Free Design Tools Worth Using

A note on "free": some of these are free with no catch. Others are freemium, meaning the core tool is genuinely usable for free but a paid tier unlocks more. We've flagged which is which rather than lumping them together, because "free" gets stretched to cover a lot of pricing models that aren't.

Colour and Palette Tools

Getting colour right early saves rework later, and none of these require a colour theory background to use well.

• Coolors – Generates colour palettes instantly and lets you lock colours you like while it cycles the rest. Free to generate and export; the paid tier mostly removes friction rather than adding capability you actually need.
• Adobe Color – Builds palettes from colour theory rules (complementary, triadic, and so on) or extracts one from an uploaded image. Free, no account required to use the core wheel.
• Color Hunt – A browsable, community-submitted gallery of pre-made palettes. Useful when you want inspiration rather than a generator, and it's entirely free.
• WebAIM Contrast Checker – Checks whether a text and background colour combination meets accessibility contrast standards. Free, no signup, and worth using before a palette goes anywhere near a live site.

Typography Tools

Font choice does more work than most people give it credit for. These tools help without requiring a typography degree.

• Google Fonts – A free, open-source font library with no licensing catch for commercial use. Still the default starting point for web typography, and for good reason.
• Font Pair – Suggests tested pairings of heading and body fonts pulled from Google Fonts. Genuinely useful for skipping the trial-and-error phase of pairing typefaces.
• Fontjoy – Generates font pairing suggestions and lets you lock one side while it cycles the other. A faster, more experimental alternative to Font Pair.
• Type Scale – Generates a modular type scale (the ratio between heading and body sizes) and spits out ready-to-use CSS. Free, and it fixes a problem most people solve by guessing.

Stock Images and Illustration

Free stock photography has genuinely improved over the last decade. These are the two worth defaulting to, plus two illustration sources for when a photo isn't the right fit.

• Unsplash – A large, high-quality stock photo library with a licence that permits commercial use without attribution. The most reliable free option for photography that doesn't look like stock photography.
• Pexels – Free stock photos and video under a similarly permissive commercial licence. A good second source when Unsplash doesn't have the right shot.
• unDraw – Free, open-source SVG illustrations with an adjustable accent colour, released under an MIT licence. Useful for hero sections and empty states where a photo would feel wrong.
• Haikei – A free generator for SVG blobs, waves, and abstract backgrounds. The fastest way to get a bespoke-feeling background shape without opening a vector editor.

Image Editing and Compression

For quick edits and file-size fixes that don't warrant opening full design software.

• Photopea – A browser-based image editor that opens and saves PSD files, with a Photoshop-like interface. Free with ads, with an optional paid tier to remove them. The closest free equivalent to Photoshop you'll find.
• Squoosh – An open-source image compression tool built by the Google Chrome team, with a live before-and-after preview. Fully free, no paid tier, and genuinely effective at shrinking file sizes without visible quality loss.
• TinyPNG – Compresses PNG and JPG files with strong results for minimal visible loss. Free for manual use on the website; paid tiers exist for API access and bulk automation, which most people don't need.
• Remove.bg – Removes image backgrounds automatically. Free previews are low-resolution; a credit-based paid tier is required for high-resolution downloads, so budget for that if you need print-quality output.

Full Design Software

For work that needs more than a single-purpose tool.

• Figma – Collaborative interface and graphic design software with a genuinely usable free tier for individuals and small teams. The standard choice for anyone doing layout or interface work without an Adobe subscription.
• Canva – An all-in-one design tool with a large free library of templates and assets, aimed at people who need to produce something professional-looking without a design background. Pro unlocks premium assets and brand kit features, but the free tier covers most small business needs.
• GIMP – Free, open-source raster image editing software and the closest thing to a full Photoshop alternative for desktop use. Steeper learning curve than Photopea, but no ads and no ceiling on what it can do.
• Inkscape – Free, open-source vector editing software and the equivalent open-source alternative to Illustrator. Solid for logo and icon work if you don't already have an Adobe licence.

Logo and Branding Generators

Worth a specific note here: these are useful for early exploration or a genuinely low-budget project, but they're not a substitute for briefing a designer on anything that needs to hold up long-term. If you're weighing that trade-off, our logo design cost breakdown covers what you actually get at different price points.

• Looka – An AI logo generator that produces a set of options from a short questionnaire. Free to explore and preview; you pay to download usable files. A reasonable starting point for early-stage naming and direction, not a finished brand identity.
• Hatchful by Shopify – A free logo maker with no paid tier and free downloads. Less sophisticated than Looka's output, but there's no catch at the end of it.

Icons and Patterns

Small details that add up.

• Font Awesome – A large icon library with thousands of icons free to use, and a Pro tier for a larger set and extra formats. The default choice for web icon sets.
• SVG Repo – A searchable library of free SVG icons and vectors, with licensing noted per icon rather than assumed. Worth checking the licence on individual downloads before commercial use.
• Hero Patterns – A free generator for repeatable SVG background patterns, with adjustable colour and opacity. A quick way to add texture to a section without commissioning custom artwork.

If you're building out a brief before you approach a designer for anything beyond what these tools can cover, how to brief a graphic designer walks through what actually makes a brief useful.