Welcome to the Free Web Design Software Microsoft blog! Here you’ll find the latest news, tips, and tricks for using free Microsoft software to create websites.
We know that setting up a website can be a daunting task. That’s why we created this blog—to make it easier for you to learn how to create websites, no matter your skill level or experience with design.
We want this blog to be an open forum where anyone can share their knowledge and learn from others’ experiences.
Free Web Design Software Microsoft
The best web design software makes it simple and easy to build a website, either by offering a coding platform, or a drag-and-drop interface.
It used to be the case that the only option was to code a website directing, using HTML & CSS and even JavaScript. However, these days drag-and-drop editors have become much more commonplace, making it a breeze for anyone to customize or even build their own website.
Whichever option you prefer, all of them make it easier to build in the elements you require on your website, and can work with additional tools such as form builders, image hosting, and even content delivery networks (CDN).
In this guide we have focused on the best web design tools currently available on the market. Similar to the best website builder services, when weighing up which to include, we focus on ease of use, supported web languages, cost, and how easy the tools make it to upload the finished project once you are done.
These are the best web design software services of 2022
Website screenshot for Wix
(Image credit: Wix)
- Wix
The best web design software for beginners
TODAY’S BEST DEALS
Wix Pro
$23/mth
Wix Connect Domain
$3.54/mth
VISIT SITE
at Wix
REASONS TO BUY
+Very easy to use
+No coding required
+Huge range of powerful features
+Yet still highly user-friendly
Wix is more of a website builder than a coding platform, but it is one of the most popular online website creators, offering a range of plans and products. The free version has Wix branding, limited storage space and bandwidth, but move up to the most popular plan (unlimited) and there’s no Wix ads.
An excellent collection of 500 plus templates gets the design process off to a quick start. The drag-and-drop editor gives you all kinds of tools and features to explore – an image editor, video backgrounds, animations, social buttons, an integrated site blog – and just about everything can be tweaked, tuned and restyled. Furthermore, as of recently, Wix introduced Wix Turbo, which increases the speed and performance of websites substantially.
All the core editing functions are really smartly designed, and operate more like a native app than your average website builder. Wix does have some weaknesses, with tech support seeming a little sluggish and limited in some respects. But there’s no denying that the superb editor and range of top-notch templates make it easy for web building novices to create something impressive.
Read our full Wix review to find out why it’s the best web design software on the market.
Website screenshot for Adobe Dreamweaver
(Image credit: Adobe)
- Adobe Dreamweaver
The best web design software for professionals
TODAY’S BEST DEALS
VISIT SITE
REASONS TO BUY
+Customize your design
+Build a responsive design
+HTML5 support
REASONS TO AVOID
-Not cheap
Adobe Dreamweaver is a long-established app that allows you to code your website design directly, without having to know too much about programming. The software works through a mix of visual editing and HTML editing, which means it shouldn’t have too steep a learning curve for most users.
Additionally, while coding your own website design requires you to put in more effort than simply using an existing ready made template, at least you have the chance to ensure you get the look you actually want, rather than trying to work around someone else’s design specifications.
A particularly good feature of Dreamweaver is that it allows you to produce a responsive design, which means your website can be optimized to display on desktops as well as mobile devices, without limiting the user experience.
However, if you are a more advanced user you may be pleased to note that Dreamweaver provides multi-monitor support for Windows. It also supports the Chromium Embedded Framework (CEF) to work with HTML5 elements and CSS grids. Additionally, there’s also support for Git to allow you to edit source code directly from within Dreamweaver.
Dreamweaver is available as part of Adobe’s mid-range packaged app subscription service, Creative Cloud, which also includes Photoshop.
Read our full Adobe Dreamweaver review
Website screenshot for WordPress
(Image credit: WordPress)
- WordPress
The best custom option for beginners
TODAY’S BEST DEALS
VISIT SITE
REASONS TO BUY
+Easy to install and use
+Many available features
+Pre-built website templates
REASONS TO AVOID
-Watch out for spam
WordPress is an alternative way to set up and design your website, being rather different to the other offerings we’ve highlighted here because it’s actually a content management system (CMS). The power here is that it is a simple matter to set up a website in minutes. Indeed, many web hosting packages include a one-click install of WordPress from their Control Panel, but even without that, WordPress is relatively easy to install.
Once installed, the backend for administration and management is very user-friendly. You can use the existing WordPress design templates for your website, but more likely you will want to download and install an existing free or premium WordPress template – all of which can be done with just a few clicks.
Even if you would prefer to work with your own design, you can often do so using drag-and-drop functions, usually from a downloaded design with an in-built framework. This can allow you to create a professional-looking website without having to learn programming or coding at all.
Better still, there are so many free add-ons available to download and install, often requiring nothing more than a few clicks. This makes the whole process of customizing your website very simple, and it does not require any professional skills.
Overall, WordPress is a very easy CMS to use, and can provide a very quick way to get any form of website online fast. The huge variety of template designs and additional community supported features mean that getting something which is near the mark of what you want isn’t hard at all. Just ensure that in the settings you select to turn off comments so as to avoid spam.
Read our full WordPress review
Website screenshot for Weebly
(Image credit: Weebly)
- Weebly
The DIY e-commerce website
TODAY’S BEST DEALS
Weebly Starter
$5/mth
Weebly Pro
$12/mth
Weebly Business
$25/mth
VISIT SITE
at Weebly
REASONS TO BUY
+Professional look
+Mobile-friendly
+Easy to personalize
Weebly is another online CMS, this time targeted at people with little or no coding experience, by providing easy to use drag and drop tools for creating a website. Weebly also provides the ability for users to create online stores using existing templates to work with their simply website-building framework.
The number of themes available for Weebly is somewhat limited, but the designs are clean and professional-looking, plus there are options to personalize accordingly. Additionally, the themes are responsive, which means they are optimized to work with mobile devices, plus they have in built SEO, analytics, and even a feature for posting ads directly to Facebook.
There’s a free tier available for basic use, and allows you to get used to the service. However, to use your own domain and get rid of ads, you’ll need the Professional plan.
Read our full Weebly review
Website screenshot for Webflow
(Image credit: Webflow)
- Webflow
Cloud-based offering that needs no coding knowledge
TODAY’S BEST DEALS
VISIT SITE
REASONS TO BUY
+Drag and drop GUI
+Truly cross-platform
REASONS TO AVOID
-Interface takes time to master
Webflow is a cloud-based service which has been created specifically to allow people with no coding knowledge to get started with web design.
Aside from being truly cross-platform, as it’s web-based, Webflow emphasizes the concept of ‘smart codelessness’. In the first instance this means a crisp drag and drop interface allowing you to drop elements such as text and images seamlessly onto a page using one of the freely available templates.
Unlike many WYSIWYG editors, the code produced is very clean and well-written even if you choose the ‘I have no coding experience’ option during setup. Webflow’s automation tool will create the necessary HTML/CSS code for you. You can make granular changes to individual elements using the panels on the right.
Webflow offers a free demonstration of its features via the website, and you can also subscribe for a free Starter package which allows you to create up to two projects.
Read our full Webflow review
Website screenshot for Bluefish
(Image credit: Bluefish)
- Bluefish
Lightweight and easy to use web coding platform
TODAY’S BEST DEALS
VISIT SITE
REASONS TO BUY
+Lightweight and quick
+Use advanced code via wizards
REASONS TO AVOID
-No visual interface
Bluefish is among the smallest web design tools available today. The tiny installer takes only a few moments to setup. While the interface is text-only, it’s clearly designed with novices in mind as it employs clear-cut toolbars, user customizable menus and syntax highlighting.
While the main focus is on HTML, Bluefish supports a huge range of other languages including PHP, Java, JavaScript, SQL, XML and CSS. Unlike visual WYSIWYG web design tools, the text interface makes for much cleaner code.
Bluefish has an excellent search function, allowing you to find text across multiple projects. The tool also has no trouble juggling hundreds of documents at the same time. Although Bluefish supports working with remote files, the varied and useful dialogs and wizards don’t currently support direct upload of web pages via FTP.
Despite the best efforts of the developers, Bluefish may take some time to get used to. The tool is available free of charge, however, so you have nothing to lose by giving it a try.
Website screenshot for Visual Studio Code
(Image credit: Microsoft)
- Visual Studio Code
A text editor from Microsoft
TODAY’S BEST DEALS
VISIT SITE
REASONS TO BUY
+Customizable
+Loads of integrations
+Source control tools
Visual Studio Code (or VScode) has become popular among developers – the ones who aren’t put off by the fact that it’s a Microsoft product, anyway. It offers a variety of packages and free extensions that can be downloaded from its marketplace to add additional features – and the code editor itself can be customized.
While a lot of people may be intimated by the idea of coding if they have no programming experience, at some point in the web design process it can be important to be able to edit code directly. This is particularly helpful if you want to customize code for existing software add-ons in order to get the features you want for your website. Visual Studio Code can help make the process less painful by providing a dedicated platform for coding.
Visual Studio Code sports its own terminal and debugger, supports linting, and has integration with all manner of source control tools. It especially offers good support for Javascript and Python, making it potentially useful not just for coding the frontend of a website but also potentially some backend functions as well.
Read our full Virtual Studio Code review
Other web design tools you might find useful
If you’re involved in web design, the chances are you’ll also need some graphic design skills and assets. Here we’ll look at a couple of other resources and assets you’ll properly need to help with your website design process:
- Graphics program
You don’t need anything too expensive or fancy unless you’re chasing a career in graphic design or illustration. However, you’ll probably find yourself wanting to create simple logos, headings, text features, as well as manipulate photos, all as part of your website design.
There are a lot of different packages out there, from GIMP which is a completely free software platform, to older software such as Jasc’s Paint Shop Pro which remains a competent program that can be bought on the cheap at Amazon.
Alternatively, check out these other features for the latest in best, and sometimes free, software you might want to use:
Best drawing and painting software
Best graphic design software
The best free photo editor
- Stock photos
On top of creating your own graphics, there’s also a good chance you’ll want to use stock photos to really give your website a professional look.
Stock photos are available on almost any subject matter, and on top of that there are also an increasing number of stock video websites, in case you want to add video media.
Even better is that there are a number of free stock image and video websites, but be advised that these tend to be much more limited than paid-for stock image sites.
Here you can check out some of our features on these, to help you choose the best ones:
The best free stock photo sites
The best free stock video sites
Round up of today’s best deals
Wix
Wix Pro
$23/mth
VIEW
Weebly
Weebly Starter
$5/mth
VIEW
best free web design software for windows
Web design is constantly changing and adapting. We’ve put together a list of the best professional web design software tools and resources available today.
In this post, we’ll explore 40 essential paid and free web design tools available in the market today.
When it comes to web design, things can change rapidly. Not only do design trends change seemingly overnight, but the software we use also comes and goes.
But web development and design aren’t going anywhere.
With the rise of the no-code movement (and drag-and-drop everything), today’s web design scene can best be described as a race to provide the best flexible, all-in-one design-to-code solution for developers, designers, and small business owners who wear all the hats.
Here at AppSumo, we’ve put together a list of the best professional web design software and resources available today, sorted by category:
Table of Contents hide
Best website builders
Best web editors
Best web design software for ecommerce
Best web design software for interface and prototyping
Best web design software for marketing
Best graphic design software
Best design resources
To save your time, we create a cheat sheet with all the tools and resources mentioned in this post. Download it to browse everything at a glance and pick what you need quickly.
WEB DESIGN TOOLS CHEAT SHEET
Best website builders
- WordPress
Website Builder – WordPress
Source: WordPress
WordPress powers 40% of websites around the world, and no wonder. This web builder offers thousands of pre-made themes and a high level of customization (thanks to its functionality and 50,000+ plugins), making it a perfect choice when building a website to fit your brand. WordPress also has an excellent content management system (CMS). It’s easy and straightforward to publish content in the blink of an eye. And word has it that it’s the best CMS for SEO.
WordPress offers a free plan. Paid plans start at $4/month.
- Webflow
Website Builder – Webflow
Source: Webflow
Webflow is an all-in-one responsive web design tool that folds a CMS, managed web hosting, and free SSL certificate all in one no-code platform. Build interactions and animations into your website, drag-and-drop unstyled HTML elements. Or make use of pre-built elements like sliders, tabs, and background videos. The tool features a master component library of core layouts, components, and patterns. Plus, Webflow gives you the ability to prototype and export code to hand off to developers if you don’t want to launch a site on its native subdomain.
Webflow starts free, with plans going up from $12/month on an annual basis.
- Wix
Website Flow – Wix
Source: Wix
Wix is a user-friendly web design software for complete beginners. Don’t know where to start? Choose from over 800 templates or answer a few questions from Wix Artificial Design Intelligence (ADI). ADI will automatically build a website based on your responses. To customize it, drag and drop elements on the screen and edit as you see fit.
Wix offers a free plan. Paid plans start at $4.50/month.
Additional options of a drag-and-drop website builder include Boxmode and Webwave.
- Statamic
Website Builder – Statamic
Say hello to Statamic, the CMS of the future. Built by developers for developers, this laravel-based and open-sourced CMS handles everything without any plugins. And by everything, we mean everything. Custom fields, navigation builder, search, you name it. Compared to other CMS, it’s easy to customize Statamic from the frontend. Its flat-file mode reduces complexity and makes maintenance a piece of cake. This is one cool web builder.
It’s free to use Statamic. Paid plans start at $259/site with an additional $59 for updates (free for the first year).
- Ghost
Website Builder – Ghost
Source: Ali Abdaal
Ghost is a simple professional publishing platform. In addition to the blogging tool’s standard features, Ghost also offers built-in memberships and email newsletters. Other great features include the minimalistic and powerful editor, site speed, and user-friendly and lightweight CMS. If you want to set up a membership website with zero hassle, look no further!
Ghost offers a 14-day free trial, with plans going up from $29/month when billed annually.
Best web editors
- Adobe Dreamweaver
Website Editor – Adobe Dreamweaver
Dreamweaver is a simplified coding engine allowing a real-time preview of your content as you made edits to the code. Start your next responsive website project from a template or build from scratch. With Git support and code hints, you can custom-build all kinds of HTML assets like emails, eCommerce sites, portfolios, blogs, and more.
Start with a 30-day free trial. Plans start at $20.99/month or $52.99/month for the entire Adobe Creative Cloud when billed annually. (Prices vary for students, teachers, and businesses.)
- RapidWeaver
Website Editor – RapidWeaver
RapidWeaver is a native web design software exclusively on and for Mac. Choose from 50 built-in or over 100 community-built themes, and instantly see how your designs will look on various Apple devices. The software integrates with Unsplash and has a big focus on giving you SEO-friendly code.
RapidWeaver has a free trial. Download it for $84.99.
- openElement
Website Editor – openElement
openElement is a free WYSIWYG web editor with a whole host of editing features that support many different page elements such as text, images, tables, lines. Some web elements are even drag-and-drop. Users praise it for being lightweight and SEO-friendly.
openElement is free.
- Atom
Website Editor – Atom
Atom is an open-source hackable desktop code editor from GitHub. Use this tool to access thousands of open source packages, explore text editor themes built by the Atom community, and work in CSS, HTML, and JavaScript. You can also run Teletype for Atom to share workspaces for synchronous code editing.
Atom is free.
- CoffeeCup HTML Editor
Website Editor – CoffeeCup HTML Editor
CoffeeCup HTML Editor was built for WYSIWYG precision and excellence. Work from scratch in HTML, CSS, and PHP, or choose from an existing theme. Use the “Open from Web” option to take any website as a starting point for your new design. With a components library, code validation tool, and live preview, you’ll have your next web design up and running quickly.
Try CoffeeCup for free or buy it for $29.
- Sublime Text
Website Editor – Sublime Text
Sublime Text is a cross-platform source code editor compatible with Mac, Windows, and Linux.. It supports many programming and markup languages natively.
You can download and try Sublime Text out for free. The personal license costs a one-off purchase of $80. And the business license starts from $65 per year for up to 10 seats and get cheaper as you get more seats.
. . .
To save your time, we create a cheat sheet with all the tools and resources mentioned in this post. Download it to browse everything at a glance and pick what you need quickly.
WEB DESIGN TOOLS CHEAT SHEET
Best web design software for ecommerce
- Squarespace
Web design software for ecommerce – Squarespace
Source: SquareSpace
Squarespace is a feature-packed website builder with 100+ flexible designer website templates. It offers customer account functionality for online stores as well as inventory management, discount codes, and abandoned card recovery. This site builder is gorgeous, so if you’re looking for flawless layouts and bleeding-edge artistic vibes, Squarespace may be the right ecommerce site option for you.
Squarespace starts with a 14-day free trial and moves up from $12/month yearly from there.
- Shopify
Web design software for ecommerce – Shopify
Source: Shopify
Shopify is quickly becoming the go-to digital storefront platform. Every Shopify store comes with an SSL certificate, and you can buy domain names directly from them. The team is continually revising the shopping cart experience. That way, they can help reduce cart abandonment and give store owners and drop shippers the flexibility they need to dynamically determine shipping rates, taxes, and more. Shopify also has a suite of marketing tools and mature third-party integration ecosystem to help you sell more.
After a free 14-day trial, Shopify starts at $29/month. There’s also Shopify Lite for $9 per month for pre-existing websites.
- BigCommerce Essentials
Web design software for ecommerce – BigCommerce Essentials
BigCommerce is an enterprise ecommerce solution. For smaller businesses, there’s BigCommerce Essentials, which offers responsive designs, no-code editor, advanced product search, and CRO tools – including an abandoned cart saver feature. Plus, choose from a vast variety of payment gateways.
BigCommerce Essentials starts with a 15-day free trial and goes up from $29.95/month.
- Weebly
Web design software for ecommerce – Weebly
With over 40M sites, Weebly is Square’s powerful drag-and-drop website builder that’s doubled down on eCommerce features in recent years. Choose from template designs and get all the brand assets you need to launch your site quickly. Weebly also has abandoned cart and welcome email features, dynamic shipping pricing, and inventory tracking. It’s a website builder at heart, so you’ll have access to more themes and a lot of easy, user-friendly design functionality for putting your site together as you want it.
Weebly starts free and moves up from $5/month annually.
- WooCommerce
Web design software for ecommerce – Woo Commerce
WooCommerce is an open-source ecommerce platform by Automattic, making it a great choice if your website is on WordPress. Select a theme in the marketplace and customize it to fit your brand. Add products, customize your tax system, and automatically generate an invoice. This plugin can do everything an ecommerce store needs. Its intuitive interface allows you to set up a store in minutes with no coding required!
WooCommerce is a free plugin. Pay 2.9% and $0.30 for each transaction made with U.S.-issued credit or debit cards. Non-US cards cost an additional 1% fee.
Best web design software for interface and prototyping
- EpicPxls
Web design software for ecommerce – EpicPxls
EpicPxls gives you a quick mockup superpower with easy, downloadable premium design assets. Choose from a well-curated selection of beautiful UI kits and website design templates in various common file formats. You can also download from a library of fonts, graphics, and icons. Preview zip files and make sure your design is in the right format. After you download the zip, create your customized site or app.
EpicPxls starts free. Paid plans start at $22/month for 20 downloads. Grab the $39 EpicPxls lifetime deal, available for a limited time in the AppSumo store.
- Picter
Web design software for ecommerce – Picter
Source: Picter
Picter is a feedback tool that speeds up your review process. Organize your content assets and create sub-folders to streamline your workflow. Comment on images or videos frame-by-frame and assign an edit request to a teammate. Once done, share the link with your client. No login is required from your client! Enough said, Picter’s in a class of its own.
Picter offers a seven-day free trial. Paid plans start at $12/member per month. Grab the Picter lifetime deal on AppSumo today for $49.
- Startup 4 by Designmodo
Web design software for ecommerce – Startup 4 by Designmodo
Startup 4 is a free drag-and-drop bootstrap theme builder. With its customizable blocks, you can easily create websites fast, even if you have zero programming skills. Select a style and drag it to the canvas to customize it. Pick your favorite font from Google Fonts (it’s integrated with the editor), then export it in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to launch it.
It’s free to use Startup 4. Paid plans start at $21/month when billed annually.
- Adobe XD
Web design software for ecommerce – Adobe XD
Adobe XD is the standard in UX/UI design that allows collaborative design and prototyping of intuitive web pages, apps, and much more — including voice interfaces! Add animations, build design systems, and build responsive web designs with content-aware layouts, responsive resize, and set reusable states for various components.
Adobe has a free starter plan. Pricing starts at $9.99/user per month or $52.99/month for the entire Adobe Creative Cloud when billed annually. (Prices vary for students, teachers, and businesses.)
- Figma
Web design software for ecommerce – Figma
Figma’s strength is that it’s a web-based app with auto layout, asset libraries, and shareable prototyping features. Never worry about losing a thing with auto-save. Add as many team members as you want as free “viewers” to get stakeholder feedback via comments on your design. Sketch and Figma share some plugins and integrations, so you can often find that additional functionality — or even build it yourself — if you need it.
Pricing starts free for three projects with two editors and scales up to $12 and $45/editor per month (when billed annually) from there.
- Sketch
Web design software for ecommerce – Sketch
Sketch is a leader in the web design world, a “digital design toolkit” with interactive prototyping, smart layouts, and a vast library of integrations and plugins. Right now, the software just launched “Sketch for Teams,” which allows user experience designers to share and collaborate on workspaces. Unfortunately, as a native Mac app, you’ll need to be Team Apple to enjoy all the ease of use and functionality Sketch has to offer.
Sketch offers a 30-day free trial. You can get it for $99, but you’ll need to renew your license every year to continue to receive updates.
- InVision
Web design software for ecommerce – InVision
With InVision, it’s easy to collaborate on design. Use InVision Freehand to brainstorm and create wireframes and discuss with your team on the online whiteboard. This digital product design platform’s a paradise for designers who value creative freedom. InVision Studio also offers smart-swipe transition and animation features.
InVision offers a free plan. Paid plans start at $7.95/user per month when billed annually.
Best web design software for marketing
- Podsite
Web design software for marketing – Podsite
Source: Podsite
With Podsite, it’s a piece of cake setting up a website for your podcast. All you have to do is submit your RSS feed, and the full-featured podcast platform creates it in less than a minute. Customize it to fit your unique brand using the drag-and-drop editor. Podsite will even publish each episode of your podcast automatically. Add an email sign-up form to attract subscribers, and manage your sponsorship packages.
Podsite offers a 14-day free trial. Paid plans begin at $5/month. Grab the Podsite lifetime deal on AppSumo today for $49.
- Google Web Designer
Web design software for marketing – Google Web Designer
Google Web Designer helps you make interactive HTML5-based ads, designs, and animations. From static cue cards to 3D images, Google Web Designer is the go-to tool for creating motion graphics for today’s digital advertising and marketing collateral.
Plus, it’s free to download and use.
- Leadpages
Web design software for marketing – Leadpages
Source: Leadpages
Leadpages may be better known for its landing page builder, but as you navigate it, you’ll see it works just as well for full-on websites. Leadpages offer conversion-driven features such as one-click sign-ups and alert bars, making it a no-brainer if you want to attract quality leads everywhere on your site. It also provides many high-converting and mobile-responsive templates with no coding requirements.
Start your Leadpages free trial for 14 days. Paid plans start at $27/month when billed annually.
- Instapage
Web design software for marketing – G2
Source: G2
Where to begin with Instapage? This advanced landing page platform is so user-friendly and powerful that both non-technical folks and developers can use it. Fan-favorite features include dynamic text replacement and A/B variation testing. Instapage makes it fuss-free to personalize the user experience and conduct rapid tests to uncover your best-performing landing page.
Instapage offers a 14-day free trial. Paid plans start at $149/month when billed annually.
- ClickFunnels
Web design software for marketing – ClickFunnels
ClickFunnels is a sales funnel builder for entrepreneurs. Select a pre-designed template and start building your funnels with the drag-and-drop editor. It’s easy to build your sales process, as ClickFunnels removes all the guesswork. Read the reviews online, and you’ll see the tool’s best feature is its resources. When you sign up for the Platinum or Two Comma Club plans, you’ll have instant access to online courses, training, and weekly peer review hackathons.
ClickFunnels offer a 14-day free trial. Paid plans start at $97/month.
. . .
Ready for the fast track? Download it to browse everything at a glance and pick what you need quickly.
WEB DESIGN TOOLS CHEAT SHEET
Best graphic design software
- Pixelied
Best graphic design – Pixelied
Source: Pixelied
Pixelied is a design tool for small business owners. Use the advanced editor to resize visuals, add typography, and remove background. Select a use case and your favorite template! It’s insanely easy to customize it. Pixelied also offers four million+ royalty-free stock images from Unsplash and 1000+ illustrations. You can even upload SVG/vector files and edit them within the platform. Pixelied may not be as popular as Canva for now, but we have a feeling it’s going to take the graphic design world by storm.
Start free with Pixelied. Its paid plan costs $7/month when billed annually. Grab the Pixelied lifetime deal on AppSumo today for $59.
- Canva
Best graphic design – Canva
If you’re making graphics for the web or social media today, you’ve likely used Canva. With easy drag-and-drop layouts, you can build everything from branded Instagram story graphics to book covers. Canva is a graphic design goldmine with millions of stock images, vectors, and illustrations, photo filters, and hundreds of free fonts, icons, and shapes.
Canva has a free version. Plans start at $9.95 per month.
We’ve also written in-depth about Canva alternatives, so be sure to give that post a read if you’re searching for just the right tool.
- Crello
Best graphic design – Crello
Crello is an intuitive online design editor for graphics and videos. It’s packed with over 30,000 templates and 250 fonts and millions of stock images. Select a pre-made template and customize it with color swatches, lines, text boxes, and more. Add animated graphics to bring your static visual to life. This popular Canva alternative also offers 50,000 free video clips, making it a great tool to use when creating video assets.
Crello starts free, with paid plans at $7.99/month when billed annually. Grab the Crello one-year deal on AppSumo today for $67.
- Adobe Photoshop
Best graphic design – Adobe Photoshop
The leader of digital imaging, Adobe Photoshop offers a plethora of tools ideal for any design stage. From creating concept art and combining photos to removing flaws and manipulating images, Photoshop can do it all. However, its state-of-the-art features come at a price (users report the steep learning curve), this industry-standard is more suited for professional designers.
Adobe Photoshop offers a seven-day free trial, with paid plans starting at $20.99 /month or $52.99/month for the entire Adobe Creative Cloud when billed annually. (Prices vary for students, teachers, and businesses.)
- Adobe Illustrator
Best graphic design – Adobe Illustrator
Adobe Illustrator is a vector-based graphics software. This versatile platform offers excellent tools to help you create beautiful illustrations. Create mirror images in a click, turn shapes into logos, or draw freely!
Adobe Illustrator offers a seven-day free trial, with paid plans starting at $20.99 /month or $52.99/month for the entire Adobe Creative Cloud when billed annually. (Prices vary for students, teachers, and businesses.)
- DesignWizard
Best graphic design – DesignWizard
With DesignWizard, you can create videos and image designs in minutes. The free features allow you to magically resize your designs. You can also upload fonts, photos, logos and create custom color palettes. The library holds over one million premium images and thousands of high-quality videos. Every video and image has also been licensed for commercial use!
The Pro plan, starting at $7.42/month when billed annually, gives you 60 image design downloads per month, image and font uploads, free previews, and 1GB storage.
Best design resources
- FreshStock
Design resources – FreshStock
Source: FreshStock
FreshStock, a stock vector library, is an asset for graphic designers. Known for its socially-inclusive images, FreshStock is excellent for small businesses that want easy access to quality graphics without the expensive price tag. Spot a specific design that would go great with your brand and want to create a series around it? Hire the designer who drew it. Click the button on the right to get in touch instantly.
FreshStock offers a free trial for seven days. Sign up for the paid plan at $42/month annually, or grab the FreshStock one-year deal on AppSumo today for $69.
- Muzli Colors
Design resources – Muzli Colors
Source: Muzli Colors
Muzli Colors is a color palette generator by InVision. Enter your color code, select an initial color, or upload an image if you don’t have access to the color codes. Muzli will generate a palette based on the uploaded image and show you how your dashboard will look on its live UI kit demo, saving you time from unnecessary color combo testing.
Muzli Colors is free.
- Google Fonts
Design resources – Google Fonts
Google Fonts is a library that offers 1043 free licensed font families. Select a font from the list, input your text, and adjust the font size. The tool instantly generates various styles and suggests other fonts that pair well with your selection. Copy the code in HTML and CSS, and voila! You can immediately start using them.
Google Fonts is free to use.
- Unsplash
Design resources – Unsplash
With over a million free photos, Unsplash is the ultimate choice for entrepreneurs, creators, and marketers on a budget. Its sheer number of high-quality photos and range of categories is impressive. From architecture and nature to people and interior design, you’re bound to find a picture for your needs. Whether you’re looking for a background for your homepage or a stock photo to accompany a blog post, this is a must-have resource.
It’s free to use Unsplash.
- Generated Photos
Design resources – Generated Photos
Generated Photos offers free model headshots created from AI. It’s easy to find what you’re looking for. Select your criteria (e.g., gender, ethnicity, emotion) in the filters and pick whichever fits your business.
Generated Photos is free to use.
- Awwwards
Design resources – Awwwards
Known for its experimental design, Awwwards may not be ideal for technical companies (think: B2B SaaS). Other than that, it’s a handy resource if you’re looking for the latest design trends and using them to inform your creations!
Conclusion
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