Humaaans is a fantastic tool for creating illustrations of people. These vector based illustrations are quite cute, and there are hundreds of mix and match options available.
You can mix clothes, body shapes, and much more to create illustrations for your website, guide, white paper, or ebook.
Humaaans is free to use, which sounds great at first — but it can actually be a pretty big disadvantage. Because Humaaans is free for both personal and commercial use, everyone is using it.
The illustration style of Humaaans is all over the web. You will see it on business sites, healthcare sites, educational sites, and pretty much any other type of site.
The mix and match features do allow you to customize your illustrations — up to a point. However, the illustrations are still pretty generic and easily recognizable, especially by those in the web design sphere.
Even many consumers will have seen these little people everywhere, including on ads on social media. Humaaans has been around for quite a few years now, so everyone had a chance to see them at one point or another.
If you want to stand out and be unique, consider using one of the Humaaans alternatives I will list in this article. If you’re trying to build your portfolio as a web designer, you should probably avoid Humaaans as well and opt for something a little less well known.
Also, there are some better alternatives that look more like doodles, which is great if you’re looking for a more hand-drawn type of look.
Best Humaaans Alternatives
1. Fresh Folk
The best alternative to Humaaans is Fresh Folk. Fresh Folk is not as well known as Humaaans, and the illustrations you can create with it are pretty different as well.
Thus, not as many people will recognize them, and they might not know which tool you are using. You will get a better chance to stand out and make a good first impression.
However, the way the website works is very similar to Humaaans.
There are a variety of different outfits, poses, and skin tones available for each character you create. You can mix and match different options to create a unique illustration and use different illustrations to tell a story.
In addition to the human illustrations, there are over 40 different objects to choose from, such as different types of flowerpots. You can use those objects to create scenes, such as people working on a laptop in a room filled with flowerpots.
It’s basically just a library — you can download the entire library to your computer and then use a tool to create the illustrations. Unlike Humaaans, it does not ask for a donation when downloading, only for your email address.
However, even with Humaaans, you can put $0 in the donation box to get it for free.
2. Open Peeps
Another awesome alternative to Humaaans is Open Peeps. I’d put Open Peeps with Fresh Folk in the two top alternatives to Humaaans.
Like Humaaans, you get a full library of illustrations you can mix and match to create unique scenes. These are hand drawn vectors, and they look very different from Humaaans, so do check out the library first to see if it is something that would work for you.
Open Peeps is available under a CC0 license, just like Humaaans. That means you can distribute the illustrations, modify them, and use them commercially without paying anything.
You can mix and match different hairstyles, facial expressions, clothing, body parts, and poses to create scenes and stories. You can add different styles of facial hair, glasses, and more.
Although the library is in black and white by default, you can customize the colors to fit your needs.
Like Humaaans, you can download the library to your device for use in your favorite design tool or use it directly in Blush.
One thing I really liked about Open Peeps is that it comes with a huge range of ready-made “peeps” — illustrations of different people doing different things, including people sitting and standing. These people have different clothes, hairstyles, facial expressions, and more.
Nevertheless, if you want to be more unique, I’d recommend not using the ready-made peeps but instead creating your own from scratch.
3. Open Doodles
Open Doodles is a free library of open source illustrations you can use for landing pages, ebooks, guides, manuals, webinars, presentations, and more. The selection of illustrations seems more limited than some other libraries on this list, but it is entirely free to use, so you can’t complain.
Also, you can use the library directly in Blush. Open Doodles even gives you an example site to show you how you might use its illustrations on a landing page or website.
The style is very different from Humaaans, and it will look as if you draw the illustrations by hand yourself. There is a focus on a black, white, and red/pink color scheme, so if you’re going for that color scheme, Open Doodles is a great library to use.
Why didn’t I include Open Doodles earlier on this list? Well, even though the style is very different from Humaaans, they’re both designed by the same person — Pablo Stanley.
So, many people who use Humaaans may also know about Open Doodles and use it too.
4. unDraw
unDraw is a cool little library of different illustrations of people doing different things. Instead of needing to download the entire library and mix and match yourself, like with Humaaans, you can simply download each illustration one at a time and use it in your projects or directly on your website.
If you want to use an illustration directly on your landing page or in a presentation or slide, you can download it as a PNG file. You can also download it as an SVG file if you would like to work on it in an editing tool.
By default, the illustrations follow a blue, black, white, and gray theme. Blue is the central color that stands out in most of the illustrations — for example, the people in the illustrations might be wearing blue clothing or working on a blue pie chart.
It’s easy to change the central color from blue, however, to any other color. Just go to the top right corner, where you will see a color palette tool you can use to replace blue with green, pink, purple, or any custom color you like.
5. Illustrations.co
The creator of Illustrations.co, Vijay Verma, added 100 illustrations during a 100 day illustration challenge. Later, however, he added more than 120 other illustrations, so you’re not limited to those first 100.
There are all types of illustrations you can add to your library, including people doing stuff and objects. There is even a Covid-19 pack that was recently added.
I found the selection of objects pretty delightful. Not only were they stylishly designed, but here are just examples of the objects you can download:
- An exercise bike
- Dumbbells
- A thermometer
- Computers and laptops
- A TV
- Ships
- A snail
- An owl
- A rainbow
- A scooter
- A bicycle
- And many more
In fact, if you’d like to include more objects in your scenes as opposed to focusing on humans, this library might be a better option for you than Humaaans. You can download the illustrations in regular SVG or PNG files, as well as AI and EPS files.
While Illustrations.co is entirely free for both personal and commercial use, there is an option to donate money to support the creator.
6. FreePik
FreePik is a massive library of both free and premium pictures, and there is an entire section dedicated to human vectors. This section is the perfect alternative to Humaaans for those looking for a wider variety of designs and styles to choose from.
Human vectors on FreePik come in all different styles, as you can see in the screenshot above. Make sure to filter for free vectors if you want to avoid the premium ones.
7. Smash Illustrations
Smash Illustrations is an amazing library of more than 250 objects and characters you can mix and match to create unique scenes for signup pages, login pages, guides, YouTube videos, and more.
There are two plans available. The free plan gives you access to 250+ basic objects and characters and 20+ scenes.
The premium package, which costs $89/quarter (paid four times a year), includes over 500 illustrations and design tools to help you create more advanced graphics.
However, both plans allow you to use the illustrations for both personal and commercial use. You can stick with the free plan and still use it for your business website.
8. Lukasz Adam
Lukasz Adam maintains a collection of free illustrations that you can use for both personal and commercial use under the CC0 license. There are illustrations of people and various objects.
There is an SEO themed illustration set, which I liked, as well as various cryptocurrency themed icons. It’s not the most extensive library out there, but the selection is pretty good, so use it in addition to whatever other library you are currently using.
9. Icons8
Icons8 is a massive library of different illustrations and icons, including people, emojis, and many more. It has a much broader and more diverse selection than Humaaans, with many styles available, allowing you to be more creative.
You can check out the illustrations here. There are over 65 illustration styles to choose from, with many styles containing over 150 illustrations each, with new illustrations being added all the time.
In addition, there are 15 curated sets of illustrations to choose from.
You can check out icons here. You’ll notice there are many styles available, from filled out icons to colorful icons to bubble icons.
In addition to the “people” category, other icons categories available include (but are not limited to):
- Emojis
- Food
- Healthcare
- Ecommerce
- Social media
- Shopping
- Science
- Logos
You can use the Icons8 Mega Creator tool to design your graphics using illustrations, images, and icons from the site.
However, one thing I did not like about Mega Creator is that it is not entirely free to use. You can use some graphics for free, but you will have to include a link to Icons8 when using the graphics.
A single vector can cost $9, so it is best to sign up for a monthly subscription, which currently costs $13. That will give you 25 downloads a month, and each additional graphic after that will only cost $0.80.
Always check the pricing page for updated pricing information.
10. Handsome Illustrations
Handsome Illustrations, hosted on Craftwork Design, is another impressive library to consider using. It boasts an excellent selection not only of different people but of many types of objects, such as computers, a drone, a smartphone, a bicycle, and many more.
You can use those objects and people to create unique scenes that will help you stand out more than Humaaans will ever let you do.
However, you do need to pay $38 to use the Handsome Illustrations library. Also, if you want to use the illustrations in an end product that you will be selling as opposed to simply a sales page, you will have to pay for the extended license, which costs $114.
Remember to always check the product page (linked above) for accurate pricing information.
11. Struct
If you’re looking for illustrations with a bit more of a business flair, consider using Struct. It is a library of over 40 illustrations of scenes from the IT world for use on landing pages, business websites, and sales pages.
It is not free. You will have to pay $38 for use of the library (since pricing is always subject to change, check the website for updated pricing information).
The illustrations are quite different from Humaaans illustrations, and they are full scenes. However, if you have some basic design skills, you can customize them.
12. Craftwork Design
Some of these Humaaans alternatives are hosted on Craftwork Design. Another alternative to Humaaans would be to sign up for access to the entire Craftwork Design library.
Yes, it is more expensive, but it might be worth it for you. You will gain access to thousands of illustrations and graphics.
If you paid for all those illustration collections one by one, it would cost you almost $4,000. If you pay for them all at once, it will cost you just $89/quarter or $199/year, which is a pretty good deal.
Paying for a Craftwork Design subscription will include some of the Humaaans alternatives already listed in this article. It allows you to access, for commercial use, a much wider range of illustrations than Humaaans could ever give you.
Many of these collections are not well known at all, so you can create unique illustrations and scenes for your website.
For agencies and small businesses, Craftwork Design is also better than Humaaans, as it offers a team plan. This plan, which costs $199/quarter or $349/year, allows your entire team to use all the graphics on the website.
Remember to check the pricing page for updated personal and team pricing details.
13. Many Pixels
Many Pixels offers new illustrations each week for use on your landing pages, social media profiles, and anywhere else you maintain an online presence.
You’re allowed to use the illustrations for both private and commercial use without attribution, but you can’t distribute them for others to use.
You can filter by category or design type, and you can also change the color scheme of the illustrations. Unlike Humaaans, there is a wider range of illustrations of objects, like the Statue of Liberty, and you can switch things up as new designs are released every week.
While the illustrations themselves are free, you can also hire Many Pixels as your on demand graphic design team. It costs $449/month, so it’s pretty pricey, but it’s a good option for businesses that do not have an in-house graphic design team and would rather outsource their design needs.
14. DrawKit
DrawKit offers both free and paid hand drawn vector graphics for your landing pages, emails, and social media posts. The graphics are divided into packs, so you can easily find graphics related to the topic you are writing about.
For example, here are some of the packs, or kits, available:
- Digital marketing
- People working
- Device mockups
- Working from home
- People and technology
- 3D cryptocurrency
Many others are available too. With so many topics covered, DrawKit is a better alternative than Humaaans if you want to expand and focus on more than just humans.
However, there are many great illustrations of humans available on DrawKit as well.
Most of the kits seem to be free. However, some of them require you to pay a fee, such as $29 or $19. Since pricing varies for each kit, check out the library here.
Despite some packs being hidden behind a paywall, you won’t usually need to pay for the premium packs to be able to create beautiful illustrations, as the free graphics should be more than enough.
15. Toy Face Library
Toy Face Library is a fun little alternative to Humaaans. As its name suggest, it is a library of toy people, which you can use for your commercial project instead of Humaaans.
Humaaans avatars are all over the place, so the Toy Face Library people will provide a breath of fresh air. They’re quite adorable, so they’ll catch the eye of your viewers and perhaps help you increase your conversion rate.
There are over 120 customizable avatars available.
The Face Library is not free, unlike Humaaans. But again, while that might seem like a disadvantage at first, it can actually be a big pro.
While a lot of people will gravitate towards free libraries like Humaaans, fewer people will use paid ones like Toy Face Library, so you’ll stand out more.
Right now, the library costs just $20, so it’s pretty affordable too. Since pricing might change, always check the website for updated information.
16. Absurd Design
If you really want to stand out, use Absurd Design instead of Humaaans. The designs are pretty absurd, for a lack of a better word, but as the website promises, they do somehow make sense.
Absurd Design is free, and the creator is currently working on additional “chapters,” which will contain additional absurd illustrations surrounding different themes.
However, on the free plan, you have to provide attribution to Absurd Design. The premium plan, which costs $57/quarter, allows you to use the illustrations without attribution and gives you early access to future chapters, among other perks.
Always check the website for updated pricing.
17. Bottts
Finally, the last Humaaans alternative on this list is Bottts. The similar name is due to the fact that it was created by the same designer, Pablo Stanley.
The difference is that Humaaans is for mixing and matching human illustrations, while Bottts is for illustrations of robots. You can mix and match antennas, colors, robot styles, and more.
The concept is the same, but Bottts might be more appropriate than Humaaans depending on the niche you are in. Also, it seems a bit lesser known, so it might help you spice things up a bit.
There are actually a few other sites like Humaaans by Pablo Stanley.
One of them is Avataaars, which is for creating personal avatars for social media and your web presence. Another is Buttsss… I’d suggest you check that one out yourself.
Wrapping It Up: What Is The Best Humaaans Alternative?
The best Humaaans alternative is Fresh Folk.
It is the most similar to Humaaans in terms of the concept behind it, but the designs are different, and you’ll have a better chance of standing out in the crowd compared to the overused Humaaans.
One thing to consider is that you can use a few of the above libraries in tandem. For example, you can use Fresh Folk for human illustrations, but then use objects from one of the other libraries when creating your scenes.
