10 InDesign Alternatives (Sorted According To Use Cases)

It’s not you.

It’s InDesign.

For the beginner, it’s too complicated.

For the budget-conscious small business owner, it’s too expensive to use in the long term.

Wondering if there are better graphic design tools in the market? This guide is for you.

Today, I’ll share 10 great InDesign alternatives and who each of these tools is best suited for.

Whether you want to design a resume for your next freelance gig or share animated images on social media, this guide will help you narrow down your choice.

Let’s get right into it.

1. Canva

Pricing: Free plan available. 30-day free trial for paid plans. Paid plans start at $12.95 and $30.00. Discounts for classrooms, nonprofits, and annual subscriptions.

Platform: Cloud-based.

Mobile App: Android and IOS.

It’s impossible to dislike Canva.

This popular drag-and-drop platform is so easy to use that anyone can make a text-based design that looks as though a pro created it.

Just the free plan alone is enough to do all you need.

Main Features:

• Photo editing tools (e.g., image cropper, text to photo, photo effects)
• Graph maker
• Animator
• Wide integrations with platforms like Facebook and Google Drive
• HUGE variety of templates, icons, and fonts

Pros: 

• Extremely intuitive.

Limitations: Editor stalls when there are many design pages in a file, or multiple objects on a page.

Best For: Non-designers who want to make text-based graphics like presentations, business cards, social media posts, and logos.

2. Resumonk

Pricing: Free plan available. Paid plans start at $29 (1-year access). Grab the Resumonk lifetime deal on AppSumo today for $39.

Platform: Cloud-based.

Mobile App: None.

With Resumonk, creating resumes for your next independent contractor gig is a stress-free process.

Simply import your bio from LinkedIn, and the resume maker whips up a resume you can use right away. 

Main Features:

• Resume builder
• Import from LinkedIn
• Custom URL for public sharing
• Cover letter builder
• 20+ templates collection

Pros:

• Keep track of all resume versions on the dashboard.
• One-click resume clone. It’s easy to customize your resume for different job postings.

Limitations: Lack of deep customization (e.g., unable to alter the column widths and color of a specific section of the resume).

Best For: Freelancers who want to create professional and effective resumes in a few clicks of a button.

3. QuarkXPress

Source: QuarkXPress

Pricing: 7-day free trial. Product is a perpetual license, and comes with your choice of subscriptions for updates and technical support. Plans start at $395 for the software and a year subscription.

Platform: Windows and Mac.

Mobile App: None.

Before there was Adobe InDesign, there was QuarkXPress.

Sure, this page layout software may no longer be #1 in the market, but its 2020 version has come a long way.

What’s more, it’s still actively used in big agencies and publishing companies. Check out this tool if you work with folks in the agency or print industries.

Main Features:

• Flex page builder
• Embed HTML
• Import PDF with Artbox and Boundingbox
• Multi-orientation page support
• Paragraph style street enhancements

Pros: 

• Robust features to control exactly how the layout looks.

Limitations: Slight learning curve and expensive.

Best For: Advanced graphic designers in agencies and the publishing industry.

4. Lucidpress

Pricing: Free plan available. 7-day free trial for paid plans. Paid plans start at $10 a month.

Platform: Cloud-based.

Mobile App: None.

Need an easier way to review a design before releasing it to the wild? Check out Lucidpress.

This brand templating platform helps you gather feedback from stakeholders in real-time. 

All you need to do is set the requirements, request approval from the admins, and let Lucidpress do the rest.

Main Features:

• Design tools (e.g., drag-and-drop editor)
• Hundreds of professionally designed templates
• Data automation
• Team management

Pros:

• User-friendly interface.
• Document approval — review and approve each document before publishing.

Limitations: Lag issues (i.e., templates take a while to load).

Best For: Marketers who create marketing assets and want to streamline their approval workflow.

5. Piktochart

Pricing: Free plan available. Paid plans start at $29 and $99 a month. Discounts for classrooms, nonprofits, and annual subscriptions.

Platform: Cloud-based.

Mobile App: None.

Who says presentations are boring?

With Piktochart, anyone can transform any complex data into captivating stories. Select a template, import your data, make additional tweaks, and voilà.

This is visual storytelling at its best.

Main Features:

• Interactive charts and maps
• Graphics (e.g., illustrations, shapes, icons)
• Design components (e.g., lists, timelines, comparisons)

Pros:

• Zero learning curve — great for non-designers.
• Excel and Google Sheets integrations to create graphs (psst, they automatically update when your data does!).

Limitations: Lack of templates for the free version. Compared to competitors like Canva, the difference is astounding.

Best For: Startup founders who want to create data-backed presentations like pitch decks and sales reports.

6. RelayThat

Pricing: $25/month for two users. Enterprise plan available.

Platform: Cloud-based.

Mobile App: None.

Ever used a design platform that claims to resize visuals for different social platforms, only to find it resizes just the background canvas?

Pfffft, some brands are just plain sneaky…

Luckily, RelayThat doesn’t do that. This fantastic tool automatically resizes your designs without requiring any additional work from you. 

That’s right; you can easily share consistent graphics to every social media channel without spending unnecessary hours tweaking them!

Main Features:

• Headline generator
• Brand management
• One-click resize — adjust image size to fit any social media channel in a click.
• Automated image SEO

Pros:

• Switch between multiple campaigns in just a click.
• Import colors, photos, and logos from your website by inserting your URL in RelayThat’s import field.

Limitations: Lack of full custom control. Sumo-lings report they could not crop pictures and move and resize certain elements (e.g., color blocks under text).

Best For: Small business owners who want to create on-brand images for multiple social media accounts.

7. Venngage

Pricing: Free plan for students. Paid plans are $19 and $49 a month. Discounts for classrooms, nonprofits, and quarterly and annual subscriptions.

Platform: Cloud-based.

Mobile App: None.

With Venngage, it takes minutes to turn snooze-worthy data into engaging infographics. 

Whether you’re looking to get high-quality backlinks or create a better reading experience for your readers, this infographic maker can make it happen.

Main Features:

• Photo editing (e.g., resize, crop, and change opacity)
• Hundreds of charts, maps, and icons
• Customizable infographic templates (new ones are added weekly)
• Free-form design canvas

Pros:

• Customizable template collections (i.e., pick what kind of templates you like best, and Venngage will recommend you a collection).
• Advanced collection of charts (e.g., stacked bubble, scatter plot).

Limitations: Editor can be slow when loading.

Best For: Marketers who want to design data-driven infographics.

8. Affinity Publisher

Pricing: 30-day free trial. One-time fee of $49.99.

Platform: Windows and Mac.

Mobile App: None.

Say hello to Affinity Publisher, a desktop publishing program that helps you combine your images, graphics, and text and turn them into a work of art.

Use it with Affinity Designer and Affinity Photo for a smooth, productive workflow.

Main Features:

• IDML import
• Preflight checker
• Smart master pages
• OpenType support

Pros:

• StudioLink — switch between Affinity’s other apps (Designer and Photo) seamlessly.

Limitations: Users report frequent crashes.

Best For: Professional graphic designers working in print and looking to improve their workflow.

9. Swift Publisher

Source: YouTube

Pricing: Free trial. Licenses start at $19.99.

Platform: Mac.

Mobile App: None.

For printing CDs and business cards, look no further than Swift Publisher.

This all-purpose desktop publishing app for Mac supports direct-on-CD printing and multiple paper formats from popular manufacturers.

Main Features:

• 500+ professional templates
• Design and text tools (e.g., tint, crop, and circular text)
• Publishing tools (e.g., spread view, text to curve)
• Import options
• Sharing and printing

Pros:

• Circular text and vertical text tools; helpful when you want to wrap text around curved objects (e.g., iPhone casings).
• Mail merge with Apple contacts — automatically prints for all contacts in only one batch.
• Supports label and card papers (by Avery, Neato, Memorex, and more) and multiple direct-to-disc printers.

Limitations: Doesn’t support Windows.

Best For: Small business owners who want to design print materials like business cards, discs, and flyers.

10. VistaCreate

Source: VistaCreate

Pricing: Free plan available. Paid plans start at $10/month, billed annually.

Platform: Cloud-based.

Mobile App: Android and IOS.

Where to begin for VistaCreate?

This graphic design software is a must-have to create animations for social ads.

With over 6,500 animated templates, marketers (even with zero designing skills!) can create snazzy videos and wow their users.

Main Features:

• Photo editing tools (e.g., frames, speech bubbles, photo filters)
• 6,500+ animated templates
• 3,400+ animated objects
• Design objects (e.g., icons, badges, labels)
• Animation (e.g., trim video, animated logos)

Pros:

• Top-notch templates
• Fast rendering
• One-click resize

Limitations: Missing grid objects. From a Sumo-ling: “I’d like to have a nine-masks grid to put nine photos in them. I can make it manually with a copy-pasting one mask element, but it’s annoying, and it won’t be precise.”

Best For: Marketers who want to create animated images (e.g., GIFs).

Create Stress-Free Graphics With These InDesign Alternatives

Each of these tools has its strengths.

For example, while Canva does offer an impressive collection of resume templates, it’s better to create your resume on Resumonk as you can import your credentials from LinkedIn and easily customize it for different job postings.

I hope this comparison guide narrows down a suitable graphic design tool for your business!

Here’s a quick refresher on these InDesign alternatives’ best use cases:

• Canva: Non-designers who want to make text-based graphics like presentations, business cards, social media posts, and logos.
• Resumonk: Freelancers who want to create professional and effective resumes in a few clicks of a button. Grab the Resumonk lifetime deal on AppSumo today for $39.
• QuarkXPress: Advanced graphic designers in agencies and the publishing industry.
• Lucidpress: Marketers who create marketing assets and want to streamline their approval workflow.
• Piktochart: Startup founders who want to create data-backed presentations like pitch decks and sales reports.
• RelayThat: Small business owners who want to create on-brand images for multiple social media accounts.
• Venngage: Marketers who want to design data-driven infographics.
• Affinity Publisher: Professional graphic designers working in print and looking to improve their workflow.
• Swift Publisher: Small business owners who want to design print materials like business cards, discs, and flyers.
• VistaCreate: Marketers who want to create animated images (e.g., GIFs).

Which graphic design tool will you get today?