ChemDraw Alternatives

Alternatives list

1. 

   

   Chemaxon Marvin

    16 likes

   Marvin suite is a chemically intelligent desktop toolkit built to help you draw, edit, publish, render, import and export your chemical structures and as well as allowing you to convert between various chemical and graphical file formats.

   19 Chemaxon Marvin alternatives

   Cost / License

   • Free
   • Proprietary

   Origin

   • United Kingdom

   Platforms

   • Mac
   • Windows
   • Linux

   • United Kingdom

   

   

   More about Chemaxon Marvin  

   

   Good alternative?Is Chemaxon Marvin a good alternative to ChemDraw?

    

   |

   2comments

   ExpandCollapse

   Chemaxon Marvin vs ChemDraw Comments

   Positive comment by G-Matthias-Ullmann · Sep 15, 2026

   The software was commercialized also for academic users. The prices are ridiculous, about 1400 EUR for academic users! (offer from August 2026)

   Positive comment by Guest · Sep 7, 2020

   Simple structures are needed.

   2 of 2 comments

   

   

   • Chemaxon Marvin is Free and ProprietaryChemDraw is Paid and Proprietary
2. 

   

   ChemDoodle

    4 likes

   If you are looking for a chemical sketcher or an alternative to your current chemical drawing application, there is no better choice than ChemDoodle. ChemDoodle works on all operating systems (both 32 and 64 bit), has one of the largest feature sets in the industry, has the most...

   10 ChemDoodle alternatives

   Cost / License

   • Paid
   • Proprietary

   Origin

   • United States

   Platforms

   • Mac
   • Windows
   • Linux
   • Android
   • iPhone
   • iPad

   • United States

   

   

   

   +3

   

   More about ChemDoodle  

   

   Good alternative?Is ChemDoodle a good alternative to ChemDraw?

    

   |

   2comments

   ExpandCollapse

   ChemDoodle vs ChemDraw Comments

   Positive comment by John Fastman · Dec 20, 2016

   Closest thing to ChemDraw functionality and, unlike ChemDraw, it works natively on Linux. Sadly, the author has chosen a frustrating atom-first drawing mechanic which is hugely counterintuitive. But if you can learn to accept it, ChemDoodle is a respectable ChemDraw alternative (unless you need to draw pi complexes).

   Positive comment by Guest · Dec 9, 2019

   Functionally equivalent and very similar in features. Very similar layout makes it very easy for chemists to switch

   2 of 2 comments

   

   

   • ChemDoodle is Paid and ProprietaryChemDraw is also Paid and Proprietary
4. 

   

   MedChem Designer

    Like

   "MedChem Designer 3.0 is a free chemical structure drawing program. MedChem Designer can open SMILES, SDF, MOL, CSK, and RXN file types. Up to 32 compounds can be displayed in one window. Images can be exported in SMILES, SD, MOL, CQF, bitmap, JPG, or PNG formats.

   Cost / License

   • Free
   • Proprietary

   Platforms

   • Windows

   

   

   More about MedChem Designer  

   

   Good alternative?Is MedChem Designer a good alternative to ChemDraw?

    
5. 

   

   JChemPaint

    3 likes

   JChemPaint (or JCP for short here) is the editor and viewer for 2D chemical structures developed using the Chemistry Development Kit (CDK).

   8 JChemPaint alternatives

   Cost / License

   • Free
   • Open Source

   Platforms

   • Mac
   • Windows
   • Linux
   • Flathub
   • Flatpak

   

   More about JChemPaint  

   

   Good alternative?Is JChemPaint a good alternative to ChemDraw?

    
6. 

   

   KingDraw

    Like

   KingDraw App is a free chemical drawing editor that allows users to sketch molecules and reactions, as well as organic chemistry objects and pathways.

   2 KingDraw alternatives

   Cost / License

   • Freemium
   • Proprietary

   Origin

   • China

   Platforms

   • Windows
   • Android
   • iPhone
   • Android Tablet
   • iPad

   • China

   

   

   

   +3

   

   More about KingDraw  

   

   Good alternative?Is KingDraw a good alternative to ChemDraw?

    
8. 

   

   Molsketch

    1 like

   A 2D molecular editing tool for GNU/Linux, Mac OS X and Windows. Its goal is to help you draw molecules quick and easily. Of course your creations can be exported afterwards in high quality in a number of vector and bitmap formats.

   Cost / License

   • Free
   • Open Source (GPL-2.0)

   Platforms

   • Mac
   • Windows
   • Linux
   • BSD

   

   More about Molsketch  

   

   Good alternative?Is Molsketch a good alternative to ChemDraw?

    
9. 

   

   XDrawChem

    1 like

   XDrawChem is a free software program for drawing chemical structural formulas, available for Unix and Mac OS. It is distributed under the GNU GPL. In Microsoft Windows this program is called WinDrawChem.

   Cost / License

   • Free
   • Open Source

   Alerts

   • Discontinued

   Platforms

   • Mac
   • Windows
   • Linux

   

   Good alternative?Is XDrawChem a good alternative to ChemDraw?

    

   |

   1comment

   ExpandCollapse

   Discontinued

   Last release (1.10.2-1) was in January 2017.

   XDrawChem vs ChemDraw Comments

   Positive comment by Guest · Oct 2, 2016

   More simply for use in class

   1 of 1 comments

   

   

   • XDrawChem is Free and Open SourceChemDraw is Paid and Proprietary
10. 

    

    ChemJuice Grande

     Like

    What's your favorite molecule? With ChemJuice, chemical structure drawing is now at your fingertips.

    Cost / License

    • Paid
    • Proprietary

    Platforms

    • iPhone
    • iPad

    

    Good alternative?Is ChemJuice Grande a good alternative to ChemDraw?

     
11. 

    

    ChemCanvas

     1 like

    A very intuitive, new 2D chemical drawing tool (Qt-based).

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source (GPL-3.0)

    Origin

    • India

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • Flathub
    • Flatpak
    • Raspberry Pi
    • Windows
    • Python

    • India

    

    

    

    More about ChemCanvas  

    

    Good alternative?Is ChemCanvas a good alternative to ChemDraw?

     
12. 

    

    BKchem

     9 likes

    BKChem is a free (as in free software :o) chemical drawing program. It was conceived and written by Beda Kosata and is currently maintained by Reinis Danne.

    14 BKchem alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Origin

    • Czechia
    • EU

    Alerts

    • Discontinued

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux

    • Czechia
    • EU

    

    More about BKchem  

    

    Good alternative?Is BKchem a good alternative to ChemDraw?

     

    |

    2comments

    ExpandCollapse

    Discontinued

    The last release was in 2010.

    BKchem vs ChemDraw Comments

    Negative comment by John Fastman · Dec 27, 2016

    BKchem is an old attempt at replacing some of ChemDraw's functionality. It succeeded partially in providing some of ChemDraw's very core chemical structure drawing features. Unfortunately, BKchem has seen no new development since 2010, leaving it in limbo.

    Positive comment by Guest · May 9, 2016

    Very usefull software. You can paste images created with BKChem in a text processor or another open source graphical software like InkScape.

    2 of 2 comments

    

    

    • BKchem is Free and Open SourceChemDraw is Paid and Proprietary
13. 

    

    MolView

     4 likes

    MolView is an intuitive, Open-Source web-application to make science and education more awesome!

    Cost / License

    • Freemium
    • Proprietary

    Origin

    • International

    Platforms

    • Online

    

    Good alternative?Is MolView a good alternative to ChemDraw?

     
14. 

    

    Gnome Chemistry Utils

     4 likes

    The Gnome Chemistry Utils include six chemistry related programs:

    • GChemPaint, a 2D chemical formula editor.
    • a chemical calculator (computes raw formule, molar weight, mass composition and isotopic pattern).
    • a molecule 3d viewer using OpenGL to display molecular models. .

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Origin

    • United States

    Platforms

    • Linux

    • United States

    

    

    

    +2

    

    More about Gnome Chemistry Utils  

    

    Good alternative?Is this a good alternative to ChemDraw?