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Checked November 2026

Tintly vs Coolors

A popular palette generator with a free tier and a paid Pro plan. Here is what each does, in plain terms, so you can pick the one that fits.

In short

What Coolors is

Coolors is a palette generator built around generating and locking colors. It has a free plan and a paid Pro plan. Third-party listings describe the free plan as showing ads and limiting how many palettes and projects you can save, and Pro as removing ads and raising those limits.

Coolors blocked our automated reading of its own pricing page, so its cells come from third-party descriptions and are marked accordingly. Check coolors.co/pricing for the current plans.

Where Coolors is stronger

  • It is a long-established product with a large audience and an iOS app.
  • The paid plan adds features such as a palette visualizer and more detailed exports, for people who want a managed, supported product.
  • Its generator is the one many designers already know, so the habit transfers.

Where Tintly is stronger

  • Nothing is held back for a paid plan: there are no saved-palette limits, no ads and no upsell to reach an export format.
  • A written guide to every color in your palette, with psychology, meaning and cultural signs.
  • A free API and MCP server, so the tools work from code and from AI assistants.
Feature by feature

The comparison

FeatureTintlyCoolors
Free to useCan you use the core tools without paying?YesFree. No plans, no card and no ads. Every tool and every export format is open to everyone.PartlyA free plan and a paid Pro plan. Reports say the free plan shows ads and limits saved palettes and projects. Check coolors.co/pricing for the current limits.
Works without an accountCan you generate and copy colors without signing up?YesEverything runs in your browser. Sign in with Google only to sync your saved palettes.Not confirmedNot confirmed from the pages we could read.
Palette generatorGenerate palettes and lock the colors you like?YesSpace bar to generate, lock colors, undo and redo, up to 12 colors, and a shareable link.YesA palette generator with locking is the core of the product.
Colors from an imagePull a palette out of a photo?YesExtract a palette from a photo on your device. The image is not uploaded.PartlyThird-party listings say color extraction from images is limited on the free plan.
WCAG contrast checkerCheck text and background contrast against WCAG?YesAA and AAA, translucent colors, a one-click fix and a full palette matrix.Not confirmedNot stated on the pages we read.
Color-blindness previewSee a palette as people with color-vision deficiencies do?YesFour kinds of color-vision deficiency, for palettes and for images, with warnings for colors that look alike.Not confirmedNot stated on the pages we read.
Gradient toolsBuild and export gradients?YesLinear, radial and conic CSS gradients, gradient palettes, a mesh gradient maker and a gallery.Not confirmedNot stated on the pages we read.
Export formatsWhich formats can you export to?YesHEX, CSS variables, Tailwind v3 and v4, light/dark theme, SCSS, design tokens, SVG and PNG. No Photoshop ACO or GIMP GPL files.PartlyExport is offered, with more detailed exports listed as a Pro feature. We could not confirm the full list of formats.
Tailwind scaleMake a 50 to 950 scale for Tailwind?YesA 50 to 950 scale from any color, as a v4 @theme block or a v3 config.Not confirmedNot stated on the pages we read.
Written color descriptionsExplain what a color means and where to use it?YesA written guide to every color in a palette, with psychology, meaning, signs and symbols, and a page for any hex code.Not confirmedNot stated on the pages we read.
Palette libraryA large library of palettes to browse?Yes15 million generated palettes and 2 million premium palettes, searchable in plain words, plus curated collections.Not confirmedNot stated on the pages we read.
Public APIA documented way to use it from code?YesA free JSON API with 13 tools, 60 requests a minute per key.Not confirmedOne third-party listing mentions an API; we found no confirmation from Coolors.
MCP server for AI assistantsConnect it to Claude, Cursor and other assistants?YesA free MCP server with the same 13 tools, for Claude, Cursor, VS Code, Windsurf, Codex, Gemini CLI and Cline.Not confirmedNot stated on the pages we read.
Other toolsAnything beyond palettes?YesPhoto editor, collage maker, image recolor, color mixer and picker, fonts, a website visualizer and more.Not confirmedNot stated on the pages we read.

Choose Coolors if

  • You already use it and want its mobile app and team features.
  • You prefer a paid product with a single vendor to rely on.

Choose Tintly if

  • You want to generate, check and export without an account or a plan.
  • You need contrast, color-blindness and image tools in the same place.
  • You want to call the tools from code or an assistant.
Questions

Common questions

Is Tintly a free alternative to Coolors?

Tintly is free, with no ads and no plan limits, and it covers generating, locking and exporting palettes. Coolors has a free plan and a paid plan, so which one fits depends on whether you need what the paid plan adds.

Can I move my palettes from Coolors to Tintly?

Palettes are just hex codes. Paste them into the generator with a link like /palette-generator?c=264653-2a9d8f-e9c46a, or into any tool's color input, and you can save them in your Tintly library.

Where we looked

Read in November 2026. Products change: check Coolors’s own site for current features and prices. Coolors is a trademark of its owner, and Tintly is not affiliated with it.

Try it

See for yourself

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