List of Top 10 Graphic Design Software In 2023 (Free & Paid)

From artists to business organizations, unique and hands-on graphic design software is desired by all. Graphic design software allows designers to create pixel-perfect designs from their range of exciting templates. These pre-fabricated templates are readily customizable and help in creating industry-specific designs. From postcards to appropriate screen-sizes for creating videos, these professional-looking templates have got all your needs covered. The software comes with a pre-store image database that allows designers to readily choose illustrations to work on rather than having to organize expensive photoshoots for each project. Every software is built-in with features suited for a particular category of designers bringing clarity to work. The cloud-based software also comes with various collaboration tools like access restrictions, added comments, and quality ratings that reduce confusion, information loss, and further, standardize your work. With such myriad features comes an easy user-interface that minimizes the training time of your employees. Even if you don’t belong to a creativity-focussed field, the software will enhance your advertisements, brochures, and corporate reports to boost sales. Hence, make your creative team more productive with the below mentioned industry-specific graphic design software.

Graphic Design software

» Our score is based on user satisfaction (reviews & ratings), social media buzz, online presence, and other relevant information. If your software is part of this list, use this badge on your website and social media to let your readers know about your success.

List of Best Graphic Design Software With Ratings & Reviews

#1

Adobe Illustrator

#1

Adobe Illustrator

Industry-standard Vector graphic design software

Adobe Illustrator is one of the oldest graphic design tools trusted by the best graphic designers across the world. The all-new Creative Cloud feature gives you access to the world of imagery and designs at a much faster efficiency. This tool offers variation, speed and innovative ability to build the kind of pictures you imagine. Gorgeous typography for flyers and logos, the ability to create freehand drawings into work of art or seamless integration with other cloud-based apps are some of its unique features.
  • Adobe
  • United States
  • 1000+
  • 1982
  • $20.99/month/user
  • Yes

Visit Website

4.8 / 5

Our Score99/100

Adobe Illustrator Reviews

“I've been using Adobe Illustrator since I stepped into the software industry-almost 4 years now. The tool has no comparison to other tools currently available in the market. I mostly use Illustrator for designing illustrations, icons for mobile and websites, wireframes for mobiles, and print documents like brochures, business cards, etc. Best Industry Standard Vector Designing Software!"- Burhan K.

Popular

User-Friendly

Affordable

#2

Canva

#2

Canva

Graphic-design tool for web & print media

Canva is a next-gen designing tool which can help in your personal as well as professional designing solutions. Want to convert boring data into colourful graphs or make personalized invitation cards for any occasion; Canva can do it all. The Canva’s Graph maker can depict any data into flashy graphical representations. Its photo editing feature has many in-built functions like photo straightener, image cropper, creating a narrative in pictures, speech bubble maker, the transparency tool, photo enhancer and much more.
  • Canva
  • Australia
  • 200 - 500
  • 2012
  • $9.95/month
  • Yes

Visit Website

4.7 / 5

Our Score99/100

Canva Reviews

“One of the benefits that I have obtained with Canva is the portability that offers me to work, I have been away from home and a client contacts me, thanks to the mobile application of Canva, I have managed to pass a draft to customers who need urgent work. The design for all, the best platform."- Luis Ignacio C.

Popular

User-Friendly

Affordable

#3

Placeit

#3

Placeit

Branding and Design Made Easy

Placeit is an easy-to-use online tool with a huge mockup and template library created by professionals and suitable for all industries. Its categories include mockups, design templates, logos, videos, and gaming. Anyone can fully customize Placeit's designs, drag and drop images, edit fonts and colors, and get access to original soundtracks; if a design is not ready, you can save your draft and keep working on it later. It also has a freebie section, along with monthly and annual plans to subscribe and get unlimited downloads. You will also have access to free tutorial videos and relevant content for entrepreneurs.
  • Placeit
  • United States
  • 200 - 500
  • 2013
  • $14.95/month
  • Yes

Visit Website

5.0 / 5

Our Score98/100

Placeit Reviews

"I’ve been in marketing for 25 years + and I can tell you, this is cutting edge!! Easy to use, intuitive and LOTS of templates and images to work with."- Deb Gray

Popular

User-Friendly

Affordable

#4

GIMP

#4

GIMP

Graphic Design

GNU Image Manipulation Program is a highly sophisticated image editor tool which is easily integrated into a cross-platform environment as well. Create, retouch or restore your image as you desire with extremely high-quality image manipulation. This tool is most preferred for print media and digital media as its colour management & colour reproduction capability is entirely trustworthy. For scripted Image management, it can blend with multiple languages like Python, C, C++, Scheme, Perl, etc.
  • GIMP
  • United States
  • 200 - 500
  • 2014
  • N/A
  • Yes

Visit Website

4.4 / 5

Our Score98/100

GIMP Reviews

“Gimp is an open-source image manipulation program what means it is absolutely free to use. Also, you will receive regular updates which add new features and fixes bugs including security issues. With Gimp I am creating weekly flyers with products from our company. We can save an enormous amount of money by doing this by ourselves and not some external design company."- Josip L.

Popular

User-Friendly

Affordable

#5

Creatopy

#5

Creatopy

Design, communicate, and shine!

Creatopy is an innovative online banner-making tool through which you can customize your banners as per your choice. Experiment with shapes or colours, throw in excellent animations or give an aesthetic look; Creatopy can do it all. Use it for promoting your E-commerce space or increase your Social media followers, enrich your WordPress user experience all by adding fantastically created banners. Choose from over 1000 banner layouts & templates or customize your own out of your imagination.
  • Creatopy
  • United States
  • 50 - 200
  • 2008
  • $17.00/month
  • Yes

Visit Website

4.6 / 5

Our Score97/100

Creatopy Reviews

“Creatopy has been a HUGE time saver for the design production team here at Moz and we are really excited to learn even more about the tool with our upcoming ad projects."- Abe Schmidt

Popular

User-Friendly

Affordable

#6

CorelDRAW

#6

CorelDRAW

Professional graphic design software

CorelDRAW is a highly professional and robust graphic design software which includes photo editing, vector illustration, high-end design tools, and layouts. The CorelDRAW Technical Suite provides precision and accuracy in creating 3D source files and complex manuals. It has an inbuilt laundry list of professional applications that help in project creation & implementation. CorelCAD 2019 helps create accurate structures and layouts with 3D design tools. Design Gallery collaborates work from expert designers across the world for reference.
  • Corel
  • United States
  • 500 - 1000
  • 1989
  • N/A
  • Yes

Visit Website

4.5 / 5

Our Score97/100

CorelDRAW Reviews

"Corel draw is just an amazing graphic designing software, considering the amazing content I am able to produce being an engineer and not a graphic designer I can truly tell that everybody can use it a its fullest, you just need to invest a lot of time to master it because it is not an easy software, but it is really rewarding. One of the best designing software I have ever used."- Zoyree Estefania L.

User-Friendly

Affordable

#7

Venngage

#7

Venngage

Make Infographics That People Love

Venngage is a revolutionary new-age tool that can convert stories into Infographics. No need to hire a professional designer; it is a DIY tool; you can experiment & create. Choose from an array of templates, throw in some impressive charts, experiment with various designs and fonts- Venngage is capable of all. Prepare a spectacular client proposal or attract social media followers or use it to boost up your sales; this innovative technology will surely catch everyone’s eye.
  • Venngage
  • Canada
  • 11 - 50
  • 2012
  • $19.00/month
  • Yes

Visit Website

4.6 / 5

Our Score97/100

Venngage Reviews

“I have been using Venngage for 4 years now, and I LOVE it for all my work. I am able to do all my work, and we at CARE have used it for everything from conference bag designs to big timelines that we use at huge conference meetings."- Reshma A.

User-Friendly

Affordable

#8

DesignEvo

#8

DesignEvo

Create Custom Logos with DesignEvo Free Logo Maker

DesignEvo is a multi-platform logo maker for creating professional logos in seconds. Driven with over 10,000+ logo templates, plus rich material, people from all walks of life could customize a professional-looking logo in minutes. You can download the created logos for free. Besides, DesignEvo offers two premium plans. The basic plan billed $24.99, and the plus plan is $49.99.
  • DesignEvo
  • China
  • 11 - 50
  • 2017
  • $24.99
  • Yes

Visit Website

3.3 / 5

Our Score97/100

DesignEvo Reviews

"A really good design software. Absolutely simple, many suggestions and very easy to use. Price and performance absolutely appropriate. Always my pleasure."- Olaf Greiner

User-Friendly

Affordable

#9

Desygner

#9

Desygner

Design your awesome

Desygner is an easy design tool where you can create stunning graphic designs in minutes and with no previous design experience necessary. Desygner offers a powerful free version and even more advanced features for small-medium businesses and enterprises as your own digital asset management platform fully customizable. It also offers the lowest prices in its Pro+ version.
  • Desygner
  • Australia
  • 50 - 200
  • 2016
  • $4.95/month
  • Yes

Visit Website

4.1 / 5

Our Score98/100

Desygner Reviews

"We rolled out Desygner to our business partners. Now they create their own posts locally and we can trust that they’re always on-brand."- Natasha Pederson

Popular

User-Friendly

Affordable

#10

Drawtify Designer

#10

Drawtify Designer

Make Design Easier

Drawtify is a Free Online Vector Graphic Editor with Great Design Templates and Elements. It's a SaaS tool for people who want to make designs easily and quickly with templates. The Drawtify vector editor brings some powerful tools for designers to draw what they want and gives many beautiful templates and design elements for non-designers to make a design quickly. You can create vector graphics online for free, such as SVG graphics, vector logos, infographics, flyers, posters, banners, etc.
  • Drawtify
  • United States
  • 11 - 50
  • 2018
  • $14.99 /month
  • Yes

Visit Website

4.0 / 5

Our Score97/100

Drawtify Review

"Drawtify is different from many of online graphic design tools. This vector editor is fully developed and includes all the professional tools you would expect. Whenever I needed a feature, it was already there."- Chris

User-Friendly

Affordable

#11

Pixlr

#11

Pixlr

The Photo Editor

Pixlr X is the perfect professional photo editor tool for a rookie; you don’t have to be a Pro to use it. Superfast edits, elaborate editing and photoshop options in a very simplified manner. Photo adjustments like cropping, resizing, background removal, etc. can be done in no time. Dynamic Drawing tool enables you to scribble or draw anything on your picture. Experiment extensively by adding filters, by removing blemishes and spots or by adjusting on the Dark or Light modes. Give your image a completely different look by using this versatile photo editor.
  • Pixlr
  • Sweden
  • 11 - 50
  • 2008
  • N/A
  • Yes

Visit Website

0 / 5

Our Score97/100

Pixlr Reviews

“Now editing photos is a frequent habit among the youth population, with Pixlr I have the ideal instrument to improve my advertising images and I can also improve my personal and family photographs before being shared on my social networks."- Natalie D

User-Friendly

Affordable

#12

PicMonkey

#12

PicMonkey

Photo Editor and Graphic Design Maker

PicMonkey is an online design tool which enables you to do wonders with your photographs. With over 6000 graphics & textures, 100+ gorgeous fonts & templates & Oodles of collage layouts, you can give any ideal shape to your photos. It is a designer’s delight with the combination of designs it can create: design magnificent social media posts, eye-catching cover photos, and impressive ads and banners. The collaboration feature allows you to work with a team and construct something together.
  • PicMonkey
  • United States
  • 11 - 50
  • 2012
  • $7.99/month
  • Yes

Visit Website

4.5 / 5

Our Score97/100

PicMonkey Reviews

“I have so loved using the features of PicMonkey, I can create very intricate graphics for my clients and myself including adding textures to lettering, using the texture feature also allows me to make pictures into different shapes. My graphics look so much more professional now. I love using PicMonkey."- Abigail K.

User-Friendly

Affordable

#13

Visme

#13

Visme

The all-in-one online presentation, infographic tool

Visme is an online design tool which can create visual infographics for you with the least effort. Create engaging presentations and narrate stories under visual aids. It is adapted by thousands of communicators, marketers, and educators across the globe due to its interactive ability & minimum learning curve. Convert boring, exhaustive data into self-narrative and engaging presentations. Strike an instant connects with your audience by throwing in combinations of designs, fonts, imagery, and graphics - present Visual content with style.
  • Visme
  • United States
  • 11 - 50
  • 2012
  • $12.00/month/user
  • Yes

Visit Website

4.5 / 5

Our Score96/100

Visme Reviews

“An excellent choice for nondesigners looking for one multifaceted tool. Saved time. Brought consistency by using our brand palette. Eliminated the hassle and cost of using different tools (e.g., for infographics). The YouTube tutorials have helped in learning how to make better designs."- Promod S.

User-Friendly

Affordable

#14

Snappa

#14

Snappa

Quick & Easy Graphic Design Software

Snappa is a social media-friendly graphic design tool which can add a zing to all your posts and ads within no time. Select from a repository of more than 10,00,000 high-resolution background stock pictures free and without any fear of copyright issues. Throw in your favourite fonts, vectors, and shapes from an exhaustive list from their library. Select right size images with the required resolution for your social media posts, ads or blogs. Edit your photo and directly share them on your social media handles without leaving Snappa.
  • Snappa
  • Canada
  • 1 - 10
  • 2015
  • $10.00/month/user
  • Yes

Visit Website

0 / 5

Our Score95/100

Snappa Reviews

“Snappa is a must have tool for the non-designers who publish content online. It's super easy to use and has a nice set of templates, and despite its simplicity offers unlimited possibilities for creative minds."- Olga Andrienko

User-Friendly

Affordable

» What is the meaning of graphic design?

In technical terms, graphic design meaning represents the communication of messages or ideas utilizing visual means. Graphic designers use multiple elements, such as illustrations, colors, typography, and shapes, to make an impact through their design.

» What is Graphic Design Software?

Graphic design involves the art and science of communicating the messages in the best visual format. Businesses can take this opportunity to build and send the marketing messages which the target audience can receive quickly. Graphic Design Software simplifies the task of creating the artwork. It also brings in the uniformity of design across the organization.

Graphic design has not completely gone digital. But to complement the designs the best graphic design software is always a must. Many of the repetitive tasks can be simplified using design software. The use of a template is one such example. It saves a lot of time in recreating the same things and also it provides a uniform look and feel.

» Is it worth investing in Graphic Design Software?

Definitely Yes. Graphic Design Software will help an organization in many ways. It helps the marketing team by providing various options for showcasing the product. Instead of using the boards, pencils, and sketches, the graphic design software will provide easy to use user experience which includes drag and drop features. Maintaining a standard template across the organization for any presentations will make the company look more professional in all ways. And also, it shows that various divisions like marketing, sales, and others work as ‘One Team’ instead of silos to the customers.

» Before you choose any Graphic Design Software

So before going out for a market survey to check for the best graphic design software, it is important to understand the needs of your organization. Also, understand the standards and the best practices to be followed at the industry level. Get to know the needs of the actual team who will be using this software for their daily activities. They are the best judge, as they understand the pain points which they face daily and can come out with the actual product requirements and features that they are looking for, to make their job complete faster and better.

Meeting other stakeholders like the business owner, product owners, leads from different departments can help in providing more details. Though they might not be the actual end-users of the software, they can help in finalizing some of the required features of the software. And above all, they can help in arriving at the budget, which can be allocated for this purchase and maintenance of the design software.

Adapting to the new software will have some amount of learning curve by the design team. They need to transition all the current ongoing projects from the existing system on to this new system. This may lead to some unproductive time. So, choosing the system which has less time for the transition can also be one of the factors which can be looked upon before choosing the graphic design software.

When all these groundworks are complete, you will have the requirements document ready to go in for the software. At the initial search for graphic design software, you may find a huge number of them. It’s always better to list down or study the pros and cons of each such software and make a decision matrix with the requirements and the software. This would help in finalizing the best fit for graphic design software for your company.

» Key features of Graphic Design Software

With lots of graphic design software available in the market today, each one tries to offer various features in their product. But overall, there are few key features to look for in any design software. Below listed are few of the key features:

› Easy to use GUI:

The software must provide an easy to use graphical user interface. This will make the software look more intuitive and help the designers to work in a collaborative manner. It should be easy to start with the basic building blocks of the software by more drag and drop features. The advanced tools and features can be added on a need basis.

› Easy to Learn:

With an intuitive GUI comes an easy to learn features. The new software must offer an easy learning path for the designer. This would reduce the learning curve and also the non-productive time for learning and picking up the new software features. This is always an added cost for the organization, and this has to be factored.

› Tools:

Look for the software which supports various tools for complete graphic designing. The software must have all the basic tools come as out of the box features, and some of the advanced tools can be an add-on and purchased as required. But look for a versatile and robust software that can offer the latest trending tools, so that you don’t have to look for an alternate software for any particular tools.

› Templates:

Creating anything new in the design area from scratch will always take a lot of time. This is where the templates can come for help. Graphic Design Software comes with pre-defined templates. They provide a basic foundation on which the design work can be built. These templates also provide a uniform look and feel for all the projects and give more professional looks. Many design software offers templates that can be customized as per the needs. Also, you can build new templates and use them across the projects.

› Image Database:

A design project would need lots of Images to make the idea look complete. Imagine how helpful it will be if these images are all part of the software itself. Many of the Images might come for free and need to have to pay any royalty charges. So as you shop for the graphic design software, look out for the image database which the software can offer. Also, this Image DB should allow you to keep extending and enhancing by adding more images to it. This also allows the team to share the images across the team members.

› Collaborative Tools:

Graphic design is always a team project. Teams should be able to share their projects, images and other related files with their team members. Latest design software offers cloud-based services that help to share and edit the files in real-time. You can restrict access to the files at any level. Collaborative tools greatly boost productivity, accountability, and success.

» Key Benefits of Graphic Design Software

Graphic Design Software provides a platform for creating world-class designs for an organization. The key benefits of using design software are:

› Boost Employee Productivity:

Graphic design Software offers the latest tools and technologies which can boost employee productivity. The Collaborative tools help the team to work more closely by sharing and speeding up the project.

› Saves Time:

Many features like templates, image database will save a lot of time in reinventing the wheel. Templates will provide a platform on which the designs can be based on. The image database will provide access to all the standard images needed for the design.

› Saves Money:

Without a good Graphic Design Software, a company will be highly dependent on other vendors for all their graphic needs like logo designing, website designing, and other design needs. With an efficient in-house graphic designers team and world-class graphic design software would save a lot of money that would have to be spent on other vendors for the company’s project.

› Graphical Communication:

The marketing and sales team are very much dependent on the graphic design team, who in turn are dependent on the software they use. Good graphic design software can bring in the ideas of the marketing and sales heads into a graphical representation. Graphics are always more appealing and catch the eyes of the customers more than the words.

› Brand Building:

No company can be imagined without its brand logo and the names. Good graphic design software can help in designing a crisp and clear logo for the company, which reflects the company’s vision to the outer world.

» How to choose the best Graphic Design Software?

As already understood, there is no ‘Perfect’ software which can meet the requirements of all the organizations. So, try to choose the ‘Best Fit’ design software as per your company’s needs. By spending a little extra effort in understanding the company’s needs, and then carefully comparing all the advantages and disadvantages of all the software, you can arrive at the best fit software.

The following 2 factors can also help in choosing the best fit design software for your organization:

› Software Support:

Every product purchase will come with a support mechanism to it. It is always good to understand the support features, the available days and timing, and the cost of the support – annually. A good support team is very important to answer any queries or issues faced by you. Ensure to purchase annual subscription support for better pricing.

› Updates and Upgrades:

None of the Software products comes as complete. There will always be updates and upgrades planned. Try to understand the update cycles. There can be some downtime also planned during an upgrade. So, all such considerations are a must to be factored for.

Also, try to explore the option of demos or free trials from the vendors. This would make a big difference. As the actual end-user (Design Team) puts their hands on the software, they can provide a better judgment in the selection criteria. Their feedback can help in making a better selection.

» Questions to ask a vendor when buying best Graphic Design Software

1. How simple would it be to implement the graphic design software?
2. Is it flexible enough to meet the needs of my industry?
3. How frequently do you release product updates?
4. How much time would it take for you to fix issues, if and when they arise?
5. How efficient would the product be when multiple users are using it simultaneously?
6. Can you break down the pricing structure?
7. Where does the system store my designs?
8. Do additional features come at extra cost?
9. What are your support and maintenance services?
10. Does the software offer customization?
11. Is the product scalable?

» Pricing of Graphic Design Software

There are a number of graphic design software available in the market. Each of them offers various features and hence the pricing is not uniform across the software. Below are a few of the top graphic design software available in the market, along with their offer prices.

› Adobe Illustrator CC:

This is a vector graphics solution, which is very well suited for professional graphic designers and artists. It offers a wide range of tools that can be used for logo design, website design and gaming. The software offers various templates that can be easily used for creating new designs. It has out of box integration with Adobe Creative Cloud making it easy to share the projects with other team members. The pricing starts from $29.99/month

› Adobe InDesign:

This is a page design and layout solution, used by both print and digital media, for the creation and publication of documents. It can be used for the design of posters, brochures, flyers, annual reports, magazines, and other things. It can also be used for creating eBooks, Interactive PDFs, and digital magazines. The pricing starts from $29.99/month

› Canva:

This is a cloud-based platform. It comes with Intuitive GUI which offers drag and drop features, and access to a huge library of graphics, images, and fonts. Since this is an online platform, it provides a collaborative way of working by sharing projects with other team members for viewing and editing purposes. It offers low-cost plans to start with, and quote-based enterprise plans. The enterprise plan offers various features, unlimited storages, and advanced tools.

› GIMP:

GIMP is a free and open-source software which comes with tons of features. It is giving a tough competition for all other paid software. The platform offers lots of pre-installed and downloadable plugins and supports third-party plugins as well.

The graphic design software can begin around $7/month/user to $25/month/user.

» Conclusion

The rapid change in technology has brought in a lot of changes in the way we are looking at things. Things which were once thought to be impossible or used to take a lot of time to design, are now just a few clicks away. To catch up to this changing trend, companies cannot imagine having the Design team without a good Graphic design Software.

A good Graphic Design Software can bring in lots of benefits. They Boost team performance by making teamwork more collaboratively. It can save a lot of time and effort by making use of templates and Image databases.

To Conclude, a Graphic Design Software that is Best Fit for an organization is a must to have in an organization to boost its brand image and make the best use of their marketing and sales team.