The 10 best online graphic design software programs.
March 21st, 2022
Sick of sticking to just one graphic design software program? Why don’t you give some new online graphic design software a try instead?
We’ve compiled a sampling of 10 beautiful, accessible, and user-friendly options to empower you to find a design software that works perfectly for you—and will help you create some real stunners to include in your online graphic design portfolio. Not a graphic designer? These programs can easily be used by photographers to create a professional, brand-consistent look when sharing images from their photo galleries on Pinterest, Instagram stories, blog posts, and more.
1. Design Wizard
If variety is the spice of life, Design Wizard is the tastiest graphic design software option on the menu—and one of the most accessible. With its deft attention to visual detail, Design Wizard offers thousands of aesthetically pleasing templates for both social media and print, as well as over a million high-quality images (including icons, vectors, and transparent images).
The expertly curated visual library is updated daily and is chock-full of endless video, illustration, and graphics options. Everything is licensed and completely ready for commercial use
And with a range of packages from Basic (free!) to Business ($49.99 monthly), every budget is welcome.
Design Wizard at a glance:
- Best graphic design software for beginners
- 1,000,000+ premium images
- 15,000+ templates
- Template options for both print and social media
- Affordable and scalable pricing
- Custom template resizing and other free personalization capabilities
- Integrations with Hubspot, Marketo, and Buffer
2. BeFunky
Anyone can create captivating, professional-grade visual content with this free graphic design software. BeFunky’s main offering comprises three creative tools that are simple enough for beginners but powerful enough to tackle a variety projects: Photo Editor, Collage Maker, and Graphic Designer.
BeFunky’s “fun and functional” design software proves that you don’t need a background in design to produce stunning results. With the option to work from beautiful pre-designed templates or build your own from scratch, there’s a ton of creative flexibility.
BeFunky at a glance:
- Free graphic design software
- Quick, easy, and enjoyable to use
- 1,000,000+ free stock images easily accessible (thanks to a partnership with Pixabay.
- Make banners, infographics, flyers, posters, brochures, and more
- Design on the go with the mobile device app
- Upgrade to premium BeFunky Plus account any time
3. Canva
What if creating a beautiful visual canvas was as easy as drag-and-drop? Canva makes it possible by prioritizing simplicity, variety, and affordability.
When you visit their website, you will be asked to indicate what you’re using Canva’s design software for—education, small business, large company, non-profit, and so on. Canva wants to provide an excellent experience for designers of all kinds.
Billed primarily as a photo editor, Canva is a veritable Swiss army knife: it also works as a color palette generator, font selection tool, photo collage assembler, and infographic maker. It also features hundreds of free design elements for every project. Canva even provides online educational resources.
Canva at a glance:
- Impressive functionality for free graphic design software
- 100+ free design elements and fonts
- A diverse range of print, digital, and social media templates
- Templates are easily customizable and resizable
- Most tools are mobile-friendly and available as iOs and Android apps
- Upgradable to Premium based on needs and business growth
4. Pixlr
A powerful and intuitive (and did we mention free?) alternative to Adobe Photoshop, Pixlr also appears on many lineups of the best free online photo editors. With over 500 million users, we’re not the only fans.
But Pixlr also holds its own as a solid free graphic design software option, especially for beginners who don’t want to invest too much time and money or learn a complicated application straight out of the gate.
You can get started creating and editing beautiful images with Pixlr’s robust toolset in literally minutes, directly in your internet browser or via iPhone or Android apps—without any convoluted installation process.
Though Pixlr is especially incredible for editing photos on the go and provides a free vector editor and an array of free fonts, graphics, and stock images, many advanced features require a Pixlr Pro account. Luckily, it’s a small price to pay, as far as online graphic design software goes, at just $5 a month.
Pixlr at a glance:
- Excellent free alternative to Adobe Photoshop
- Easy to use for beginners with no installation required
- A variety of free fonts, graphics, and stock images
- Design on the go with iPhone and Android apps
- Supports five popular file formats (.png, .jpeg, .jpg, .bmp, and .tiff)
- Uses its own file format (.pxd) for easier editing
5. VistaCreate (formerly Crello)
With an astounding image archive of over 65 million files, 12,000 templates, and hundreds of fonts, VistaCreate is a frontrunner for most professional graphic design software options on the list. With expertly created templates that can be customized in a simple and streamlined way, VistaCreate makes designing enjoyable.
This design software can help you create an extensive array of aesthetically stunning designs for print materials, digital ads, and social media posts. You can even create animated graphics. Visual assets are organized into themed collections to help inspire you.
If there’s enough wiggle room in your budget, we suggest checking out VistaCreate Pro; it’s only $10 a month. Featuring unlimited commercial use without VistaCreate watermarks or branding and access to advanced functionality, it can be well worth it.
VistaCreate at a glance:
- Professional graphic design software quality that’s still easy to use for beginners
- An extensive and unparalleled library of free images, fonts, templates, and s
- Features a gallery of design formats and themed collections to stimulate creativity and inspiration
- Help resources, tutorials, and how-to guides
- A high-value Pro option at an affordable price
6. Snappa
The best graphic design software for beginners is one that makes designing feel like a snap. Enter Snappa, the graphics software that will allow you to design like a pro.
Snappa breaks down the design process into easy, actionable steps. You can find the perfect image dimensions (whether it be for a blog, ad, email, or social media platform) in one click, choose from thousands of crowd-pleasing templates in the blink of an eye, and take advantage of over 500,000 beautiful, high-quality stock photos in seconds.
You can also connect your Buffer account to Snappa to pre-schedule your posts, add a variety of text and effects to images, resize graphics for cross-platform posting, and make use of many other desirable free features.
Snappa at a glance:
- Quick and easy to use
- 500,000+ high-quality stock photos
- Free option includes access to templates, graphics, and five downloads per month
- Integrates with Buffer for post scheduling and more (for Premium accounts)
- Highly scalable with Starter (free), Pro ($10 per month), and Team ($20 per month) options
7. Infogram
A popular online graphic design toolkit, Infogram transforms charts, graphs, maps, graphics, dashboards, social media visuals, and more into little works of art. Infogram’s design appeal spans several industries including the non-profit sector, online publishing, education, and government, helping all kinds of businesses develop their own brand themes. Select from over 20 professionally designed themes or go rogue with your own color palette, logo, and fonts.
Infogram’s intuitive drag-and-drop editor allows you to plug in your data and transform it into something aesthetically beautiful and impactful—quickly. Along with personalized design options, there are also various pricing options for every creative, entrepreneur, business, and enterprise.
Infogram at a glance:
- Used by over 30,000+ companies worldwide
- 1 million images and icons
- Data integration
- Easy data integration: import from a spreadsheet or cloud service
- Five different pricing options make it very scalable
8. Tinkercad
Take your 2D ideas and bring them to life with Tinkercad, an effortlessly simple online graphic design toolkit for creating innovative 3D designs and coding. Catering to designers and creatives of all levels, Tinkercad is absolutely free. You can get started immediately—nothing to download, no lengthy installation process.
With an irresistible gallery of designs conceived by a community of creators to spark your inspiration, you’ll be itching to start learning 3D design. Tinkercad’s motto? “No experience preferred.” Get started with Tinkercad’s learning resources and you’ll never look back.
Tinkercad at a glance:
- 100% free
- Innovative collection of graphic design software tools for 3D design
- Educational resources are an ideal introduction to Autodesk, the leading 3D design and engineering software
- A community creators gallery fuels inspiration
9. Gravit Designer
You might already be familiar with this free graphic design software under its previous name, Gravit. Billed as a “cross-platform design tool for the 21st century,” Gravit Designer delivers the goods.
Whether you use it online or download it as an app, Gravit Design is an incredible resource for vector design and comes with a seriously robust toolkit. Icon designs, logo presentations, illustration work, , text integration? You’re covered.
Designed for simplicity and ease of use, the platform is still granular enough for a wide variety of projects. A serious perk for busy designers is the Gravit Cloud service that will let you design on the go from any device, anywhere with internet access. Talk about a productivity boost!
Gravit Designer at a glance:
- 100% free
- Choice of using online or via a downloadable app
- Cross-platform functionality
- Robust toolkit for vector design
- Can export files as PDF, SVG, or bitmap
- Gravit Cloud services facilitate on-the-go design work
10. Vectr
Vectr is a free graphic design software for creating beautiful vector graphics that is both elegant and easy to use. Simple and streamlined, designers at any level can jump right into their work without any pesky learning curve.
Another great cross-platform option, Vectr will sync your projects in real-time so you can begin designing at home on your desktop web browser and continue later on your iPad. It’s a completely seamless experience. What’s more, you can grant collaborators access to your document so that they can watch you create and edit as it happens.
Whether you’re working on website design mockups, brand logos, presentations, brochures, posters, and more, your designs will look crisp and clear—no matter the size. The sky’s the limit!
Vectr at a glance:
- 100% free
- Intuitive and easy to use
- Seamless cross-platform capabilities
- Share and edit documents with collaborators in real-time
- High quality designs at any size or scale
- Free user guide and tutorials
Whether you are a graphic designer or photographer learning the curves of being a small business owner, there is a program here that can give your clients a more cohesive brand experience, from your portfolio website to your social media presence. With little to no hit on your budget, what are you waiting for?
Turn your images into income.
Sell your photos online from your own custom store. Set up is quick and your clients will enjoy a seamless shopping experience.
