About The Design Tools
Why this directory exists, how tools get chosen, and why we started building our own.
What this is
Hundreds of design tools, reviewed one at a time by an actual person. Every listing says where the tool falls short, not just what it is good at, and nobody can pay to be here.
That last part is the whole point. Most design-tool directories read like advertising. This one is useful precisely because it will tell you when not to buy something.
The tools we built
Ten of them now: a colour palette generator, a contrast checker, a CSS gradient generator, a design system generator, a CMF spec sheet generator, an invoice generator, an image compressor, a favicon generator, Make It Pretty, and a logo maker.
They are free, they run entirely in your browser, and none of them asks for an account or uploads your work anywhere. It seemed odd to run a directory of design tools without making any.
They are held to the same rule as everything else here: each has its own listing with its own drawbacks written down.
Who it is for
- Digital product designers — UX/UI, interaction design, design systems
- Graphic designers — branding, print, illustration, motion
- Industrial and physical product designers — CAD, prototyping, manufacturing
- Architects — BIM, parametric design, rendering
- Creative directors — workflow and team tooling
How a tool gets in
Hand-picked, never auto-scraped. Pricing, learning curve, integrations and honest drawbacks are checked before anything earns a place. New tools go in as they are found, not to a schedule — a schedule means padding, and padding is how a directory turns into noise.
How this makes money
Some outbound links are affiliate links, and we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. It never affects whether a tool is listed or what its drawbacks section says. If it did, the site would be worthless, including to us.
Who runs this
The Design Tools is a small, independent directory run from the EU — no newsroom, no content farm. Every listing and guide is written or reviewed by a person who has opened the tool in question. Reach us at hello@thedesigntools.site.
Editorial standard and corrections
Listings are hand-picked and never auto-scraped. Each one states real drawbacks alongside strengths, and nobody can pay to be listed, ranked higher, or have a drawback removed. Paid placements are labelled Sponsored and kept visually separate. Prices and plans are re-checked periodically and link health is monitored automatically. If anything here is wrong, tell us and it gets fixed. See the full editorial policy.
Get in touch
Have a tool worth adding, a correction, or a partnership idea? Email hello@thedesigntools.site. Corrections especially — if something here is wrong, it should be fixed.
Frequently asked questions
Everything you might want to know before submitting or trusting a listing.
No — tools carry different pricing models: Free, Freemium, Paid or Quote-only. Every card shows the pricing model as a badge before you click through, and each tool page states the actual price where the vendor publishes one.
Every tool is reviewed individually and written up with real strengths and real drawbacks — no tool is added just to inflate the count. Nobody can pay to be listed; sponsored placements exist but are labelled "Sponsored" and kept visually separate from the editorial directory.
Yes — use the submission form below. Tell us what it does and why it belongs here. Submissions are reviewed by hand, so getting to the point in the "why it deserves a listing" field genuinely helps.
New tools are added on an ongoing basis, and existing entries are periodically re-checked for dead links, pricing changes and outdated claims.