11 Online Graphic Design Tools for Social Media Images

The best online graphic design tools for social media images are Canva and Adobe Express for everyday post graphics, Figma for teams that build their own templates, and Kittl for type-led designs. Alongside those, a few free helpers cover the rest: Photopea or Pixlr for photo editing, Remove.bg for cut-outs, Infogram for charts, The Noun Project for icons, TinyPNG for compression, and Unsplash or Pexels for free stock photos.

You don't need Photoshop or a big design budget to post good visuals. Below is what each tool is best for, how a social media manager would actually use it, and a simple workflow for making a branded graphic in under 15 minutes.

This list was first published in 2020. We've rewritten it for 2026 and removed tools that have shut down or no longer suit social media work.

Quick comparison

Plans and limits change often, so check each tool's pricing page before you commit.

1. Canva: best all-round tool

Canva is the default for most social teams. It has templates already sized for Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube thumbnails and TikTok covers, a large stock library and drag-and-drop editing anyone on the team can use.

What makes it useful for social media specifically:

• Brand Kit (paid) stores your logos, colours and fonts so every designer starts on-brand.
• Resize (paid) turns one design into versions for several networks.
• AI tools such as background remover, Magic Edit and text-to-image speed up routine edits.
• Collaboration: comment, share and lock template elements so others can edit only the text.

Best for: small teams and solo marketers who want everything in one place.

2. Adobe Express: best if you already use Adobe

Adobe Express is Adobe's browser and mobile design app, with social templates, Adobe Fonts and Firefly generative AI built in. It covers much the same ground as Canva, and it's the better fit if your brand assets already live in Creative Cloud or your designers work in Photoshop and Illustrator.

Best for: teams with an Adobe workflow who want non-designers to make quick on-brand graphics.

3. Figma: best for reusable templates

Figma is a professional design tool, but its free plan and browser access make it practical for social teams. A designer builds a set of components (quote cards, carousel slides, announcement posts) once, and everyone else duplicates and edits them. Auto layout keeps text and spacing tidy when copy changes length, which is handy for carousels.

Best for: teams with at least one designer who want pixel-perfect, consistent templates.

4. Kittl: best for typography

Kittl focuses on type-led designs such as posters, quotes, badges and merch-style graphics. It has text effects (curved, outlined, distressed) and illustration assets that take much longer to recreate in general-purpose tools.

Best for: quote posts, event announcements and brands with a bold, illustrated look.

5. Pixlr: best for quick photo edits

Pixlr runs in the browser with two editors: a simpler one for fast fixes (crop, filters, text, borders) and a layered one closer to traditional photo software. It also has AI tools for background removal and generative fill.

Best for: tidying product photos and phone shots before they go into a template.

6. Photopea: best free Photoshop alternative

Photopea is a free browser editor that looks and works much like Photoshop. It has layers, masks, adjustment layers and blend modes, and it opens and saves PSD files. If a designer sends you a PSD, you can edit it without a Creative Cloud licence.

Best for: anyone who needs real photo editing without installing software.

7. Remove.bg: best for background removal

Upload a photo and Remove.bg cuts out the subject in seconds. Product shots on a clean background, team headshots on a brand colour and people placed into templates all start with a cut-out. Canva, Adobe Express and Pixlr now have similar tools built in, but Remove.bg is quick when you just need a transparent PNG.

Best for: e-commerce and product posts, team photos and thumbnails.

8. Infogram: best for charts and data visuals

Infogram turns numbers into charts, maps and infographics you can export as images for social or embed on a website. It's useful when you share research, survey results or yearly recaps and want something clearer than a screenshot of a spreadsheet.

Tip: for social, keep to one chart per image, one key number in large type, and the source in small text at the bottom.

9. The Noun Project: best for icons

The Noun Project has a huge library of icons for almost any concept, in consistent styles. Icons are free with attribution or available without attribution on a paid plan. Pick one icon style and stick with it so your carousels and infographics look like a set.

Best for: carousel slides, explainer graphics and infographics.

10. TinyPNG: best for compression

Big images upload slowly, and some networks recompress them heavily. TinyPNG shrinks PNG, JPEG and WebP files without visible quality loss. That helps most for images on your website and blog, and it's a quick step before uploading to a scheduler. Google's free Squoosh app is a good alternative if you want to compare formats side by side.

11. Unsplash and Pexels: best free stock photos

When you need a photo you didn't take, Unsplash and Pexels offer high-quality images free for commercial use under their own licences. Read each site's licence, avoid photos with recognisable trademarks or people for ads, and edit stock images (crop, colour, text overlay) so they don't look like everyone else's.

Where AI image generation fits

Most of the tools above now include text-to-image features, and dedicated AI generators can produce backgrounds, illustrations and concept images in seconds. A few practical rules:

• Use AI for backgrounds and concepts, not for your logo, product photos or anything that has to be accurate.
• Check text in images. AI models still misspell words in images. Add text in your design tool instead.
• Follow platform labelling rules for realistic AI-generated images where they apply.

If you schedule with Social9, you can skip a step: it can generate an image with Google Gemini alongside each post, which you can keep, regenerate or swap for your own design before scheduling. See how it works on our AI images for social posts page, or read our guide to AI image enhancement tools.

A 15-minute workflow for a branded social graphic

This is how we'd make a typical announcement or tip graphic with the free tools above:

1. Pick the size first. Choose a template for the network and format, such as 1080 x 1350 for an Instagram feed post or 1080 x 1920 for a Story. Our social media image and video sizes guide lists every network.
2. Start from your template, not a blank canvas, with your logo, colours and fonts already in place.
3. Add the visual. Use your own photo where you can (cut it out with Remove.bg if needed), or a stock photo from Unsplash or Pexels.
4. Write the headline in 8 words or fewer. The graphic should make sense in under two seconds on a phone. Put the details in the caption.
5. Check contrast and safe zones. Keep text away from the edges and the areas covered by buttons and captions in Stories and Reels.
6. Export and compress as PNG for text-heavy graphics or JPEG for photos, then run it through TinyPNG if the file is large.
7. Schedule it with the caption for each network so the graphic and copy go out together.

How to choose

• Solo marketer or small business: Canva or Adobe Express, plus Unsplash or Pexels.
• Team with a designer: Figma for templates, Canva or Adobe Express for everyone else.
• Photo-heavy brand (food, retail, real estate): Pixlr or Photopea plus Remove.bg.
• Data-heavy brand (B2B, research, finance): Infogram plus The Noun Project.

Whichever you pick, the gains come from consistency: a small set of templates your whole team reuses, in your brand colours, sized for each network. As Thomas Watson Jr. of IBM put it, "Good design is good business."