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Coolors has become second nature to thousands of designers, an essential tool for generating harmonious color palettes in just a few clicks. It is the ultimate simple and fast tool. But in 2025, in a rapidly changing ecosystem, will it still be relevant for your projects and teams? After years of using it almost daily at Easy Web, I'm sharing my unfiltered feedback with you. We'll talk about its simplicity, its hidden features, and its limitations, so you have all the information you need.
My experience with Coolors
Coolors? I integrated it into my workflow long before Easy Web came along. This tool has become a must-have for generating palettes. If I had to pick just one thing, it would be its lightning-fast ability to explore relevant color combinations.
For a project that's just getting started, when you need a solid foundation for visual identity or simply to inspire a client, Coolors is unbeatable. You click, lock in a color you like, and the AI suggests harmonies in real time. It's a huge time saver, especially when you're under deadline pressure.
That said, be careful. For very specific needs, such as fine management of CMYK color models for printing or complex design systems with thousands of tokens, Coolors can show its limitations. It excels at rapid exploration, but less so at managing comprehensiveness.
Is Coolors really useful for my needs?
The real question to ask yourself before using Coolors is: what is my goal? Because the relevance of Coolors depends greatly on how you use it. If you need to quickly generate harmonious color palettes, find inspiration in the blink of an eye, or start with a specific color to build a set, then yes, Coolors is the tool for you. It's unbeatable for this initial phase of ideation or rapid validation.
Whether you're a freelance UI/UX designer starting a new project, a web developer who needs a color palette for your website, or even a marketing manager looking for colors for a new campaign, Coolors will save you valuable time. I've seen teams use it for mood boards, quick website mockups, or to prepare social media templates. Its effectiveness for these uses is undeniable.
Another of its strengths is its exploration feature. You can browse thousands of palettes generated by the community, which is an invaluable source of inspiration. It's perfect for breaking out of your routine and discovering combinations you wouldn't have thought of otherwise.
Is Coolors suitable for beginners?
When you're starting out in design, finding the right color palette is often the first real challenge. I've often recommended Coolors for this, and not just at Easy Web. It's a fantastic starting point. The random generation feature, which you can access just by pressing the space bar, is almost magical for unlocking your creativity. You can also explore thousands of trending palettes, which opens your mind to what works visually.
What's great for a beginner is its simplicity. You can lock in a color you like and continue to generate around it, refining the shades to see how they interact. It intuitively teaches you color relationships. And exporting to all essential formats (HEX, RGB, CMYK)? It's a gold mine for understanding the technical basics without getting bogged down. You learn by doing, which is essential.
How much does Coolors cost?
The free version is your starting point. It allows you to generate and explore basic palettes. Ideal for students or occasional inspiration. Zero dollars, perfect for testing the tool.
For solo or freelance designers, the Pro plan (approx. $4.99/month) is a must. It unlocks unlimited saving, advanced exports (SVG, CSS), and better organization. A key investment for an optimized workflow.
Agencies and teams will opt for the Team plan (around $14.99/user/month, billed annually). All Pro features are included, plus real-time collaboration. The cost is justified by the efficiency and consistency it brings to group projects.
What are the key features of Coolors?
Ever had that moment when color inspiration eludes you, but the clock is ticking? Coolors' palette generator is the quick fix. Just hit the space bar, and voilà, a new harmony emerges. It's perfect for roughing out a concept, putting together a quick mood board, or testing bold combinations. At Easy Web, we often use it at the beginning of a project to lay the first visual bricks without getting bogged down. It's incredibly effective, I guarantee it.
But Coolors doesn't stop at pure generation. What's powerful is the absolute control you retain. You can lock in your favorite shades and let the tool suggest variations around them. The adjustments are surgical: modify the HEX, RGB, HSL, explore gradients... You can refine each color with pinpoint accuracy. It's this ability to switch from creative explosion to meticulous finishing that makes the tool indispensable for designers like us.
How many times have you seen an image and wanted to extract the perfect color palette from it? Coolors makes it super easy. Its palette extraction feature from an image is a game-changer. You upload your image, and the tool instantly identifies the dominant colors. For me, it saves a ton of time when it comes to brand consistency on our Easy Web projects, or simply when starting a new design with a solid and inspiring visual foundation.
Beyond creation, integration is key. Coolors excels with its comprehensive export options. Whether in CSS/SCSS for our integrators, in SVG, or via direct plugins for Adobe suites (Photoshop, Illustrator, XD), the fluidity is exemplary. This ability to directly inject the palette into our production tools ensures that every pixel complies with the style guide. Less friction, more efficiency for our teams.
Coolors is fast, a stroke of genius for project kickoffs, there's no denying it. But for projects requiring complex palettes, such as precise thematic integration from an image or extensive accessibility checks (WCAG), it can quickly reach its limits. It doesn't think for you, it generates.
This is where tools such as Adobe Color, with their more refined harmonic rules, or accessibility-focused generators such as Contrast Checker, come into play. Coolors remains fantastic for quick wins and exploring possibilities, and is still a must-have in your arsenal despite these minor shortcomings.
In summary, Coolors is:
Advantages:
- Speed of generation.
- Intuitive and user-friendly interface.
- Multiple export options.
Disadvantages:
- Lack of advanced built-in accessibility tools.
- Little contextual guidance (e.g., based on an image).
- Less suitable for highly nuanced or complex palettes.
FAQ
Is it reliable and secure?
Absolutely. In my experience and that of the team, Coolors has always been very reliable. Regular updates ensure constant stability and quick fixes for any bugs, which is a sign of active maintenance.
In terms of security, as a web-based tool, it relies on standard encryption protocols (such as SSL/TLS) to protect data exchanges between your browser and their servers. Your created palettes remain private, and their privacy policy is transparent. We use it daily without any concerns on these points.
Is it compatible with my other tools?
Absolutely. Coolors excels at exporting your palettes in various standard formats: HEX, RGB, CMYK, as well as CSS variables and even SVG and PDF files. This makes integration seamless with most software. On our end, we use these exports directly in Figma for our mockups or integrate CSS variables into Webflow or our code projects. No friction, you work directly with the right color codes.
Is there responsive customer support?
The responsiveness of Coolors' support, for a tool of this nature, is quite reasonable. At Easy Web, we received responses via their contact form within 24 to 48 hours, which is standard for a freemium service. This is sufficient for most non-critical requests. For urgent matters or very specific issues, their comprehensive documentation and active community are often your best allies. Don't expect 24/7 live chat, but the system works well.
What do other users think?
Frankly, the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. What our teams and other design professionals appreciate most is the astonishing speed with which consistent palettes can be generated. It saves a tremendous amount of time on a daily basis. The versatile export to formats such as CSS or Adobe files is also consistently praised for its efficiency. Many users emphasize the almost instant inspiration it provides, even when facing creative blocks. It's a go-to tool for rapid prototyping or exploring new graphic guidelines. Truly a key tool for an optimized workflow.
Can I easily change later?
Absolutely, and that's one of Coolors' major strengths. The tool is built for flexibility. You create a palette, save it, and can come back to it at any time to adjust it. Changing a hue, modifying HEX (hexadecimal) or RGB (red-green-blue) values, or even rearranging the order of colors: everything is super simple. This is crucial in our projects, where requirements change quickly. You can then export your updated version with a single click to your design software. Zero friction—that's what we're looking for!
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Specializing in business creation, sales and digital marketing, he puts his expertise at the service of users to help them identify the solutions best suited to their needs. Passionate about digital innovation and online performance optimization, Alexis is committed to providing detailed, transparent and unbiased comparisons.
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