probably not get it at all due to the likly increase of computer grunt it will need.
You can always run a PL9 trial - but only once. I propose to prepare a few tests and make the 30 days trial period worthwhile.
Check release notes before you jump in, your hardware or OS might not be fit enough.
Release notes live in support.dxo.com
99% certain PL10 will be released in September if not earlier. It’ll be an incremental upgrade from 9 to 10 but a big upgrade for you from 6. I started with 5 and 6 was a good version to stay with for a while. I skipped 7.
My advice is to wait for 10. Check also if you need an upgrade of Filmpack if you use this. Older FP Versions might not be compatible.
Perhaps wait for PL 10.2 
While you are waiting, it might be worth your while downloading and running the trial version of PL9. That way you can ensure your hardware can cope with the current version. You 'll also get a feel for how PL has changed from 6 to 9.
Once PL10 is out, you can then run the trial for that before you part with any cash.
Hello, I am not a user of DXO so far. But I am about to decide.
I am torn between DXO (to which I am inclined) and Capture One.
But, for this post, about versions: I see DXO releases a new version on a yearly basis (someone else has listed them).
In your experience (and anyone else’s)… which (or how many) of those versions have been real game-changing, as opposed to feel more like minor upgrades over the previous version?
My concern is: I am not going the subscription path by Adobe. Which is why I am looking to this other options.
But, in the case of DXO, buying, and then upgrading every year or so, might in the end mimic a subscription.
Thanks everyone.
About me: totally amateur person, who always felt attracted to photography, but never had the time. Now, semi-retired, I bought myself a Sony A7CR, with a reasonably good lenses (24-105 Sony FE) and would like to spend some time with it
I have been using DxO from 2008 and I am satisfied.
DxO has increased its price from the first version where the upgrade price was one third of full price to actually half of the full price. Here are my payments to give you an idea
But it is a price of independence and performance for a small company and on macOS I don’t have any notable issue.
And it is an unlimited version that you buy.
I find DxO ergonomics excellent and denoising is at the top.
I am also a great user of 4D (4d.com) that is a development environment since 1987 and they are now on subscription model ; I would not buy that software now, despite its qualities just for that reason
.
That’s a hard question to answer. Some might say that PL9’s new mask system is a game changer, but there are folks on this forum who never use masks, so it really isn’t for them.
I’d say every release that I’ve been around for (4-9 so far) I’ve seen someone say the new offering was underwhelming.
Some people prefer to upgrade every 2 years, as DxO’s policy is (or at least has been lately) that you can get the upgrade price from 2 prior versions. So if you buy PL9 now, you can skip PL10 and upgrade to PL11 for the upgrade price. If you skip PL10 and PL11 then you pay full price for PL12.
Again… some people make that judgement year by year depending on what they value and whether the year’s release contains something they find worth paying for.
There are all sorts here. I’m an amateur, still learning after 39 years, 20 of those in DSLRs, and most of those shooting RAW. I came upon PL3 in late 2019 and despite being attracted by feature lists of other products, or perhaps specific capabilities, I remain a PhotoLab user because of DxO’s secret sauce — Lens Sharpness Optimisation and the PRIME family of noise reduction. Assuming your camera and lens is supported, nothing can come close to consistently bringing out the best images from which to editorialise.
PhotoLab can do a lot things really well. Nevertheless and imo, it pays to keep one’s eyes open before one takes the leap. Here’s a general overview of promises you get on PhotoLab’s “buy” page:
Let me share a few opinions about those sales promises (from left to right)
Imo, DxO publishes easy-to use software with features that are best of breed. Given the size of the company its engineers and programmers do a good job with the ammount of features they can provide.
As with other things, it pays to get well informed (from other sources) before investing and calculate the cost of “licenseship” according to an update scenario you can actually stick to. It can also pay to check pricing in other regions. I find prices in the US to be considerably lower than in “the old world”.
All FP (and VP) versions are compatible with the current PL version. - Only the newer features aren’t there.
You have to decide if the value and utility of the current feature set is worth the upgrade cost, vs not having access to those tools for the next 4-5 months.
Only you can make that choice.
Software has always been sold like DXO as a perpetual license. Unlike subscriptions you have a choice as to whether you pay for any improvements in the new version or not.
My main raw editor is Capture One and the last couple of updates have focussed on high volume/studio shooters and therefore the upgrade would be pointless for me. If I was on a subscription for C1 I would be paying for features that I have no use for. Perpetual licenced software is all about choice, and only you can decide if it is worth it for you?
I did not upgrade from V8 to V9 this time because of all the issues with Nvidia GPU’s. Will I upgrade to V10, very likely as the masking improvements are worthwhile but I will be testing V10 before purchase quite thoroughly. 
Will I upgrade ViewPoint or FilmPack, no, unless DXO hold functionality that I require ransom as they have done in the past eg Luminosity masks only if you have FilmPack. This is a practice that makes me very dissatisfied with DXO, but I give them the benefit of the doubt at the moment and wait to see if they have the nerve to continue this practice.
I was perfectly happy with PL 5 until it ceased to work with the latest upgrade to MacOS. That said, I found the upgrade to PL 8 worthwhile, and even opted for PL 9 for the new AI masking controls. That said, I’m not in a hurry to upgrade again anytime soon. But assuming you have the recommended hardware, why not just download the 30 day trial and see what you think?
PL5 does run on macOS Tahoe as shown in the screen below.
This is on a 2020 M1 MacBook Air. I havn’t tested thoroughly on this version of Tahoe, earlier tests on Tahoe beta did not show any unexpected issues though.
Note the volumes in the left sidebar. They contain macOS 14, 15 and 26 respectively, test images, PhotoLab and other apps are on other volumes. This makes tests with different operation systems easier and saves a lot of drive space.
I appreciate your comment, but my installed PL 5 started to freeze intermittently with the upgrade to MacOS Sequoia, despite a clean re-install of PL 5. At the time, DxO support recommended I upgrade to PL 8 (the newest version at the time), since PL 5 was 3 years old and had exceeded the “new OS support” period. I’ll admit that this struck me as rather short, but I didn’t feel like waiting around to see if a new version of the macOS would remedy the problem (you may have a different tolerance than me, but the problem occurred immediately following the upgrade to MacOS Sequoia on my M3 Air, and I didn’t have the patience to wait another full year for Sequoia to be replaced by Tahoe. After confirming that PL 8 ran smoothly on Sequoia (and I do appreciate the trial editions more than I can say), I am not now inclined to roll back to PL 5 to test whether a further wait would have avoided an upgrade. While I am a huge fan of DxO, as I noted at the time, it may be somewhat disingenuous to claim that there is no subscription fee if support for OS upgrades is limited to just 3 years. I recognize that this may be on Apple as much as DxO, but it was still a frustrating and costly experience, particularly since I was perfectly content with PL 5 and its feature set. While I have the impression that Windows support tends to last longer, it would in fact have been cheaper to continue with Lightroom despite the monthly subscription.
