SVG Icon Editors: 6 Free Tools Compared for Developers
Compare 6 free SVG icon editors and libraries — Figma, Boxy SVG, Lucide, Heroicons, SVGOMG, Iconify — with optimization and icon workflow tips.
Evaluation Criteria
We compared: editing power (path editing vs assembly), export quality (clean SVG output), license safety (MIT/Apache for commercial use), and dev handoff (copy-as-JSX/SVG).
Comparison Table
| Tool | License | In-Browser / Cloud | Key Strength | Official URL |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lucide Icons | ISC (Open Source) | Library + site | 1500+ consistent MIT-style icons | https://lucide.dev |
| Heroicons | MIT | Library + site | Tailwind-native outline/solid sets | https://heroicons.com |
| Figma | Free / Freemium | Cloud | Full vector editing + components | https://figma.com |
| Boxy SVG | Paid (free trial) | Desktop app | Illustrator-lite for SVG files | https://boxy-svg.com |
| SVGOMG (Jake Archibald) | Open Source | In-browser | Best SVG optimizer | https://svgomg.net |
| Iconify | Open Source (MIT) | In-browser + API | Universal framework for 150k+ icons | https://iconify.design |
Deep Dive
1. Lucide — the default icon set
Fork of Feather with 1500+ icons, identical 24×24 grid and stroke width. Tree-shakable packages for React, Vue, Svelte, and Astro (lucide-astro). ISC licensed — safe for commercial products.
2. Heroicons — best with Tailwind
Designed by the Tailwind team in outline/solid/mini variants. If your UI is Tailwind-based, Heroicons match its spacing rhythm out of the box. Browse at heroicons.com.
3. Figma — when you need to draw
Free tier covers icon work easily: boolean operations, flatten, outline-stroke before export. Keep icons on a shared 24px grid with 2px strokes for consistency.
4. Boxy SVG — desktop precision
Native-feeling SVG file editor (Chromium-based). Worth it when Figma feels heavy for “open file, fix path, save” tasks.
5. SVGOMG — mandatory optimizer
Paste exported SVG and watch 40–70% size drops from removing editor metadata:
# Same idea in CI
npx svgo --multipass src/icons/*.svg6. Iconify — universal icon ecosystem
Unified open-source icon framework providing access to over 150,000 icons from 100+ icon sets. Offers instant SVG copy, CSS background-image generator, and web components for modern frontend stacks.
Workflow Best Practices
- One source of truth: store raw SVGs in
src/icons/, optimize in CI with SVGO. - Inline critical icons, sprite the rest (
<use href="#i-search">). - Always set
aria-hidden="true"on decorative icons andaria-labelon icon-only buttons.