Icon Design & Management

The designer-side of icons — design, organize, export, and ship icon sets. For library picks (Lucide, Phosphor, Iconify) see Icons. For UI-side icon rendering, see SVG editing.

Icon library managers (organize purchased / collected icons)

• ★ IconJar (macOS) — closed source, paid (one-time); the dominant designer icon-library manager. Tag, search, drag into Figma / Sketch.
• Iconset — closed source, freemium; alternative to IconJar.
• Eagle — closed source, paid; broader design-asset manager that includes icons.
• Pixave (macOS) — closed source, paid; asset manager with icon support.

Icon designers / quick custom icons

• ★ Boxy SVG — closed source, freemium; see Vector Design Apps; the fastest "tweak this SVG icon" tool.
• ★ Inkscape — free OSS; full vector tool when Boxy isn't enough.
• Penpot — free OSS; competent for icon design + can export an organized library.
• Figma (free tier) — closed source; the de-facto where icon kits get authored.
• Lunacy (Icons8) — free; Sketch-compatible; bundled icon library.

Icon font / sprite generators (build a custom set)

• ★ IcoMoon (App) — closed source, freemium; the long-running canonical "upload SVGs, get a font / SVG sprite" tool. Free tier covers most personal use.
• Fontello — free OSS; same idea as IcoMoon, simpler.
• svg-sprite (npm) — free OSS; CLI to build SVG sprites.
• @svgr/cli — convert SVGs to React components; the dev-side default.
• unplugin-icons — see Icons.

App icon generators (iOS / Android / web)

• ★ IconKitchen — free web tool by Roman Nurik; generates iOS, Android, and web icons from one source. The default in 2026.
• App Icon Generator (appicon.co) — free; web-based.
• MakeAppIcon — free; basic.
• Bakery — free OSS Figma plugin for app icon export.
• pwa-asset-generator — npm CLI for PWA / iOS splash + icons.

Favicons

• ★ RealFaviconGenerator — free; the favicon generator; covers every platform & manifest. Closed source.
• Favicon.io — free; simpler.
• Favycon — free OSS CLI.
• See SEO Metadata for <link rel="icon"> patterns.

Premium icon libraries (commercial)

• ★ Icons8 — closed source, freemium; massive multi-style library; royalty-free with attribution on free tier, or paid.
• Streamline — closed source, paid; very large pro library.
• The Noun Project — closed source, freemium; CC-BY with attribution or paid.
• IconScout — closed source, freemium.
• Flaticon — closed source, freemium; attribution required on free tier.

Free / OSS icon resources

• See Icons for: Lucide, Phosphor, Tabler, Heroicons, Iconify, Simple Icons.
• SVG Repo — free; large CC0 / MIT collection.
• Reshot — free; CC0.

Pick this if…

• Manage a library of icons you've collected: IconJar.
• Design or polish individual SVG icons: Boxy SVG or Inkscape.
• Generate iOS/Android/web app icons from one source: IconKitchen.
• Generate every favicon variant: RealFaviconGenerator.
• Build a custom icon font / sprite from your SVGs: IcoMoon or @svgr/cli.
• Need a huge free / cheap library: Icons8 or Streamline.