Which UI would you prefer?

Oh definitely, 2 out of these.

The first one is so confusing to look at with the text. I thought it was an unsplash or pexels client. There is no clear purpose to the images you have shown and pretty random.

However, I would think about your UX, even with the images in number 2, they are still confusing. Consider going with icons.

Hey there all. The voted No. 2 design moved to a live product. Looking for honest feedback as well. If you are interested to see how it turned out, check the​ post here - https://www.indiehackers.com/post/fc3d7adae3

#2 for sure. There's a clear call to action (i.e. click on the red plus sign).

2 is good :)

Thank you all for such good feedback. It is really appreciated.

I had a thought about creating icons which would have meaning, like in the No 1, without computer frame and without photo background, just with the rotate icon or other, but I thought that if I put a lot of icons in the same place, it would look a bit dull in the end.

Therefore, in No 2, I tried to find really beautiful images, which would have similar meaning between the action hidden behind it. For example "Image Flip" - a skier doing a flip, "Image rotate" - rotating carousel, "Image Exif Remover" - an anonymous guy and so on.

2 is better

In terms of aesthetics, the #2. In terms of content / presentation, the #1.

I say 2. The images are visually pleasing and i read the text, unlike no 1, i kinda of glanced over everything without reading anything really. I think its because all the thumbnails in no 1 are very similar and dull. I think the one that most benefits the end user is the one they are going to pay more attention to, so no 2.