13 Best Graphic Design Software Of 2024 [Free & Paid]

Graphic Design Software You Must Go For

Alternatives	Free Plan/Trial	Starting Price	Ratings
Canva	Free plan	$14.99/month	4.7/5.0
ImageLR	Free	Free	4.8/5.0
PixTeller	7-days	$9.99/month	4.4/5.0
Adobe Photoshop	7-days	$9.99/month	4.6/5.0
Adobe In-design	7-days	$20.99/month	4.6/5.0
Sketch	Free Plan	$9/month	4.5/5.0
Inkscape	Free Plan	–	4.4/5.0
Affinity Designer	Free Plan	$66.07/month	4.6/5.0
Gravit designer	Free Plan	$48.89/month	4.1/5
Desygner	Free Plan	$6/month	4.5/5
Adobe Illustrator	Free Plan	$20.99/month	4.6/5
Xara Designer Pro X	14-days	$9.98/month	4.3/5
Corel Draw Graphic suite	Free Plan	–	4.5/5
GIMP ( GNU Image Manipulation Program)	Free Plan	Open Source	4.2/5

Whether you are a beginner graphic designer or an experienced digital artist, using the right tools and softwares can enormously enhance your talent. In this blog, we will provide you with a list of the best graphic designing software of 2024 so that you can take your pick as per your needs. If you are looking for a well-built graphic design software that provides impulsive controls, flexibility, and beginner-friendly features as well as professional tools, we have a list of excellent tools just for you. 

You may need a graphic design software in your business ventures as well, whether to start a blog or edit and optimize product photos for your e-commerce business. Therefore, choosing the best graphic design software can help you curate marketing campaigns and take your brand to the next level.

There are many graphic design tools to choose from, and the best way to identify the software best-suited for you is to get hands-on with the tool and experiment with them. By using them, you would get a basic idea about the software and its functions, understand the interface and test out the tools. Every graphic design software is characterized by its features, ease of use, performance, cost, and availability. There are many free as well as paid graphic design softwares available in the market. You can also try a few graphic design softwares which offer a free trial for users to understand their product better.

Are you still wondering which is the best graphic design software to use? Don’t worry, we have already done the hard work for you and made a list of the best graphic design software. All you need to do is go through the features of the software, check out its pros and cons, you can also go over to the website and check out the interface, and then take your pick!

Here’s the list of best graphic design software for you:-

Disclaimer: The list doesn’t imply their ranking or anything; it’s a simple order.

If you are looking for the best free online graphic design software, then Canva would be the pick for you. Canva is considered to be the most basic and most comfortable graphic design platform available online. It offers infinite numbers of free and premium templates, elements, and backgrounds as well. It is widely used for making social media posts, YouTube thumbnails, dashboard colors and designs, brand or website templates, and a lot more. 

Canva is the best graphic software for you if you are a beginner and want to design something with a shallow learning curve. Its free version lacks some features compared to the premium version, but it can fulfil all your basic graphic design needs.

Key Features of Canva

• It has a smooth user interface and it is easy to navigate, therefore best-suited for beginners.
• It provides an infinite number of free graphic templates. and if there’s not a template available of your choice, you can make your own.
• It has so many font designs as well. You can also download high-quality graphic designs for free.
• It stores all your designs until you delete them.
• It has a phone app too, with all the same features.
• Canbva offers ease of import-export of files and supports multiple file formats.

Pros and Cons of Canva

Platforms Supported by Canva: Web browser, Android, IOS

Pricing Plans Of Canva Graphics Design Software

Subscription	Monthly Pricing	Yearly Pricing
Free	$0	$0
Canva Pro (Individual)	$14.99	$119.99
Canva for teams	$29.99	$300

 Pixlr is an online photo editing software that has multiple tools for editing and designing needs stunning photos and graphics. It includes several editing tools such as the Pixlr Editor, Pixlr Express, Pixlr Designer, Background Remover, and Bulk photo editor. These applications differ according to their functionality and uses.

The best thing about Pixlr is that you can get everything done on one platform. It is a one-stop destination for your graphic design needs. It is also suitable for both beginners and experienced designers as it is easy to use and navigate and one of the best graphic design software you can find in 2024.

Key Features of Pixlr

• All-in-one online platform with intuitive generative AI tools to help you manage, edit, and share attractive and unique graphics and pictures.
• It is a cloud-based software so it is easy to upload and store your pictures and access them whenever you want.
• Ease of organizing and transferring pictures from one device to another.
• Easy social media integration and import-export options.
• Has several helpful tutorials for beginners to get acquainted with the platform.
• Offers lots of templates to choose from to design attractive graphics.

Pros and Cons of Pixlr

Platforms supported by PixTeller: Windows, iOS, and Android Apps.

Pricing Plans of Pixlr

Subscription	Monthly	Yearly
Free (only Pixlr X and Pixlr E)	$0	$0
Plus	$1.99	$0.99/month
Premium	$7.99	$4.90/month
Team	$12.99	$9.91/month

Adobe Photoshop is considered the best popular graphic design software and it is widely popular as millions of people worldwide use this software. Most professional graphic designers swear by it, and it is one of the leading software for image editing, designing stunning graphics and artworks. From minor editing to creating mindblowing artwork, you can do it all using Photoshop.

It is a robust software that works efficiently even for a large or heavy project and works on many platforms. As a beginner, you will find a lot of support to start and learn how to use it. There are numerous online videos on Youtube and several courses available for students pf different proficiency levels.

Key Features of Adobe Photoshop

• You can edit your pixel images, raster graphics, and vector graphics as well.
• It offers a lot of typography, drawing, and designing tools for both mobile apps and web software for beginners as well as professionals. Many design tools come with responsive graphics.
• Adobe Photoshop offers you an intriguing and more customizable user interface. It provides several targeted workspace layouts, including Graphic and Web, Motion, 3D, Painting, and Photography; you can also make your custom layout of panels and windows.
• It also provides you with active synchronization with Adobe Creative Cloud, 
• This is a kind of open GIMP software that provides you with a free download and software installation.
• It comes loaded with 3D design capabilities and also gives you the ability to edit animations and video layers.
• With a new and improved Generative AI support, the “Select subject” function uses Adobe Sensei (Adobe’s AI) to do almost all the work for you.
• Offers a library and photo management with Adobe Creative Cloud.
• Ensures easy import-export of files and efficient file transfer between different programs.

Pros and Cons of Adobe Photoshop

Platforms Supported by Adobe Photoshop: Windows and Mac

Pricing Plans of Adobe Photoshop

Subscription	Starting Price
Individual	$19.99/month
Students and Teachers	$19.99/month
Teams	$37.99/month per license

Another best graphic design software by Adobe that can be used to create designs is the Adobe InDesign. This graphic design program is primarily used in the publishing industry because with Adobe In-design, you can easily design magazines, info sheets, books, posters, interactive PDFs, brochures, etc. With the option of the ‘adjust layout’ option that InDesign provides, you can alter your document’s text, and the graphic will adjust accordingly. 

Key Features of Adobe In-design

• If you are a beginner, you can easily use Adobe InDesign because it requires a low learning curve and this makes it one of the best graphic design software for beginners.
• It helps graphic designers to efficiently combine graphics and texts for easier streamlining and optimizations of files.
• Adobe InDesign has lots of tools for laying out, resizing, creating pagination, templates for pages, etc.
• It has the feature of alternative texts of the template. The design gets adjusted automatically, which is great while working on infographics.
• You can use conjunction with adobe photoshop to edit photos with the document and that makes it one of the best editing software for graphic design.
• Adobe’s generative AI-powered technology gives you the ability to automatically resizing and arrangement of images.
• InDesign syncs pretty well with other Adobe programs. Hence, it’s not usually a challenge to bring in .psd or .ai files, then update them while maintaining their size/detail within InDesign.
• It is excellent for teams; designers can leverage InCopy to work with other team members by sharing text, colours, and graphics.

Pros and Cons of Adobe In-design

Pros of Adobe In Design Graphic Design Software

Platforms supported by Adobe In-design: Windows, Linux, Android, iPhone/iPad, Mac, Web-based

Pricing Plans of Adobe In Design

Subscription	Pricing Per Month
Adobe In-design Single App	$22.99
Creative Cloud All Apps	$59.99
Students and Teachers	$19.99
Business	$89.99/month per license

Are you a Mac user, but don’t want to use Adobe Photoshop or Indesign? You can then opt for a mac- only graphic design software that focuses on digital design for websites, apps, and other interfaces. Unlike Photoshop, Sketch isn’t very compatible with photo editing or print work. With Sketch, you can easily create a prototype by collaborating with other designers on the platform itself. Trust me, it is one of the best graphic design software for mac users.

Sketch offers a smart layout feature in which the component will automatically resize based on the content. There are hundreds of plugins available in the program that will let you do vector editing and other design work precisely down to the pixel. Digital icons are another thing that through this software. Sketch, on the downside, is not fantastic for print design or illustrations. 

Key Features of Sketch Graphic Design Software

• Sketch offers you a cheaper yearly subscription as compared to other best graphic design software.
• It is easy to learn and use and is suitable for beginners. There are also many useful tutorials available for new users to learn.
• With the help of robust community support, users can easily find custom plugins for specific tasks.
• It offers a variety of great plugins and integrations, such as craft plugins and Invision.
• It feels excellent to use on multiple screen sizes and resolutions.
• It also offers artboard library templates for IOS devices and responsive web design layouts.
• The Sketch is super -fast and smooth in graphic rendering, and it also offers an infinite amount of space.

Pros and Cons of Sketch Graphic Design Software

Platforms Supported by Sketch: Mac only

Pricing Plans of Sketch

Subscription	Pricing
Standard Subscription	$10/month
Mac-only License	$120/seat
Business Subscription	$20/month

Procreate is a popular and premium illustrating tool created especially for iPhones and iPads. From creating high-quality attractive 2D illustrations and animations to painting 3D models and images, it is the perfect tool for budding designers and illustrators. With impressive features, functionality, and flexibility, Procreate is well-suited for both beginners and professional graphic designers.

Procreate offers some incredible and unique tools like QuickShape, StreamLine, Drawing Assist, and ColorDrop to help you create illustrations quickly and on the go. With the help of tools like Procreate, you do not have to carry your art suppliers everywhere. With Procreate, you can give wings to your creativity to make stunning art and illustrations, and share with the world!

Key Features of Procreate Graphic Design Software:

• Advanced intuitive AI helps you to create professional-level layering and compositing to create high-quality attractive artwork.
• With the help of the advanced Valkyrie graphics engine, it helps you to create excellent artwork very fast and swiftly.
• Not only 2D art, but Procreate allows you to create animations and 3D models as well.
• Procreate offers a free four-part beginner-friendly video series for budding artists who want to learn how the app works. This series provides a step-by-step introduction to creating art and animation on Procreate.
• All of your artwork and illustrations are managed and organized in a gallery format for better access.
• Allows you to easily import and export files from the web and other devices so it is easier to work with, and make edits and other changes at once.
• It offers easy integration with existing workflows, so you can easily switch between platforms and applications.

Pros and Cons of Procreate Graphic Design Software

Platforms that Support Procreate: iOS only

Pricing plans of Procreate

Subscription	Pricing
One-time Payment	$9.99

Inkscape is another best graphic design software on our list. It can be used easily by designers, illustrators, or web designers. The software has flexible drawing tools, making it easy for beginners to understand the software’s usage and create art without any problems. 

You have to spend some time understanding how to use this software. This software is best used to create vector-based images and needs to be required in SVG format. Inkscape provides you with a lot of filters and a helpful community for the Designer to grow.

Key features of Inkscape graphic Design Software

• Inkscape gives you an impressive user interface. If you are familiar with Adobe tools, you can quickly get command over Inkscape too.
• Inkscape has high-quality colors, and it has flat colours, gradients, and transparency color levels. These features are a great help for creating stunning artworks and designs.
• High-accuracy images can process correctly. Inkscape has a vector graphic standard where the painter can change every part in his/her picture without changing image quality.
• Inkscape is perfect for processing complex objects because it has detailed parameters. Examples of detail parameters are lines, fill colours, layers, position, and others.
• It has a robust community that helps you to provide regular updates and new features. 
• It is one of the most potent and capable substitutes of Adobe Illustrator available as a free tool.
• Users can grasp the open-source code to change the code lines and enhance or personalize the software as per the requirement.
• It supports many gradients and comes with a separate tool to create complex combinations.
• Users can also download or create ready-made plugins.
• It has a Fully anti-aliased Display.

Pros and Cons of Inkscape Graphic Design Software

Platforms supported by Inkscape: Windows, Linux, Mac

Pricing Plans of Inkscape

Great news! Inkscape is an open-source platform that’s why available for free.

One of the best graphic design software on the list is Affinity designer. If you are looking for a cheaper alternative to Illustrator, which is especially suitable for someone in the early stage of a design career, then you should go for this one. The affordable pricing and flexibility make Affinity designer one of the best graphic design software to try out.

The Affinity designer is known to work smoothly, improving your workflow. It gives you the ability to show your creativity more freely. You can move and zoom your artwork at 60fps; see the gradients, effects, and adjustments changing live along with the transforms and curve edits. There is all of this and a lot more to explore with Affinity Designer.

Key Features of Affinity Designer

• It allows you to lock and position objects and elements depending on multiple things, including grids, alignment guides, shapes, and nodes of other items.
• Through Affinity Designer, you can work in both pixel art environments and vector art environment without opening any other application.
• Its zoom feature gives users a zoom of up to 1,000,000 per cent enabling designers to design with utmost precision and accuracy.
• It can easily handle Large scale documents efficiently.
• It provides you with an Advanced Memory System.
• You would also be able to apply for your work on one project to multiple numbers artboards.
• Affinity Publisher is one of the cheaper alternatives to Adobe InDesign graphic design software. You can get a lot of the same features as InDesign for $50/user lifetime (even cheaper if you buy in bulk) instead of a recurring charge from Adobe every month.

Pros and Cons of Affinity Designer

Platforms supported by Affinity designer: Windows, Ipad, Mac

Pricing Plan of Affinity Designer

One-time Payment	Pricing
Windows/MacOS version	$69.99
Universal License	$164.99
iPad Version	$18.49

Are you a small business owner seeking to learn graphic design? Attractive graphics and images have the ability to boost your sales, create marketing campaigns, and amp up your social media game, all of which you need to run your business successfully. I would suggest that VistaCreate is perfect for your needs. This software is best suited for entrepreneurs who want to create excellent images and graphics for their website and socials, but do not have a lot of graphic designing experience.

VistaCreate offers you lots of functions and flexibility when it comes to curating visuals for your social media and website. With an easy-to-use, intuitive interface, neatly organized tools, diverse library of stock photos and templates, you can start easily and create stunning graphics for your enterprise in no time.

Key Features of VistaCreate

• Ease of use and intuitive interface for beginners to explore and get acquainted with quickly.
• Diverse library of in-built designer templates that are easy to edit and modify.
• You can integrate their in-built library of stock photos and several other elements like music, animations, backgrounds, video clips, texts, styles, and a lot more.
• Offers a fine assortment of tools to create graphics and many other tools like the background remover tool, speech bubbles, interesting frames, and a lot more.
• VistaCreate gives you access to a huge library of their stock photos, videos, and vectors that you can use to make your designs more attractive and marketable.
• Supports multiple file formats to download and work with.
• Ensures ease of creating visuals and graphics and sharing instantly via link.

Pros and Cons of VistaCreate

Platforms supported by VistaCreate: Windows, iOS, and Android

Pricing Plans of VistaCreate

Subscription	Pricing
Starter	$0
Pro	$10/month

Are you looking for a new graphic design software for creative websites, applications, and different digital products? Then you should surely try out Figma, powerful graphic design tool that empowers you to create stunning multi-feature webpages and other prototypes. It is a popular tool among UI/UX designers, developers, and product managers to maintain a seamless workflow and create and share designs faster and more efficiently.

First launched in 2016, this impressive cloud-based design and user-friendly graphic design software is favored for its live collaborative feature. It empowers a team of designers, managers, and developers to collaborate together and co-create conveniently, thus accelerating the product release cycle and boosting effective communication.

Key Features of Figma Graphic Design Software

• User-friendly and intuitive interface that allows beginners to navigate and create stunning designs.
• It is a cloud-based web designing tool, which means you can access it from anywhere communicate with your team effectively.
• Allows a team to collaborate and work together simultaneously in a common work space thus boosting productivity and communication.
• Easy import-export and file-sharing options making important files accessible to everyone and also saving time.
• User-friendly features such as frames, components, auto-layout, and more to improve functionality and help you create, manage, and share your designs and prototypes easily.
• Supports wide range of plugins to improve the features and functionality of the tool.
• Offers in-built prototyping features to create innovative prototypes for future designs. You can create and manage these prototypes to get an idea about how your designs are going to turn out.

Pros and Cons of Figma Graphic Design Software

Platforms supported by Figma: Mac OS, Windows, Linux, Chrome OS

Pricing of Figma:

Subscription	Figma	Figjam
Starter	$0	$0
Professional	$12/month	$3/month
Organization	$45/month	$5/month
Enterprise	$75/month	$5/month

Adobe Illustrator is one of the best graphic design software centred around vector design. You can create artwork, icons, posters, etc. You can create designs in Adobe Illustrator that can be used in business cards or billboards and from smartphones to 8k screens. You can use this software to draw, mix, and refine designs to create something spectacular. Adobe has made a mobile version called Adobe Illustrator Draw, one of the best graphic design apps.

Key Features of Adobe Illustrator Graphic Design Software

• Illustrator has tons of options for graphic design creation. With the right tools and your own skills, you can surely create any 2D design through Illustrator.
• You can edit multiple artboards at the same time; it would help you to work efficiently.
• You get access to over 90 million images, graphics, templates, and videos from Adobe Stock.
• Using Adobe Illustrator would help you to Connect with other adobe products.
• It is a vector-based software, so it is the best tool to create scalable designs.
• It is highly compatible with numerous devices with different configurations from Mac and Windows.
• It offers a highly accessible user interface. 
• Very reasonable price and comes with the adobe creative cloud package.

Pros and Cons of Adobe Illustrator Graphic Design Software

Platforms supported by Adobe Illustrator: Windows, Mac

Pricing Plans of Adobe Illustrator

Subscription	Pricing Per Month
Adobe In-design Single App	$22.99
Creative Cloud All Apps	$59.99
Students and Teachers	$19.99
Business	$89.99/month per license

Besides different other forms of illustrations and graphics, vector graphics is another important requirement for several mobile phone applications, websites, infographics, and digital presentations. Several brands prefer vector designs for creating their brand icon as well as for advertising and marketing. Vectr is the perfect tool to help designers create and edit vector graphics for this purpose.

Vectr operates through its web and desktop cross platform and is suitable for both beginners and professionals. With its wide range of features and functions, you can create simple as well as complex designs for logos, banners, posters, and a lot more.

Key Features of Vectr Graphic Desogn Software

• It offers resizable design that you can zoom and shrink to fit the design you have in mind.
• You can create various simple and complex designs using its pen and pencil tools, shapes. and images.
• It has several useful keyboard shortcuts that you can learn as they will be very helpful. Just type the “?” key and it will give you access to the Shortcut Cheat Sheet.
• Vectr also offers live collaboration option that you can avail by creating a unique URL link of your project to send it to various members of your team so that they can review or edit your work.
• It provides a layer section quite similar to Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator that allows you to test different parts of your design.

Pros and Cons of Vectr Graphic Design Software

Platforms supported by Vectr: Windows, iOS

Pricing Plans OF Vectr

Sunscription	Pricing
Free	$0
Premium 1	$3.99/month
Premium 2	$5.99/month

CorelDRAW graphic suite was earlier built only for Windows OS; it is now available for Mac. With this graphic design program, you can create professional vector illustrations. There are powerful design tools to help you work faster and smarter. You will find numerous customization options, working on logos, web design, or print projects. 

CorelDRAW now uses AI technology to provide you with LiveSketch, which converts sketching into precise vector curves. The suite contains tools for graphic design as well as layout. It has Photo-Paint and Corel Font Manager for photo editing and font management.

Key Features of Corel Draw Graphic suite

• It offers you access to the intuitive, AI-powered Live Sketch tool.
• It supports many monitors or multi-display, to increase the area available for computer programs running on a single computer system.
• You get a customizable UI environment for the desktop, icon sizing, toolboxes, options for how your documents open, and color border color scheme. Users can also visit Corel’s developer community website to design macros that suit their workflow.
• Drag and drop importing of PDF as vector objects for editing figures saves a lot of time.
• Corel offers three payment programs through which users can buy the software and nominal charges for regular upgrades. It also offers an upgrade program for existing users.
• It can export files in up to 48 file types, including AutoCAD, JPG, PNG, SVG, AutoCAD, JPG, and TIFF. It can also open 35 file types, including EPS, HTML, AutoCAD, PDF, PowerPoint, SVG, and even old FreeHand files.

Pros and Cons of Corel Draw graphic suite

Platforms Supported by Corel Draw graphic suite: Windows, Mac

Pricing Plans of CorelDraw

Volume Licensing Subscription	Pricing
1-4 seats	$269.00
5-10 seats	$255.00
11 and above	CUSTOM

So, our last but not the least, best graphic design software is GIMP. It is a free, open-source program that allows you to alter its source code and distribute the program. There are many customization programs and 3rd party plugins you can use in GIMP to improve your productivity and create better designs. 

GIMP can also be used to retouch images, wherein you can even make creative composites. Interface components and mock-ups can also be designed, along with print designs such as icons and logos.

Key Features of GIMP Graphic Design Software

• It offers a highly customizable user interface. The community of GIMP has developed several useful plugins for added features free of cost. People who want to do coding can customize it to higher levels as per the requirement.
• GIMP is a very memory efficient graphic editor with lower resource consumption in old or slow computers.
• It enables you to sketch the drawing by leveraging tools, including cloning, pencil, and airbrush.
• Since GIMP is an Open Source source, you can edit its source codes and add or change its features.
• Due to its active developer community, you get regular updates and the addition of new features.

Pros and Cons of GIMP Graphic Design Software

Pros of GIMP Graphic Design Software

• You can get the help of the comprehensive online community of GIMP users.
• GIMP is a very memory efficient graphic editor with lower resource consumption in old or slow computers.
• Since GIMP is an Open Source source, you can edit its source codes and add or change its features.
• It enables you to sketch the drawing by leveraging tools, including cloning, pencil, and airbrush.

Cons of GIMP Graphic Design Software

• Sometimes, while working on a heavy project, it crashes.
• You can’t select many layers at once.
• If you are a Mac user, the user interface would not feel perfect while using.
• Change layers come with a non-destructive way of combining many photo manipulations.

Platform supported By GIMP: Windows, Linux, Mac

Pricing Plans Of GIMP

Since it’s an open-source platform, it’s a free version of design software.

Conclusion

Using Graphic design software in the early days was a herculean task. Technology has come a long way, and software now becomes more user-friendly and helps users express creativity more freely. Choosing the right platform would depend on your work and what you want to achieve with the software.

In this blog, we have discussed the 12 best graphic design software available on the internet. But you should not rely on any list or something; you should give it a try to various graphic design software and choose that program which suited you the best. 

Think out of the box and choose your own best, preferred, and compatible graphic design software for yourself.

Also, don’t forget to tell us your preferred graphic design software in the comment section.

For further Software reviews, check out our blog on website design software. Also, if you wish to start or design a beautiful eCommerce drop shipping store then chose the best dropshipping tools here.

FAQ’s For Graphic Design Software