Free Alternatives to Avery Design & Print
What Avery Design & Print is good at
Credit where it is due: if you have bought Avery label sheets, Avery Design & Print is the path of least resistance. You enter the product number from the box, the template matches the die-cut exactly, and the alignment is correct because Avery controls both ends of it. For anyone printing onto Avery stock regularly, that is a genuine advantage and no generic tool matches it.
It also has a large template library, supports mail-merge style imports, and saves your designs to your account so you can reprint a year later without rebuilding anything.
The friction shows up when your situation is slightly different from the one it was designed for.
Where it gets in the way
It expects a product number. The templates are built around Avery's die-cuts, so if you are printing onto plain paper and cutting, or using a European format such as a 192 × 61 mm Ordnerrücken, or matching a binder you already own rather than a sheet you just bought, you are working against the tool rather than with it.
It wants an account. Creating one is free, but it is a sign-up, an email address and a saved profile for what is often a two-minute job — printing four labels for the binders on your desk.
It is a full design application. That is the right call for their use case and the wrong one for a single text label: there is a loading screen, a template chooser and a canvas before you type your first character.
The free alternatives, honestly compared
Labelwerk — the tool you are reading this on. No account, no download, and nothing is transmitted: your label text stays in the browser. It covers both the US inch sizes and the European metric formats, plus fully custom dimensions, and each size has a page that opens pre-configured. It has no template gallery and no saved designs, which is the trade-off for having no account. Start at all label sizes or the format reference.
Canva — excellent if the label is a design piece and you want imagery, gradients and brand assets. Overkill for a text label, needs an account, and you have to set the canvas dimensions yourself and trust the print export.
Microsoft Word — everyone has it and it works, but you are building a table with precise cell dimensions by hand, and alignment drifts between printers. Reasonable for one or two labels, painful for twenty. Our five-method comparison goes into this in more detail.
The HERMA label assistant — the German equivalent of Avery's tool, with the same strength and the same constraint: excellent for HERMA products, limited to HERMA dimensions.
How to choose
If you have already bought Avery sheets and the product number is on the box, use Avery Design & Print. The exact die-cut match is worth more than avoiding a sign-up.
If you are printing on plain paper and cutting, using a European format, matching an existing binder, or you simply do not want another account for a two-minute task, a generic tool is the better fit.
If the label needs real design work — photographs, brand colours, complex layout — use Canva and accept the setup cost.
One thing worth checking whichever you pick: the exact dimensions your binder needs. Our format reference lists every common binder and card size with the matching Avery, Avery Zweckform and HERMA part numbers, so you can confirm the measurement before you print a batch. If you want to go straight to it, the 2 inch and 192 × 61 mm formats cover most offices.