Adobe Spark was developed as a solution for creating social images, posts, and more. However, a clunky UI, bad UX, and several other issues have made users look upon an Adobe Spark alternative.
The program is often met with issues by most users, is relatively slow to use, and can take some time to get used to it.
With a lot of issues and not many features to show for it, Adobe Spark is not a good option for casual users, small businesses, and newcomers.
In this article, we’ll discuss the ideal Adobe Spark alternative, along with other potential software you can use.
Let’s get started.
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What’s the Best Adobe Spark Alternative?
The best Adobe Spark alternative in the market is Pixelied because it offers an all-in-one design and editing solution, with pre-designed templates, third-party integrations, stock photos access, and several design elements.
The fact is that Pixelied is pretty straightforward to use and requires no learning or training. The templates allow you to adjust and edit existing social graphics and pages.
That allows designers and marketers to quickly make the graphics, videos, and pages they need.
As opposed to Adobe Spark, Pixelied doesn’t require any downloads or plugins. It’s a web app that can be opened and used at any time.
You open Pixelied’s editor, choose a template, and start making your designs. If you don’t want to use a template, you can upload your own assets.
There’s a good chance that if you’re a small business owner or casual user, you look for free marketing tools. And that also includes graphic design tools, photo editing tools, and social media design tools.
Software like Adobe InDesign, Adobe Photoshop, and Adobe Lightroom may be renowned in the industry, but they’re expensive and hard to master. That’s why people look for a Lightroom alternative. Similarly, that’s why marketers look for an Adobe Spark alternative.
People need a design tool that offers a free version at first so they can get used to it. Other than that, people want compatibility, whether it’s with Microsoft Windows, Mac, Android, or iOS.
Pixelied offers all of that, along with all the necessary features and tools you need to create stunning graphics and posts.
If you’re a hardcore social media marketer who wants to make short videos or animated videos, you need a video maker and video editor. However, if you’re looking to make social media graphics and posts, your best bet is Pixelied.
Pixelied’s Features and Tools
Adobe Spark offers some unique features like video editing, designing web pages, GIFs, and making a dedicated Adobe Spark posts. However, that doesn’t fully justify the pricing, especially if you only want to make high-quality social media posts.
Typical users want a graphic design tool that’s quick, allows for consistent content creation while offering maximum functionality. Pixelied combines those elements and brings the following features and tools to users.
- Ready-Made Free Templates – There are hundreds of free ready-made templates for different social media posts, designs, pictures, and more.
- Stock Photos – There are several third-party integrations that offer access to thousands of stock photos. These are watermark-free, so you don’t have to worry about them.
- Icon Maker – There are hundreds of third-party icon integrations. These include social media icons, website icons, stickers, and more.
- My Files – You can use this option to upload your own photos.
- Illustrations – You can add custom vectors and illustrations to your designs.
- Elements – You can add elements like shapes, arrows, and more.
- Brandify – This custom Pixelied feature allows you to install your brand assets like logos, colors, typography, fonts, and more. Then you can automatically apply them to any new posts.
- Blend – You can use this option to create custom color blends and do color correction.
- Workspaces – This allows you to run multiple projects, edits, and designs at the same time.
Other than that, you can find various basic adjustment tools like opacity, alignment, borders, shadows, layering, and more.
How to Use Pixelied to Create Designs
If you’re looking to quickly create social media posts or designs, here’s how you can do it using Pixelied.
- Open Pixelied’s editor on any browser; you’ll see the following window.
- In the left panel, click on the My Files option and you’ll get the following pop-up window.
- You can drag-and-drop the photos you want or you can click on the Browse button and manually choose your photos from the file browser.
- Once you select the photos or assets you want to add.
- Then, select a template, if you want to use one. You can have pre-made templates for various kinds of posts and designs. Once you select a template, you can add your photos and assets to it.
You can delete your assets by right-clicking on them clicking Delete.
Once your design is complete, you can download your design using the Download button in the top-right corner.
Additional Best Adobe Spark Alternatives You Can Use
Adobe Spark is a design software for a very specific target audience. That’s why you can’t have many direct Adobe Spark alternatives. There are tools like Placeit, Canva, Snappa, Illustrator, and Desygner, but they don’t provide an alternative to everything Adobe Spark offers.
There is an Adobe Spark mobile app and you can connect it to the Adobe Creative Cloud. However, it’s not as user-friendly because the UI and UX aren’t well-optimized.
Other than that, it’s extremely slow for most users with excessive loading screens, unnecessary tutorials, and random marketing tips. The same happens on most mobile devices, whether it’s an iPhone, iPad, or any other device.
Meanwhile, there aren’t many customization options and it’s hard to keep track of the workflow. Especially if you have multiple team members working on the same project.
Therefore, if you want to quickly make high-quality infographics, beautiful designs, business cards, or simple visual content like Instagram stories, you’re better off with an Adobe Spark alternative.
The following is a list of some of the best Adobe Spark alternatives you go for.
1. RelayThat
RelayThat is a digital asset management tool that’s ideal for small businesses that need graphic designs. The tool allows you to easily create social media profiles, posts, banners, posters, and more.
There are plenty of templates to choose from. Once you do that, you can add your brand assets to it, including logos, brand colors, fonts, and more. You can also find stock photos and various filters and effects.
The best thing about RelayThat is that you can easily collaborate with team members, save your settings, and more.
However, it’s a paid tool and strictly limited to online posts.
You can check out RelayThat here.
2. Pablo by Buffer
Pablo by Buffer is an image editing tool that’s the brainchild of a social media management tool. It’s perfect for users who want to make social graphics, posts, and designs.
The tool offers a massive library of stock photos, quotes, and design templates. You can also upload your own images, custom logos, and typography.
It’s pretty easy and quick to use because it’s relatively simple. However, that also means it has very limited options, image styles, resize options, and other basic features.
It’s a web-based app and you can also install it as a Chrome extension.
You can check out Pablo by Buffer here.
3. PicMonkey
PicMonkey is an online design tool that people use to create high-level designs and edit their photos. It has various photo editing tools that are preferred by photographers and video editors.
You can create completely new designs, retouch existing designs, and create custom graphics from scratch. You’ll also find a lot of templates to use for videos, business cards, posts, and more.
However, there is no free version, only a 7-day trial that you can use after subscribing. For small businesses and marketers, it’s a better option compared to Adobe Spark. However, due to its slow interface, people usually go for a PicMonkey alternative after a while.
You can check out PicMonkey here.
4. Stencil
Stencil is a content creation tool that offers an extremely simple way to edit photos. It’s mostly used by users to add text to background images.
That’s why it’s mostly known for providing an excellent tool for creating images with a text overlay. With various options for adding text, it makes for a great social media post design tool.
Other than that, you can add icons, shapes, and stickers to each design. However, there is no option to add vectors, animation, or GIFs.
There is a free version but most options are hidden behind a paywall.
Stencil is good for creating simple social media graphics but other than that, it’s not of much use.
You can check out Stencil here.
5. Easil
Easil is a social media design tool that’s mainly geared toward Instagram designs. But it’s also a decent design tool for other social media users.
It’s not the right tool for corporate clients and business owners. However, it’s ideal for content creators, blogs, and trendy marketers.
You can utilize images, illustrations, icons, and more in each design. It’s best known for offering shape mask options, as it helps stand out in the social media game.
It has a free plan, but most features come under the two payment plans. Easil is great for you if you’re a content creator, but if you want professional social media graphics and posts, you’re better off with Adobe Spark.
You can check out Easil here.
6. BeFunky
BeFunky is a graphic design and photo editing tool that’s available as a web app and mobile app. It’s known for its easy-to-use UI, offering drag-and-drop capabilities, layers, and batch editing.
It’s a great tool for creating multiple visuals for social media platforms, digital ads, and more.
There are tons of vectors, stock photos, and filters that you can use. You can also create photo collages and share them directly on your socials.
There is a free version but it doesn’t have all the functionality you need and is riddled with ads.
You can check out BeFunky here.
7. Fotor
Fotor is a one-in-all content creation tool that has heavy image editing capabilities. There are tons of single-click filters, photo effects, and mood changers.
That’s why it’s mostly used for Instagram and Snapchat. You can also make collages, quickly fix images, and make social posts.
Most of the features are free to use, but there are a lot of ads. However, the paid version does offer additional capabilities. In any case, most people tend to opt for Fotor alternatives after a while.
You can check out Fotor here.
8. DesignWizard
DesignWizard is a direct Adobe Spark alternative as it allows you to create graphics and videos both. You can design visual assets and make videos without the steep learning curve.
That’s why people use it to create GIFs, social media posts, and web pages. It very clearly differentiates between the graphic and video editor, allowing you to run both simultaneously too if you want.
Furthermore, DesignWizard has tons of templates (over 15,000) that everyone can use without worrying about licenses and copyrights.
It has a free version with basic features. There are two different paid plans but they’re affordable compared to other options.
It’s a great tool for casual users and small business owners. However, if you need to visualize data, make batch posts, and have more editing control, you’re better off with another tool.
You can check out DesignWizard here.
Choosing the Ideal Adobe Spark Alternative
It’s important to have an easy-to-use tool for creating social media posts and designs. Usually, businesses and content creators need to follow a very strict social media calendar. That’s why it’s important to have a tool that simplifies the design and editing process.
It becomes infinitely more important if you have limited resources. At that point, creating marketing designs should be a breeze.
That’s why it’s best to opt for a one-in-all tool that is easy to learn, use, and offers complete functionality. Most importantly, it should have a free version that lets you learn the ropes before moving on.
That’s why Pixelied turns out to be the ideal Adobe Spark alternative.
