Not for good: the first paid plan costs €27 a month. DesignCraft does the same thing for free, in open source.

What is the free equivalent of InDesign?

DesignCraft, an open source rewrite of InDesign (MIT or Apache 2.0 license): spreads and parent pages, threaded text, styles, tables, text wrap, swatches with CMYK and spot colors, and a print-ready PDF. It opens .indd and IDML files. Free on Mac, Windows and Linux. It is a pre-alpha: fidelity with InDesign files is not guaranteed yet.

Can you use InDesign without a subscription?

No: InDesign costs €27 a month with a one year commitment, and the only free version is a 7 day trial. DesignCraft installs with no subscription.

Is DesignCraft really free?

Yes. DesignCraft is open source: the code is public and installing it costs nothing. At most you pay for hosting if you put it on a server, often a few euros a month. InDesign, on the other hand, costs €27 a month.

Do I need to code to install DesignCraft?

No. The level is beginner and the install takes about 5 minutes with the prompt from the page: Claude does the work, you answer its questions.

How is it different from InDesign?

DesignCraft does most of what InDesign does, without a subscription, and your data stays with you. The point by point comparison is on the page.

Yes. With an open source tool installed on your side, your files stay on your machine or your server. Nobody can close your account or change the price.

Free alternative

Free alternative to InDesign

InDesign costs €27 a month. DesignCraft does the same job for free, in open source: you install it on your machine or a small server, and you stop paying.

Price taken from InDesign’s website (adobe.com): InDesign plan, one year commitment paid monthly, VAT included. Over a year, that is €324 that stays in your pocket.

How much does InDesign cost in 2026?

InDesign’s public plans, checked on 19 October 2026 on adobe.com. Prices rounded up to the next euro.

InDesign
€27 a month
On desktop, with Adobe Express Premium, 100 GB of storage and 25 AI credits a month. One year commitment, paid monthly.
InDesign for teams
€34 a month per license, excluding VAT
The same plan for a business, with 1 TB of storage and a one year commitment paid monthly.
Creative Cloud Pro
€79 a month
InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator, Acrobat Pro and over 20 Adobe apps, with 4,000 AI credits a month. A €40 promotion for 3 months was shown on the day prices were checked.

Prices including VAT shown for France, except the team plan (excluding VAT). The only free version is a 7 day trial. See the official pricing page ↗

What replaces InDesign

The main alternative

DesignCraft

🟢 Beginner⏱️ ~5 min to installSave €27/mo

DesignCraft is an open source rewrite of InDesign, built from scratch by the ArtCraft team. You find InDesign’s menus, panels and shortcuts: spreads and parent pages, threaded text frames, paragraph and character styles, tables, text wrap, swatches with CMYK and spot colors. It exports a print-ready PDF (bleed, crop marks), PDF/A, EPUB, PNG and even an editable PowerPoint. MIT or Apache 2.0 license, free on Mac, Windows and Linux, with no subscription. The catch: it is a pre-alpha, which the team rates 47% ready for real work. It opens .indd and IDML files with no guaranteed fidelity, and copying and pasting objects is still buggy on Windows and Linux.

Loucash’s verdict on DesignCraft

6/10

After PhotoCraft, FilmCraft, LightCraft, VectorCraft and EffectCraft, the same team takes on InDesign. Spreads, parent pages, threaded text, styles, swatches: everything is in the same place, with a real paragraph composer and a print-ready PDF. It even opens .indd and IDML files. What may bite: it is still a pre-alpha, started on 1 October. The team itself rates it 47% ready for real work: InDesign files open with no guaranteed fidelity, text can reflow differently, and copying and pasting objects is still buggy on Windows and Linux. For a personal brochure or booklet, it is worth a try. For a client file, keep InDesign for now.

Who it is for: You lay out brochures, catalogs, magazines or books, you pay for InDesign mostly for parent pages, styles and PDF export, and you want to stop the subscription. If you swap .indd files with clients or printers, or you rely on scripts and plug-ins, keep InDesign for now.

See the full page →See the tool ↗

DesignCraft versus InDesign: the match

Price
DesignCraft
€0, on every platform
InDesign
€27/month, one year commitment
License and sign in
DesignCraft
No subscription, no license server, no telemetry
InDesign
Adobe account required
InDesign files
DesignCraft
Opens .indd and IDML, fidelity not measured yet
InDesign
Its native format

InDesign ↗

VS	DesignCraft	InDesign ↗
Price	€0, on every platform	€27/month, one year commitment
License and sign in	No subscription, no license server, no telemetry	Adobe account required
InDesign files	Opens .indd and IDML, fidelity not measured yet	Its native format
Scripts, plug-ins and AI	None of these yet	Scripts, plug-ins, and 25 AI credits a month
Maturity	Pre-alpha, started in October 2026	Over 25 years of development

The prompt that installs DesignCraft

Paste this prompt into Claude: it checks the repository, asks you its questions and installs the tool step by step.

Je veux installer DesignCraft (le logiciel de mise en page open source qui reprend InDesign, dépôt GitHub officiel storytold/designcraft, site getartcraft.com/apps/designcraft) à la place d’un abonnement InDesign. Guide-moi pas à pas et pose-moi des questions si besoin. Repère d’abord mon système (macOS, Windows ou Linux) et mon processeur (Apple Silicon, Intel, x64 ou ARM). Télécharge ensuite la dernière version publiée dans les releases du dépôt storytold/designcraft, ou sur la page officielle getartcraft.com/apps/designcraft, en prenant le fichier qui correspond : l’image disque universelle sur Mac, l’installateur .msi sur Windows (x64, ARM64 ou 32 bits), l’AppImage, le paquet .deb, le paquet .rpm ou le Flatpak sur Linux. Vérifie l’empreinte SHA-256 du fichier avec le fichier SHA256SUMS.txt publié avec la même version, et arrête-toi si elle ne correspond pas. Installe l’appli et vérifie qu’elle démarre. Si macOS bloque l’ouverture, explique-moi comment l’autoriser dans Réglages Système, sans désactiver la sécurité de mon Mac. Rappelle-moi que DesignCraft est encore en pré-alpha : je garde mes fichiers InDesign d’origine et je travaille sur des copies. Si j’utilise Claude Code, propose-moi aussi d’installer l’outil en ligne de commande designcraft-cli de la même version et de brancher son serveur MCP (designcraft-cli mcp), pour que tu puisses mettre en page à ma place. Pour finir, ouvre le magazine d’exemple livré avec l’appli, puis un de mes documents InDesign exporté en IDML, et dis-moi ce qui s’affiche bien et ce qui manque.

Review the GitHub repository and check whether it is safe to install given my machine and my infrastructure. Ask me as many questions as possible, using widgets, to clarify my request and be as precise as you can.

Frequently asked questions

How much does InDesign cost?: InDesign: €27 a month; InDesign for teams: €34 a month per license, excluding VAT; Creative Cloud Pro: €79 a month. Prices checked on 19 October 2026 on adobe.com.
Is InDesign free?: Not for good: the first paid plan costs €27 a month. DesignCraft does the same thing for free, in open source.
What is the free equivalent of InDesign?: DesignCraft, an open source rewrite of InDesign (MIT or Apache 2.0 license): spreads and parent pages, threaded text, styles, tables, text wrap, swatches with CMYK and spot colors, and a print-ready PDF. It opens .indd and IDML files. Free on Mac, Windows and Linux. It is a pre-alpha: fidelity with InDesign files is not guaranteed yet.
Can you use InDesign without a subscription?: No: InDesign costs €27 a month with a one year commitment, and the only free version is a 7 day trial. DesignCraft installs with no subscription.
Is DesignCraft really free?: Yes. DesignCraft is open source: the code is public and installing it costs nothing. At most you pay for hosting if you put it on a server, often a few euros a month. InDesign, on the other hand, costs €27 a month.
Do I need to code to install DesignCraft?: No. The level is beginner and the install takes about 5 minutes with the prompt from the page: Claude does the work, you answer its questions.
How is it different from InDesign?: DesignCraft does most of what InDesign does, without a subscription, and your data stays with you. The point by point comparison is on the page.
Do I own my data?: Yes. With an open source tool installed on your side, your files stay on your machine or your server. Nobody can close your account or change the price.

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