Free ChemDraw Alternatives

The best free alternative to ChemDraw is Chemaxon Marvin. If that doesn't suit you, our users have ranked more than 10 alternatives to ChemDraw and 13 is free so hopefully you can find a suitable replacement. Other interesting free alternatives to ChemDraw are ChemistryLab, MolView, Gnome Chemistry Utils and BKchem.

ChemDraw

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Communicate with the natural language of chemical structures, biological pathways, and models

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Chemaxon Marvin
Is this is a good alternative?
Yes
No
Free • Proprietary
Mac
Windows
Linux
16 Chemaxon Marvin alternatives
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.
- - Chemaxon Marvin is the most popular Windows, Mac & Linux alternative to ChemDraw.
- - Chemaxon Marvin is the most popular free alternative to ChemDraw.
Suggest and vote on features
Chemaxon Marvin Features
Drag and Drop
Comments about Chemaxon Marvin as a Alternative to ChemDraw
Almost everyone thinks Chemaxon Marvin is a great ChemDraw alternative.
Guest
Simple structures are needed.
Positive comment •
0
ChemistryLab
Is this is a good alternative?
Yes
No
Free • Open Source
Android
Android Tablet
F-Droid
18 ChemistryLab alternatives
ChemistryLab is a chemical laboratory simulation application designed for the Android platform. It serves as a derivative version of the original ChemistryLab, developed by Tran Thanh Tùng, maintaining the same functionality while introducing modifications to the user...
- - ChemistryLab is the most popular Android & Android Tablet alternative to ChemDraw.
- - ChemistryLab is the most popular Open Source alternative to ChemDraw.
ChemistryLab has no features, suggest some!
MolView
Is this is a good alternative?
Yes
No
Free • Open Source
Online
2 MolView alternatives
MolView is an intuitive, Open-Source web-application to make science and education more awesome!
- - MolView is the most popular Web-based alternative to ChemDraw.
MolView has no features, suggest some!
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Gnome Chemistry Utils
Is this is a good alternative?
Yes
No
Free • Open Source
Linux
18 Gnome Chemistry Utils alternatives
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. .
Suggest and vote on features
Gnome Chemistry Utils Features
Periodic table
BKchem
Is this is a good alternative?
Yes
No
Free • Open Source
Digital Painting Tool
Mac
Windows
Linux
13 BKchem alternatives
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.
Suggest and vote on features
BKchem Features
2D and 3D physics
Discontinued
The last release was in 2010.

Comments about BKchem as a Alternative to ChemDraw
Most users think BKchem is a great ChemDraw alternative.
John Fastman
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.
Negative comment •
3

Guest
Very usefull software. You can paste images created with BKChem in a text processor or another open source graphical software like InkScape.
Positive comment •
0
ACD/ChemSketch
Is this is a good alternative?
Yes
No
Free Personal • Proprietary
Digital Painting Tool
Windows
Wine
14 ACD/ChemSketch alternatives
ACD/ChemSketch is a chemically intelligent drawing interface that allows you to draw almost any chemical structure including organics, organometallics, polymers, and Markush structures. Use it to produce professional looking structures and diagrams for reports and publications.
ACD/ChemSketch has no features, suggest some!

Comments about ACD/ChemSketch as a Alternative to ChemDraw
Some users think ACD/ChemSketch is a great ChemDraw alternative, some don't.
John Fastman
A good alternative to ChemDraw in very limited circumstances: 1) you need it on Windows only, 2) You don't have to collaborate with ChemDraw users, 3) You don't mind looking at a confusing, dated interface. Otherwise, fine.
Positive comment •
1
JChemPaint
Is this is a good alternative?
Yes
No
Free • Open Source
Mac
Windows
Linux
7 JChemPaint alternatives
JChemPaint is an editor and viewer for chemical structures in 2D. It is free and open source software, written in Java and so it runs on Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and Unix systems. There is a standalone application (editor), and two varieties of applet (editor and viewer) that...
Suggest and vote on features
JChemPaint Features
Impact mapping
MollyCule
Is this is a good alternative?
Yes
No
Free • Open Source
Mac
Windows
Linux
5 MollyCule alternatives
MollyCule is a completely free Open Source Chemistry visualisation program for MacOS, Linux and Windows. MollyCule is designed to be a nice, easy to use program to help ordinary people who want to explore Chemistry.
MollyCule has no features, suggest some!
Discontinued
Last update appears to be August 2011.
XDrawChem
Is this is a good alternative?
Yes
No
Free • Open Source
Mac
Windows
Linux
10 XDrawChem alternatives
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.
XDrawChem has no features, suggest some!
Discontinued
Last release (1.10.2-1) was in January 2017.
Add a screenshot

Comments about XDrawChem as a Alternative to ChemDraw
Most users think XDrawChem is a great ChemDraw alternative.
Guest
More simply for use in class
Positive comment •
0
speciolab
Is this is a good alternative?
Yes
No
Free • Proprietary
Mac
Windows
4 speciolab alternatives
speciolab is a modern yet easy-to-use chemical drawing software that is aimed at helping students, companies and other users to draw clean and orderly chemical structures for reports, theses and presentations.
speciolab has no features, suggest some!
MedChem Designer
Is this is a good alternative?
Yes
No
Free • Proprietary
Windows
4 MedChem Designer alternatives
"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.
MedChem Designer has no features, suggest some!
Molsketch
Is this is a good alternative?
Yes
No
Free • Open Source
Vector Graphic App
Mac
Windows
Linux
BSD
9 Molsketch alternatives
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.
Suggest and vote on features
Molsketch Features
1. Ad-freeMolsketch doesn't contain any form of external advertising.
2. No registration requiredYou can use most of the features in Molsketch without registration.
3. Dark ModeMolsketch supports dark mode for comfortable usage in low light conditions.
4. LightweightMolsketch consumes less device resources compared to similar apps.
5. Works OfflineMolsketch can be used without the need to connect to the internet.