Best Canva Alternatives – Open Source, Free & Paid in 2023

Are you looking for a hustle-free, easy, AI-based or open-source Canva alternative?

Canva is a versatile graphic design tool. It enables users to quickly make designs for social media posts, banners, visual content, logos and much more. With the templates in place, even beginners can start designing without any tool requirements or previous knowledge.

Besides Canva, several other tools can be used to design beautiful graphics. Among the more popular ones are Stencil, FotoJet, Inkscape, and others. The best open-source Canva alternative is Penpot. The best free Canva alternative is VistaCreate, which was Crello earlier.

Why Look for Hustle-Free Canva Alternatives To Create Graphics Designs?

While Canva is good for some, it’s not good for others. Why?

Users could be searching for alternatives to Canva if:

• They’re in need of more features.
• They require customization options that exceed what Canva provides.
• They’re looking for a design platform that better suits their branding objectives.
• They’re looking for free or more economical Canva alternatives due to the paid subscription model Canva follows.

If you are one of such users, we have compiled a list of hustle-free Canva alternatives. So, let’s go check them out.

Best Canva Alternatives That Are Open Source, Free & Paid

1. Penpot – Best Open Source Canva Alternative

Penpot is the best open-source Canva alternative.

It allows users to create professional quality designs & prototypes with a simple drag-and-drop interface.

Penpost provides free templates and additional features, allowing designers to customize and share their designs online easily.

Unlike Canva, Penpost does not require a subscription or payment for its services; it is free.

Additionally, Penpost offers more flexibility than Canva. It can adjust design elements such as fonts, colors, shapes, sizes and layouts.

Being an open-source design tool, you can download & self-host the application. This allows you to customize the Penpost application as per your needs.

If you are still determining whether Canva Pro is worth it, Penpot is an excellent alternative. It is an open-source Canva alternative that is more cost-effective.

Penpost allows users to create vector graphics quickly and easily from any device. 

Key Features of Free & Open Source Canva Alternative, Penpost App:

Some of the features of Penpost include the following:

1. Easy-to-use interface: The intuitive user interface makes it easy to create beautiful graphics without needing to be an expert designer.
2.  Flexible design capabilities: With Penpost, you can customize existing vector elements or start from scratch with your designs. You can also import artwork from applications like Adobe Illustrator or Corel Draw for further refinement in the Penpost editor.
3.  Advanced export options: You can export designs in SVG, PNG & PDF formats. You can also export in other common industry standard formats like AI/EPS/CDR/JPG/PNG.
4.  Built-in collaboration tools: Collaboration is easy with built-in commenting, tagging, and version control capabilities. So you can work with your team on projects without worrying about overwriting changes or losing content.
5.  Free templates & resources: Penpost offers free inspirational templates and resources for your designs. 

The interface is straightforward to use. 

Penpot is continuously getting upgrades. The current version is efficient enough to allow teams to create designs from scratch to final products for commercial purposes.

Even though Penpot is a relatively new tool, it is an excellent free and open-source Canva alternative.

2. VistaCreate (Formerly Crello) – Best Free Canva Alternative

VistaCreate was Crello some time back. It is one of the best free Canva alternatives because it is very similar to Canva.

You can use it to design anything from social media graphics, posters, banners to Instagram stories, Pinterest graphics, logos, and much more.

One of the reasons why VistaCreate is a better alternative than Canva is because of the unlimited assets it provides.

With VistaCreate, you get free unlimited assets such as photos, vectors, templates, and even videos that you can use to create your designs.

This combines powerful features such as background removal, content branding, animations, music & sounds, and more.

VistaCreate is also great at providing many tutorials that will get you from a beginner to an expert in only a few days.

Once you learn to use all of the features available, you’ll be confident enough to create your own designs from scratch.

You won’t have to look elsewhere to get your work done easily with features such as:

• Photo frames
• Brand kit
• Background removal
• Speech bubble
• Text integration
• Photo filters
• Resizing ability
• Transparency & layers

Check out how the two tools perform when put against each other, Canva versus Crello.

3. Stencil

If you’re looking for a Canva alternative that provides more freedom to your graphic designing skills and yet you’re still looking for a web-based tool, Stencil is a great alternative.

Stencil is very similar to Canva, yet it includes a number of features that improve the way you can work in the tool and design your unique graphics.

What’s so great about Stencil is that it allows you to upload your own fonts, choose between 140 different preset sizes, have access to over three million royalty-free icons, the ability to upload and store your own logos, and even have access to over 100,000 quotes.

On top of that, Stencil provides about five million stock-free photos you can use in combination with over 1,000 templates that will help you get started.

Stencil can also be integrated directly into your WordPress website or you can still use it through any browser.

Speed is another aspect where Stencil excels at. You won’t take longer than a couple of minutes to enhance your image or even to create a new design from scratch.

The Stencil is continuously getting upgrades and improvements and yet it is free to use with an optional Pro paid membership available as an upgrade for only $9/month.

Free membership is pretty decent as it isn’t very limited, yet Pro paid membership plan is really worth the money. However, if you plan on creating images in bulk, the Unlimited pricing plan at $12/month is the best choice.

4. FotoJet

FotoJet is marketed a bit differently than Canva, but it is a great alternative, and here’s why.

This web-based designing tool is focused on creating designs, editing existing photos, but also making collages.

The rich template library will get you started quickly, while powerful features that are easy to use will save you a lot of time. In fact, you don’t even have to register or install FotoJet to give it a try.

FotoJet service was made with the purpose of allowing everyone to make the best out of limited graphic designing skills to still create professional-looking designs for any purpose.

The collage maker feature is good enough to design a whole comic strip while the photo editor will provide all features that you otherwise needed software for. This includes adding text, enhancing photos, resizing and cropping, and much more.

If you plan on using FotoJet for business purposes, you will be able to learn a lot from FotoJet’s tutorials. These tutorials will teach you anything from designing better posters or how to design a flyer to finding graphic design inspiration to create 100% unique graphics.

FotoJet has a 7-day free trial but upgrading after the trial is very convenient because FotoJet costs only $3.33/month (when billed annually).

5. Inkscape

If you are looking for a Canva alternative that will give you more freedom to create digital designs by hand, Inkscape is the perfect alternative for you.

Inkscape is a flexible drawing tool that is not web-based, but it is lightweight enough so you can download and install the tool in only a couple of minutes.

The biggest advantage of Inkscape as a Canva alternative is that it supports flexible drawing.

In combination with flexible drawing, Inkscape comes with pretty powerful designing features such as object creation & manipulation, fill and stroke, operations on paths, rendering, decent text support, and more.

On top of that, Inkscape can work with multiple formats that help fit many industries and needs. Even though it is a completely separate software that’s not web-based, it is easy to find your way around thanks to the minimalistic interface.

You won’t get overwhelmed by the number of settings and options and yet you’ll have all features available at a click away.

However, if you ever feel stuck or you’re just getting into graphic designing, Inkscape offers a learning section on their official website where you can learn more about the tool, interface, and its features.

Inkscape is free, but you can feel free to make a donation to contribute to the team.

6. Pablo by Buffer

Buffer is known for producing social media tools that improve management, creation, and workflow.

Pablo is the most straightforward graphic designing web-based tool. As soon as you open Pablo, you’ll find yourself directly in the Pablo designing interface.

Even though Pablo might not have as many features as Canva, it is very simple to use and it is the perfect choice for people who never thought that they might end up designing their own graphics.

With Pablo, all you have to do to create professional-looking social media graphics is to choose the size, choose the background image, use filters, add text, or insert a logo to create your own social media design from scratch.

There are also templates you can use to make graphics even quicker. Pablo’s mission is to provide the easiest way for everyone to create simple yet professional-looking social media graphics.

When you’re done, all you have to do is either share your work or download it to your computer to use the design on your social media profiles.

With the limited number of features yet including quick and easy-to-use important features, you won’t have a hard time saving some money on using other tools or paying a designer to create and upload your social media graphics.

Of course, Pablo is a web-based tool and it’s free to use.

7. Xtensio – Best Canva Alternative For Business Content Creation

Xtensio is a great Canva alternative for businesses that are looking to create business content.

While Canva mostly focuses on social media content, Xtensio focuses on the business content.

If you prefer creating visual business content and even have your reports visually presented, Xtensio is a great alternative to consider.

Xtensio is ideal for teams. It allows everyone in the team to create branded documents. It also allows them to communicate in the workspace and share their work as a folio.

This tool can create anything, from:

• Reports
• Brand Forms
• Case Studies
• Competitive Analysis
• Proposals
• Strategy Reports
• Course Plans
• Digital Brochures
• Success Plans, and much more.

Iit’s free to get started and you won’t even have to create an account.

Since it can produce all sorts of visual business content, it is suitable for all sorts of digital industries and businesses, and yet it is very easy to use.

However, if you are struggling to get started, you can take advantage of pre-built templates. You can customize these for your brand/company and use them to quickly generate visual business content at any time.

Xtensio is only free for one user. If you’re a larger team, you will have to upgrade to a Team plan that costs $10/team member per month.

There are also Personal and Personal Pro plans suitable for solo users.

8. Gravit

If you like Canva and yet the only thing you’re missing is the customizability. Gravit might be the best Canva alternative. It offers all of the features of Canva that you enjoy, plus extra flexibility.

Gravit is a design app that adjusts to the way you work. It offers versatile features to match your needs.

With Gravit, you can illustrate vectors, design web and app UI, and edit images or photos.

Gravit’s mission is to provide a simple & powerful design app, just like Canva but even more versatile.

Therefore, you can work on professional projects and have full flexibility over non-destructive object styling. This means that you can create, edit, import, or export the most standard format types without having any issues.

What’s also great about Gravit is that it is compatible with most standard operating systems and platforms. You can even use it in your browser. However, I highly recommend downloading the Gravit app for the best user experience.

Gravit is free to use and if you decide to upgrade to the Gravit Pro version, this will cost you only around $55 for the whole year.

9. BeFunky – Free Canva Alternative

BeFunky is a very similar alternative to Canva. It is a free alternative that’s as decent as Canva, if not even better.

This is a great & free option for everyone who wants to either edit existing photos or create designs from scratch.

It’s an all-in-one web-based tool that does its best to combine the most popular features in an easy-to-use interface. This helps users to accomplish their goals without spending time learning how to use complex software.

It’s very easy to get started with BeFunky. All you have to do is choose the type of editor you’d like to use. The choices are photo editor, collage creator, and design creator.

From there, you’ll be faced with a simple-to-use editor with all the features you might need just a click away.

If you ever need any help, BeFunky’s blog is full of tutorials and tips.

What I like the most about BeFunky is that you don’t even have to register an account. You can start editing or creating designs within seconds.

You can create a variety of marketing materials with the included templates, banners, and styles. These include social media posts, business marketing materials, advertisements, collages, cards, and much more!

10. Design Wizard

Design Wizard is a great Canva alternative because it simplifies the process. It works on teaching everyone how to become a “design wizard”.

Therefore, this is an alternative ideal for everyone with zero experience, but it’s still not a bad choice for advanced designers.

Whether you’re looking to create marketing, social media, cards, invitations, product designs, or more, Design Wizard has everything you will ever need.

The way you become a “design wizard” is by choosing a template, and then customizing the pre-built template with elements such as premium stock-free images, videos, fonts, colors, and more.

What’s so great about Design Wizard is that even if you start with a template, you can create a completely new and unique design out of it fairly quickly.

Another great feature that I like a lot is the ability to schedule your design to go live on your social profiles to save yourself time. Of course, you can also download or share the design too so you will never lose it.

It’s free to get started with Design Wizard and if you ever decide to upgrade to a paid plan, you will only pay $9.99/month for the Pro model or $49.99/month for the Business model.

11. Piktochart

Piktochart is another great Canva alternative. It is perfect for those who are not too focused on creating social media graphics. But also want to craft infographics, presentations, reports & more.

Piktochart will help you create professional-looking and engaging visual content in almost any format.

No matter what type of documents you create, Piktochart allows you to brand your documents so they’re 100% unique. You won’t ever have to worry about using the same template others are using.

What I like the most about Piktochart is that it works with third-party options such as Excel.
This helps to transfer complex data into visually appealing documents.

No matter what data or ideas you have, Piktochart offers templates you can customize and use to create designs.

I like that Piktochart allows users to create social media graphics just like Canva. It also includes graphics that fit more industries and businesses, such as reports, flyers, and promotional types of content.

Piktochart is free to use but it also has paid pricing plans. You can choose between the Pro plan which costs $24.17/month when billed annually or the Team plan which costs $21.67/month when billed annually.

Click to learn more about Canva vs Piktochart.

Other Excellent Canva Alternatives

Ripl vs Canva – Which Is Better?

Canva vs Creatopy (Formerly Bannersnack) 

PicMonkey vs Canva – Which Is Better?

Prezi vs Canva – Which Is Better?

11 Best Free, Paid & Open Source Canva Alternatives – Recap

Canva is a great design tool that is accessible, offers plenty of functions, and is perfect for someone managing social media channels.

However, Canva may not be perfect for your needs. We have explored these great Canva alternatives. They excel in different features that provide better use, cheaper access, or premium features.

Penpost is one of the best open-source Canva alternatives.

Not only are these alternatives a great fit for solopreneurs, but they can also be useful for smaller and larger businesses. Some of these Canva alternatives are just what these businesses need.

Related: 11 Spooky Fonts On Canva