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Ask HN: What open-source alternative is there for Canva?

by nathan_tarbert on 12/12/23, 6:42 PM with 18 comments

I'm a power Canva user but I have a passion for open-source and just like buying local, I try to use open-source whenever I can.

Is there anything out there that stands up to Canva as an alternative?

Thanks in advance!

  • by kidfiji on 12/12/23, 9:39 PM

    Not necessarily like Canva, but more similar to Figma is Penpot, if it may interest you:

    https://penpot.app/

  • by mrangle on 12/13/23, 1:06 AM

    So, you want something that is equivalent to paid Canva. Not just free Canva.

    I suppose that would depend on how you use Canva.

    I use it for rapid iterating. I haven't found anything that matches Canva for that. If you just need an editor then there are a variety of alternatives, like Inkscape.

    I only found it necessary to pay for Canva once I needed to upload fonts.

  • by evolve2k on 12/12/23, 10:55 PM

    Id say Inkscape and Penpot are the closest but none of these (by design) include a big template gallery which is maybe part of your consideration.

    On the template gallery you could use an open source chat-gpt like tool to create svgs for you and then load them into the above. Eg “Make an SVG of a smiley face”

  • by brtkdotse on 12/14/23, 5:14 PM

    The biggest selling point with Canva is it's myriad of templates. I doubt you're going to find that in a open-source alternative.

  • by xet7 on 12/12/23, 9:37 PM

    For drawing arrows, I use drawing toolbar of LibreOffice Writer.

    For vector graphics, and converting bitmap to vectors, I use Inkscape.

    For flowcharts, I use Dia.

    For bitmap graphics, I use Gimp, use it for crop and prettifying old photos.

    I use OpenClipart SVG images, when I need some image that is already made.

  • by stevenicr on 12/12/23, 7:43 PM

    I am always looking non-subscription options for similar..

    playing with affinty designer, similar.. eyeing luminero neo?

    Appreciating self hosting AI gen..

    Microsoft Designer is really making me happy - but I worry they will subscription paywall it eventually - I would pay a one time fee.

    Someone has to have list non-subscription alternatives to all the things.. like photoshop alternatives you can own..

  • by WallyFunk on 12/12/23, 6:54 PM

    Not sure about open source, but there are alternatives out there:

    https://duckduckgo.com/?q=open+source+alternatives+to+canva