10 Best CorelDraw Alternatives in 2024 (Free/Paid)

Your branding says a lot about you, and most of that communication is visual. The compelling visual branding elements resonating with your target audience and brand’s persona can make or break your business. Yes, these visual designs and graphics are that powerful!

If you want to create visual content combining art and technology and convey your desired messages, information, or ideas, you must know the top potent graphic design software.

When talking about these tools, how can we forget CorelDraw? This tool is known for streamlining and enhancing the design process. It is one of the quality graphic design tools that aid you in creating professional graphics, including text, colors, and photos. This software is also widely used for creating brochures, newsletters, business cards, etc.

You might be thinking, while the platform offers so many features, what’s the need to pick its alternative? Let’s learn the reasons why CorelDraw is less than ideal software.

Firstly, it has a steep learning curve. Secondly, it can be resource-intensive, particularly when working with large files or complex designs. Another thing that makes it an overshadowed tool and oddball purchase is that it does not fit financially or practically with InDesign and Photoshop.

This article will discuss the best CorelDraw alternatives with their features, pros & cons, and pricing to help you make an informed decision.

List of Best CorelDraw Alternatives

Are you looking for professional design software to create, edit, and view graphic art? Look no further than this list of 10 best CorelDraw alternatives that will help you create illustrations & logos and develop multimedia and format layouts.

Here are the top CorelDraw alternatives:

Adobe Illustrator

Adobe Illustrator is a vector graphics software that helps you create high-quality illustrations, logos, icons, complex shapes and typography. Moreover, with this tool, you can draw, edit, and transform vector graphics with creativity and precision.

Features

• Its Pen Tool allows users to create and modify paths and curves
• This platform’s Shape Builder Tool enables you to combine and subtract shapes
• With Adobe Illustrator, you can access numerous fonts, templates, graphics, and presets from Adobe Stocks and Fonts, integrated with Illustrator CC.

Pros	Cons
Compatible with Windows and MacOS	Comes with a monthly or yearly subscription
Export files in multiple formats	Steep learning curve

Pricing

It offers a 3-day free trial and monthly plan for Rs.2754.12.

Link: https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud/business/teams.html

Adobe Photoshop

Adobe Photoshop is another excellent application that creates and edits graphics using raster graphics made of individually manipulated pixels. It is an ideal platform for professional designers and developers to perform pixel-level edits and apply advanced features to their work.

Features

• Create graphics on both web and mobile
• Advanced retouching capabilities
• Remove objects with pixel-level precision.

Pros	Cons
A huge set of photo correction and manipulation tools	Runs multiple processes in the background
Rich set of typography and drawing tools	No perpetual license option

Pricing

It offers a 7-day free trial and a paid plan for Rs.1834.90 per month.

Link: https://www.adobe.com/in/products/photoshop.html

Canva

Canva is the perfect graphic design software if you want to create promotional, marketing and social media content. It also has a mobile and desktop app that you can access for free. However, if you need extra templates and stock content, you can also select its premium version.

Features

• Edits raster graphics
• Touch interface support
• The go-to tool for creating stunning visuals of different file formats.

Pros	Cons
A user-friendly design platform	Do not drop shadows for shapes
No design background is needed	Technical growing pains with web app accessibility

Pricing

It offers a free plan and 2 paid plans:

• Pro- Rs.500 per person/month, with a 30-day free trial
• Teams- Contact the sales time to get the plan customized

Link: https://www.canva.com/en_gb/

Affinity Designer

Your search for the best CorelDraw alternatives is finished with Affinity Designer. Its sophisticated and elegant interface facilitates users to create captivating graphics. Furthermore, it makes it easy to create vector graphics made of lines, curves and shapes that can be scaled and transformed.

Features

• Fast with ProMotion support for the latest Macs
• Supports multiple file formats such as PDF, PSD, SVG, and JPG
• Provides users with various fonts and text options.

Pros	Cons
Excellent Illustrator and Photoshop compatibility	Patter-making tools are missing
Competitive pricing and no subscriptions	No plugin support for designers

Pricing

It offers a free trial and paid plan starting from Rs.6900 (one-off payment) for MacOS and Windows.

Link: https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/designer/

Sketch

With Sketch, you get the ability to infuse vector graphics into the program’s drawing tools. This editor is designed for Mac users and is a perfect tool for graphic work, such as creating logos, icons or banners. It also supports a large number of plugins to make vector image editing seamless.

Features

• Convert your hand-drawn sketch into vector graphics
• Provides you with Variable and OpenType font support
• Competent to work with layers and artboards.

Pros	Cons
Intuitive interface and beginner-friendly	Not for Windows users
Robust vector editing	Lacks Illustrator’s depth

Pricing

It offers a 30-day free trial and 2 paid plans:

• Standard- $10 per month per editor
• Mac-only License- $120 per seat, including 1 year of updates.

Link: https://www.sketch.com/

Krita

Krita is an efficient raster graphics editor tool that makes working with layers, color management, automatic saving and creating animations easy. This software also makes it possible to do post-processing with different filters.

Features

• Works with raster and vector graphics; both are used in digital media
• Its versatile toolset enables users to create and edit graphics for diverse purposes such as texture painting, animations, concept arts, comics, etc.
• Allows you to organize and manage graphics by providing filters and transformation brushes to customize your painting tools.

Pros	Cons
Free and open source platform under GNU GPL v3 license	Not available for Android phones, only for tablets
Good for pattern creation	Below-average customer support

Pricing

It is a free and open-source application. However, users can donate the amount they wish on the platform.

Link: https://krita.org/en/

Vectr

Vectr is one of the best free vector editors for live collaboration. Along with vector tools, shadows and fonts, and amazing filters, it includes a robust set of synchronization options.

Features

• It is easy to team up with colleagues or clients to track the team’s progress and discuss future work opportunities
• Create and modify graphics using layers, grids, and guides
• Supports multiple file formats, such as SVG, PNG, PDF, and JPEG.

Pros	Cons
Efficient collaboration tools	Free version offers minimal features
Helpful tutorials make it easy to use	Less useful for complex photos

Pricing

It offers a free plan and 2 paid plans:

• Premium 1- $3.99 per month
• Premium 2-$5.99 per month.

Link: https://vectr.com/

Inkscape

An open-source software, Inkscape boasts advanced features besides being free to use, such as alpha blending, cloned objects, and markers. This application supports numerous color modes and important Illustrator files and allows you to trace bitmap images.

Features

• Great set of tools with a focus on animation and marketing content
• It offers a good range of tutorials and an active community of developers and editors
• The Path tool allows you to draw and edit curves and shapes.

Pros	Cons
Master of banners, logos and photo editing	No support for CMYK print
Excellent SVG integration	Speed can be slow

Pricing

It is free to use and distribute and is open to peeking into the source code.

Link: https://inkscape.org/

Sketchbook

Are you looking to create and edit digital artwork using raster and vector graphics? Sketchbook is the perfect solution that will cater to your needs. This application is designed to mimic the natural feel and flow of traditional drawing and painting tools, including markers, pencils, shapes, brushes, etc.

Features

• It enhances graphics such as symmetry, layers, guides, rulers, and perspective
• It’s a versatile application that can be used for sketching, animation, illustration, and design development
• Offers you 100+ brushes library

Pros	Cons
Allows you to work with layer	Limited file format support
Create quick sketches to fully finish artwork	Limited vector capabilities

Pricing

It can be downloaded for free on the App Store and Google Play. This application can be downloaded on Mac for $24.99 and is also available for Windows.

Link: https://www.sketchbook.com/

Procreate

One of the most reputed graphic design software, Procreate provides you with a bunch of drawing tools to help you with design-related extras and enhance your material with beautiful brushes.

Features

• One of its unique tools, QuickShape, gives you perfect shapes every time
• Allows you to turn your rough strokes into smooth curves
• It enables you to paint filters straight on your canvas.

Pros	Cons
Offers impressive painting tools	Its speed slows down when you create more paintings in the app
Powerful and intuitive digital illustration app	Cannot create high-resolution images in large print

Pricing

It is the only tool available on iOS devices, it costs Rs.1299 to download on the App Store. It means to access this, you need an Apple device- iPad or iPhone.

Link: https://procreate.com/

Which is the Best CorelDraw Alternative?

Out of all, the best alternative to CorelDraw is Inkscape. This platform offers a robust set of features, including node manipulation, path editing, text support, and fill & stroke. Moreover, just like CorelDraw, it has powerful tools for shape creation and editing, as well as layers & effects.

Overall, Inkscape provides maximum functionality for most graphic design projects. If you are low on budget and need excellent vector creation capabilities, Inkscape is one of the best options to choose.

Conclusion

These are the best CorelDraw alternatives that help you create fabulous designs while stylizing or editing images. Choosing the software totally depends on individual requirements, as you can select Canva if you want to avoid laying out any cash and produce quick and easy graphics. On the other hand, you can also choose Inkscape, a free and open-source tool to get started with vector graphics.

You can also go for paid tools to bring your creative ideas to life and produce polished work that free tools are incapable of.

No matter whatever tool you choose amongst the ones we mentioned, all of them enable you to share built photos on social media platforms. So, the choice is yours.

FAQs

Is there a free alternative to CorelDraw?

Inkscape is one of the best free alternatives to CorelDraw because it is also a vector editing program that is similar to CorelDraw.

How do I use CorelDraw without paying?

You can get a free trial to the full version. This means you can try creating a professional illustration, layout, and more without paying anything. However, you need to pay after the trial expires and you want to continue using its services.

Is Adobe AI free?

You can sign up for its free seven-day trial to evaluate if this tool matches your needs. However, the tool is available in a paid- monthly or yearly subscription.