Buy once instead of Adobe Illustrator
- Adobe Illustrator costs
- $264–276a year, depending on the plan compared. Single-app annual plan, prepaid. Their pricing
- Ways out
- 5apps that do the same jobs
- Cheapest to buy
- $19.99Boxy SVG, which pays back in under a month
- Cost nothing
- 2freeware or open source
Read the catch on each before you switch. A one-time price is not automatically the better deal, and we say so where it is not.
 AffinityThe whole design suite, now free for individuals | FreeFreeware | Free, but the download runs through a Canva account and the AI tools need a paid Canva plan |
 InkscapeSVG-native vector editor with no licence to buy at all | FreeOpen source | The macOS build is a GTK port — menus, shortcuts and dialogs don't behave like a Mac app |
 Boxy SVGCheap SVG editor whose saved files are still clean, readable SVG | $19.99Perpetual | Buy it on the Mac App Store — the developer's own site sells a separate web version |
 AmadineApproachable vector drawing app with a 29.99 dollar lifetime licence | $29.99Lifetime tier | The iPhone and iPad app is a separate purchase with its own monthly subscription |
 VectorStylerDeep vector illustration app, 95 dollars once with upgrades included | $95Perpetual | One person builds it, so "lifetime" means the app's lifetime rather than yours |