Apps and Software

Top-Rated 10 Graphic Designing Tools (Paid Tools) Features, Pros, and Cons, Pricing

By William Immelt

Posted on November 3, 2022

There are numerous graphic design tools available in the market today. You can choose any graphic designing software for your needs. However, since there are so many options, it becomes pretty challenging to choose the appropriate one. Read this article to find the correct graphic designing tool for you.

Top-Rated 10 Graphic Designing Software and Tools

1. Adobe Illustrator

Adobe Illustrator is a popular graphic designing tool used by designers across the world for editing, designing, and vector drawing. In addition, it is used by designers for illustrations, website mockups, etc. Illustrator is also popular for designers to create various arts and crafts including stickers when paired with the best printer for stickers.

Features

The Adobe Illustrator platform is highly customizable.
It allows in-panel editing.
It is highly compatible with different operating systems.
Its user interface is relatively straightforward.
It has thousands of fonts you can use.

Pros

It allows you to draw precise and sharp lines.
You can use it to create graphic files in shorter dimensions.
It allows you to access more than 90 million templates.

Cons

It is pretty expensive.
It has numerous features which can be challenging to grasp for beginners.
It can take up a lot of space on your device.

Price

The monthly subscription for Adobe Illustrator is around €17.

2. CorelDraw Graphics Suite

You can find numerous professional features on CorelDraw to help you make illustrations, new logos, etc. It also allows you to make vector-based graphics. It is pretty easy to use.

Features

You can easily exchange content on CorelDraw.
The payment plans on CorelDraw are highly flexible.
You can customize many things on CorelDraw to suit your needs.
It has a new pointer that allows you to have variable parameters.
You can easily transition from your tab to your desktop.

Pros

It does not lag when you use a Surface Pen.
You can increase your productivity with its excellent workflow.
You can export around 48 file types.

Cons

You cannot use CorelDraw on your phone.
It isn’t easy to use for beginners.

Price

The monthly subscription costs around €430.
Its annual subscription costs €214.

3. Adobe Photoshop

Adobe Photoshop is the most widely used graphic designing software used by designers. It has numerous useful features to help you design.

Features

It has a wide variety of design tools which can be on its mobile app as well.
All your files can be uploaded to the cloud.
It has a straightforward interface.
It is open-source and can be installed easily.
You can work in offline mode as well.

Pros

It can be used on your smartphone too.
Since it has an easy-to-use platform, it offers a lot of assistance to users.

Cons

The many different features might confuse new users.
You can only get subscriptions for Creative Cloud, as there is no option to buy it.

Price

The monthly subscription costs €18.

4. Adobe InDesign

Adobe InDesign is the perfect software for you as it does not have a steep learning curve. It is quite popular among publishers as it has many tools that can be used to design info sheets.

Features

Adobe InDesign is incredibly easy to use for beginners.
It allows you to change its layouts to your taste.
It has AI-based technology to fix the size of your arrangement automatically.
It allows you to share your work with other designers.
It has numerous tools that can be used to combine texts and graphics efficiently.

Pros

You can use tags, keywords, etc., to be more efficient.
You can directly export to HTML.

Cons

The user interface can be more intuitive.
It is priced relatively high.

Price

The monthly subscription costs £18.

5. Sketch

The sketch is the perfect match for you if you are trying to find a graphic design tool for interface, web, and app design. It is popularly used for making interactive UI designs.

Features

It is quite affordable.
It can be used easily on your smartphone.
It offers many templates.
It has custom plugins.
You can collaborate and share with other designers by uploading on the cloud.

Pros

You can layer using a PNG file.
It autosaves all your work.

Cons

The sketch is a new tool and requires some adjustments.
It does not offer enough tools for illustrations.

Price

It costs £8 per month.

6. Xara Designer Pro X

Xara Designer Pro X has a cast collection of tools that can be used for designing various elements. This is a popular software for illustrations, designing websites, etc.

Features

It has direct action tools.
You can drag and drop various parts of your design.
It has an intuitive user interface.
It renders very quickly.
There are many options to undo or redo your work.

Pros

It has many options for editing.
It has various cloud capabilities.

Cons

It cannot be used on Mac.
It is difficult to grasp for beginners.

Price

The Pro plan costs £14 per month.

7. Affinity Designer

Affinity Designer is a popular and cheaper alternative to Adobe Illustrator. It has an easier learning curve than other software.

Features

It has an excellent grid system.
You can position and lock various elements.
You can use it for both vector and pixel art.
It has a superior zoom feature.
It has useful guides.

Pros

It has windows and a rope stabilizer to help the user.
You can use it to combine various shapes seamlessly.
It has a large variety of colors to use.

Cons

You cannot export files in AI.
It does not have an absence eraser.

Price

It costs £49 for a desktop.

8. Gravit Designer

Gravit Designer is another excellent option for graphic designers as it’s mostly HTML-based. It can be used for vector graphics. It is popularly used for web designing.

Features

It has an easy-to-use dashboard.
It has a pages feature that allows you to change the canvas setting for each page.
It has many Pen tools, Lasso tools, Bezigon tools, etc.
It can be used on any operating system.
It allows you to customize various tools.

Pros

It has options to design posts for specific popular social media sites.
It is highly flexible and can be used as the desktop version or the web version.

Cons

You can’t find information on Gravit Designer from some official websites easily.
You can’t find your prototypes on your mobile.

Price

It costs £43 per year.

9. Genially

You can use Genially to make your content more professional for your blog, website, or even Facebook. It allows you to share your content without any unnecessary plugins.

Features

There are many templates you can use.
The graphics are simple and tasteful, which is perfect for professional use.
You can create infographics, posts, etc., for marketing.
You can use Genially to make interactive quizzes.
You can also make video presentations using Genially.

Pros

You can use Genially to upload your presentations.
You can customize your content easily.
You can learn how to operate it by watching training videos.

Cons

The interface is difficult to use for beginners.
The free version doesn’t have many necessary features.

Price

The Pro plan costs £6 per month.
The Master plan is priced at £18 per month.

10. Procreate

Procreate is a powerful app used by designers for illustrations. It offers many tools that give the feel of traditional art. It is mostly used on tablets.

Features

The user interface is relatively easy and intuitive.
It gives you access to all the tools usually found on a desktop.
It has the option to use custom brushes.
You can use Procreate to make color pallets from any image easily.
The software is portable and quite flexible.

Pros

It is quite affordable as it has a one-time price.
It gives designers a lot of creative freedom.
It has an extremely smooth workflow.

Cons

It does not offer a free trial.
It cannot be used for vector graphics.

Price

It has a one-time cost of £8.

Conclusion

It is crucial to choose the right graphic design tools to get the best results. You need to find a graphic design tool to help you design web pages, illustrations, etc. Go through the top 10 graphic design tools mentioned above to find the best match for you. Here you may know the best graphic designing software for free.