Almost all of Adobe’s products speak the quality. Illustrator is an industry-standard best vector graphics editor. With lots of impressive features, it slays those designers and editors. It is used in creating web, logos, icons, illustrations, etc. Illustrator has freehand drawing, typographic designs, and more. However, this vector graphics software isn’t for everyone. It requires lots of learning curve and isn’t meant for beginners. Also, it isn’t found to be a budget-friendly option. Because it requires a monthly subscription to use its features. For all its disadvantages, we have covered the Adobe Illustrator alternatives.
Best Adobe Illustrator Alternatives
The mix of best free and paid Adobe Illustrator alternatives includes the following software or apps.
- CorelDRAW
- Inkscape
- Affinity Designer
- Sketch
- Vecteezy
- Gravit
- Vectr
- GIMP
CorelDRAW
- Works on Mac and Windows PC.
- The price starts at $198/year with a 30-days money-back guarantee.
If you want a professional level vector graphics engine, then CorelDRAW tops the list. It has tools that you need for every other need of designing graphics. Thus you can work without compromising your productivity and creativity. Share concepts on the Cloud or invite others to view, annotate, and comment.
Unique Features:
- Features new typographic tech and enhancements to the core type tools.
- Advanced image optimization options that improve bitmap quality.
- AI-powered image machine-learned models.
- Get expanded design capability and improve workflows.
- Powerful vector illustration tools turn basic shapes to complex artwork.
- Use non-destructive editing features to edit bitmaps and vectors.
- Layer based photo editing tools for retouching and enhancing.
Inkscape
- Available for Mac, Windows, and Linux PC.
- It is a free and open-source vector editing software.
Inkscape is one of the most powerful Adobe Illustrator alternatives. It is the most preferred choice of many. This includes illustrators, designers, and web designers. Inkscape offers flexible drawing tools to create objects. It supports object manipulation options like layers, transformations, etc.
Unique Features:
- Lightweight and runs on low powered devices.
- Supports the opening and importing file formats in SVG, EPS, AI, CDR, etc.
- Has flexible drawing tools, gradient editor, and embedded bitmaps.
- Provides rendering with a fully anti-aliased display.
- Gives extended text support like kerning, line spacing, letterspacing.
- Robust set of tools like cloned objects, markers, alpha blending, etc.
Affinity Designer
- Compatible with iPad, Mac, and Windows PC.
- Pricing starts at $49.99.
Vector graphics editing is much simple with Affinity Designer. This redefined graphics editor lets you create perfect images. With the necessary tools, your vector designing job gets done right. Get the fastest and smoothest editing with this Adobe Illustrator Alternative.
Unique Features:
- Provides previews of the real-time blend mode.
- Live preview of transforms and curve edits.
- Supports pan and zoom at 60fps.
- Layer groups and color tagging.
- Optimized to handle documents of any complexity.
- Advanced grids, alignment, snapping support.
- Unlimited artboards and most sophisticated typography.
Sketch
- Compatible on Mac PC.
- One time payment of $99 with a 30-day free trial.
The best Adobe Illustrator alternative list wouldn’t be complete without Sketch. It is a Mac-only graphics editor that gives life to your creativity. Users can create, collaborate, and spot issues with the documents. In addition, it is the industry-leading software for website prototyping.
Unique Features:
- Has editing tools and a built-in grid all your vector designing needs.
- Stay focused on designing the best products with intuitive user-interface.
- Choose from hundreds of plugins to customize your workflow.
- Cloud workspace lets you work with anyone and keep them in sync.
- Share work, get feedback, test ideas, and handoff designs to developers.
Vecteezy
- Available for Mac, Window and Linux PC browsers.
- It’s price starts at $14/month.
Whether it is for personal or commercial use, get Vecteezy. It is one best Illustrator Alternative to create high-quality images. Vecteezy software itself has lots of professional images. The best part is you can download it instantly.
Unique Features:
- Supports editing files just before you download it.
- Vector images are customizable. So, you can change the size, color, font, etc.
- Edit and import SVG files or you create your own design.
- Users can draw freehand shapes and edit the available ones as well.
- Choose from ready-made clip art, shapes, and text-based design.
Gravit
- Available on Mac, Windows, and Linux browser.
- The Pro version price starts at $99/year.
Gravit is a fully featured design app to unleash your creativity. This Adobe Illustrator alternative works on different devices. Pro designers will get fast and flexible tools to work on. With this, you can create shapes, lines, points, and more. It is a great source for designers as it has color, light, and filter adjustments.
Unique Features:
- It has a powerful graphics tool that ensures precise design.
- Useful for website, icons, presentation, UI design, and more designing.
- A streamlined interface will let you accomplish more work in less time.
- Non-destructive editing on all sorts of designing.
- Supports a number of vector and raster formats like AI, sketch files, etc.
- Import and export formats include SVG, PNG, JPEG, PDF, etc.
Vectr
- Compatible with Mac, Windows, and Linux browsers.
- It is free to use a vector graphics engine.
Vectr is one best browser-based Adobe Illustrator Alternatives to work on vector graphics. Features easy user-friendly interface that goes better even with beginners. Choose from the intuitive tools to create graphic designs on the go. You will get almost all of the basic vector editing tools with Vectr.
Unique Features:
- Every other design you create with Vectr will have a URL.
- Share the Vectr document for real-time collaboration instantly.
- Scale designs to any size without detering the image quality.
- Supports exporting designs in PNG, SVG, JPG formats.
GIMP
- Available for Mac, Windows, and Linux PC.
- It is free and open-source software.
GIMP is an Adobe Illustrator Alternative with close enough features. It has tools required for high-quality image manipulation. So, you can retouch to restore without limits. Its tools are much sophisticated and you can work on the go. In addition, GIMP provides flexibility to transform the images.
Unique Features:
- Has third-party plug-ins with better customization.
- Useful in designing icons, graphical design elements, and art for UI.
- Provides top-notch color management feature.
- Can be used with other software like Inkscape, Scribus, etc.
Related: 15 Best TextSheet Alternatives
That our hand-curated list of best Adobe Illustrator alternative software. Among the large list, we have listed only the handful number of options that have features similar to Illustrator. They are all the mix of free and paid ones while few of them are browser-based. For any clarifications, you shall drop a comment below.