Although Adobe Illustrator is one of the best tools to make vector graphics, it’s indeed expensive. Fortunately, there are some free alternatives available for designers in the market.
Adobe is bringing Illustrator to the iPad for the first time, and projects created on iPad can be edited and transferred to the Mac and vice versa. There are useful touch-focused fearures. Adobe Comp is a graphic design app designed to be used along with other Adobe software like Photoshop, Illustrator, etc. Designs can be created with the use of text and shapes. Adobe provides free fonts from Typekit library, which are the same as desktop. As Illustrator is part of Adobe's Creative Cloud, you'll need a monthly subscription to use it, either to the app itself or to the Creative Cloud suite as a whole. If this isn't a turn off for you, then you can get started with our download Illustrator post. Get Adobe Creative Cloud now; But if the subscription fee is a red line, don't worry.
Contrary to raster graphics, vector graphics utilize mathematical expressions to create lines, colors and various shapes. It means that they are highly scalable. Vector graphics are best used in designing website graphics, posters, diagrams, logos and icons. In illustration tasks, the present standard is SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics).
Adobe Illustrator has been the best friend for many graphics designers while creating vector graphics. But as it is an expensive tool, designers usually look for less expensive or free alternatives especially when their needs are simple. Thus, hereby presenting before you the best free Adobe Illustrator alternatives that can prove as brilliant picks especially when you have relatively simple requirements.
Top 6 Free Alternatives to Adobe Illustrator
Look at the 6 free alternatives to Adobe Illustrator you can find online. Read On!
1. Canva
Canva is one of the most popular browser-based designing tool that can any day be used as an Adobe Illustrator alternative. The web-based software offers over 50,000 templates different types of purpose. The software can be used to design ads, posters, ebook covers, logos, icons and many more things.
Even though it’s not possible to design anything from scratch (as Canva does not have any drawing tool), there are many templates that can be used and customized according to your needs.
Canva simplifies the process of designing and helps you create more complex, elegant and professional-looking vector designs without any design capabilities.
2. Inkscape
Inkscape is arguably the best alternative to Adobe Illustrator. This feature-rich image editor consists of a comprehensive toolkit, offers excellent support and frequent updates. However, the tool can sometimes perform sluggishly.
Inkscape is a powerful tool that is used by both professional illustrators, web designers, and hobbyists. In addition to the standard drawing toolkit, Inkscape also offers specialized spiral tools and a tool to construct difficult patterns. It also offers advanced object manipulation features, diversified filters and some classy fill settings.
Inkscape is an open-source software. Thus, users with technical know-how can edit Inkscape and customize it as per their needs. Although some users complain about its sluggish behavior, its performance entirely depends upon the device you are using. Click here to download Inkscape.
3. Gravit Designer
Gravit Designer is one of the best vector design tools that is powerful, fast and free. Gravit Designer is compatible to all major browsers and can be also downloaded for Mac, Linux, Windows and Chrome OS. You get complete cloud sync integration with all its versions.
The software contains basics functionalities that you would find in the Illustrator. It also includes a pen tool and a freehand sketching tool. Users find it comparatively easy to design custom shapes with Pathfinder tool. There are many keyboard shortcuts in Gravit Designer, which make work much easier. The best part is that many of the shortcuts do match with ones in Adobe Illustrator. It helps in easier transition to Gravit. Again, there are many libraries that consist of pre-designed shapes, lines, icons and illustrations. The software even supports CMYK. Click here to visit or download Gravit Designer.
4. SVG-Edit
SVG-Edit is a decent alternative to Adobe Illustrator that is used by many web developers. It is a web-based tool that does not have any server-side processing and has comparatively less sophisticated tools than its counterpart. If you want to develop SVG files for your websites, SVG-Edit is the perfect vector graphics designing tool for you. It’s free and allows you to easily create and edit SVG images.
It supports any modern-day browser and provides basic vector editing toolkit features. Some of its features include path tools, text tools, shape tools and hand-drawing tools. SVG-Edit is open source. Hence, users with technical expertise and developers can always add new features to the tool.
SVG-Edit is built on JavaScript, CSS3 and HTML and it has no server-side functionality. Click here to download SVG-Edit.
5. Vectr
Vectr is one of the best Adobe Illustrator alternatives that is available as a web app and a desktop app. It is simple and quickly creates vector designs.
Although Vectr is not as feature-packed as Gravit or other tools in the list, it has got all basic features to make beautiful vector designs. The app is specially designed to develop social media cover images. For simplification of the process, there are pre-adjusted document sizes. Thus, it becomes convenient to import images and include text on top.
It also supports seamless cloud integration. Images developed in Vectr have their unique URL. so, they can be easily shared with anyone. You can even export images in JPEG, PNG and SVG formats.
6. Boxy SVG
Boxy SVG is a web-based vector image editor that is easy to use, is available in the form of a browser extension and supports almost all formats.
Boxy SVG is one of the best browser-based alternatives to Adobe Illustrator. It creates scalable vector graphic files and includes basic tools such as basic shapes, text, bezier curves, pens and the capability to add paths, transforms, and types. The USP of the app is that it has an insanely simple user interface. Thus, it’s a quick tool to learn. You can export files in PNG and JPEG formats.
These are the best free alternatives to Adobe Illustrator that can be easily downloaded or used online. Though none of the above tools can match the entire skill sets of Adobe Illustrator, they can be definitely proved useful when creating logos, illustrations, posters and so on. We hope that the tools help you to create inspiring vector designs.
Illustrator is great for graphic design, but can be expensive. To find an Adobe Illustrator alternative, here's a list of several powerful vector design tools.
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Apps Like Adobe Illustrator For Mac Osx
In this post, we’ll explore 14+ paid and free graphic design tools that you can use as vector editor Adobe Illustrator alternatives.
While Adobe Creative Cloud — Illustrator, Photoshop, Adobe XD, InDesign, and more — may be known as the industry standard for graphic design, its expensive monthly subscription model ($20.99 per month or $52.99 per month for the entire Creative Cloud) can bruise a budget.
This post delves into some surprising alternative vector design tools to uncover:
- Features
- Files supported
- Pricing
- Compatible systems (Windows, Mac, iPad, etc.)
- Potential downsides
For a list of some FREE Adobe Illustrator alternatives, scroll to the bottom.
If you’re looking for alternatives to Adobe Photoshop, we’ve also got a handy list here, along with our picks for the best web design software tools.
Vectors vs. rasters: quick lesson for the uninitiated
For context, graphic designers work on two types of static image formats: vectors and rasters. Vectors are made from lines, curves, and shapes (plus some machine learning magic). Rasters are comprised of pixels.
Have you ever noticed an image get super grainy when you try to blow it up? That’s raster image pixelation at work (and why you don’t want your logo to be a raster).
Vectors: Scale ’em up, scale ’em down. Vectors are easily editable and resizable — perfect for logos, icons, illustrations, print/signage graphics, and even some animations.
Rasters: Preferred for digital photography, enormously wider range of color palette options (16 million), better for nuanced detail
If you’re looking for Adobe Illustrator alternatives to create digital graphics, logos, illustrations, and animations for print, web, and interfaces — you’re in the right place.
Our list of top Adobe Illustrator alternatives:
- RelayThat
- Affinity Designer
- CorelDRAW
- Sketch
- Figma
- Snappa
- Canva
- Artboard
- Vector Creator
- Boxy SVG
- Graphic
- Gravit Designer
- Inkscape
- Vectornator
- Design Wizard
- + more free Adobe Illustrator alternatives at the end
Sure, Adobe Illustrator may be king. But if you’re into coups, here’s where you should start:
1. RelayThat
RelayThat flips the whole idea of a professional marketing graphics design tool on its head by allowing you to import your brand assets (or magically upload from a URL). This cloud-based graphics design superstar let’s you immediately get to work with thousands of premade, social-friendly layouts based on specific branding.
Adobe Illustrator Torrent For Mac
- Files: Import PNG, JPEG, and SVG. Export PNG and JPEG
- Trial version: No
- OS: Web app, optimized for Chrome
- Pricing model: Pro subscription for $25/mth
Potential downsides: Focus on digital social media graphic creation, limited layout sizes
2. Affinity Designer
Built and continuously improved as Serif’s pièce de résistance, Affinity Designer is designed to be intuitive for the experienced Adobe user. With one of the most comprehensive vector design toolsets on this list, plus raster finishing, Affinity Designer might be the alternative you’re looking for.
With full compatibility with Adobe’s Suite, Affinity Designer supports standards: 10-bit, CMYK, CIELAB, and Pantone. Affinity Designer has some capabilities similar to Photoshop, like bitmap functions. Users like that the program is not too heavy and doesn’t take up too much RAM.
- Files: PSD, AI, PDF, SVG, JPG, TIFF, EXR
- Free trial: Yes (for Mac and Windows)
- OS: Mac, PC, iPad
- Pricing: One-time price of $49.99, free and frequent updates (only $19.99 on iPad)
Potential downsides: Relatively newer product, awaiting more advanced editing features that Illustrator has, lack of educational and how-to resources
3. CorelDRAW
Compatible with other tools in the Corel graphic suite including Photo-Paint, a Photoshop competitor, CorelDRAW gives you a robust set of vector illustration tools. Free download psiphon for windows vista. Get vectors ready for print fast and easy, edit multi-page documents, convert bitmap to vector non-destructively, and generate QR codes.
Check out the LiveSketch feature on touch-enabled devices to turn sketching into precise vector graphics. CorelDRAW is the go-to software for many printing industries in certain parts of the world.
- Files: Download to AI, PSD, PDF, JPG, PNG, SVG, DWG, DXF, EPS, TIFF + more
- Free trial: Yes
- OS: Windows and Mac (and tablet-compatible app)
- Pricing: Buy a full license for $669 or get an annual subscription for $198
Potential downsides: Very large application size, fairly expensive, fewer updates
4. Sketch
Built for UI design, prototyping, and wireframing, Sketch also gives users powerful vector graphics editing abilities. Users report that it is fairly easy to use and has strong organizational/breadcrumb features. Plus, Sketch has a diverse suite of educational resources.
- Files: PNG, JPG, TIFF, WebP, SVG, EPS, SVG code, PDF. AI and PSD files are upload-only, giving you a flattened layer.
- Free trial: Yes
- OS: Mac
- Pricing: $100 per year to renew license
Potential downsides: Reliance on third-party plugins and integrations (may be good or bad), focus on UX/UI and prototyping
(For a free Sketch alternative for Windows, check outLunacyfrom icons8.)
5. Figma
As a collaborative wireframing and UI design tool, Figma isn’t a direct Adobe competitor, but its collaborative, web app-based approach might be worth your consideration. Share files with links, instead of exporting each time you need another pair of eyes on your work.
Speaking of collaboration, Figma might be most well-known for offering real-time teamwork-friendly possibilities. This Adobe Illustrator alternative is focused in on design made for the web, so its tools for pure vector graphic creation are more basic. But you’ve still got your pen tool, vector networks, and smart components.
- Files: Export to PNG, JPG, SVG, or PDF. Import .sketch, PNG, JPG, GIF or Figma Files (.fig)
- Free trial: Sort of? It is free up to 2 editors and 3 projects
- OS: Windows, Linux, Mac, and Chrome
- Pricing: Free up to 2 editors and 3 projects, $12-45 per editor per month after that
Potential downsides: Not a pure vector graphics editor, not touchscreen compatible, reliance on plugins, focus on UX/UI and prototyping
6. Snappa
Snappa is great for creating professional marketing designs in that made-for-social-media style. Its UI is a lot simpler and more lightweight compared to Adobe – of course, that comes with many relative limitations as well. Users seem to like its easy graphic resizing feature and library of visual assets. As part of the Stocksnap.io family, you also get access to tons of pre-licensed, free stock images.
- Files: Download to JPG or PNG
- Free trial: Free up to 5 saved/downloaded designs per month
- OS: Web app
- Pricing: $10-$15 per month or $120 annually
Potential downsides: Focus on digital social media graphic creation, limited file export options
7. Canva
Many people who use Illustrator or Sketch rely on tools like Canva when they need to create graphics quickly. Canva is extremely versatile, and while it doesn’t have the same deep vector editing features as Illustrator, the tool boasts an impressive range of assets, vector icons, templates, and ready-made design solutions.
- Files: Upload SVG, PNG, or JPEG. Download to JPG, PNG, PDF, Powerpoint, GIF, or MP4.
- Free trial: Yes
- OS: Web app
- Pricing: $12.95 per month or $119.40 annually
Potential downsides: Limited export options, users dislike the feeling of being nickeled and dimed for +$1 additional assets.)
[Looking for Canva alternatives? We’ve written about 9 different options.]
8. Artboard
Built by the team at Mapdiva, Artboard is a Mac app with surprisingly smart vector editing capabilities. With tons of drawing tools, timesaving workflows, layers, and boolean tools, Artboard is a simplified Illustrator alternative for quick design turnaround.
- Files: Import JPEG, BMP, GIF, PNG, TIF, PDF, and SVG. Export to PNG, TIF, JPEG, and fully scalable PDFs.
- Free trial: Yes
- OS: Mac
- Pricing: Starts at $39.99 for a single user license
Potential downsides: User complaints about the lack of a pathfinder tool, struggle to edit text
9. Vector Creator
From the team at Icons8: meet Vector Creator. This tool is uniquely focused on creating those soft people illustrations you see all over SaaS websites.
- Files: Import in SVG, PNG, and JPEG. Export to PNG or editable .SVG with Icons8 license (Pro features include SVG export and attribution removal)
- Free trial: Free version
- OS: Web app
- Pricing: Free or $19.90 per month for Vector Creator Pro (plus all of Icons8)
Potential downsides: Newer tool, basic features, lacks file export options
10. Boxy SVG
Using SVG as its native document format, Boxy SVG was made just for scalable vector graphics. This tool is available across operating systems and devices.
- Files: Upload PNG, JPEG, GIF, WebP, PDF and AI files. Download to PNG, JPEG, GIF, WebP and HTML. Plus .pdf for Windows and macOS apps
- Free trial: Not really
- OS: MacOS, Windows, Linux, ChromeOS, web app
- Pricing: $9 or $9.99 per month depending on the version, free for Linux
Potential downsides: Dated UI, super focused on vector editing (SVGs) so missing some broader graphic design features
11. Graphic
Graphic started as a vector drawing iPad app, but it’s since moved to iPhone and Mac OS X as well. This vector software also gives you tools like layers, editable brush strokes, and UI creation elements.
- Files: Import and export SVG, PDF, and PSD
- Free trial: No
- OS: iPad, iPhone, MacOS only
- Pricing: Mac App Store for only $29.99
Potential downsides: Originating from iPad, this tool has a different feel from native web or desktop apps (may be a good or bad thing)
Free Adobe Illustrator Alternatives:
12. Gravit Designer
Best Mac For Adobe Illustrator
Gravit Designer is a free vector graphic design app geared toward professional designers. Choose from a wide library of shapes, illustrations, etc., and export infinitely scalable vector graphics. The paid PRO version has even more vector graphic features, including cloud file syncing and offline mode, as well as way more file import/export options.
- Files: Export to PNG, JPG, PDF, and SVG. With PRO: Import PDF, EPS, SVG, AI, and .sketch
- Free trial: Full free version. Free trial of PRO.
- OS: Any desktop (Mac OS, Windows, Linux, and Chrome OS)
- Pricing: Free. Get PRO for $49.99 per year
Potential downsides: Doesn’t support graphics tablets, some users complain that it can take up a lot of RAM, missing some key features under the hood like snap to grid functions
13. Inkscape
Free, open-source, and impressive, Inkscape gives you flexible drawing tools, embedded bitmaps, transformations, gradient editor, node editing, boolean operations. Sure, the UI is a bit dated. But with Inkscape, you can design, edit, draw in 2D, easily convert bitmap images into vectors, and create compliant SVG files.
- Files: Import/export: SVG, PNG, OpenDocument Drawing, DXF, sk1, PDF, EPS, + more
- OS: Windows, Mac OS X and GNU/Linux
- Pricing: It’s free
Potential downsides: Interface can be overwhelming, can lag or crash when working with super high-res files, no preview features for the visualization of filters and effects
14. Vectornator
Starting as an iPad app, Vectornator is a pretty interesting free choice with some more advanced vector editing tools like boolean operations, grouping, pen tool, anchoring, and masking capabilities. Plus, this will be a tool to watch, since real-time collaboration is coming soon.
- Files: AI, SVG and PDF
- OS: iPad, iOS, MacOS only
- Pricing: It’s free
Potential downsides: It’s really new and it remains to be seen how all the features will develop and mature.
15. Design Wizard
Design Wizard gives you the freedom to create great videos and images easily. The resize feature is a standout here, and allows you to quickly resize images on the free plan. Design Wizard holds over 1 million premium images and thousands of high-quality videos. And every video and image has also been licensed for commercial use!
Files: Upload SVG, PNG, JPEG or MP4. Download to JPG, PNG, PDF, SVG, M-JPEG, MP4
Free trial: Yes
OS: Web app
Pricing: $9.99 per month for Pro or $49.99 per month for Business
Potential downsides: No print or music integrations as of yet!
Here are more free alternatives to Adobe Illustrator that you may want to check out:
- Vectr – free vector graphics software
- GIMP – free, not for Macs
Free vector-editing adjacent tools:
- Vecteezy (Vector images with an editor)
- Vector Magic (convert files with an editor)
You can also check out our list of discounted graphic design tools to help you create without breaking the bank.
Good luck! We hope you find an Adobe Illustrator alternative that you love — a tool that can scale with you! Comment below letting us know which tool is your favorite to work with!