The price anchor
| Paletteforge | Coolors Pro | |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly | $0 — no subscription | $5.99/mo |
| Annual | $0 after purchase | $72 |
| 5-year total | $15 | $360 |
| 10-year total | $15 | $720 |
Subscription figures from the vendor's published pricing ($5.99/mo, ~$72/yr); the Paletteforge column is the full price, paid once.
Break-even analysis
Three months of Coolors Pro costs more than Paletteforge does, once, forever.
- After 1 year: Paletteforge has cost you $15 total — Coolors Pro has cost $72.
- After 3 years: Paletteforge is still $15 — the subscription is at $216.
- After 5 years: Paletteforge is still $15 — the subscription is at $360.
What you get for $15 once
- Generate & shuffle palettes. Spacebar-driven random palette generation, five colors at a time.
- Lock colors while regenerating. Keep the ones you like, reroll the rest until the palette clicks.
- WCAG contrast checker. Instant AA/AAA pass-fail for any foreground/background pairing in your palette.
- Export to CSS, Tailwind, ASE, PNG. Drop straight into a codebase or design tool — no manual re-typing of hex codes.
- Saved brand kits. Name and keep multiple palettes per project or client.
- No renewal, ever. The license does not expire and there is no per-seat meter — $15 is the whole price.
Pricing questions
Is it really free on GitHub?
Yes — MIT source at github.com/bensblueprints/paletteforge-mvp. The $15 buys the packaged installer and updates.
Are exports ever limited?
No — unlimited palettes, unlimited exports, every format, no tier.
Can it pull colors from an existing logo?
Yes — upload an image and it extracts the dominant palette automatically, entirely on-device.
Does it check accessibility contrast?
Yes — instant WCAG AA/AAA pass-fail for any two colors in a palette.
Paletteforge — $15, one time
Buy Paletteforge — $15 once
Paletteforge product page
Full head-to-head
More Coolors Pro alternatives
Or get Paletteforge plus every other app in the suite: the OneTimeSuite bundle is currently $97, one time.