Free Logo Makers: Which ones are actually free?

Intro

Many entrepreneurs need to launch their small businesses on a shoestring budget, and many tech startups like to keep things lean in the early stages.

Logo design is an important first step for any small business. While we recommend investing in great design for your business (including a quality logo design), the reality is: some entrepreneurs can’t afford to spend money on anything when they launch their venture - and they find themselves wanting a free logo.

We recently reviewed the top AI logo generators in the market. As part of this review, we found that online logo makers claim to be ‘free’ - but we also found that many of them do not actually allow any downloading of any logos for free.

So, which logo makers are actually free? Which offer free logos that are genuinely 100% free to download, and which logo generators do not actually offer free to download anything?

We’ve tested 11 logo makers to see if they are actually free and here’s what we found …

Logo generators that are ACTUALLY free

Here are the best 4 logo generator websites that offer some genuinely free logo options for download (where the logos are actually 100% free and where the files are proper file types for a logo with no watermarks and no limitations):

1. Design.com
2. Canva
3. BrandCrowd
4. Adobe Express

Design.com: Actual Free Logos ✅

You can find Design.com’s free logo templates here:

Design.com’s free logo templates are actually 100% free to download for commercial use. Design.com offers all file types, high-resolution downloads and vector file downloads for its free logos.

Before you download, you can edit Design.com’s free logo templates and choose (for free) from hundreds of fonts and hundreds of icons for your logo.

Design.com also offers free logo templates in other languages, including: German, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Portuguese for Brazil.

Note that Design.com does also offer premium (paid) logos.

Here are some example free logos we made on Design.com:

Canva: Actual Free Logos ✅

Global design platform Canva has a generous freemium plan:

As part of their free plan, Canva offer plenty of free logo templates alongside their premium (paid) templates (available in their pro plan).

If you go to Canva’s logo templates page, you can filter down to “free” logos Canva offers their free templates in dozens of languages.

Here are some example free logo templates on Canva:

BrandCrowd: Actual Free Logos ✅

BrandCrowd offers a range of completely free logo templates for download that sit side-by-side with its premium logos.

BrandCrowd’s free logo templates are 100% free to download, and include vector files, transparent background files. There are no watermarks or restrictions on use.

Adobe Express: Actual Free Logos ✅

Adobe Express offers some genuinely free logo downloads.

Here are some example free logo templates on Adobe:

Logo generators that offer limited ‘free’

Some logo generators limit what you can get with thier ‘free’ offering - for example, adding watermarks to downloaded files, limiting the resolution of downloaded files or ilmiting the use of downloaded files to personal projects.

We found 3 logo maker websites that offer limitations on their ‘free’ logos:

1. Logo.com
2. LogoMaker.com
3. Smashing Logo
4. DesignEvo

Logo.com: Limited Free Logo

Logo.com has a limited ‘free’ logo offering - their logos are okay to use for “personal” projects (but not business) and you get limited logo files.

LogoMaker.com: Limited Free Logo

LogoMaker.com offers a very limited (low-resolution) ‘free’ logo download option. The logo is very pixelated and not a vector.

Smashing Logo: Limited Free Logo

Smashing Logo let you download a “free sample” which is watermarked, low resolution and not a vector - but that’s not really useful to use with a real business.

DesignEvo: Limited Free Logo

DesignEvo let you download a low-resolution “free” logo - but it is limited resolution, it’s not a vector and does not have a transparent background. They also make you give them “credit” for the logo.

Logo generators that are NOT free (to download)

There are a number of logo generators that are not actually free to download anything.

Here are some logo makers that we found do not actually allow any free logo downloads:

1. Looka
2. Turbo Logo
3. Tailor Brands
4. Brandmark

These 4 websites (Looka, Turbo Logo, Tailor Brands and Brandmark) do let you browse logos for free and try out their design editor experience, but you can’t actually download a logo for free.

Summary

In summary, beware of ‘free’ logo makers that don't actually allow you to download anything without payment. You can waste a lot of time making a logo only to find you cannot download it for free.

Thankfully, there are some logo generators out there that offer genuinely free logo downloads. The best free logo makers we found are: Design.com, Canva, Adobe Express and BrandCrowd.

Want more free resources to help launch or grow your business or website? Then check out some of our other blog posts:

• 7 free SEO tools
• Free keyword rank tracker
• Free online courses for blogging