Adobe Illustrator Alternatives

Adobe Illustrator has established itself as the industry standard for vector graphics and design.

Since it first appeared in 1987, Adobe Illustrator has offered industry-first features that let users create, edit, and resize a variety of designs without having to worry about their quality or scalability.

However, purchasing an Adobe Illustrator licence can strain your finances if you don't have much cash to spare. For this reason, it can be essential for you to take into account less expensive and similarly effective alternatives that can assist you in doing the task just as effectively.

To that end, we give you a list of some of the greatest free Adobe Illustrator substitutes you can use to design everything you can imagine, including charts, billboards, websites, icons, and logos.

Alternatives to Adobe Illustrator

1. Vectr

A straightforward graphics editing and design tool called Vectr is amongst the top competitors of Adobe Illustrator. It is one of the playground's more recent additions; thus, it lacks some of its competitors' more advanced features but still has a lot to offer.

The application is simple to use and has a little learning curve, making it ideal for someone just starting out in design who wants to advance rapidly. Vectr might not be the right platform for you if you're trying to conduct more complex technical design work, though.

With this free Adobe substitute, you may perform common vector operations, including drawing and modifying geometric objects, lines, curves, and more. Your creations' scale can be altered without sacrificing their quality.

Thanks to its URL-sharing feature, Vectr is also an excellent design collaboration tool for times when you have numerous people collaborating on a project to make it perfect. You may easily import and edit your old design files in the JPG, AI, EPS, and SVG formats with Vectr.

The app is compact and takes up little space on your device. The programme automatically saves your work every five minutes and provides up to 500MB of cloud storage. Only being able to export one page at a time makes for one of the tool's few limitations and makes exporting files time-consuming. Additionally, Vectr can only be utilised online; therefore, you are unable to complete your tasks offline.

Platforms

macOS
Linux
Windows
Web

2. Gravit

Gravit is a portable vector graphics design tool that rivals Adobe Illustrator in terms of capabilities. This application has a lot to offer designers at all expertise levels, from amateur to semi-pro.

The specific vector tools, including Pen, Slice, Line, Bezigon, and Knife, are included with Gravit, much like in Illustrator. It contains helpful features, including live filters, layers, custom shapes, path editing modes, and auto shapes, which can help create any desired shape.

It has a vast design library with many predesigned themes, graphics, icons, shapes, and other elements. Thanks to the platform's support for the cloud, you can store your creations online and retrieve them later.

To save time and create designs more quickly, Gravit offers a variety of keyboard shortcuts, some of which are identical to those in Illustrator.

You can either download Gravit to your desktop or use it directly in your favourite browser, depending on your preferences. The software's user interface is slick, quick, and straightforward.

Gravit is compatible with a wide range of file formats, including SVG, AI, PNG, PDF, JPG, and EPS. Even though Gravit's free edition is full of excellent features, upgrading to the premium plan for $49.99 per year will provide you access to even more potent and practical tools.

Platforms

Web
Chrome OS
Linux
macOS
Windows

3. Janvas

One of the first online vector graphics programmes, Janvas, is another great alternative to Adobe Illustrator. It has valuable capabilities to make or alter simple and sophisticated drawings, including drawing tools, layers, shapes, outlines, text, and vector masks.

Because of the prebuilt photobook, letters, UI elements, icons, and templates, designing for your projects don't have to be complicated. You can also create documents with several pages or different-sized pages of any scale using the multi-page functionality for photo books, catalogues, businesses, calendars, and other purposes.

You also get access to extra built-in features like fonts, filters, gradients, textures, widgets, patterns, and other visual components. You may use Janvas to search Pixabay for images and immediately include them in your design.

All major image file formats, including the PNG, SVG, and JPEG file types, are supported by Janvas. The program's design can easily be changed to suit your preferences and needs. Unfortunately, there are no keyboard shortcuts available for the utility.

Janvas is the perfect programme for professionals, design novices, and anyone working on small-scale design projects because of its straightforward interface and ease of use.

Platforms

All Major Browsers

4. Inkspace

If you're seeking a feature-rich vector graphics editor that can compete with Adobe Illustrator, you may want to turn to Inkscape.

You can create logos, online graphics, illustrations, maps, icons, diagrams, and more using Inkscape's free and open-source tools. It features sophisticated manipulation options, clone arrangement, templates, pattern creation, mesh gradients, intelligent fill settings, several filters, and standard sketching tools.

The software is designed to be extensible so that you may add plugins and extensions to improve its capability. Moreover, you may import and export files in various formats, such as PDF, SVG, EPS, AI, and EPS.

It offers a user-friendly interface and a tonne of educational resources that may help you get started and advance your design operations.

The programme has shortcomings, as with most things. Depending on your operating system and device, you can notice poor performance when using Inkscape.

Platforms

macOS
Windows
Linux

5. SVG Edit

SVG Edit may be the ideal Adobe Illustrator substitute for individuals who require a vector graphics editor primarily for creating and modifying SVG files for web pages.

It's pretty simple to utilise this open-source programme. SVG Edit does not require account registration, and it runs in your browser and has many features to keep you occupied and happy. SVG Edit provides tools for modifying vector visuals such as text, path, and hand-drawing tools.

With no server-side functionality, SVG Edit is constructed using the Javascript, HTML5, and CSS3 computer languages. If you have any coding knowledge, you may download it, alter the code, and customise the programme to your tastes.

SVG Edit doesn't have the most aesthetically pleasing user interface, but even so, it is simple enough to be understood if you have any prior design experience.

An important flaw of SVG Edit is the lack of prebuilt graphic elements, including templates, images, icons, and symbols. This makes it perfect for people who like to create and alter their designs from scratch.

Platforms

Linux
macOS
Windows
Web

6. Gimp

The GNU Image Manipulation Program, also known as GIMP, is a sophisticated image editor that offers an astounding array of capabilities for editing creative collages, designing, and manipulating images.

Icons, symbols, pictures, and a wide range of user interface components can all be made with the software. Gimp gives you the power to use your creativity to transform plain photographs into breathtaking works of art.

Gimp is a favourite among many artists and graphic designers since it has many SVG file format editing features. It gives you the same speed and ease of use when creating icons, symbols, logos, and other graphics that Illustrator does.

The program's colour management tool ensures that all of your creations, whether they are meant for usage in print or digital media, will reproduce colours with excellent quality. You can eliminate image noise with the blur tool to strengthen your designs.

Gimp was made expandable so that it could be quickly and readily combined with other technical platforms, plugins, and languages like Perl, Scgema.org, Python, and more.

You'll need to spend some time getting familiar with the software's interface before you can really start working on your design and picture editing projects.

Platforms

Windows
OS X
Linux

7. Lunacy

Without Lunacy, no list of the top free Adobe Illustrator alternatives would be complete. It is a powerful visual design programme that provides a mind-boggling selection of pre-made elements, including icons, pictures, and vector graphics.

Lunacy can do the work of developing original content for various purposes less intimidating for content developers, graphic designers, and programmers. It can draw, capture pictures, align and combine vector objects, and even design intricate typography.

You may tweak current designs and create intelligent shapes with Lunacy. You can also work with others on a project because it is compatible with cloud sharing.

With Lunacy, you have access to royalty-free music, AI-generated faces, and stock photographs. The UI of Lunacy is incredibly user-friendly, and it has a lively community of designers and team members ready to jump in and help out when you need it.

The platform supports up to 16 different languages, has a dark mode theme change, and is compatible with a wide range of file formats, including SVG, PDF, TIFF, ICO, PNG, JPEG, GIF, and WEBP.

Platforms

Windows

8. Vectornator

Vectornator is a fantastic choice if you're looking for an Adobe Illustrator-like application with all the necessary design features and more without the costly price tag.

Since its release, Vectonator has developed into one of the industry's top vector graphics products. Pen tool, vector masks, boolean operations, anchoring, grouping, and the Auto-trace function, which enables you to instantly trace images and save up to 30% of your time at the touch of a button, are just a few of the powerful features it offers. You may create a variety of items with Vectornator, including simple logos, intricate graphics, intricate routes, and expressive typography. For designers and artists, it offers the best resolution digital canvas.

To suit your demands, you can design your own brushes or change and modify pre-existing ones. Also, you can discover the design libraries at Vectornator to gain access to thousands of prebuilt objects. You may switch between devices and continue working on your creations wherever you are, thanks to the creative cloud library.

In addition to all of these, Vectornator also works well as a social media management tool, saving you money on the cost of an additional programme to assist you.

Vectornator provides a tonne of video tutorials that walk you through every step of the tool's operation if you ever get stuck using it.

The only area where Vectornator struggles is in file import and export. It only supports the import of Sketch, JPEG, Figma, SVG, AI, PNG, and EPS files, as well as the export of PDF, JPG, SVG, and PNG files.

However, the firm is striving to change this, so soon, there should be a more robust update with broader file format support.

Platforms

iOS13
iPadOS13
macOS

9. Krita

This open-source programme offers a thorough method for creating new digital art pieces and files or changing ones that already exist. You can paint, sketch, illustrate, or make visual effects with Krita.

The platform is made by artists with texture painting, concept art, comics, and animations in mind. It offers a wealth of amazing features that both experts and beginners may take advantage of.

People with trembling hands will particularly value Krita's brush stabiliser tool, which smoothens your lines. Layer masks, effects, drawing aids, pop-up palettes, colour management, canvas rotation, mirroring tools, filters, and other useful features are all available, and they may help you quickly change or enhance your design.

You may add textures to your creations with the help of the wrap-around mode, and the brush engines let you make your own brushes with the level of precision you need. Krita, in contrast to Illustrator, supports editing HDR files and scene-referred photos. It is the only platform that has this function and is made exclusively for painting and drawing.

Krita's user interface is straightforward, making it simple for you to finish your assignment. You can alter its panels and layout to fit your preferred design methodology. Krita is an open-source tool that works effortlessly with other programmes and receives regular upgrades.

Platforms

Windows
Linux
macOS

10. Vecteezy

With Vecteezy, you can import and modify SVG files or create fantastic design projects from the start. Like Adobe Illustrator, this robust, cross-platform web application enables you to edit an image's elements, layer colours, add new features, and resize your creations without sacrificing quality.

The software has a vast library of pre-made elements, including texts, icons, shapes, pictures, clipart, and illustrations. It gives you real writing and drawing tools, but it lacks the cutting-edge capabilities that you would require to create intricate designs.

To use Vecteezy, you must first create an account. Although you can use the software's free edition indefinitely, you will have to put up with advertisements. To get rid of them, you can upgrade to the premium plan for $14 per month.

Vecteezy's user interface is so simple that even those without prior design experience can pick it up in no time. Keep in mind that the application can only export files in PNG or SVG formats. Vecteezy might not be the right solution if you require various file types.

Platforms