Graphic design is one of the most important elements to a small business owner’s branding strategy. Everything from web design to social media posts need to incorporate elements of design to help mold the image of your business. Additionally, your designs must be cohesive in order to create a memorable brand!

Small business owners are great at a lot of things, but design isn’t always one of those things. Thankfully, there are plenty of online tools that make design easy for everyone! Whether you are a beginner or an expert in graphic design, using the right tools can multiply your talent exponentially! Check out the list below for some amazing tools that will make graphic design a breeze for small business owners! 

These programs do not provide you with advanced features like Photoshop, however they solve a beginner’s design need who doesn’t want to get into the process of learning and purchasing a premium software. 

Canva is a free online graphic design software that allows you to create designs easily and quickly. Canva offers a number of ready made templates for things like marketing emails and social media posts. It is very easy to learn and gives you tons of fonts, icons, photographs, videos, and other graphics to use. It is also available to download as an app which is great if you’re on the go. The basic features in Canva are free, but if you want access to more features you have the option to pay for pro.

→ Available on: Desktop & Smartphone 

→ Pricing Model: Canva Free or Pro ($12.99/mo).

Crello is a tool that allows you to create beautiful social media posts in just a few minutes. You can browse by template categories like Facebook post or Instagram post. Once you find a template you like you can add your logo, brand colors and content before downloading. Crello was created for and is used by marketing professionals, bloggers, and entrepreneurs or small businesses, who need to create content daily without large budgets.

→ Available on: Desktop & Smartphone 

→ Pricing Model: Starter (Free) or Pro ($7.99/mo).

DesignBold is a user-friendly, robust, and intuitive freemium online design platform built to help anyone create professional-looking, eye-catching visual content for print or digital media in a matter of minutes. DesignBold is loaded with over 4,700 easy-to-use features and functionalities that empower anyone to create a variety of engaging content that gets shared. There are 50 plus materials that users can create which include social media ads, presentations, banners, posters, invitations, and so many more.

→ Available on: Desktop  

→ Pricing Model: Free or Pro ($7.99/mo). 

Stencil is a tremendously easy-to-use online graphic design tool and image editor built for business owners, social media marketers, and bloggers. It is a cloud-based graphics creation tool that offers the fastest way to craft and share visual content. The program enables small businesses, social media marketers, and bloggers to beautify images to generate stunning social media posts, content marketing visuals, ad graphics, email images, and much more. A great variety of graded color effects can be obtained from one stencil by blending different colors or different parts of oil the stencil with one stroke of the brush; suction effects cannot be obtained by other methods.

→ Available on: Desktop 

→ Pricing Model: Free, Pro ($7.99/mo) or Unlimited ($12.00/mo)

Pixlr was introduced to enable everyone to create, edit and share images online with ease. Users and Subscribers can access intelligent editing tools and unlimited design assets, taking creative Photo and Image Editing to a whole new level. It is a cloud-based photo editor that offers a wide range of image tools and utilities for editing purposes. Users can access the image editing suite regardless of device type and operating system. However, it has no online integration for photo storage and the user cannot paste pictures.

→ Available on: Desktop & Smartphones

→ Pricing Model: Free, Premium ($4.90/mo) or Creative Pack ($14.99/mo)

Picsart is an easy-to-use photo editor, sticker maker, collage maker, and a creative drawing app that’s designed for any experience level. Millions of users around the world turn to the powerful tools in our free photo editing app to express themselves through art. Another aspect of the app that sets it apart from other popular photo editors is its social platform-like character – which brings us to the next point.

→ Available on: Desktop & Smartphones

→ Pricing Model: Free, Gold ($4.66/mo) or Team (starting at $6.24/mo).

So there you have it! The 6 Best Graphic Design Tools for Small Businesses. While there may be cases where paying for a professional photo editing software is worth it, you can most likely find all of the features you’re looking for with free graphic design software. No matter which free graphic design software you decide to use for the perfect edit, you can rest assured that you’re saving big compared to paid alternatives.

Have you used a free graphic design software that isn’t on our list? Let us know in the comments below!