Create professional graphics, edit photos, design marketing materials — no Adobe subscription.
Honest recommendations. We built Helix and SIMPL, so we mark them clearly below. But we recommend tools that are not ours when they are the better fit. The goal is helping solopreneurs stop renting software — not just selling our products.
Photo editing, vector design, page layout — replaces Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign
Best Adobe alternative. Professional quality. One-time purchase for all three apps.
Photo editing and design for Mac
Best value photo editor on Mac. ML-powered features.
Image editor for Mac
Simple, fast, affordable. Good for quick edits.
Open source image editor
Free Photoshop alternative. Steep learning curve but very capable.
Open source vector graphics editor
Free Illustrator alternative. Good for logos and illustrations.
Professional video editing
Hollywood-grade video editor. Free version is absurdly powerful.
Subscription design & graphics tools charge $10-200/month — affordable at first, devastating over time. A $50/month tool costs $600/year, $2,015 over 3 years with 11.4% SaaS inflation, and $3,771 over 5 years. One-time purchase tools break this cycle. You pay once, own the software forever, and never see a "we are updating our pricing" email again.
The tools listed above are not all perfect. Self-hosted options require technical skill. Free tools sometimes lack polish. But they all share one thing: you are not renting them. Your data stays yours. Your workflow is not held hostage by a subscription you cannot cancel without losing everything.
Because our credibility matters more than one sale. If Obsidian is the best note-taking app and Helix Notes is designed for business context, we will tell you that. When you trust our recommendations, you trust us when we say Helix is the best all-in-one business suite for $279.
Open source tools are genuinely free — no hidden costs. Self-hosted tools require a server ($5-20/month) but you control everything. "Free tier" tools (like Clockify or HubSpot) are free until you need real features, then they cost more than the paid alternatives.