Color palette tools compared
Coolors, Adobe Color and Color Hunt are the best-known color palette sites, and developers and UI designers also reach for Realtime Colors, UI Colors, the WebAIM Contrast Checker, Radix Colors and Happy Hues. Each is good at something different. This page sets them side by side with GetColors so you can pick the right tool for the job, or use more than one.
Side by side
| Best known for | Strong if you | Read the comparison | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coolors | A fast generator and a community library its home page puts at "10M+ Palettes" | Want mobile and Adobe plugins and a huge palette library | Coolors alternative |
| Adobe Color | A color wheel with harmony rules, now presented as part of Adobe Express | Work in Creative Cloud and Adobe Express | Adobe Color alternative |
| Color Hunt | A simple wall of hand-picked palettes | Want quick inspiration with likes and tags | Color Hunt alternative |
| GetColors | Palettes that become full color systems, with contrast checked | Want every tool and export free, without an account | Open the generator |
Tools for UI design and front-end code
These tools are less about finding a palette and more about using one: seeing it on a page, turning it into Tailwind shades or 12-step scales, and checking that text stays readable.
| Best known for | Strong if you | Read the comparison | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Realtime Colors | Your colors and fonts shown on a real website, free | Want one realistic landing page and many export presets | Realtime Colors alternative |
| UI Colors | Tailwind CSS shades from one color, previewed on components | Want brand, neutral and status scales in one place | UI Colors alternative |
| WebAIM Contrast Checker | A clear WCAG 2 pass or fail for two colors | Need the AA and AAA checks with a permalink and a simple API | WebAIM Contrast Checker alternative |
| Radix Colors | An open-source set of tuned 12-step scales | Want ready-made scales with alpha and P3 variants | Radix Colors alternative |
| Happy Hues | Curated palettes shown on the site itself | Want a small set of palettes with each color’s job labeled | Happy Hues alternative |
How to choose a color palette tool
Start from what you need at the end. If you need inspiration, a big library of palettes matters most, and Coolors and Color Hunt are both good places to browse. If you need colors inside Adobe apps, an ASE swatch file or a Creative Cloud library is what counts. If you are building a website or an app, the palette has to work as text and background colors, so contrast checks and code export matter more than the size of the library.
- Inspiration: browse curated palettes by tag, such as pastel or neutral, and save the ones you like.
- From a photo: a color picker from image gives you exact codes for any pixel and a palette of the main colors.
- For text and UI: check pairs in a contrast checker against WCAG 2 and APCA before you commit.
- For a brand: build light and dark roles from one color in the Color System Studio.
- On a real page: try the palette on a landing page, dashboard, mobile app or article in the palette visualizer.
- For Tailwind: make a 50 to 950 scale from one color with the Tailwind scale generator, or build contrast-targeted scales with 11 or 12 steps.
- For Adobe apps: export an ASE file and import it into the Swatches panel.
What GetColors offers, free
- A palette generator with 2 to 10 colors: press the spacebar for a new palette and lock the colors you want to keep.
- 640+ curated palettes with names and tags, and 420+ CSS gradients.
- A color picker from image: click any pixel for its HEX, RGB and HSL codes and its color name, or pull a palette of 2 to 10 colors.
- A contrast checker with both WCAG 2 ratios and APCA, and a palette visualizer that previews colors on real UI.
- A Color System Studio that turns one brand color into light and dark roles with checked contrast, and a Tailwind scale generator for 50 to 950 shades in OKLCH.
- Reference pages for 920+ named colors, shades, color meanings and color theory.
- Exports to URL, PDF, CSS, CSS Display P3, SCSS, Tailwind v3 and v4, JSON, SVG, ASE, GIMP, Procreate, design tokens, Style Dictionary, Swift, Android and Flutter.
- A free REST API with no key and an MCP server for AI agents (see integrations).
GetColors is independent and not affiliated with any of the tools on this page. Each comparison page lists where the other tool is strong, quotes its own site and gives the date it was checked, because products change.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best free color palette generator?
It depends on what you need. Coolors is fast and has a huge library, Adobe Color ties into Creative Cloud, and Color Hunt is great for browsing. GetColors gives you 2 to 10 color palettes, contrast checks and every export free, without an account.
Which color palette tools export ASE files?
GetColors exports ASE for free from any palette. The coolors.co home page lists ASE among its export formats, and Adobe apps import ASE through the Swatches panel.
Can I move palettes between these tools?
Yes. A palette is just a list of hex codes. Copy them from any tool and put them after /generate/ in the GetColors address, separated by dashes, to open the palette in the generator.
Which tool should I use to preview colors on a website?
Realtime Colors and Happy Hues both show colors on a real page. The GetColors palette visualizer does the same on four templates, in light and dark, checks the contrast of the main text pairs and exports CSS, Tailwind v4 or shadcn/ui code.
Do I need an account to use GetColors?
No. All the core tools and exports work without an account, and palettes you save are kept on your device. A free account adds a cloud library.