Figma Alternatives in 2026: Free, Open-Source and Buy-Once Design Tools

By Dominique Abbey · Published 25 October 2026

Short answer: There is no one-time licence for Figma, but there are real alternatives that cost nothing or that you buy once. Penpot is open source with a cloud plan its pricing page calls "free and fully featured", Affinity became a single free app under Canva in October 2025 according to press coverage, and Sketch still sells a $120 Mac-only licence that is "yours to keep, forever" with one year of updates. The 13 design lifetime deals live on AppSumo on 24 October 2026, priced from $29 to $109, are graphics, icon and template tools rather than UI editors, each with a 60-day refund window.

What a Figma alternative has to do

Figma's paid tiers are priced per editor per month; check figma.com/pricing for the current figures, which we did not verify for this article. The real question is what you need from an alternative: a full UI editor you can collaborate in, a design tool you own outright, or just the assets that surround the design work.

Everything below was checked on 24 October 2026, and we say plainly where a tool sits next to Figma rather than in its place.

The comparison at a glance

Penpot: the closest free Figma alternative

Penpot is open source and can be self-hosted, which is the nearest thing to owning a UI design tool outright. The cloud Professional plan is $0 per user per month and the pricing page calls it "free and fully featured".

Unlimited is $7 per editor per month, capped at $175 per month, with a 14-day trial, and Enterprise is $25 per member per month (penpot.app/pricing, checked 24 October 2026). If you need a collaborative UI editor rather than a graphics app, this is the one to try first.

Affinity: now free, with a Canva catch

According to press coverage from TechRadar, AlternativeTo and 80.lv, Canva merged Affinity Designer, Photo and Publisher into one free app announced on 30 October 2025, calling it "free forever". Windows and Mac versions are available and an iPad version was scheduled for 2026. Perpetual licences for the old separate apps stopped being sold in early October 2025.

The catch is the AI features. Generative Fill, Expand & Edit and Remove Background require a Canva Premium subscription, which press coverage puts at $14.99 a month or $119.99 a year for Canva Pro. We could not read Affinity's own page, which redirected during our check, so the press reports are the source for every figure in this section.

Affinity is a vector, photo and layout suite, which makes it a buy-nothing option for icons, illustrations and marketing graphics. It is not a direct Figma swap for interface and prototyping work.

Sketch: the one true buy-once licence

Sketch is the only tool here that still sells a one-time licence for a UI design app. The Mac-only licence is $120 per seat, includes one year of updates and is "yours to keep, forever", but it excludes collaboration, online sharing and iOS previews (sketch.com/pricing, checked 24 October 2026).

The subscription tiers are Standard $12, Professional $24 and Enterprise $44 per editor billed yearly, and there is a 30-day free trial. If you work alone on a Mac and do not need shared workspaces, the $120 licence is the cleanest buy-once answer on this page.

Lunacy: free, with a paid tier for assets

Lunacy by Icons8 has a Free plan at $0 with low-resolution assets, 10 cloud documents and 30-day version history. Pro is $11.99 per user per month billed yearly, as listed on Icons8's pricing page on 24 October 2026, and adds editable vectors, studio photos, an AI upscaler and background remover, and unlimited cloud documents; Enterprise is custom.

Aggregator sites show conflicting Lunacy prices, so use the Icons8 page as the source.

AppSumo design lifetime deals: adjacent, not replacements

None of the 13 design deals live on AppSumo on 24 October 2026 is a UI editor you would open instead of Figma. They are the things around the design work: icon packs, templates, image tools and graphics apps.

They are useful, and they are the only way to buy once in this category, but they sit next to Figma rather than in its place. Every AppSumo Marketplace deal carries the 60-day money-back guarantee printed on its page.

Live on 24 October 2026, grouped by AppSumo's own category:

Design Tools

• Picbolt — $49 (list $199), rated 5.00 from 12 reviews.
• Drawtify — $79.90 (list $990), rated 4.67 from 27 reviews.
• Graficto — $109 (list $400), rated 4.60 from 50 reviews.
• QwikBanners — $59 (list $495), rated 3.96 from 26 reviews.
• Interactive 3D Experiences & AR — $59 (list $500), rated 5.00 from 39 reviews.

Templates and icons

• CandyIcons — $39 (list $300), rated 4.85 from 139 reviews.
• Flat Icons, 32,000+ icons — $69 (list $149), rated 4.21 from 91 reviews.
• Git Aset — $49 (list $447), rated 4.96 from 45 reviews.
• EpicPxls — $39 (list $264), rated 4.76 from 29 reviews, an AppSumo Select deal.
• Graphue Presentation Templates — $49 (list $3,022), rated 4.71 from 76 reviews.

Image tools

• Airbrush AI Image Generator — $29 (list $108), rated 4.56 from 273 reviews.
• BackgroundCut AI Background Remover — $99, rated 4.80 from 30 reviews.
• Img.Upscaler — $69 (list $699), rated 4.15 from 34 reviews.

We list these by AppSumo's category, price and rating as shown on the deal pages; we have not benchmarked them against Figma. Review counts matter here: 4.56 from 273 reviews and 4.85 from 139 reviews are meaningful samples, while 5.00 from 12 reviews is not.

Which one should you pick

• You want a collaborative UI editor at zero cost: Penpot's Professional plan, or self-host it.
• You want to own the licence: Sketch's $120 Mac licence, as long as you can live without collaboration and online sharing.
• You want a free suite for illustration and photo work: Affinity, minus the AI features.
• You want a free starter with a cheap upgrade path: Lunacy.
• You want icons, templates or image tools without a subscription: the AppSumo deals above, bought and tested inside their 60-day refund window.

Before you buy any lifetime deal, check whether you already own something that overlaps. DealKeep flags duplicates you already own and flags tools that look like they are shutting down (Founder Track), and the Buy or Pass check gives you a quick read before you spend. Put the 60-day refund date in your calendar the day you buy, or let DealKeep keep every deal in one place and warn you before the window closes.

Related reading

Our guide to free alternatives to popular LTD tools makes the same case in other categories; the best lifetime deals list is verified live, and the refund-window table compares AppSumo's 60 days with other marketplaces.

See your own refund windows. DealKeep keeps every lifetime deal, code and refund date in one place and warns you before each window closes. Free for up to 10 tools. Start free · Best lifetime deals, verified live · Refund windows by marketplace