Updated December 13, 2024
Published April 19, 2024
Ever feel like your creative spark gets a little dim when you’re using the same design tool over and over?
If you’re crafting visuals for social media or marketing, you know just how crucial it is to keep things fresh and engaging.
Sticking to one tool, like Canva, might be holding you back from unleashing your full creative potential. It’s like wearing the same outfit every day – eventually, you’ll want to mix things up!
You’ve landed in the perfect spot to do just that!
After thoroughly testing over 57 graphic design tools, I’m ready to share my top 17 picks to enhance your creative toolkit, including both free and paid options.
Let’s jump in and discover the tools that will transform your content!
Canva is a super cool online tool that’s all about making design fun and easy for everyone. Imagine being able to create awesome graphics, presentations, and even videos without needing to be a design pro.
That’s what Canva does!
It’s packed with tons of templates, images, and cool design bits and pieces that let you whip up professional-looking content in no time.
What’s really neat about Canva is how simple it is to use. Its drag-and-drop interface means you don’t have to spend hours figuring out how to make things look just right. Plus, with a huge library of resources at your fingertips, you can easily find the perfect photo or icon to make your design pop.
Canva Alternatives | Description |
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All-in-one AI design tool that creates infographics and videos. | |
Photo editor with a wide range of AI editing tools. | |
Comprehensive design tool for creating and managing social media content with AI. | |
A graphic design tool that offers vast templates and images for quick, easy design. | |
A comprehensive graphic design tool with capabilities for team collaboration and brand consistency. | |
A versatile professional AI content creation tool with templates and AI features. | |
AI tool simplifies the creation of complex designs, offering illustrations and fonts. | |
A versatile photo editing and graphic design tool catering to personal and business needs. | |
A comprehensive AI stool that offers over 10,000 templates for infographic. | |
A versatile graphic design tool offering a wide range of templates with professional-quality design outputs. | |
AI design tool offering 4K video quality editing features to produce visually stunning videos. | |
An all-in-one creative AI tool that simplifies graphic design with customizable templates. | |
A brand enablement tool that streamlines content production and brand consistency. | |
A comprehensive graphic design suite that generates multi-channel campaigns. | |
An image design tool that enables the quick and simplicity creation of social media graphics. | |
An infographic maker with a drag-and-drop editor to create professional-looking designs. | |
A comprehensive photo editor that supports multiple file formats for creating and modifying images. |
Our Verdict
Visme stands out as an all-in-one marketing and design platform that leverages AI to streamline the creation of visually appealing, brand-consistent content.
It offers an extensive array of tools for data visualization, document creation, and interactive media, catering effectively to both individual and business needs.
With user-friendly features that simplify complex design tasks and enhance collaborative efforts, Visme is a top choice for those looking to elevate their visual communication strategy.
Best For
Design engaging visuals and interactive content for businesses
Price
Free or starts at $12.25/mo.
Discount
Save 50% on annual billing
Pros
Cons
Visme Overview:
Visme is a design tool that enables users to create a wide array of visual content, including presentations, infographics, and videos. It is equipped with an AI design assistant, extensive template library, and powerful data visualization capabilities.
Visme Pricing:
Visme offers a free Basic plan with limited features ideal for those looking to test the platform.
The Personal plan starts at $12.25/mo. with annual billing, providing more storage and access to premium assets.
The Pro plan at $24.75/mo with annual billing, includes advanced features like analytics and privacy controls. For enterprise solutions, Visme provides custom pricing upon request.
Our Verdict
Fotor is an accessible and efficient online photo editor, especially noted for its AI-driven features that enable users without prior editing experience to produce professional-grade images effortlessly.
We particularly loved its AI art generator and object replacement features. With simple text prompts, you can create or modify images with the ease and speed of photo editing, significantly enhancing the user experience.
Overall, Fotor excels at streamlining the design process, making it a compelling choice for individuals and professionals seeking to elevate their visual content without the complexity of traditional photo editing software.
Best For
Photo editing and graphic design
Price
Free or starts at $3.99/mo.
Discount
Save 62% on annual billing
Pros
Cons
Fotor Overview:
Fotor is an advanced yet easy-to-use online photo editor that provides a wide array of editing tools and AI-powered features to enhance and transform photos. It’s designed to offer professional-level photo editing capabilities with fewer learning curves compared to other sophisticated photo editing software like Photoshop.
Fotor Pricing:
Fotor offers a free Basic plan that includes essential editing and design features, basic collage layouts, and non-HD downloads with watermarks.
The Pro plan starts at $3.99/mo. billed annually, providing advanced editing features, AI tools, HD downloads without watermarks, and more creative resources. For the most comprehensive suite of features.
For the most comprehensive suite of features, the Pro+ plan is available at $7.49 per month billed annually, which includes full access to AI video tools, batch editing for up to 50 images at once, extensive templates and fonts, and significant cloud storage capacity.
Our Verdict
Picmaker stands as a formidable AI-powered social media management tool that offers a comprehensive suite streamlining the creation of social media content.
Its AI Superpower feature is designed to maximize efficiency, enabling users to achieve more in less time, a unique offering for small businesses with limited resources.
The platform’s focus on simplifying the social media workflow, from design to publishing, makes it a great option for entrepreneurs needing to maintain a strong online presence without the overhead of larger teams or complex design software solutions.
Best For
Simplifying graphic design and social media content creation
Price
Free or starts at $9/mo.
Discount
Save 15% on annual billing
Pros
Cons
Picmaker Overview:
Picmaker is an AI-powered social media management tool specifically designed to cater to the needs of small businesses. The platform aims to simplify the workflow for creating and managing social media content, making it an efficient solution for businesses looking to enhance their online presence without investing excessive time or resources.
Picmaker Pricing:
Picmaker offers a free plan that includes basic design features and access to thousands of templates.
The Starter plan is priced at $9 per month, providing advanced design capabilities, premium templates, and priority support.
The Pro plans priced at $18 and teams looking for more extensive features, for the team plan offers custom pricing tailored to specific needs, including brand kits, team collaboration tools, and advanced analytics.
Our Verdict
Snappa is a graphic design tool that prioritizes efficiency and ease of use in the content creation process. With its vast array of pre-made templates, Snappa eliminates the daunting blank canvas, enabling users to produce professional-looking graphics.
The platform offers access to over 5 million free, high-resolution stock photos, and its simple yet powerful design features. In addition, its seamless integration with social media for pre-scheduling posts further streamlines the marketing workflow, saving valuable time.
Snappa is particularly beneficial for those looking to maximize their online presence with minimal effort, making it an excellent choice for those seeking to enhance their digital marketing with visually compelling content.
Best For
Quick and easy creation of high-quality graphic designs
Price
Free or start at $10/mo.
Discount
Get 4 months free plus save 33% on annual billing
Pros
Cons
Snappa Overview:
Snappa is an online graphic design tool designed to empower non-designers with the ability to create professional-looking graphics for various online content needs easily. It emphasizes simplicity and efficiency, allowing users to produce visuals for social media, ads, blogs, and more without the need for extensive graphic design knowledge or experience.
Snappa Pricing:
Snappa offers three main pricing plans: the Starter plan is free and allows up to three downloads per month; the Pro plan costs $10/mo. with annual billing and includes unlimited downloads, social media integrations, and custom fonts; the Team plan costs $20/ mo. with annual billing and supports up to five users with additional collaboration features.
Our Verdict
VistaCreate excels for its user-friendly graphic design feature, which offers a library of over 150,000 professionally designed templates and an impressive collection of creative assets, including 70 million photos, videos, and vectors.
The platform ensures that users never run out of inspiration or resources for their projects, and its Brand Kit and Style features allow for seamless brand consistency across designs.
Additionally, VistaCreate’s collaboration tools and integration with VistaPrint for easy printing and delivery. Overall VistaCreate stands out for its simplicity, versatility, and ability to bring creative ideas to life effortlessly.
Best For
Design professional-quality visual content easily with extensive templates
Price
Free or start at $10/mo.
Discount
Save 23% on annual billing
Pros
Cons
VistaCreate Overview:
VistaCreate is an online graphic design platform designed to cater to the needs of small business owners, marketing professionals, bloggers, and entrepreneurs. It provides a comprehensive suite of tools and features that enable users to create professional visual content for social media, web, and other marketing channels without requiring extensive design skills.
VistaCreate Pricing:
VistaCreate offers a free Starter plan that includes over 100,000 design templates, 1 million photos, videos, and vectors, and 10 GB of storage.
Their Pro plan priced at $10 per month with annual billing and adds features such as premium templates, a background removing tool, 70 million graphics, and unlimited storage.
Our Verdict
Adobe Express stands out for its highly versatile and user-friendly content creation tool,
It simplifies the design process for a variety of content types, including social posts, videos, flyers, and more, making it suitable for both professionals and hobbyists.
The availability of professionally designed templates, coupled with the convenience of generative AI tools like Generative Fill, Text to Image, and Text to Template, unleashes users’ creativity with just a few clicks, similar to what is associated with advanced design software.
Adobe Express is definitely a compelling choice for those seeking to produce standout designs with efficiency and ease, without a steep learning curve.
Best For
Graphic design and content creation for individuals and teams
Price
Free or starts at $9.99/mo.
Discount
Save 16% on annual billing
Pros
Cons
Adobe Express Overview:
Adobe Express is an all-in-one, AI-powered content creation tool that enables users to produce a wide range of content, including social posts, videos, flyers, and more. It emphasizes ease of use and is designed to cater to both professional and personal content creation needs.
Adobe Express Pricing:
Adobe Express offers a free plan with basic design features, and no credit card is required.
The Premium plan starts at $9.99/mo. or $99.99/yr. For teams, Adobe Express provides an option with $ 77.88/yr/seat.
Our Verdict
Kittl stands out as a superb alternative for graphic design tools due to its versatile AI-powered design tool that significantly speeds up creative workflows, and users can generate vector graphics, stunning images, and custom text effects with ease.
The platform caters to both novices and professionals with an extensive range of ready-to-use templates for a variety of projects, enhancing productivity and creativity, making it ideal for both novices and professionals looking to produce high-quality designs quickly.
Overall, we love its focus on simplifying the design process while ensuring quality. The accessibility of Kittl makes it a prime choice for creators looking to enhance their design capabilities without extensive software knowledge.
Best For
Optimizing graphic design and print-on-demand for designers
Price
Free or start at $10/mo.
Discount
Save 33% on annual billing
Pros
Cons
Kittl Overview:
Kittl is a comprehensive online design platform that empowers users to create a wide range of visual content, from vector logo icons to stunning images and clipart, using advanced yet user-friendly tools. It’s designed to cater to both personal and commercial projects, making it a versatile choice for designers, marketers, and anyone looking to bring their creative ideas to life.
Kittl Pricing:
Kittl offers a free plan with basic features, suitable for casual users.
The Pro plan costs $15 per month, is suitable for work or professional applications, and provides access to premium features, vector file downloads, and no watermarks.
The Expert plan, at $30 per month, includes additional professional tools and higher project limits, ideal for advanced users and businesses. Both paid plans are also available at a discounted rate when billed annually.
Our Verdict
PicMonkey is a standout graphic design and photo editing software, catering to both personal and professional needs with its user-friendly yet potent tools. It offers an intuitive user interface, enriched with features like touch-up tools, template designs, and CMS integrations.
This platform focuses on creating compelling visuals for social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, as well as essential branding materials, including logos and business cards.
PicMonkey ensures that users, regardless of their design expertise, can achieve professional-grade results, making it an invaluable tool for those seeking a comprehensive and accessible graphic design and photo editing tool.
Best For
Visual content and brand materials for businesses
Price
7-day free trial then starts at $7.99/mo.
Discount
Save 23% on annual billing
Pros
Cons
PicMonkey Overview:
PicMonkey is a comprehensive online photo editing and graphic design platform that caters to a wide range of users, from individuals working on personal projects to businesses crafting important campaigns. It’s designed to be user-friendly, allowing users of all skill levels to create professional-quality visual content.
PicMonkey Pricing:
PicMonkey offers a seven-day free trial for all its plans.
The Basic plan starts at $7.99 per month, providing essential photo editing and design tools. For more advanced features like unlimited storage and brand management tools.
The Pro plan is available at $12.99 per month, while the Business plan, ideal for team collaboration, is priced at $23.00 per month.
Our Verdict
Venngage excels as a powerful AI-powered design tool for transforming complex data into visually compelling narratives like creating infographics and other visual content.
One of the features that it offers, which competitors don’t have, is an emphasis on accessibility. This is demonstrated through features like a Color-Blind Simulator and AI-generated alt text, ensuring that designs are inclusive and reach a wider audience.
This platform is designed to amplify your content marketing and communication, making it a great design tool alternative for marketers, educators, and businesses aiming to enhance their communication strategies.
Best For
Creating infographics and visual content from complex data
Price
Free or start at $10/mo/user.
Discount
Save 51% on annual billing
Pros
Cons
Venngage Overview:
Venngage is a professional infographic maker that offers over 10,000 templates, catering to a wide range of design needs. It is designed to be accessible, featuring a drag-and-drop editor that incorporates accessibility features such as setting alt text, checking color contrast ratios, editing the reading order, and adding accessible tables, charts, and more.
Venngage Pricing:
Venngage offers a free plan for basic design needs, a Premium plan at $10 per month with an annual billing for individual professional use, and a Business plan at $24 per month with an annual billing for team collaboration with advanced features. Additionally, an Enterprise plan is available starting at $499 per month, with annual billing for larger organizations requiring extensive support and customization.
Our Verdict
Easil is a versatile graphic design tool that stands out for its extensive library of professionally designed templates. These templates cater to individual creators and teams and offer a range of functionalities, from social media graphics to branding and marketing materials.
The platform also includes collaboration and brand management tools, such as design approval workflows and brand kits, which simplify the design process and make it accessible even to non-designers.
Easil’s competitive pricing plans, coupled with its graphic design tools and the ability to upload your own custom fonts, make it a strong contender for teams seeking an efficient and scalable graphic design solution.
Best For
Intuitive graphic design and brand management
Price
Free or start at $6.25/mo.
Discount
Save 17% on annual billing
Pros
Cons
Easil Overview:
Easil is an online graphic design tool tailored for both individual creators and teams. It offers a wide array of features aimed at simplifying the design process for various types of visual content. It’s designed to cater to the needs of social media marketers, businesses, and those looking to create professional-looking graphics without the need for extensive design skills.
Easil Pricing:
Easil offers a range of pricing plans tailored to various needs, starting with a Free plan that includes a 30-day trial of the Plus features.
The Plus plan is available at $6.25 per user per year, offering access to over 10,000 professionally designed graphic templates and 1 million+ free graphic elements and stock images. For more advanced needs.
The Edge plan costs $49 per user per year, providing over 25,000 templates, additional design and organizational tools, and custom options for enterprise solutions. For the Enterprise plan, there is a tailored package available.
Our Verdict
Animaker is an excellent choice as an alternative to traditional video and animation creation tools due to its intuitive interface and powerful AI-driven features.
This platform aims to enhance marketing, training, and personal media projects efficiently that support a broad range of users, from beginners to professionals, by offering tools for creating animations, live-action videos, and interactive media.
Animaker’s extensive asset library, coupled with innovative features like a character builder and video templates, makes it a valuable design alternative for those looking to enhance their video marketing strategies without the steep learning curve.
Best For
Animated and live-action videos for users of all skill levels
Price
Free or start at $12.5/mo.
Discount
Save 50% on annual billing
Pros
Cons
Animaker Overview:
Animaker is a cloud-based video animation tool designed to help users create animated and live-action videos without the need for extensive design or technical skills. It is suitable for a range of users, from freelancers and small businesses to large enterprises and educational institutions.
Animaker Pricing:
Animaker offers several pricing plans with a free option available for basic video creation.
The Basic plan costs $12.5 per month per year and includes features like HD quality videos and 10 premium exports per month.
The Starter plan is $25 per month per year and provides FHQ-quality videos and 10 premium exports.
The Pro plan, at $39 per month per year, provides 2K quality and 30 premium exports.
For larger enterprises or those needing more extensive features, Animaker provides tailored enterprise solutions, which require direct contact with their sales team for pricing.
Our Verdict
BeFunky emerges as an excellent alternative to more complex graphic design tools due to its user-friendly interface, diverse design templates, and comprehensive editing features, making it ideal for both amateur and professional projects.
The platform stands out with its unique offerings like photo-to-art effects and advanced photo touch-up tools, enabling users to transform ordinary images into professional-grade visual content easily.
BeFunky is designed to enhance your creative workflow through a straightforward web-based solution, aiming to democratize design with accessible yet powerful tools. It’s an excellent choice for those looking to create high-quality visual content.
Best For
Photo editing and graphic design for marketing small businesses
Price
Free or start at $6.99/mo.
Discount
Save 53% on annual billing
Pros
Cons
BeFunky Overview:
BeFunky is an all-in-one online creative platform that simplifies the process of photo editing, collage making, and graphic design. It is designed to be user-friendly, making it accessible to a wide audience, from casual users to more serious designers.
BeFunky Pricing:
For more advanced features, the BeFunky Plus subscription is available at $14.99 per month or $83.88 per year, providing benefits like priority support, watermark management, and access to all premium features.
Our Verdict
Marq stands out for its brand enablement, which ensures brand consistency and significantly reduces the time spent on production design.
The platform changes how businesses manage and distribute branded content. It allows teams to import designs, turn them into customizable templates, and share them across various channels.
The platform’s ability to maintain brand standards while speeding up content delivery and reducing creative requests positions it as an essential tool for businesses looking to enhance their brand management and content creation processes.
Best For
Create on-brand content fast digital marketing materials
Price
Free or start at $10/mo.
Discount
Save 33% on annual billing
Pros
Cons
Marq Overview:
Marq is a dynamic content creation platform designed to streamline the process of producing on-brand marketing materials and documents. It caters to businesses and organizations of all sizes, aiming to enhance brand consistency and enable efficient content creation across teams.
Marq Pricing:
Marq offers a free plan for individuals with basic features, including 2 GB of cloud storage and a limit of 3 projects.
The Pro plan, aimed at individuals who regularly create branded collateral, starts at $10 per month with annual billing for one user, with add-ons available for purchase. For SMB teams looking to scale design output with automation.
The team plan also starts at $10 per month, with annual billing for one use and a second free license with the option to add more users and features, while the Business plan requires a custom quote.
Our Verdict
Pixelied stands out as a highly efficient online graphic design suite. It offers unique features and advanced capabilities for creating social media content, eBooks, and more, enhancing both personal and professional projects efficiently.
Its user-friendly interface, coupled with a vast array of templates and the ability to integrate multiple images seamlessly, makes it an invaluable tool for marketers and content creators aiming to enhance their presence on image-centric platforms like Instagram and Pinterest.
Pixelied is positioned as a go-to solution for those seeking to create multi-channel campaigns swiftly, thereby significantly reducing hours of design work.
Best For
Design tool for creating high-quality graphics and mockups
Price
Free or start at $3.9/mo.
Discount
Save 60% on annual billing
Pros
Cons
Pixelied Overview:
Pixelied is an online graphic design suite that provides users with a range of tools and resources to create professional-looking visuals for various purposes, such as social media, marketing, and other content.
Pixelied Pricing:
Pixelied offers a free plan with basic editing tools and a limited selection of templates and assets.
The Pro plan is priced at $3.9 per month, billed annually at $47, and includes additional features like 100 AI image generation credits, 50 background remover credits, and access to all Pro templates.
The Pro+ plan, for $6.50 per month, billed annually at $79, offers even more features, including unlimited background remover credits, 300 AI image generation credits, and advanced photo editing tools.
Our Verdict
Piktochart is a graphic design tool for those looking to create high-quality visual content quickly and without the steep learning curve associated with tools like Photoshop or Illustrator.
With its user-friendly interface, extensive range of templates, and AI-driven features that enhance its capabilities, Piktochart makes designing everything from infographics to social media graphics a breeze.
This platform is particularly valuable for users like businesses, educators, and marketers looking to convey their messages through engaging visual content.
Best For
Creating high-quality visual content with AI-driven features
Price
Free or start at $14/mo.
Discount
Save 52% on annual billing
Pros
Cons
Piktochart Overview:
Piktochart is a cloud-based graphic design tool that simplifies the process of creating engaging and professional visuals like infographics, presentations, reports, flyers, posters, and videos without needing extensive design experience. It is designed to help users, regardless of their design expertise.
Piktochart Pricing:
Piktochart offers a free version, but its Pro plan, when billed annually, costs $14 per month, and the Business plan for $24 per month when billed annually.
For those needing more advanced features and support, the Enterprise plan provides custom pricing tailored to organizational needs. Both paid plans include unlimited project creation and premium templates and features, which are ideal for professional visual content production.
Our Verdict
Photopea is free to use highly versatile, and accessible online photo editor, offering compatibility with multiple file formats, including PSD, XCF, Sketch, XD, and CDR, which are native to popular design software like Adobe Photoshop, GIMP, Sketch App, Adobe XD, and CorelDRAW.
Its ability to create new images or edit existing ones directly from the browser without the need for software installation positions it as a convenient and powerful tool for both amateur and professional designers.
Photopea’s commitment to providing an advanced yet affordable photo editing solution is making it a compelling choice for users seeking a comprehensive and cost-effective photo editing platform.
Best For
Free web-based Photoshop alternative
Price
Free to use
Discount
Free to use
Pros
Cons
Photopea Overview:
Photopea is an advanced online photo editor that offers a wide range of features for editing images directly within a web browser.
Photopea Pricing:
Free to use.
Our Verdict
Pablo is a free-to-use online design tool that offers a straightforward and efficient image creation tool that enables users to craft engaging social media images with ease.
The tool focuses on simplicity and speed. It promises to deliver captivating visuals in under 30 seconds without compromising on the quality of output, making it a valuable tool for those looking to enhance their social media presence with minimal effort.
Overall, it’s a straightforward and efficient image creation tool that enables users to craft engaging social media images with ease.
Best For
Quickly creating impactful social media images
Price
Free to use
Discount
Free to use
Pros
Cons
Pablo Overview:
Pablo by Buffer is a streamlined online tool designed to facilitate the rapid creation of social media images. It’s tailored for users looking to enhance their social media posts with visually engaging content without requiring extensive design skills.
Pablo Pricing:
Free to use.
Now you’ve seen the lineup of some awesome Canva alternatives that are all about making design quick and easy without compromising quality so you can get your cool designs out there for the world to see.
Remember, the best tool for you is the one that feels just right and helps you create your designs efficiently. Almost all the tools we’ve included in this list offer a free plan or a trial, so go ahead, experiment with these options, and find the one that suits your needs and budget the best.
Happy designing, and here’s to creating something amazing!
Della Yang is a marketing professional with a passion for the ever-changing digital landscape. She frequently writes tech news and reviews, sharing her knowledge and insights through blogs and various online platforms.