Buy once instead of Adobe Illustrator
5 apps in the directory cover what people use Adobe Illustrator for. 3 of them are a one-time purchases, and 2 cost nothing at all.
Adobe Illustrator is recorded here at between $264 and $276 a year, depending on the plan compared. At that rate Boxy SVG, the cheapest dollar-priced replacement at $19.99, pays for itself in 1 month.
Read the catch on each one before you switch — a one-time price is not automatically the better deal, and we say so where it is not.
The replacements
Affinity
the whole design suite, now free for individuals
Free Free
Free, but the download runs through a Canva account and the AI tools need a paid Canva plan
Inkscape
SVG-native vector editor with no licence to buy at all
Free Open source
The macOS build is a GTK port — menus, shortcuts and dialogs don't behave like a Mac app
Boxy SVG
cheap SVG editor whose saved files are still clean, readable SVG
$19.99 Perpetual
Buy it on the Mac App Store — the developer's own site sells a separate web version
Amadine
approachable vector drawing app with a 29.99 dollar lifetime licence
$29.99 Lifetime tier
The iPhone and iPad app is a separate purchase with its own monthly subscription
VectorStyler
deep vector illustration app, 95 dollars once with upgrades included
$95 Perpetual
One person builds it, so "lifetime" means the app's lifetime rather than yours