XnView MP vs Flipic Lens: which viewer fits?

Choose XnView MP if you need a cross-platform viewer and organizer with a very long format list, batch conversion, rename tools and an optional catalog. Choose Flipic Lens if you mainly want to open a folder, page with the arrow keys, check focus and rate a shoot without a catalog. You can keep XnView MP for conversion and organizing, and use Flipic Lens for the first cull.

	XnView MP	Flipic Lens
Price model	Free for private, educational, public and non-profit use; paid license for commercial use	Free; optional one-time Pro
Import or library	Folder browser; optional catalog	No import, no catalog; reads the folder
RAW	Views camera RAW; not a RAW development module	Opens camera RAW; 0 zooms to 100% at the pointer
Star ratings	XMP sidecars, ratings exchanged with Lightroom and Bridge	1 to 5 stars as standard XMP; RAW uses a same-name .xmp sidecar
Side-by-side compare	Image Compare up to 4 images	C for two, Shift-C for four, zoom synced
Closed eyes / blur / bursts	Not listed on its official site	Yes: Cleanup Mode groups bursts, duplicates, closed eyes and blur on your Mac
Platform	macOS, Windows and Linux	macOS 13 or later
Open source	No	Yes, MIT

Where XnView MP is stronger

• Format breadth. It opens a long list of image and camera RAW formats, plus PDF, DICOM and more.
• Batch tools. Batch convert, batch rename and a batch processing module shared with XnConvert.
• Cross-platform and catalog. macOS, Windows and Linux, with an optional SQLite catalog for searching ratings, labels, keywords and metadata.

Image Compare. Compare up to four images in one view.

Where Flipic Lens fits

• No catalog to manage. Open the folder and start paging; no import and no library.
• Focus and comparison. 0 zooms to 100% at the pointer; C and Shift-C compare two or four photos with synced zoom and pan.
• Ratings in standard XMP. 1 to 5 stars, with a same-name .xmp sidecar for proprietary RAW; P marks are Finder tags.

Cleanup Mode. Free on-device grouping of similar bursts, duplicates, closed eyes and blur, with you deciding what goes.
Small, free and local. A 5 MB MIT-licensed Mac app. Pro is a one-time purchase with a 7-day trial and adds the Workbench grid.

Using them together

Use XnView MP for format conversion, batch rename, catalog searches and cross-platform work. Use Flipic Lens when you want to sit in one folder and cull. Both can write XMP ratings, so choose one app for the rating pass if you want to keep the sidecars simple.

See the full comparison at Mac photo viewers and culling tools compared.