Paywall Dodgers

Design and creative suites

Vector, PDF, and film tools instead of Illustrator, Acrobat, and Premiere. Photo apps are on the image page.

Badge key

Fully free / open source. A standard open-source license.
Free tier. The product has a free plan.
Free app, paid API. The app is free to install. Making something still costs money.
Unofficial: use at your own risk. Someone else built this. It can break. Back up your files.
Early. Not a finished replacement.
Not yet tested by us. Listed from the project page. Not a hands-on test.
Tested by us. We ran it on our own machine. The card has the result.

Vector drawing

Drawing programs for Illustrator-style work.

What it costs

Adobe Illustrator
- Illustrator $22.99/month
- Creative Cloud Pro $69.99/month, or $34.99/month billed annually
- Creative Cloud Pro, first 3 months $34.99/month
List prices checked October 16, 2026, Pacific time. Official pricing page.

Free alternatives that best fit

Best overall free pick: Inkscape Early lookalike: VectorCraft

Inkscape

Fully free / open source
Not yet tested by us

Inkscape is a mature vector drawing program for Windows, Mac, and Linux, the best overall free pick for this job. A normal desktop is enough, and the program has its own tools.

Replaces: Adobe Illustrator
Price: Free
License: GPL 2.0 or later for most of the sourceMost source is GPL version 2 or later, with exceptions. Some JavaScript polyfills are CC0.
Hardware: A normal desktop
Maintained: Updated October 16, 2026.The app is still being worked on. The GitHub mirror is years behind the real project.

Project site Repository

VectorCraft

Fully free / open source
Early
Unofficial: use at your own risk
Not yet tested by us

VectorCraft is an early Illustrator-style drawing app, for people who want a free lookalike while it is still rough. It runs as a desktop app. Adobe did not make it.

Replaces: Adobe Illustrator
Price: Free
License: Apache 2.0
Hardware: A desktop app
Maintained: Updated October 16, 2026.

Limits

It is still early, so it will not match every Illustrator feature.

Project site Repository

PDF

A tool for Acrobat-style PDF work.

What it costs

Adobe Acrobat
- Acrobat Pro $19.99/month
- Creative Cloud Pro $69.99/month, or $34.99/month billed annually
- Creative Cloud Pro, first 3 months $34.99/month
List prices checked October 16, 2026, Pacific time. Official pricing page.

Free alternatives that best fit

Only free option: PdfCraft

PdfCraft

Fully free / open source
Early
Unofficial: use at your own risk
Not yet tested by us

PdfCraft is an early Acrobat-style PDF app, and the only free option on this list. It runs on the desktop. Adobe did not make it, and it is still early.

Replaces: Adobe Acrobat
Price: Free
License: Apache 2.0
Hardware: A desktop app
Maintained: Updated October 16, 2026.

Limits

It is still early, so it will not match every Acrobat feature.

Project site Repository

Film editing

An editor aimed at Premiere-style work. Descript's transcript workflow is on the audio and video page.

What it costs

Adobe Premiere Pro
- Premiere $22.99/month
- Creative Cloud Pro $69.99/month, or $34.99/month billed annually
- Creative Cloud Pro, first 3 months $34.99/month
List prices checked October 16, 2026, Pacific time. Official pricing page.

Free alternatives that best fit

Only free option: FilmCraft

FilmCraft

Fully free / open source
Early
Unofficial: use at your own risk
Not yet tested by us

FilmCraft is an early Premiere-style editor for picture, color, and sound, and the only free option on this list with that aim. It runs on the desktop. Adobe did not make it, and it is still early.

Replaces: Adobe Premiere Pro
Price: Free
License: Apache 2.0
Hardware: A desktop app
Maintained: Updated October 16, 2026.

Project site Repository