A Free Coolors Alternative
Coolors is one of the best-known color tools on the web, and for good reason: it generates multi-hue color schemes instantly and backs them with a library of 10M+ palettes, image extraction, and apps on every platform. HexTints is not a replacement for that — it's the alternative for the other half of palette work: going deep on a single hue. Tints, shades, and full scales of one color, free, with no account, no paywall, and no ads.
What Coolors Does Well
From its public site, Coolors is a full palette platform:
- Instant scheme generation — new palettes on a keystroke, with millions of ready-made palettes to explore by style and topic.
- Palettes from photos — extract colors from an image and turn them into a scheme.
- Context and extras — preview palettes on design mockups, build gradients, read per-color information pages, and check contrast for accessibility.
- Everywhere you work — apps and extensions for iOS, Figma, Chrome, and Adobe Photoshop/Illustrator/InDesign.
- Organization — save palettes into projects and collections with an account.
Its model is freemium: the free tier shows ads and caps saving (its site describes limits of 10 palettes and 1 project), while a Pro subscription — mentioned at $3/month — adds unlimited storage, advanced exports, and removes ads.
What HexTints Does Differently
- Depth over breadth. Coolors answers "which five colors go together?" HexTints answers "what are all the usable versions of this color?" — 10%-step tints and shades, plus lightness, hue, and chroma scales.
- No paid tier at all. Coolors offers premium plans; HexTints has nothing to upgrade to. No save limits, no locked exports.
- No account, ever. Nothing on HexTints requires sign-in, because nothing is stored server-side — pages are static and bookmarkable.
- No ads. Coolors shows ads on its free tier; HexTints shows none (only a first-party link to the maker's other projects).
- Copy-ready by default. Every value on every ramp and every one of the 280+ library pages — including the Tailwind v3 palette with class names — copies in one click, with WCAG AA/AAA contrast data alongside.
HexTints vs Coolors at a Glance
| Feature | HexTints | Coolors |
|---|---|---|
| Completely free (no paid tier) | Yes | Partial — free tier; Pro mentioned at $3/month |
| No account needed | Yes | Partial — account used for saving palettes |
| Ad-free | Yes | — ads on the free tier; Pro removes them |
| Multi-hue palette discovery | — single-hue focus | Yes |
| Extract palette from an image | — | Yes |
| Contrast checking | Yes | Yes |
| Tint + shade ramps in % steps | Yes | Partial — color pages list variations |
| Tailwind palette pages | Yes | — not mentioned |
The Coolors column reflects what coolors.co publicly showed when we checked in August 2026; "—" means we did not find the feature mentioned there.
Going Deep on One Hue
This is the monochromatic move — shades and tints of #8E44AD, each a working hex:
#633079−30%#72368A−20%#803D9C−10%#8E44ADbase#A569BD+20%#BB8FCE+40%#D2B4DE+60%#E8DAEF+80%Build this for any color in the tint and shade generator, and read the monochromatic palette guide for how to turn one hue into a full interface palette.
When to Use Which
Use Coolors to discover a scheme: brand explorations, moodboards, pulling a palette out of a photo, browsing what other designers have made, or working from its Figma/Adobe integrations. That whole territory is Coolors's home turf, and HexTints doesn't compete there.
Use HexTints once the hue is chosen: building the hover states, backgrounds, borders, and text shades of a brand color; checking which steps pass WCAG contrast; grabbing Tailwind class names; or producing a clean monochromatic ramp without an account or a save limit.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Is HexTints really free?
Yes — completely. There is no premium tier, no save limits, no ads, and no signup. Every tool and every one of the 280+ color pages is open to everyone.
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Do I need an account to use HexTints?
No. HexTints has no accounts at all. Coolors offers sign-up via email, Google, or Apple and encourages an account for saving palettes into projects and collections — on HexTints there is simply nothing to sign into.
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What does Coolors do better?
Multi-hue palette discovery — and it is genuinely excellent at it. Coolors generates color schemes instantly, has a library of over 10 million palettes to explore, extracts palettes from photos, previews palettes on design mockups, offers gradient tools, and ships apps for iOS, Figma, Chrome, and Adobe products. If you need a five-color scheme from scratch, use Coolors.
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Can HexTints generate multi-color schemes like Coolors?
No — and this page won't pretend otherwise. HexTints is built for depth on a single hue: tints, shades, and lightness/hue/chroma scales of one color. The hue scale in the color explorer shows neighboring hues of your color, but it is not a scheme-discovery tool. Use Coolors to find a scheme; use HexTints to build out the variants of each color in it.
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Is Coolors free?
Coolors has a free tier — with ads, and with limits its site describes (saving up to 10 palettes and 1 project) — plus a Pro subscription, mentioned at $3/month, that unlocks unlimited palette storage, advanced export options, and removes ads. HexTints has no paid tier: nothing is limited or unlockable.
Related tools: monochromatic palette guide · tint and shade generator · color scale explorer · contrast checker
More comparisons: HexColorTool · MakeTintsAndShades · tints.dev · UIColors · ColorHexa