This page is a directory to all kinds of software with HDR capabilities. They are grouped by common tasks, and sorted in alphabetical order. Most of them have a more elaborate introduction in the HDRI Handbook, and the most interesting ones are featured in tutorials. The rating on this page, however, is not just mine. It's based on popularity, and according to the community approach you're invited to put in your vote!

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Viewer and Thumbnailer

Bracket

Thumbnail browser specifically made for HDR images. Supports all standard HDR formats: can create, analyze, calibrate, crop, rotate and resize HDRIs. Also some basic tonemapping capabilities. Downside: Not very fast and rather unstable with large images.
PC, Mac, Linux | Free | semi-active

HDRView

The golden oldie! Lightweight viewer for Radiance(.hdr), floating point TIFF(.tif) and (.pfm) files. Launches immediately, and lets you tap through exposures with +/- keys.
PC | Free | stalled

Photosphere

HDR Thumbnail Browser with display mapping capabilites. The only app supporting every single HDR file format. HDR Combination works with absolute luminance calibration, hence suitable for analytical applications.
Mac | Free | semi-active

XN View

Excellent everyday thumbnail browser. Can deal with Radiance and OpenEXR files, althoug not perform any display mapping. But it's packed with tons of general-purpose features. Batch-Renaming, Lossless JPEG transformations and the like.
Mac, PC, Linux | Free | active

HDR Utilities

30% OFF

with code

Dynamic Photo HDR

Combines exposures to an HDRI with semi-manual ghostbusting (painting garbage masks), and a unique pin-warping aligment. Sports 6 different tonemappers and slick little curve/color controls to tweak the output right away. Super-polished interface and integrated help.
PC, Mac | $55 | active

30% OFF

with code

Essential HDR

Formerly known as project Wukong, Essential HDR sports the Detail Revealer tonemapper. Almost too easy to use, but quality-wise it is cutting edge in avoiding halo artifacts.
PC | $70 | active

15% OFF

with code

FDR Tools

HDR Combination with a unique histogram slicing mode to manually fight those pesky ghosts. Also allows to manually fine tune exposure alignment. The Advanced version features a local tone-mapper that does a phantastic job in working out contrasty details.
Mac, PC | Basic: Free, Advanced: $72 | active

15% OFF

with code

HDR Darkroom

Very streamlined interface, with RGB histogram and sliders right in the docked sidebar. One global and two local tonemappers, which are claimed to make photo-realistic and surreal results very easy. The best: student license is heavily discounted.
Mac, PC | $79, students: $29 | active

HDR Shop

The godfather of all HDR utilities. HDR Combination is very dated, and it does tone mapping only via Plugins. But it has a good amount of editing capabilites, that still make it the swiss army knife in HDR. Development on HDRShop has stalled, though.
PC | v1: Free, v2: $400 | stalled

15% OFF

with code

HDR MAX

HDRMAX comes in a very professional outfit and fits right in with Adobe's Creative Suite. Tonemapping is powerful, simple to use, and pretty halo-resistant. OpenEXR support is deeply missed, but it has powerful post adjustments and batch HDR generation.
Mac, PC | $130 | active

30% OFF

with code

HDR Expose

Offers an exclusive set of HDR editing tools: White Balance, Color Tuning, Tint, Noise Reduction - all in full 32 bit. Tonemapping is done with powerful Local Contrast and Shadow/Highlight tools, in a WYSIWYG workflow. Highly recommended app for serious HDR pros.
PC | $150 | active

30% OFF

with code

Hydra

Hydra has by far the flashiest interface, a 101% Mac-App. Tight integration with iPhoto, even comes with an Aperture plugin version included. Unique strength is the alignment feature, that will morph and warp each exposure into place based on control points.
Mac | $60 | active

30% OFF

with code

Photomatix

HDR Combination and Tone-Mapping, very user-friendly hence recommended for beginners. Sports ghost removal, RAW decoding with CA compensation and batch processing, which makes it photographer's favorite. Integrates nicely with Photoshop, Lightroom and Aperture.
Mac, PC | free Trial with watermarking, $99 | active

Picturenaut

The new kid on the block, hosted right here. Highly configurable HDR Combination and fastest tone-mapper around. It runs HDRShop plugins, and performs basic conversion tasks. Not quite as many editing features as HDRShop yet, but eventually getting there...
PC | Free | semi-active

QTpfsGui

pfsTools is the equivalent to PanoTools in the HDR world: an powerful suite of commandline utilities. And QTpfsGui is the first derivative with a user interface. Plenty of local TMOs for free, although not much interactive feedback. Alignment can be done via Hugin's image stack.
Mac, PC, Linux | Free, Open Source | active

Paint Packages

Artizen

Full package, including Thumbnail Browser and Album Generator and everything. Includes plenty of tone-mappers and can apply them all on the fly as display mapping. Really elaborate featureset, although not everything works reliably in HDR mode.
PC | $55 | active

ChocoFlop

Screamingly fast editor, because it uses the the CoreImage engine of OSX to do all the heavylifting. Meant for the quick edit on the go, but turns out to have more HDR editing capabilites than anything else. Still fighting for stability, and deserves some support by early adopters.
Mac | honor system | active, alpha-stage

Cinepaint

Formerly known as Film Gimp, and recently reborn as (and in) Glasgow. This one had a tough life already, ever since it split from the GIMP family to become a movie star. Features a very comprehensive color management system, and has a complete set of HDR painting tools.
Mac, Linux | free | semi-active, beta-stage

Photogenics

Full 32-bit editing and painting capabilities since 2002, in the latest version 7 even with curve adjustments. Based on a unique workflow, where filters and adjustments are painted on. Includes direct HDR capturing from a tethered camera.
PC, Linux | regular $699, now $399 | semi-active

Photoshop Extended

The king. Has gained quite some weight over the time. Only the "Extended" version has HDR Layers and HDR paint tools. Tonemapping is basic, but very predictable, extendible via Plugins from FDRTools, Photomatix and Artizen. Leader in stability and handling big files.
Mac, PC | Basic $699, Extended $999 | active

Pixel

Could be Photoshop's twin, except that it is tiny and ultraportable. Runs on almost every OS, and has all the layers, brushes and adjustments laid out just like Photoshop. Still in beta stage with some stability issues, but something to keep an eye on.
Mac, PC, Linux, BeOS, FreeBSD, Zedora... | $39 | semi-active, beta-stage

Panorama Stitching

10% OFF

with code

Autopano Pro

Everything is automatic here, not even the exposure brackets have to be sorted. You just give it a folder and it spits out any pano it can stitch. Works often great, but sometimes makes funny choices. Supports Fisheye and plays well with 64-bit Windows.
Mac, PC, Linux | $135 | active

15% OFF

with code

Autopano Giga

The super-deluxe version of Autopano. Has additional templating abilities for a more streamlined workflow. Also includes Autopano Tour for conveniently linking panos with hotspots and generating a professional virtual tour website.
Mac, PC, Linux | $244 | active

Hugin

Community-driven stitcher, that carries on the tradition of PanoTools in the Open Source domain. Can stitch HDR segments, supports fisheye lenses and a huge amount of fun panoramic projections. Soon to step up to a modern one-step workflow from LDR bracketed segments to HDR panorama.
Mac, PC, Linux | Free, Open Source | active and buzzing

PTGui Pro

Leading PanoTools-Frontend, with reliable automatic control point creation and excellent manual tweakability. Fisheye support is a given, and it already sports HDR pano generation directly from the LDR exposure brackets. Even includes a Tonemapping module.
Mac, PC | $203 | active

Autodesk Stitcher

Formerly from Realviz, this is by far the most sophisticated (and expensive) panostitcher. Is is known for the flashy interface, panoramic patching tools, and extra import/export formats. One-step HDR pano generation is the most recent feature addition. Must register to download trial.
Mac, PC | $580 | active

Plugins

15% OFF

with code

EXR Trader

Enhances OpenEXR support in Lightwave. With EXR Trader you export all your render buffers in a multi-layer OpenEXR. Supports every compression out there, and runs on unlimited renderfarm nodes. A must-have for production work and professional compositing.
Mac, PC | $60 | active

20% OFF

with code

ProEXR

Enhances OpenEXR support in Photoshop. Layers, channels, all compression schemes. ProEXR is the perfect counterpart to EXR Trader, and beeing able to load alpha-masked pano layers from PTGui into Photoshop is simply the best. ProEXR is so awesome, that the AE version is included in CS4!
Mac, PC | $95 | active

20% OFF

with code

Filter Forge

The ultimate filter for Photoshop. The power of Nodes allows the creation of filter you can imagine, in a do-it-yourself fashion. Community-driven effect library with tons of presets. Professional edition is needed to unlock full 32-bit support, but rebates are given for sharing presets.
Mac, PC | $299 | active and buzzing

Flexify

Converting panoramic projections couldn't be easier. Indispensable for retouching HDR panos, and with 150 projection you'll have hours of fun warping and bending your image into crazy perspectives. Or how about printing a cutout globe?
Mac, PC | $54 | active

15% OFF

with code

infiniMap Exr

A very unique plugin, that allows using Gigapixel-sized images as texturemap in Lightwave. It works through some kind of tiled EXR image pyramid, which means the renderer only loads the image area it needs. I use it regularly for these crazy Zoom-In-From-Space-Shots.
Mac, PC | $306 | active

I'm cheap. Show me only free software!