The 25 Best Design Tools For Small Business [2025]

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Updated: April 14th, 2025

Design is essential to running your business.

After interviewing thousands of founders, we put together a list of the most popular design tools.

Here they are:

1. Canva

Canva is a free-to-use online graphic design tool. You can use it to create social media posts, presentations, posters, videos, logos, and more.

Additional details about Canva:

Pricing: Freemium
Twitter: @canva
Website: https://www.canva.com/

Businesses using Canva:

660 successful businesses are using Canva ➜

2. Adobe Suite

Create, deliver and optimize content and applications.

Additional details about Adobe Suite:

Pricing: Freemium
Twitter: @Adobe
Website: http://www.adobe.com/

Businesses using Adobe Suite:

445 successful businesses are using Adobe Suite ➜

3. Figma

Collaborative interface design tool.

Additional details about Figma:

Pricing: Freemium
Twitter: @figmadesign
Website: figma.com

Businesses using Figma:

228 successful businesses are using Figma ➜

4. Sketch

Design toolkit.

Additional details about Sketch:

Pricing: Freemium
Twitter: @sketchapp
Website: sketchapp.com

Businesses using Sketch:

64 successful businesses are using Sketch ➜

5. Gimp

GNU image manipulation program.

Additional details about Gimp:

Pricing: Freemium
Twitter: @GIMP_Official
Website: gimp.org

Businesses using Gimp:

30 successful businesses are using Gimp ➜

6. pixlr

Cloud-based set of image tools and utilities, including a photo editor, a screen recorder, and a photo sharing service.

Additional details about pixlr:

Pricing: Freemium
Twitter: @pixlr
Website: pixlr.com

Businesses using pixlr:

28 successful businesses are using pixlr ➜

7. 99designs

Logos, web, graphic design and more.

Additional details about 99designs:

Pricing: Freemium
Twitter: @99designs
Website: 99designs.com

Businesses using 99designs:

32 successful businesses are using 99designs ➜

8. Pic Monkey

Create photos, logos, social media graphics, and facebook covers.

Additional details about Pic Monkey:

Pricing: Freemium
Twitter: @PicMonkey
Website: picmonkey.com

Businesses using Pic Monkey:

9. Invision

Digital product design platform.

Additional details about Invision:

Pricing: Freemium
Twitter: @InVisionApp
Website: invisionapp.com

Businesses using Invision:

10. Affinity Designer

Photo editing and graphic design for creative professionals.

Additional details about Affinity Designer:

Pricing: Freemium
Twitter: @affinitybyserif
Website: affinity.serif.com

Businesses using Affinity Designer:

11. Divi

It's a complete design framework that allows you to design and customize every part of your website from the ground up.

Additional details about Divi:

Pricing: Freemium
Twitter: @elegantthemes
Website: elegantthemes.com

Businesses using Divi:

18 successful businesses are using Divi ➜

12. Over

Add beautiful text & artwork to photos.

Additional details about Over:

Pricing: Freemium
Twitter: @over
Website: madewithover.com

Businesses using Over:

13. Inkscape

A Free and open source vector graphics editor for GNU/Linux, Windows and MacOS X. It offers a rich set of features and is widely used for both artistic and technical illustrations such as cartoons, clip art, logos, typography, diagramming and flowcharting.

Additional details about Inkscape:

Twitter: @inkscape
Website: inkscape.org

Businesses using Inkscape:

9 successful businesses are using Inkscape ➜

14. Gem Pages

Drag and drop page builder for Shopify.

Additional details about Gem Pages:

Pricing: Freemium
Website: gempages.net

Businesses using Gem Pages:

15. Design Pickle

Unlimited graphic design service.

Additional details about Design Pickle:

Pricing: Freemium
Twitter: @designpickle
Website: designpickle.com

Businesses using Design Pickle:

16. Hypervisual Page Builder

Build landing and product pages.

Additional details about Hypervisual Page Builder:

Pricing: Freemium
Website: apps.shopify.com/hypervisual

Businesses using Hypervisual Page Builder:

17. Crello

The easiest online design tool to create animations and graphics for social ads. Create images, videos, and animations to suit your marketing needs.

Additional details about Crello:

Twitter: @crelloapp
Website: crello.com

Businesses using Crello:

18. Procreate

A raster graphics editor app for digital painting developed and published by Savage Interactive for iOS and iPadOS.

Additional details about Procreate:

Twitter: @Procreate
Website: procreate.art

Businesses using Procreate:

19. ESHA

Food labeling software, supplement labeling software & diet analysis software.

Additional details about ESHA:

Pricing: Freemium
Twitter: @esharesearch
Website: esha.com

Businesses using ESHA:

20. Glorify

New all-in-one Graphic Designing tool specifically made for every online marketer.

Additional details about Glorify:

Pricing: Freemium
Twitter: @GlorifyDesign
Website: glorifyapp.com

Businesses using Glorify:

21. Snappa

Cloud-based graphics editor for social media, personal, and marketing purposes.

Additional details about Snappa:

Twitter: @snappahq
Website: snappa.com

Businesses using Snappa:

22. Flipsnack

A cloud-based publishing tool that allows you to create and upload many different types of publications.

Additional details about Flipsnack:

Twitter: @flipsnack
Website: flipsnack.com

Businesses using Flipsnack:

23. Ipiccy

Edit your pictures, apply photo effects, add text and paint!

Additional details about Ipiccy:

Pricing: Freemium
Twitter: @ipiccy
Website: ipiccy.com

Businesses using Ipiccy:

24. Motifmate

Shopify desktop theme editor.

Additional details about Motifmate:

Pricing: Freemium
Twitter: @motifmate
Website: motifmate.com

Businesses using Motifmate:

25. Penji

A dependable on-demand design service that helps marketing teams receive unlimited graphic design, unlimited revisions, all at one flat monthly rate.

Additional details about Penji:

Pricing: Freemium
Twitter: @dotpenji
Website: penji.co

Businesses using Penji:

26. Cloudways

A platform-as-a-service and you can choose to host your WordPress site on a cloud server from DigitalOcean, Linode, Vultr, Amazon Web Services or Google Cloud Platform.

Additional details about Cloudways:

Twitter: @Cloudways
Website: cloudways.com

Businesses using Cloudways:

27. CHILI publisher

CHILI publisher converts your packaging artwork to smart templates. Allow users of any skill set to edit customizable documents in a browser, or fully automate artwork generation. CHILI publish' output files are ready to use for print and digital in virtually any application.

More About CHILI publisher

A powerful, scalable platform for the whole team

Graphic designers: Works with AI® and InDesign® Real-time preflight check Convert and upload in one step
Marketers: Full cross-regional brand control Self-serve marketing/sales/HR templates Get campaigns to market faster
Developers: Works with any Martech integration Open XML document format Server & client APIs

Pricing Details

Offer Separate Plans for Small & Big Businesses
Pricing will be available upon request.

Additional details about CHILI publisher:

Pricing: Paid
Website: chili-publish.com

28. Strata Design 3D CX

Strata Design 3D CX designed for businesses of all sizes, it is a 3D designing tool that helps manage professional 3D projects and models through texturing, scene composition, animation, and more.

More About Strata Design 3D CX

Simplified 3D Learning Curve: Strata Design 3D eases the learning curve for 2D designers who are new to 3D. Quickstart templates, libraries, predefined effects, backgrounds, environments, and more allow designers to create complex scenes in minutes.
Model Anything – or Import Existing 3D Assets: For many, the thought of 3D modeling is a daunting task. Design 3D offers an extremely friendly modeling toolset and environment for manipulating your polygons, splines, and primitives into any 3D object or scene you can imagine.

Pricing Details

Strata Design 3D CX pricing starts at $595 as a flat rate, as a one-time payment.
They do not have a free version.
Strata Design 3D CX offers a free trial.

Additional details about Strata Design 3D CX:

Pricing: Paid
Twitter: @Strata3DDesign
Website: strata.com

29. Box It Now

Box It Now is an innovative, easy-to-use, online design toolbox for the packaging industry, though you don’t have to be a professional to create custom packaging.

More About Box It Now

Box It Now is for anyone who needs a package designed quickly! Box It Now is an all-in-one solution.

Graphic Designers
Brand Managers
Package Designers
Small Businesses for any industry
Large Corporations
Manufactures

Pricing Details

Single User:- $10/Mo
Team:- $7User/Mo Min 3 Users
Enterprise:- Branded Version
Widget:- E-Commerce Plugin

Additional details about Box It Now:

Pricing: Paid
Twitter: @boxitnowapp
Website: boxitnow.com

30. BLUE Software

BLUE Software simplifies the complexity of Label and Artwork development for both small and large companies worldwide.

More About BLUE Software

Workflow Management: Reduce end-to-end artwork process time by up to 70%. BLUE Workflow Management empowers stakeholders in creative, brand, and regulatory to track and execute their tasks in the label and artwork process.
Online Proofing: Increase “right-first-time” artwork by up to 70%. With BLUE Online Proofing, multiple team members can simultaneously view, compare, and annotate on digital media (video, photo, graphics, layout, audio, labels) on any device, and from any location.
Business Intelligence: Continually improve your end-to-end label and artwork performance. BLUE Business Intelligence gives you easy access to the extensive data in your workflows with intuitive dashboards and web-based reports.

Pricing Details

BLUE Software pricing starts at $7500.00 per feature, per year.
They do not have a free version.
BLUE Software does not offer a free trial.

Additional details about BLUE Software:

Pricing: Paid
Twitter: @BLUE_SaaS
Website: bluesoftware.com

31. Dieline Genius

Work online using AlphaCorr Dieline Genius 2D to customize packaging and point-of-purchase displays from our library of design on a pay-per-design basis.

More About Dieline Genius

CAD solution that offers a parametric design library for the creation of 2D and 3D packaging, POS display, and steel rule die design.
Best For Packaging engineers, graphic artists, die makers, operators, or estimators.
Dieline Genius 2D Online lets those with little or no packaging experience create great-looking corrugated and folding carton structures as often or as infrequently as they need them. No big investment in software, no subscription commitments. Just change the parameters on any design and output a functional decline including automatic adjustment for material allowance.

Pricing Details

Simple Regular Slotted Carton: US $1.50 per sized design
Medium Complex Package or Display: US $5.00 per sized design
Multi-piece Display: US $25.00 per sized design
Exact pricing is found by registering and exploring the library.

Additional details about Dieline Genius:

Pricing: Paid
Website: dieline-genius.com

32. WebCenter

WebCenter provides a web-based application platform specifically tailored for the packaging graphics industry which manages your internal process end-to-end, to help deliver right-first-time print, with advantageous reporting, metrics, and process optimization.

More About WebCenter

WebCenter is a powerful, secure, web-based packaging management and collaboration platform that allows companies of all sizes to digitize their processes and meet their challenges head-on.
WebCenter manages all aspects of the preproduction specification, approval, and project lifecycle to remove the bottlenecks that are most commonly associated with the packaging design to the production process.

Pricing Details

WebCenter does not offer a free trial.
Pricing Model: Per Feature

Additional details about WebCenter:

Pricing: Paid
Twitter: @Eskocompany
Website: esko.com

meet the author

Pat Walls

I'm Pat Walls and I created Starter Story - a website dedicated to helping people start businesses. We interview entrepreneurs from around the world about how they started and grew their businesses.

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