Published on | Prototyping: From UX to Front End — Medium Sara Clayton

A few months ago, I wrote up a post about the price of design tools and published it on the Designers Guild Facebook group. At that point in time, a lot of subscription and license renewals were popping up and — after doing some quick math — estimated that I was paying about $1,000 year just for my tools.

Apparently I wasn’t the only one thinking about the cost of tools — I received quite a lot of comments, so I’ve gone ahead and captured some of those insights below…

You think software design is pricey?

Compared to other design disciplines such as 3D modeling, industrial design or even jewelry design, the tools for software or web design are actually much affordable. One commenter mentioned that, “In my field, access to one application for Industrial Design or 3D modeling can be upwards of $200/monthly.”

An example of an architect’s annual payments for design tools.

Are you working for someone or freelancing?

In any case, you might be able to get your tools reimbursed or written off one way or another. If you’re freelancing, you can put the payments for these tools down as deductions during tax season. And depending on who you’re working for, you might be able to get your employer to pay for your tools.

Have you tried other alternatives?

If the costs of tools are really bogging you down, there are quite a lot of free or relatively inexpensive tools out there. People noted the following tools below as good alternatives. As one person also noted, you might want want to do a little budgeting and see what daily/monthly expenses you could give up for certain design tools.

A word of caution here — if you can really help it, don’t make price the main factor. You should work with the tools that work best for your work and/or your job.

Figma
Affinity
Webflow
Pixlr
Vectr
Lunacy Editor
Use your own server (to replace cloud storage)

Figma, Affinity Designer, Lunacy Editor

Have you thought of the designers behind these design tools?

Remember — by paying for tools, we’re supporting well-designed products. And when there’s more demand for well-designed products, there’s also more demand for… designers 😉

So to wrap this all up…

I don’t have a specific answer for you, but hopefully these different perspectives will help inform your decision(s) in which design tools to keep paying for, start paying for or quit paying for.

Thanks for taking the time to read this post! Follow me on Twitter and on Medium. And of course, feel free to reach out to me at hi@saraclayton.co.

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Are you paying too much for design tools? was originally published in Prototypr on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Are you paying too much for design tools?

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