Flex and Grid layouts in Penpot in under 5 minutes
By Penpot ·
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Best free Flyer Makers compared: Canva, Adobe Express, Picsart, Pixlr and 2 more, with free-plan limits, platforms and prices from official pages checked October 23, 2026.
•3 min read•Graphic Design & Diagramming
| Tool | Price | Platforms | Best for | Tested |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Canva | Free (Free plan available; see the pricing page for its current limits) | Web, Windows, macOS, iOS, Android | Fast event flyers | Docs only |
| Adobe Express | Free (Free plan: free daily generations for images and text effects, 5 lifetime presentation generations, basic editing tools, 5 GB storage); paid from $9.99 per month, Premium, billed monthly, 30-day free trial | Web, iOS, Android | Flyers with a large font and template choice | Docs only |
| Picsart | Free; paid from $10.5 per month, Pro, billed yearly | Web, iOS, Android, Windows | Photo-heavy flyers made on a phone | Docs only |
| Pixlr | Free (Free tier is ad-supported with limited AI credits per search coverage) | Web | Quick browser edits | Docs only |
| Google Docs | Free (Free for anyone with a Google Account; storage comes from the Google account quota) | Web, iOS, Android | Plain printed notices | Docs only |
| Penpot | Free (Professional plan at $0: up to 8 team members plus unlimited viewers, 10GB storage, 7 days of version history); paid from $7 per per editor/month (Unlimited), capped at $175/month; 14-day free trial | Web | Custom layouts with open-source tools | Docs only |
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Explore the interface and watch a workflow before choosing.
By Penpot ·
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A flyer has one job, which is to be read from arm's length, so you want strong headings, a clear call to action and room for a date and place. Free flyer makers differ in how much they decide for you. Canva and Adobe Express start from templates, and Adobe Express lists over 100,000 templates with its free plan. Picsart and Pixlr are photo editors that also do layouts, with free tiers, so check each pricing page for current limits. Google Docs is a perfectly good choice for a text flyer you will photocopy, since it is free with a Google Account. Figma and Penpot give you a blank canvas and proper alignment tools; Penpot is open source under MPL-2.0. Decide first whether the flyer is going to a printer or being shared on screen, because print needs larger files and often a margin for trimming. The trade-off is polish against effort: templates look finished within minutes but are easy to recognise, while a blank canvas takes more time and gives you something distinct. Whatever you pick, test the legibility by printing a copy at actual size and checking that the key line reads from a distance.
Free plan exists; check its pricing page for current limits. Template-first and widely used for flyers.
Price: Free (Free plan available; see the pricing page for its current limits) (Canva pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Web, Windows, macOS, iOS, Android. Proprietary.
Best for: Fast event flyers.
Compare: Canva alternatives
Free plan at $0 with over 100,000 templates, 4,000-plus fonts and 5 GB storage; Premium is $9.99 a month.
Price: Free (Free plan: free daily generations for images and text effects, 5 lifetime presentation generations, basic editing tools, 5 GB storage); paid from $9.99 per month, Premium, billed monthly, 30-day free trial (Adobe Express pricing, checked 2026-10-23).
Platforms and license: Web, iOS, Android. Proprietary SaaS.
Best for: Flyers with a large font and template choice.
Pro costs $10.50 a month billed yearly; a free tier is described only by third-party reviews, so confirm its limits before relying on it.
Price: Free; paid from $10.5 per month, Pro, billed yearly (Picsart pricing, checked 2026-10-23).
Platforms and license: Web, iOS, Android, Windows. Proprietary.
Best for: Photo-heavy flyers made on a phone.
Compare: Picsart alternatives
Browser editor with an ad-supported free tier and limited AI credits; paid prices disagreed across sources so none is quoted.
Price: Free (Free tier is ad-supported with limited AI credits per search coverage) (Pixlr pricing, checked 2026-10-23).
Platforms and license: Web. Proprietary.
Best for: Quick browser edits.
Free with a Google Account; storage counts toward the account quota. A text-first flyer you can print or share as a PDF.
Price: Free (Free for anyone with a Google Account; storage comes from the Google account quota) (Google Docs pricing, checked 2026-10-23).
Platforms and license: Web, iOS, Android. Proprietary.
Best for: Plain printed notices.
Compare: Google Docs alternatives
Open-source (MPL-2.0) design tool; the $0 plan allows 8 team members, 10 GB storage and 7 days of history. Blank-canvas layouts.
Price: Free (Professional plan at $0: up to 8 team members plus unlimited viewers, 10GB storage, 7 days of version history); paid from $7 per per editor/month (Unlimited), capped at $175/month; 14-day free trial (Penpot pricing, checked 2026-10-23).
Platforms and license: Web. MPL-2.0 (open source).
Project activity: 61.8k GitHub stars · latest release 2.18.5 (Oct 26, 2026) · last commit Oct 27, 2026
Best for: Custom layouts with open-source tools.
Docs-only for Canva, Adobe Express, Picsart, Pixlr, Google Docs, Penpot: we did not install or run them, so feature claims come from vendor pages. Vendor prices and free limits change; confirm on the linked pricing page before you commit.
Kevin Fan is a SaaS founder. He runs Free Instead Of, which tracks free and open-source alternatives to paid software and checks each price and free-plan limit against the vendor's own pages.
Based on official pricing, license and product pages checked between 2026-10-22 and 2026-10-23: Canva, Adobe Express, Picsart, Pixlr, Google Docs, Penpot. Prices, free limits and licenses are the figures shown on those pages on those dates. No tool on this page was installed or run. No accounts were created.