If you need a new logo design or simply want to refresh your current logo design, we’ve looked at the best logo design software for Mac of 2024.
Your brand’s logo is one of the first things customers or clients see when they visit your website and plays a crucial role in your branding success.
In these reviews, we’ve looked at some of the best graphic design software and logo makers for all abilities and budgets.
In judging which were the best tools for creating logos on a Mac, we considered a number of factors mainly:
- Graphic design features
- Ease of use
- Mac desktop app
- Templates
- Pricing
In our extensive testing, we found that the best software for making logos on a Mac is Adobe Express (Free) for creating professional looking logos of any size in just minutes.
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Free Logo Design Software vs Paid
All of the Mac compatible paid logo makers reviewed here have free versions that you can test before deciding whether to subscribe.
If you search for “free logo design software” you’ll find that most of them claim to be free but charge you to download the final results anyway and they’re not suitable for professional use.
In our research, we found that paid tools also give you full control over resolution, size, editing and access to your logo in the future whereas many free option impose restrictions on what you can download and use.
1. Adobe Express (Free)
If you don’t have the time to learn how to use graphic design software then you should take a look at the excellent Adobe Express (formerly Adobe Spark) for creating logos.
Creative Cloud Express is a lighter (and cheaper) version of the powerful Adobe Creative Cloud suite and and provides hundreds of customizable logo templates so that you can create logos in minutes rather than hours.
Adobe Express is aimed at beginners with no design experience so is ideal for those that are new to graphic design and logo making.
Creative Cloud Express works by asking you details about what your logo is about and then automatically suggesting a range of styles and templates that it thinks you’re looking for.
You then simply take the ideas that Creative Cloud Express generates and turn them into your own personalized logos.
In fact, you may find that many of the professional looking logos that Creative Cloud Express suggests are perfect just as they are.
Since 2023, like Adobe Creative Cloud, Adobe Express has been updated to use the Adobe Firefly AI art tools to automatically generate images and content.
Adobe Firefly’s “Generative Fill” feature creates backgrounds and objects automatically based on prompts you give for the design and style you’re looking for.
When done, you can download high quality PNG or JPG versions of your logo which you can use anywhere.
The Adobe Express starter plan is even free although it doesn’t allow you to fully customize logos.
The individual plan starts at $9.99 per month to completely personalize your designs.
You can read our full Adobe Express review for more.
Pricing: Free / $9.99/m
Pros:
- Very easy to use
- Automatically generates professional logos and more
- Starter Plan is free to use
- Uses Firefly AI to automatically generate designs
Cons:
- Free plan limits features
- Doesn’t offer precision controls
2. Adobe Illustrator
Adobe is one of the biggest names in graphic design and its no surprise that we found Adobe Illustrator is by far the best professional application for designing logos on a Mac in 2024.
Adobe Illustrator is a vector editing software that allows unrivaled levels of precision and control in graphic design on a Mac.
It has been around for almost 40 years now and in that time has always been up there as one of the best tools for graphic design and branding.
Adobe has enhanced it in recent years with the release of Creative Cloud which is collection of design tools that includes Illustrator, InDesign and Photoshop to create the ultimate professional design suite.
It also now includes professional resources such as Adobe Stock which gives you access to millions of professional stock photos, videos and other multimedia assets.
Illustrator also allows you to use Adobe Capture to capture hand draw sketches and then enhance them in Illustrator.
The software takes some learning for beginners but once mastered, you’ve got a professional branding tool that’s used by some of the biggest companies in the world.
If you don’t have the time to learn Adobe Illustrator, we also recommend taking a look at the excellent Adobe Express (see review below) which is a simplified design tool for beginners to graphic design.
Most recently, it has also been updated to use Adobe Firefly AI art tools to automatically generate images and content.
Firefly automatically generates images and content and is the best AI art and image software we’ve tried on a Mac.
Firefly’s “Generative Fill” tool automatically creates backgrounds and objects based on prompts you give it about the design and style you want.
On its own Adobe Illustrator costs $22.99 per month.
However, if you’re a student or entitled to an educational license, you can get 60% off Creative Cloud which is a much better deal.
This gives you access to all 20 Adobe Creative Cloud apps for LESS than the cost of Illustrator on its own.
You can also try a free trial of Adobe Illustrator for Mac to test it for yourself before comitting to a purchase.
You can also read our full Adobe Illustrator review for more.
Pricing: Free Trial / 60% off with Creative Cloud Educational Discount or $22.99/m
Pros:
- Industry leading graphic design software
- Incredible set of features and tools
- Over 16,000 different fonts
- Integrated with the amazing Creative Cloud suite
- Edit multiple art boards simultaneously
- Mac desktop app
- Uses Adobe Firefly AI art generator
- Works natively on Apple Silicon Macs
Cons:
- Steep learning curve for beginners
- Raster graphic support could be better
3. Canva
Canva is a powerful online logo designer that also has a limited free version for personal use.
Canva allows you to drag and drop objects onto the canvas and has over 50,000 templates to get you started.
The software is very easy to use and requires no previous design experience. You can share designs immediately to social media although only Twitter and Facebook.
You can export a transparent PNG version of your logo although you can only create a vector image if you subscribe to a paid plan.
Canva also has a Mac desktop app which doesn’t offer any major advantages over using it in a browser but it’s one of the few online logo design apps to have a Mac desktop client.
The free version of Canva is great for creating quick simple logos with few customization options.
Canva Pro starts at $14.99 per month and allows simultaneous collaboration with other designers, access to over 400,000 templates, version history tracker and much more.
Pricing: Free/Plans starting from $14.99/month.
Pros:
- Easy to use
- Drag and drop objects
- Limited free version
- Exports to PNG
- Mac desktop app
- Pro version offers lots of powerful tools
Cons:
- Free version very limited
4. CorelDRAW
CorelDRAW for Mac is a powerful graphic design software that’s up there with Adobe Illustrator in terms of creative power when it comes to logo design.
Like Adobe Illustrator, CorelDRAW takes some learning. In fact, we think that Illustrator has become easier to use over the years and has far more learning resources than CorelDRAW which was only recently re-released on Mac.
Also like Adobe Illustrator, CorelDRAW is a vector based graphic design tool which means it produces vector graphics that can be enlarged to any size with no loss in quality.
Logo sketching in CorelDRAW offers incredible color accuracy and flexibility with powerful non destructive bitmap and vector editing.
For those that like to use a drawing tablet to do their logo designing, the CorelDRAW LiveSketch tool is an amazing asset which uses an advanced neural network to instantly create an editable vector image from a freehand sketch.
Although you can use LiveSketch with the CorelDRAW cursor, it’s best used with a sketching tablet for complete freedom when drawing.
You can also try CorelDRAW for Mac for free to judge it for yourself.
Pricing: Free / $499 one off purchase or $249 annually
Pros:
- Powerful industry standard logo design tool
- Incredible color and palette controls
- LiveSketch allows you to create hand drawn tablet sketches
- Mac desktop app
- Works natively on Apple Silicon Macs
Cons:
- Steep learning curve
- High up front cost
5. Inkscape (Free)
Inkscape is an open source graphic design software that’s free to use and can be used to create logos your Mac desktop.
Unlike most free graphic design software, Inkscape won’t charge you for higher resolution images or put any restrictions on what you create.
Inkscape is a vector editing application which means it takes a bit of learning for beginners but for experienced graphic designers, it offers some powerful logo creation tools for free.
Some of the highlights of Inkscape for Mac include calligraphy tools and a color selector tool for RGB, HSL, CMYK, color wheel and CMS palettes.
It also has a gradient editor and can export results to SVG, EPS, PDF, PNG and Adobe Illustrator AI format.
Check out our full Inkscape review for more.
Pricing: Free
6. Turbologo (Free)
As the name suggests, Turbologo is for those that need to create a logo in a hurry. Although it advertises itself as a “free logo maker”, you can design logos for free with it but you will have to pay to download it in high resolution.
A little bit like with Adobe Creative Cloud Express, Turbologo asks you to define some parameters for your logo and then automatically suggest some designs based on it.
Turbologo is very good at creating simple, minimalist logos although you can’t customize them very much.
Exporting is also limited to PNG in the free version but you can download a high resolution vector format version of your logo with a paid plan starting at $19.99 per month.
There are thousands of logo templates to choose from and editing them is very easy in a WYSIWYG interface.
However, we found that overall the choice of templates in Turbologo is considerably less than online tools like Canva and Adobe Creative Cloud Express.
Pricing: Free/Plans start $19.99 to download and edit high res images for up to 3 months
Pros:
- Very quick and easy to use
- Online and works in seconds
- Simple, minimalist logo designs
Cons:
- Not many customization tools
- High resolution images require payment plan
- No Mac desktop app
7. Logo Maker (Free)
Logo Maker is a free logo design app on the Mac App Store which allows you to create basic logos for free.
Logo Maker is aimed at total novices that aren’t familiar with concepts such as Layers, Gradient and Textures but need a business logo as quickly as possible.
The free version is quite limited however with very basic designs so to get the most out of it, you’ll need to subscribe starting at $4.99 per week or $9.99 per month.
It also allows you to create unlimited logos and divides logos into different categories such as lifestyle, sports, business etc.
You can also add text, overlays, colors and backgrounds.
If you just want to get an overview of a logo idea Logo Maker is fine although for professional logos, its not really suitable.
Pricing: Free / $9.99 per month.
8. Shopify Hatchful (Free)
Shopify Hatchful is a free logo designer from the Shopify e-commerce platform. Although there’s no Mac app, you can use it in any browser and on Android or iOS devices via an app.
You simply answer some questions about your brand or logo requirements and Shopify Hatchful will automatically generate some logos based on your responses.
Shopify Hatchful is designed for those using the Shopify platform but anyone can use it to create and download logos for free.
Pricing: Free
8. Squarespace Logo Creator (Free)
Squarespace Logo Creator is about as basic as it gets but you can make logos for free with it. It works in any browser on Mac or Windows PC.
Simply enter the name of your brand and Squarespace Logo creator will present you with a canvas which you can edit. You can change shapes,, colors and positioning but that’s about it.
You’ll also need to have a Squarespace account to use it and although you can download the low resolution version of the logo for free, you need to pay $10 for the high res version.
Pricing: Free / $10
9. Ucraft (Free)
Ucraft is a very basic logo maker that allows you to drag and drop shapes and text onto a blank canvas in any browser.
It’s easy to use but there’s very little else you can do with it apart from add text and select a range of generic icons.
Unlike most free logo software, you can download a high resolution version of your logo for free although if you want an SVG file it costs an extra $10.
Pricing: Free / $10
Is Photoshop Good For Logo Design?
When it comes to graphic design, by far the most popular software on the market is Adobe Photoshop. However, we don’t recommend Photoshop for designing logos.
Creating logos in Photoshop cannot be enlarged or manipulated in the same way as in Adobe Illustrator.
That’s because Illustrator is a Vector based graphic design software whereas Photoshop is raster based on pixel editing.
When you enlarge logos made in Illustrator, they do not lose any quality. When you enlarge images created in raster based design apps like Photoshop, the images will look pixelated.
It’s also much easier to export files from Illustrator to be used in print, online, videos, apps and other projects than Adobe Photoshop.
How To Design A Logo
Whichever logo design tool you choose, there are 5 principles of effective logo design you should bear in mind.
- Simplicity
The most memorable logos such as Nike’s swoosh or McDonald’s golden arc are simple but memorable. Study those successful logos that stick in the mind and consider what makes them work.
- Memorable
What kind of message do you want your logo to convey? What’s the identity of your business? When you’ve worked this out, it gives you a great basis to build your logo on and keep it focused.
- Timeless
Some of the best logos haven’t changed much in hundreds of years. Make sure that your logo is not time sensitive or making any references to current cultural trends.
- Appropriate
A logo should reflect the image the business or organization wants to convey such as playful or serious. The type of font and colors used can have a big impact on this.
- Versatile
Any decent logo design app should allow you to create vectors of your logo so that it can be used in a variety of sizes and colors. These are crucial to allow you to resize your images for a variety of uses from posters to websites.