The best Adobe Illustrator alternatives

Affinity Designer
(Image credit: Serif)

Looking for Adobe Illustrator alternatives? You’re not alone. While Adobe's digital drawing software remains the gold standard when it comes to vector design, and a key player in Adobe’s Creative Cloud lineup, not everyone wants to keep paying a subscription fee. 

Luckily, there are plenty of other options out there. If you’re ready to explore other tools—whether you’re after a one-off payment, a different user experience or even something completely free—we’ve got you covered. 

Tom May
Freelance journalist and editor

Tom May is an award-winning journalist and editor specialising in design, photography and technology. Author of the Amazon #1 bestseller Great TED Talks: Creativity, published by Pavilion Books, Tom was previously editor of Professional Photography magazine, associate editor at Creative Bloq, and deputy editor at net magazine. Today, he is a regular contributor to Creative Bloq and its sister sites Digital Camera World, T3.com and Tech Radar. He also writes for Creative Boom and works on content marketing projects.

With contributions from