Top Design Software
Crafting visually appealing designs is a major part of marketing. Whether you are creating social posts for your channels, editing an image to fit the correct dimensions on your website or designing a brand-new logo for your business, design is the key to grabbing audience attention and making an impactful statement.
Graphic design is a huge factor in the success of any brand or marketing effort. It only takes one glance for viewers to form an opinion about your company and its products, which can remain in their minds for a long time. As such, it's important to make sure your visuals are up to standard and are making the right impression on potential customers. Not all companies use the power of design, but those that do are typically dominating.
When it comes designing, there are a variety of both free and paid software available to use ranging from simply editing photos with a filter to creating show-stopping illustrations. Below we will be exploring some software available to help you and your business’ needs:
Canva
With over 100 million users, Canva is definitely a fan favourite design software (us included). The possibilities are endless due to the ability to create designs with their templates or even start fresh with your own creation. Before even starting your edits, Canva has the dimensions covered for a variety of platforms, taking away the stress of having to look up the dimensions for your Facebook profile picture or Instagram feed post. And it doesn’t end there! You can also use Canva to create video content too – find out about it in our video editing softwares blog.
Cost: Canva is free to use, with access to 250,000+ templates, 100+ design types and over 1 million free images and graphics to name a few. There is also the option to go premium with Canva Pro - £99.99 a year for one person – or Canva for Teams - £129.90 a year for the first five people – which gives you access to a ton of other features.
Adobe Photoshop
Part of the Adobe family, Photoshop is a great software for combining, retouching, and remixing your pics. “If you can dream it, you can do it” on Photoshop, whether that’s removing a background, retouching an image, or even editing the colour on videos. Whilst it can be difficult to navigate, there is support available on the Adobe website and tons of video tutorials available on places such as YouTube to help guide you.
Cost: 7-day free trial, then £19.97 a month per person or £51.98 a month per person which gives you access to all Creative Cloud Apps.
Photopea
Want Photoshop without the cost? Photopea has you covered! The photo and graphics editor can be used to make illustrations, web designing and converting between different image formats. It is compatible with all modern web browsers and raster & vector graphics. Whilst it is considered the free alternative to Photoshop, it does come with fewer features.
Cost: Photopea is an advertising-supported software which means that whilst is it free, there are advertisements that appear on the site.
VistaCreate
VistaCreate is an online graphic tool which allows you to create content without professional design skills. With 100,000+ already made static and animated templates that are updated on a weekly basis, you can easily create incredible designs. From creators to entrepreneurs to social media mangers and more, this software is suitable for everyone.
Cost: The starter option is free to use and included in this is a brand kit, fonts, 100K+ design templates as well as direct posting to Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest. For £10 a month with a 14-day free trial, the pro-option includes the starter pack as well as HD download, team accounts, 70M+ templates/photos/videos, background removing feature and a whole lot more.
Stencil
This image and text focussed design software is perfect for those dipping their toes into creating designs thanks to the simplicity of it. With over 5,000,000 royalty-free photos to use at your fingertips, pre-set sizes, and the ability to schedule to social channels with Buffer, everything you need to design images quickly is covered for you.
Cost: The starter option is free. There are also two paid options: around £7 a month for pro or £10 a month for unlimited.
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe Illustrator allows users to create logos, packaging designs, web graphics and more. This tool is great for designing illustrations and graphics on both physical products and online. A recent feature that was released across the Creative Cloud is the ability to transform images with simple text prompts using generative AI-powered tools.
Cost: 7-day free trial, then £19.97 a month per person or £51.98 a month per person which gives you access to all Creative Cloud Apps.
SVG-Edit
This web-based and open-source vector graphics editor can be used to create and edit Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) images from within a web browser. SVG is a file format that can be significantly resized without losing quality and are the ideal file format for creating designs like logos and complex online graphics. You can easily spot an SVG file by its .svg extension.
Cost: SVG-Edit is an advertising-supported software which means that whilst is it free, there are advertisements that appear on the site.
Pixlr
Pixlr is a cloud-based image editing and design tool. Its features include an AI image generator, background/object removal, collage maker, crop, and template library. Starting from a blank canvas, a photo or video, you are able to create professional designs.
Cost: This tool is free to use and can be accessed right in your browser, on your phone or desktop for free. There is also the option to go ad-free with unlimited saves in their plus option for under £1 a month; a premium option which gives full access to the Pixlr Suite, assets, templates and ad-free for under £5 a month; and a team option where you can manage your team members and collaborate for under £10 a month.
AdCreative AI
This AI platform allows you to generate hundreds of stunning, high-performing ad creatives in seconds. For some people, creating designs can be time consuming or you may be having a creative block! AdCreative AI uses artificial intelligence to design ads for you, taking in to account your target audience, platform, tone, and length.
Cost: There is a free trial for the first month and after that, there are four monthly plans to choose from: starter plan costs around £20, premium plan costs around £45, ultimate plan costs around £80 and the scale up plan costs around £120 all perfect for startups!