11 Feb

Best Free Online Graphic Design Apps for 2021 – In this article I am listing the best free online graphic design apps for 2021.

You will learn what the best free apps are, their pros and cons, and a link to sign up for free.

If you are interested in graphic design, make sure you also check my other posts:

If you need help with designing your social media posts, feel free to check our graphic design products.

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The Best Free Online Graphic Design Apps for 2021: General Questions

What Are Free Online Graphic Design Apps?

They are online apps that you can use straight from your web browser to do graphic design work.

Who Are These Free Online Graphic Design Apps for?

Anybody can use these apps but they are generally geared for beginners, startups, solopreneurs, small business owners, who don’t have the time or expertise to use a more complex graphic design software.

They are also used by an audience who doesn’t want or doesn’t have the budget to hire a professional graphic designer or agency.

What Are These Free Online Graphic Design Apps for?

You can use these online apps to design:

Social Media Posts and Banners
Presentations
Infographics
Videos
Posters
Business Cards
Invitations
Logos
Charts
Reports

How Did I Choose and Rank These Free Online Graphic Design Apps?

The apps below have been chosen and ranked according to the following criteria:

Being available online (no software to download)
Offering a free plan
Being easy to use
Being beginner-friendly
Their free plan features

What Aspects of These Free Online Graphic Design Apps Do I Review?

The review of these free online graphic design apps is mostly focused on the free plan / version of the apps.

The Best Free Online Graphic Design Apps for 2021: the List

Visme

🏆 Best New Entry Among Free Online Graphic Design Apps

Visme is a cloud-based visual content creation and collaboration platform, empowering anyone to create professional, branded content no matter your design background is.

Platforms: Web

Rating: average of 4.5 / 5 out of 587 reviews on Capterra

Skill Level: Beginner

Templates Available: Presentations, Infographics, Printables, Documents, Social Graphics, Website Graphics, Videos, Flyers, Animated GIFs, Charts, Reports, Graphs, Timelines, Flowcharts

Best Used for: Presentations and Infographics

Cost: from Free to $29 / month (custom enterprise plan also available) | Try Visme for free

Free Plan Specs:

Up to 5 Projects
100 MB Storage
Limited Templates
Download as JPG
Limited Charts & Widgets
Public Projects

Pros:

Slide library with +900 slide templates to choose from
Pre-made graphic content blocks
+16 animated charts and graphs
Insert videos and third party content
One-click theme / brand colours application
Flowchart, interactive maps
Access to free audio files and support for recording voice and background sounds
Option to password-protect your project
Analytics insights per project

Cons:

Learning curve slightly longer than average
Limited options for photo elements on transparent background
Limited cloud storage

The Feature I Like the Most

I love the presentation templates. It’s incredible how easy it is to create stylish presentations! You just click on Add Slide, select the type of slide you want and choose the style you like!

Rating: A+

Canva

🏆 Best All-in-One Among Free Online Graphic Design Apps

Canva is arguably the most popular and used among the free online graphic design apps. You can design pretty much anything thanks to its intuitive drag-and-drop interface.

Platforms: Web, Android, iOS

Rating: average of 4.7 / 5 out of 8,738 reviews on Capterra

Skill Level: Beginner

Templates Available: Social Media, Business, Personal, Marketing, Education, Trending

Best Used for: Social Graphics

Cost: from Free to $27 / month | Try Canva Pro for free

Free Plan Specs:

250,000 free templates
+100 design types
+100,000 free photos
Invite members to your team
Collaborate and comment in real-time
5GB of cloud storage

Pros:

Very intuitive interface
Minimal learning curve required
Layouts for every occasion
Stock images and illustrations
Social media graphics
Library of fonts
Drag & drop editor
Custom templates
Customizable branding
Photo editing

Cons:

It can be a bit slow at times
Occasional glitches

The Feature I Like the Most

This is the app that I use daily for personal use and to create some graphics I post on my company’s social media profiles. Because of its large pool of users, we create premium Canva templates that we sell on our shop and third party marketplaces like Fiverr. I love that you can share a template through a link with both free and premium users.

Rating: A+

Spark by Adobe

🏆 Best for Videos Among Free Online Graphic Design Apps

Adobe Spark is an integrated suite of media creation applications for mobile and web developed by Adobe Systems. It comprises three separate design apps: Spark Page, Spark Post, and Spark Video.

Platforms: Web, Android, iOS

Rating: average of 4.5 / 5 out of 675 reviews on Capterra

Skill Level: Beginner to Intermediate

Templates Available: Announcements, Bingo Cards (yes), Banners, Brochures, Calendars, Cards, Certificates, Flyers, Invitation, Logo, Menu, Place Cards, Planners, Postcards, Posters, Programmes, Resumes, Invitations, Schedules, Tags, Tickets and a lot more

Best Used for: Personal or business graphic design or marketing material

Cost: from Free to $24 / month

Free Plan Specs:

Access to Adobe Spark image and icon library

Pros:

Fairly easy to use
+26,000 templates categorised by type and industry
Importing and recording of audio
Web page designing
Primary and secondary font styles
Auto-suggest grid and layout design

Cons:

The free plan is very basic
Limitation to where or how you can place text
Limited stock music selection

The Feature I Like the Most:

I like how easy it easy to add animations to your design and also the choice of animation effects given.

Ratings: A-

DesignBold

🏆 Best for Brands Among Free Online Graphic Design Apps

Epic and sophisticated results without any need for technical expertise!

Platforms: Web

Rating: average of 4.4 / 5 out of 46 reviews on Capterra

Skill Level: Beginner

Templates Available: Presentations, Social Media Graphics, Landing Pages, Lessons, Table of Contents, Logos, Posters

Best Used for: Infographics, Reports

Cost: from Free to $7.99 / month

Free Plan Specs:

10000+ Free Layouts
Share your designs for viewing/editing
Upload your images and vector graphics
2GB Personal Storage
New templates daily
Text Effect (new)

Pros:

+40,000,000 stock photos
+20,000 creative and original templates
+1,000,000 resources
+450 collections
Simple design
Design automatically backed up
Pin your favourite resources
Download documents up to 40 pages long

Cons:

Lack of new features
Slow speed

The Feature I Like the Most:

I love the Content Kits feature, where you have a number of templates organised under a them eg car wash, Christmas, etc.

Rating: B

BeFunky

🏆 Best Photo Editing Among Free Online Graphic Design Apps

BeFunky’s all-in-one online Creative Platform has everything you need to easily edit photos, create graphic designs, and make photo collages.

Platforms: Web, Android, iOS

Rating: average of 5 / 5 out of 2 reviews on Capterra

Skill Level: Beginner to Intermediate

Templates Available: Social Media, Business Marketing, Online Advertising, Events and Cards

Best Used for: Photo editing

Cost: from Free to €4.99 / month

Free Plan Specs:

Pay As You Go Downloads
Resize Image Designs
Add Text to Image Designs
Add Images to Designs
Add Shapes to Image Designs
Download in JPG, PNG and PDF
Reseller Rights
Lifetime Licence
Custom Colour Palette
Share Directly to Social Media

Pros:

Wide selection of settings
Very simple interface that supports drag and drop feature
No registration/account
You can upload several photos simultaneously
Support full-screen mode photo editing
You can share your collage after image editing
It is possible to download photos from the stream

Cons:

Too much advertising
Many of the filters / functions are not free
Additional content of the mobile version requires purchasing

The Feature I Like the Most:

BeFunky was the very first tool that I used among the free online graphic design apps. I still love it for the number of cool filters that you can use.

Rating: B

Crello

Crello was created to help anyone become a designer and create good-looking images for professional or personal needs quickly and without the need to hire a professional designer.

Platforms: Web, Android, iOS

Rating: average of 4.6 / 5 out of 212 reviews on Capterra

Skill Level: Beginner

Templates Available: Animated Designs, Social Media, Blogging, Covers & Headers, Marketing Material, Events, Advertising

Best Used for: Social Media, Marketing Material

Cost: from Free to $7.99 / month

Free Plan Specs:

5 design downloads every month
30K+ static and animated graphic design templates
650K+ unique, premium stock images from Lightfield Productions
32K+ full HD video clips and animations
Instant access to 180M+ stock images and videos on Depositphotos

Pros:

Large selection of video clips
Great selection of third party stock imagery
Easy to use

Cons:

Interface might look a bit clunky
Very limited number of designs per month in the free plan in comparison with other free online graphic design apps

The Feature I Like the Most:

I was positively impressed by the number of templates available, especially for videos eg TikTok.

Rating: B

Desygner

Join over 12 million people and 15 thousand businesses using Desygner. Design content such as social media posts, ads, presentations, business cards, flyers, and more.

Platforms: Web

Rating: average of 4.3 / 5 out of 6 reviews on Capterra

Skill Level: Beginner

Templates Available: Logos, Banners, Social Graphics, Presentations, Marketing Material, Vision Boards, Wattpad Covers

Best Used for: Social Media, Marketing Material

Cost: from Free to $4.95 / month (custom enterprise plan also available)

Free Plan Specs:

Thousands of free, easy to edit, templates
100’s of design formats
1000’s of free design assets
Share and print

Pros:

A simple & powerful design tool
Drag & drop elements
Change images, fonts, colors & text
Work with layers, effects & multi-page files

Cons:

Limited features in comparison with other free online graphic design apps
Limited number of free templates

The Feature I Like the Most:

In general, the super visual and easy to use interface. I also liked some unusual templates eg book covers.

Rating: C+

Piktochart

PicMonkey is a photo editing and design platform built for individuals and businesses to create powerful designs for social media, marketing, and beyond.

Platforms: Web

Rating: average of 4.7 / 5 out of 90 reviews on Capterra

Skill Level: Beginner

Templates Available: Infographics, Presentations, Posters, Flyers, Social Media Graphics, Reports, Brochures, News Visualisation,

Best Used for: Infographics, Reports

Cost: from Free to $99 / month

Free Plan Specs:

Up to 5 active visuals
Get access to all templates
Get access to library of images & illustrations
40MB storage for image uploads
Export images in standard quality
Piktochart watermark

Pros:

Simple and easy to use

Cons:

Piktochart watermark
Limited number of active visuals

The Feature I Like the Most:

This is an app geared towards infographics, charts and reports. They have a cool feature that allows you to add design components like timelines, lists and comparisons

Rating: C

DesignWizard

DesignWizard is a Wonderfully Simple FREE Graphic Design Software. Create Stunning Content in Seconds! Unleash Your Creativity.

Platforms: Web, Android, iOS

Rating: average of 4.3 / 5 out of 27 reviews on Capterra

Skill Level: Beginner

Templates Available: Videos, Socials, Business, Invitations, Cards,

Best Used for: Personal graphic design or marketing material

Cost: from Free to $49 / month

Free Plan Specs:

Pay As You Go Downloads
Resize Image Designs
Add Text to Image Designs
Add Images to Designs
Add Shapes to Image Designs
Download in JPG, PNG and PDF
Reseller Rights
Lifetime Licence
Custom Colour Palette
Share Directly to Social Media

Pros:

Choice between graphic and video editor
Third-party intragration with Pikwizard image library

Cons:

Only 15 MB of storage for users on the free / basic plan
No design elements to add to videos
No data visualisation tools, icons or illustrations
Limited selection of fonts

The Feature I Like the Most:

DesignWizard splits the editor between graphic and video editor. The latter is an interesting feature allowing some basic level of video editing.

Rating: C-

Stencil

Easy-to-use graphic design tool for bloggers, business owners, and social media marketers.

Platforms: Web

Rating: average of 4.8 / 5 out of 435 reviews on Capterra

Skill Level: Beginner

Templates Available: Business, Personal, Ebook, Social Media Graphics, Zoom Backgrounds

Best Used for: Social Media Posts

Cost: from Free to $12 / month

Free Plan Specs:

Save up to 10 images /month
Limited photos
Limited icons
Upload up to 50 images
Create up to 10 collections
Keep up to 10 favorites
10 Instagram SMS /month

Pros:

+5,000,000 royalty-free photos
Lightweight and fast
+3,100,000 icons to choose from
WordPress plugin

Cons:

The free version has very limited features
Templates are a bit standard
You cannot group pictures together

The Feature I Like the Most:

It’s cool they offer a selection of free, ready-to-use quotes for your social media posts. I couldn’t find this in other free online graphic design apps.

Rating: D+

Infogram

Infogram is an intuitive visualization tool that empowers people and teams to create beautiful content.

Platforms: Web

Rating: average of 4.5 / 5 out of 60 reviews on Capterra

Skill Level: Beginner to Intermediate

Templates Available: Infographics, Reports, Slides, Dashboards, Posters, Social Media, Email Headers, Maps, Charts

Best Used for: Infographics, Reports

Cost: from Free to $149 / month

Free Plan Specs:

37+ interactive charts types
Up to 10 projects
Up to 5 pages per project
13 map types
Publish your content online
Import data
Object animations

Pros:

One million images and icons
Easy drag-and-drop editor
Import your data with ease
Download infographics, charts, and reports

Cons:

Learning curve longer than average for online graphic design apps
Infogram watermark logo

The Feature I Like the Most:

I think an interesting feature is being able to add a map to your designs. Unfortunately, the majority of maps are not included with the free version.

Rating: D

Snappa

Snappa is used by thousands of marketers, entrepreneurs, and non-designers to create a wide range of graphics for social media, display ads, blog posts, and more.

Platforms: Web

Rating: average of 4.3 / 5 out of 14 reviews on Capterra

Skill Level: Beginner

Templates Available: Social Media Graphics, Blogging and Infographics, Headers, Advertising

Best Used for: Social Media, Display Ads

Cost: from Free to $20 / month (custom enterprise plan also available) | Try Snappa for free

Free Plan Specs:

1 user
6,000+ templates
5,000,000+ HD photos & graphics
3 downloads per month

Pros:

Simple, clean and easy interface
Easy-to-edit templates and graphics
All photos and graphics are free
Lightweight and fast

Cons:

Limited number of elements
You can only export images in JPG or PNG
Static designs only

The Feature I Like the Most:

The app is quite basic in comparison to other free online graphic design apps. Among its features, it possibly stands out for the number of backgrounds offered.

Rating: D-