LibreOffice 25.8: New features
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Adobe InDesign Alternatives 2026: 5 Options, 4 Free
Adobe InDesign alternatives: Scribus, Affinity by Canva, Canva, LibreOffice and 1 more. Prices and licenses checked October 23, 2026.
•3 min read•Graphic Design & Diagramming
Verdict:Leave InDesign if the work is flyers, small brochures or the odd print PDF and you pay $22.99 a month for a program you open twice a week. The Adobe page lists InDesign at that price for individuals, with only a 7-day trial before billing starts. For real print work, Scribus is the free pick: it handles CMYK, spot colors and PDF output, but the interface is dated and plugins from the Adobe world will not carry over. Affinity by Canva is the more modern route, since the core app is reported to be free and includes page layout; check whether you need its paid AI features before you rely on it. Canva suits social posts and one-page handouts, not 200-page books. LibreOffice Draw covers basic posters at no cost, and CorelDRAW is the paid fallback if you need vector and layout together on Windows. The trade-off is ecosystem: InDesign files open reliably at print shops, agencies and in Illustrator or Photoshop workflows. If clients send you .indd files or you work in a team that shares Creative Cloud libraries, staying costs less than the friction of converting. If you design your own material and export PDF, moving to Scribus or Affinity saves several hundred dollars a year.
Quick comparison
| Tool | Price | Platforms | Best for | Tested |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scribus | Free (Free and open source; no paid tier) | Windows, macOS, Linux | Print layouts without a subscription | Docs only |
| Affinity by Canva | Free (Core app free with no feature limits per press coverage of the October 2025 launch; generative AI features need a paid Canva plan) | Windows, macOS | Layout and photo work in one free app | Docs only |
| Canva | Free (Free plan available; see the pricing page for its current limits) | Web, Windows, macOS, iOS, Android | Short marketing documents and templates | Docs only |
| LibreOffice | Free (download and use at no cost per its site) | Windows, macOS, Linux | Simple documents on a zero budget | Docs only |
| CorelDRAW | See pricing page | Windows, macOS, Web | Print shops that want paid software without Adobe | Docs only |
Independent comparison. Paid placements are labelled separately; editorial links earn no affiliate commissions. Learn more.
See the tools in action
Explore the interface and watch a workflow before choosing.
Good fit if
- You lay out print PDFs and want no subscription (Scribus is the pick)
- You want one modern free app for layout and photos (Affinity by Canva is the pick)
- You make flyers and social graphics from templates (Canva is the pick)
- You need a quick poster and already have Office tools (LibreOffice is the pick)
Not ideal if
- You rely on Adobe InDesign features or integrations that these tools do not replicate
Adobe InDesign today: Paid from $22.99 per month for individuals, annual plan billed monthly (Adobe InDesign pricing, checked 2026-10-23).
Why people look for Adobe InDesign alternatives
Adobe sells InDesign as a subscription, either as a single app on an annual plan billed monthly or inside Creative Cloud Pro, which bundles 20 or more apps at a much higher monthly price. The only trial is seven days, and it converts to a paid membership unless you cancel before it ends. There is no one-time licence on the product page, so occasional layout work means paying every month indefinitely.
Scribus
Compared with Adobe InDesign: Free, open source and built for print: CMYK, spot colors, ICC color management and PDF output. You give up InDesign's Creative Cloud libraries and polish, and Scribus has a steeper, older interface, but there is no subscription.
Price: Free (Free and open source; no paid tier) (Scribus pricing, checked 2026-10-23).
Platforms and license: Windows, macOS, Linux. GPL (v2 or later per package listings) (open source).
Project activity: 644 GitHub stars · last commit Oct 22, 2026
Best for: Print layouts without a subscription.
Affinity by Canva
Compared with Adobe InDesign: Core app is free with no feature limits according to launch coverage, and it folds in the old Publisher layout tools. Compared with InDesign you lose Adobe's file format support and plugin ecosystem; AI features need a paid Canva plan.
Price: Free (Core app free with no feature limits per press coverage of the October 2025 launch; generative AI features need a paid Canva plan) (Affinity by Canva pricing, checked 2026-10-23).
Platforms and license: Windows, macOS. Proprietary.
Best for: Layout and photo work in one free app.
Canva
Compared with Adobe InDesign: Free plan for flyers, social posts and simple brochures, with templates. It is not a typesetting tool: no master pages for long books, weaker print controls than InDesign, and paid tiers for brand kits.
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: Short marketing documents and templates.
LibreOffice
Compared with Adobe InDesign: Free, and Draw handles posters and flyers while Writer does reports. You lose InDesign's typographic control, linked styles across a book, and professional color separations.
Price: Free (download and use at no cost per its site) (LibreOffice pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Windows, macOS, Linux. MPL-2.0 (open source).
Best for: Simple documents on a zero budget.
Worth knowing: Desktop suite of Writer, Calc, Impress, Draw, Base and Math; it has no built-in cloud storage or email.
CorelDRAW
Compared with Adobe InDesign: A paid one-time or subscription alternative that does page layout plus vector illustration on Windows and Mac. Check its site for current prices; it is closer to InDesign in features than the free picks.
Price: See pricing page (CorelDRAW pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Windows, macOS, Web. Proprietary.
Best for: Print shops that want paid software without Adobe.
Which one to pick
- You lay out print PDFs and want no subscription: Scribus
- You want one modern free app for layout and photos: Affinity by Canva
- You make flyers and social graphics from templates: Canva
- You need a quick poster and already have Office tools: LibreOffice
Limits of this review
Docs-only for Scribus, Affinity by Canva, Canva, LibreOffice, CorelDRAW: we did not install or run them, so feature claims come from vendor pages and we did not test import from Adobe InDesign. Vendor prices and free limits change; confirm on the linked pricing page before you buy or migrate.
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Kevin Fan
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.
Methodology
Based on official pricing and product pages checked between 2026-10-22 and 2026-10-23: Adobe InDesign, Scribus, Affinity by Canva, Canva, LibreOffice, CorelDRAW. 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.