How is this design ranking decided?

Mechanically. The 8 approved design listings on this page are sorted by their published rating, highest first, with the number of ratings behind each score as the tie-break and the product name as a final tie-break so the order is stable. Those ratings are aggregated from public sources, not collected from Softwr readers, this site hosts no reviews, so the order is a summary of what is already published elsewhere, not a verdict of our own. Nothing on this page is paid placement.

Is this list re-ordered for students?

No, and it would be dishonest to imply otherwise. The catalogue records no data about which team sizes or roles each tool suits, so the ranking is the same published-rating order as the unsegmented list. What the students framing changes is which of the figures below matter most. Students want the $0 column. Anything on this page with a published free plan or an open-source licence is usable without a purchase decision at all.

How much does design software cost?

Across the 8 design tools listed here, paid plans start between $10 and $99 a month, with a median entry price of $25. The most expensive single tier published in the category is $2,500 a month (Webflow). 3 of 8 also publish a $0 plan.

What is the cheapest design software?

1 of the 8 tools listed here cost nothing at all. Among the ones that charge, Framer has the lowest published entry price at $10 a month. Cheapest and best value are different questions: check which tier the capability you need actually appears in before you compare starting prices.

Is there free design software?

Yes, 3 of 8 tools in this category publish a plan priced at $0. 1 of them are free outright, with no paid tier above. A tool is only counted as free here when it publishes a $0 plan, an open-source licence, or a starting price of zero, a free trial does not count.

What does design software actually cover?

The 8 tools on this page do not describe themselves the same way. The subject tags they carry most often are prototyping (4), design (3), animation (2), free (2), no-code (2). That spread is the honest answer to what the category means in practice: it is not one product shape, and two tools filed under design may overlap on very little.

How many pricing tiers do design tools offer?

4 of 8 tools here publish a plan breakdown, and the median one has 3 tiers. 2 of 8 publish three or more. More tiers is not generosity, it usually means the capability you are buying for sits two rungs above the advertised price, so price your shortlist at the tier that contains it.

How many design tools are listed on Softwr?

8 approved design listings appear on this page, including Adobe XD, Framer, Inkscape, InVision. Each links to a full breakdown with its pricing tiers and plan detail, and the category can be filtered by price and sorted by rating above. You can also read the shortlist view at /best/design, which ranks the same set by published rating.

Design · ranked shortlist

Best Design software for Students in 2026

8 approved design listings, ordered by published rating with the method stated below rather than assumed. Students want the $0 column. Anything on this page with a published free plan or an open-source licence is usable without a purchase decision at all.

Tools ranked: 8
Entry price range: $10-$99
Publish a $0 plan: 3 of 8

How this ranking is derived

The sort key

Published rating, highest first. Ties break on the number of ratings behind the score, then on product name so the order never depends on what the API happened to return first. That is the whole rule, there is no weighting, no score of our own, and nothing paid: no sponsored slot runs on these pages.

Where the ratings come from

No listing in this set carries a rating, so the order falls back to name. Those scores are aggregated from public sources rather than collected here, Softwr hosts no reviews of its own, which is also why no rating on this page is marked up as ours in structured data.

What the pool is

Approved design listings, capped at 20 per page; 8 came back for this one. It is not the whole market, and a tool being absent means we hold no record of it rather than that it failed a test. The unranked full set is on the design category page.

The ranking

Each entry lists why it sits where it sits, drawn from its own published rating and pricing.

#1
Adobe XD
Highest rated here
Design, prototype, and share user experiences
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Paid from $54.99 a month, with no free plan.
Billing
Model not published
Tags
design, prototyping, adobe, ui-ux
Adobe XD breakdown Compare with Framer
#2
Framer
Design and publish stunning sites
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Publishes a $0 plan, with paid tiers from $10 a month.
- 4 published tiers, topping out at $30 plus a tier sold by quote.
Billing
Model not published
Published tiers
4 tiers
Tags
web-design, No-Code, prototyping, animation
Framer breakdown Compare with Inkscape
#3
Inkscape
Free and open-source vector graphics editor
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Free, no paid tier is published at all.
Billing
free
Published tiers
1 tier
Tags
vector graphics, Open Source, svg, free software
Inkscape breakdown Compare with InVision
#4
InVision
Digital product design platform
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Paid from $25 a month, with no free plan.
Billing
Model not published
Tags
prototyping, design-collaboration, whiteboarding, design-handoff
InVision breakdown Compare with Lunacy
#5
Lunacy
Free design software that keeps your flow
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
Billing
Model not published
Tags
Free, design, graphic-design, ui-ux
Lunacy breakdown Compare with Photopea
#6
Photopea
Free online photo editor
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
Billing
Model not published
Tags
photo-editing, web app, Free, browser-based
Photopea breakdown Compare with Principle
#7
P
Principle
Animate your ideas, design better apps
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Paid from $99 a month, with no free plan.
- 2 published tiers, topping out at $129.
Billing
Model not published
Published tiers
2 tiers
Tags
animation, prototyping, interaction-design, mac-only
Principle breakdown Compare with Webflow
#8
Webflow
Build with the power of code — without writing any
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Publishes a $0 plan, with paid tiers from $15 a month.
- 4 published tiers, topping out at $2,500.
Billing
Model not published
Published tiers
4 tiers
Tags
website-builder, No-Code, cms, design
Webflow breakdown

What design software costs

Counted from the published pricing of the 8 listings on this page. A tool counts as free only where it publishes a $0 plan, an open-source licence or a starting price of zero.

Cheapest paid plan: $10Framer
Median entry price: $25across 5 priced
Dearest entry price: $99Principle
Publish a $0 plan: 3of 8

Paid design plans in this set start anywhere from $10 a month for Framer to $99 for Principle. The median entry price across the 5 tools that publish one is $25, half of them start below that figure and half above it.

Entry price is not the ceiling. The dearest published tier anywhere in this category is Webflow's at $2,500 a month, 25.3× the highest entry price on the page. Read the top of each ladder as well as the bottom, because that is where you land after two years of growth.

3 of 8 publish a $0 plan, and 1 of those charge nothing at all. 3 tools have no free tier of any kind.

1 of 8 keep at least one tier unpriced and sold by quote, which in practice means the number you end up paying at the top end is not on this page or on theirs.

Framer pricing Principle pricing Webflow plans

How these vendors bill

The billing model each of the 8 design listings publishes, counted. Two tools at the same headline price are not the same purchase if one of them charges per seat.

free: 1

Separately, 1 of 8 publish at least one tier with no price attached. Those are sold by quote, so the top of the ladder is negotiable, and unknowable, until you talk to sales.

What “Design” covers in practice

The subject tags that recur across these 8 listings, with the number of tools carrying each. A category label is a filing decision; this is the closer read of what is actually filed under it.

prototyping4
design3
animation2
Free2
No-Code2
responsive2
ui-ux2

Carried by a single tool: adobe, browser-based, design-collaboration, design-tool, interaction-design, Open Source, vector graphics, web-design. If one of those is the reason you are here, the category page is the wrong lens, go straight to that product.

How to choose between them

Four things the numbers above should change about your shortlist.

Start with the free tiers if there are enough of them

3 of 8 design tools here publish a $0 plan, which is enough to run a real trial without a purchase order. A free tier is worth more than a free trial when you are evaluating: a trial expires on the vendor's schedule, a free plan expires when you outgrow it. The thing to check before you commit is which of the capabilities below sit above the free line.

Read the spread before you read the features

$10 to $99 is a $89 spread on entry price alone, and a spread that wide is never about polish, it is about who the vendor built for. Tools at the bottom of this ladder are priced for one person or a small team; tools near $99 are priced for a department with a procurement process. Decide which of those you are before you compare capability, or you will shortlist four tools that were never competing for the same buyer.

Check which tier you actually land on

2 of 8 tools here publish three or more tiers, and the median vendor in this category ships 3 of them. The advertised price is the first rung. Price your shortlist at the tier that contains what you need, not at the tier on the pricing page's left edge.

Compare design tools directly

Every pairing below is a full comparison: the same checklist applied to both, so a gap in one is a gap in the other.

Go straight to the numbers

Build your own comparison See the shortlist instead

Questions people ask about design software

Answered from the listings on this page, and nowhere else.

How is this design ranking decided?: Mechanically. The 8 approved design listings on this page are sorted by their published rating, highest first, with the number of ratings behind each score as the tie-break and the product name as a final tie-break so the order is stable. Those ratings are aggregated from public sources, not collected from Softwr readers, this site hosts no reviews, so the order is a summary of what is already published elsewhere, not a verdict of our own. Nothing on this page is paid placement.
Is this list re-ordered for students?: No, and it would be dishonest to imply otherwise. The catalogue records no data about which team sizes or roles each tool suits, so the ranking is the same published-rating order as the unsegmented list. What the students framing changes is which of the figures below matter most. Students want the $0 column. Anything on this page with a published free plan or an open-source licence is usable without a purchase decision at all.
How much does design software cost?: Across the 8 design tools listed here, paid plans start between $10 and $99 a month, with a median entry price of $25. The most expensive single tier published in the category is $2,500 a month (Webflow). 3 of 8 also publish a $0 plan.
What is the cheapest design software?: 1 of the 8 tools listed here cost nothing at all. Among the ones that charge, Framer has the lowest published entry price at $10 a month. Cheapest and best value are different questions: check which tier the capability you need actually appears in before you compare starting prices.
Is there free design software?: Yes, 3 of 8 tools in this category publish a plan priced at $0. 1 of them are free outright, with no paid tier above. A tool is only counted as free here when it publishes a $0 plan, an open-source licence, or a starting price of zero, a free trial does not count.
What does design software actually cover?: The 8 tools on this page do not describe themselves the same way. The subject tags they carry most often are prototyping (4), design (3), animation (2), free (2), no-code (2). That spread is the honest answer to what the category means in practice: it is not one product shape, and two tools filed under design may overlap on very little.
How many pricing tiers do design tools offer?: 4 of 8 tools here publish a plan breakdown, and the median one has 3 tiers. 2 of 8 publish three or more. More tiers is not generosity, it usually means the capability you are buying for sits two rungs above the advertised price, so price your shortlist at the tier that contains it.
How many design tools are listed on Softwr?: 8 approved design listings appear on this page, including Adobe XD, Framer, Inkscape, InVision. Each links to a full breakdown with its pricing tiers and plan detail, and the category can be filtered by price and sorted by rating above. You can also read the shortlist view at /best/design, which ranks the same set by published rating.

Keep reading

Neighbouring categories

Adjacent in the same taxonomy, not a ranking.

How this ranking is derived

The sort key

Where the ratings come from

What the pool is

The ranking

Adobe XD

Framer

Inkscape

InVision

Lunacy

Photopea

Principle

Webflow