Best alternatives to Illustrator and Photoshop

Are you a young designer with no regular work yet? Or a self-taught designer short on funds? Maybe you are a designer in one of the few countries that don’t have the license to sell Adobe Cloud?

If you fit any of those three categories then you know that the Adobe Cloud programs like Illustrator and Photoshop are out of your reach. Sometimes because you can’t afford them and other times because the program simply is not available in your country.

For all of those designers out there feeling that they can’t move forward with their careers if don’t have the Adobe Cloud programs, I’m here to tell you that it doesn’t have to be that way. Sure, there are some instances where your designs have to be saved exclusively in an .ai file format, but until you can get your hands on the Adobe programs you can still keep designing on the alternatives! You can even freelance with these programs without a hitch.

At the end of the day though, the Adobe programs are and have always been the best. You will find that at some point in your career, you will need to switch to Adobe somehow. But in the meantime, don’t sweat it and use an alternative instead.

Let’s look at the best free and paid alternatives to Illustrator and Photoshop.

Best Illustrator Alternatives

Inkscape – FREE

The most common alternative to Illustrator is Inkscape. This vector editing program is open source, meaning it’s completely free. It works on both Windows and Mac, but on Mac, it needs an extension (nothing major though). The interface is easy to use for both beginners and intermediate designers. Finished designs can be saved as PNG or SVG. This program is not up to par with Illustrator but it does the job when you don’t have access. It’s great for new and intermediate designers learning how to master the usual tools like the bezier pen and shape composition.

Affinity Designer – $49.99 one payment

The biggest competitor to Illustrator is Affinity Designer. Every designer will tell that to pave your way in the industry, you need to be using the Adobe products, but they also say that Affinity Designer pretty much gives Illustrator a run for its money. The biggest and most obvious perk to Affinity is that there is a one-time payment instead of a subscription. Only thing is that updates only come around once a year. The features in Affinity Designer are extensive and a designer can really grow their skills with the program.

Corel Draw – $198 yearly subscription

Corel Draw is the illustrator alternative which has been around the longest. Already in its 20th version, Corel Draw has all the functionality of a high-end vector graphics editor. It’s a favourite with graphic design students and can be a great alternative for designers in countries where Adobe is not available.

Corel Draw and the photo editor Corel Photo-Paint come together as a pack in the CorelDRAW Graphics Suite 2018

Sketch – $99 with one year of updates

Sketch is a favourite Illustrator alternative used by UI and UX designers. The program definitely does not compare to Illustrator in art-making capabilities but it’s really great for UI design. The learning curve for a beginner is the same between Illustrator and Sketch, just that in the end they serve a different purpose. Even if they are both vector graphics editors.

Best Photoshop Alternatives

Gimp – FREE

When anyone thinks of a free photo editing tool as an alternative to Photoshop, they think of Gimp. This open source software is a favourite with Linux users but not so much by full-time designers. Gimp can help in a pinch but it doesn’t compare to the design capabilities of Photoshop.

Affinity Photo – $49.99 one payment

Just like Affinity Design, Affinity Photo is a huge competitor to Photoshop. Every update (once a year), the program gets better and better and more powerful features are added. The differences between Photoshop and Affinity Photo diminish with every update. Some photographers and designers prefer Affinity because they can do pretty much everything they can do in Photoshop at a much lower price.

Corel Photo-Paint – $198 yearly subscription

Just like Corel Draw, Photo-Paint is an all-time favourite with photographers and designers. When students learn retouching or graphic design using the Corel programs, they usually stick to them until they feel the need to move to Adobe. This usually happens when their clients expect them to be using Adobe and demand .ai flies.

 Acorn – From $30 to $90 one time payment, depending on the bundle you pick

This simple but functional photo editing software is good enough for photo editing easily and quickly. It also has some graphic design capabilities for the designers that work with photography. This little-known software can help any photographer or designer get stuff done. Acorn is always being updated, but it’s a modest little program compared to Affinity.