Xara Designer Pro+ compared: layout, graphics, PDF and web in one Windows program

Xara GmbH from Berlin sells Xara Designer Pro+ as a subscription for one person, billed either monthly or annually in advance. This comparison uses the annual plan as its reference edition because it costs less than the monthly plan over three years. Xara states the prices in euros and without VAT; according to the purchase page, you only see the final price for your country before payment. Xara offers discounts on request for students, teachers and companies.

In addition to the subscription, Xara lists the perpetual version Designer Pro V20 on its website, according to the manufacturer the 2023 version as a one-time purchase. According to Xara, ongoing new features and the online library Elements come only with the Plus products, and Xara names no dates for a further perpetual version. Xara's comparison page also lists Designer Pro X as a perpetual version via the reseller MAGIX; whether this version can still be bought is not verified here. Both are separate programs that are installed alongside Designer Pro+, and they are not part of this reference edition.

With the subscription you get all updates as soon as they are released. The most recent version in the official release notes is 25.0 of 1 July 2025, and Xara's news page announced version 25 in August 2025. In 2023 and 2024, according to the release notes, updates appeared every few weeks to months; after version 24.6 of February 2025 came 25.0. The release notes list no newer versions (as of October 2026).

According to the purchase page, Designer Pro+ runs on 64-bit Windows 10 and 11. Xara does not name a desktop version for macOS or Linux, and information on Windows on ARM processors is missing. In the browser you edit documents via the online service Xara Cloud, which has its own plans.

The interface has been available in German since version 23.1, and since 23.4 and 23.6 also in Dutch, Spanish, French and Italian. On first start the program uses the Windows language. The online help is available in English and in German.

After downloading you create a Xara ID. According to Xara, the program is installed locally and works without an internet connection. As one person you may install and activate it on two computers. If you cancel, the subscription ends at the end of the current billing period. The checked pages do not describe what happens to the installed program after that.

Designer Pro+ is not a pure typesetting program; it combines page layout with vector graphics, photo editing and website design. Everything is an object on pages and layers, which you arrange, hide or lock in the Page & Layer gallery.

For text there are paragraph styles and character styles. Paragraph styles apply to whole paragraphs, such as headings, character styles to any text selection down to a single character. Styles can be based on one another, and when you change a style, Xara updates all text that uses it. Bulleted and numbered lists are included.

Text flows through linked text areas from one area to the next, also across pages and even back to earlier pages. In Designer Pro+ an overflowing text area can flow onto a new page automatically; the program then adds new pages as needed, like a word processor. You build multi-column pages from linked text areas or with the columns dialog.

For recurring elements such as a logo, header or footer, Xara uses repeating objects: an object appears in the same place on all pages, and on individual pages you delete the copy if you do not need it there. The help does not describe master pages in the classic sense or a baseline grid.

Since version 22.1 Designer Pro+ has a table tool with table templates. You paste data from spreadsheets, and tables stay editable when exported to Word. There are also SmartFields for recurring information, fields for page number and page count, double-page spreads for brochures and, since version 25.0, a QR code generator.

You find templates in the Designs Gallery and in the online library Elements, which is included in the subscription, according to the release notes for social media, web, print, e-books, presentations and calendars, among others. You edit photos directly in the document, for example with the background remover, Magic Erase against unwanted objects and bitmap-to-vector tracing. Adobe Photoshop plug-ins can be added for extra effects.

You create colours in the colour editor as HSV, RGB, CMYK or greyscale, plus named colours, tints and spot colours, i.e. special inks such as PANTONE from the libraries in the colour gallery. According to the help, Xara usually outputs CMYK colours without colour correction. Since version 20.8 you choose the colour profile per document that Xara uses to convert CMYK colours on screen and on export; the program saves custom profiles with the document. The profiled colours view shows on screen how RGB and HSV colours should appear in the PDF for printing.

For the print shop you export PDF in versions 1.3 to 1.7 or as PDF/X-1a, PDF/X-3 and PDF/X-4. A preset for printing creates PDF/X with images at 300 dpi. You set the bleed in the page settings, and crop and printer's marks go into the PDF via the print options. In the separations dialog you output separate plates for the CMYK process colours and each spot colour, set individual inks to overprint and view each separation on screen beforehand. The help does not describe a preflight check that examines print files for errors before export.

For sharing on screen you create PDF files, if you like with password protection, with layers that can be shown and hidden in Adobe Reader, and with embedded files such as the original document. The help does not describe form fields, buttons or media in PDF files, and the format list names no EPUB export.

A large part of the features and updates concerns websites. You design pages without coding, also in variants for smartphone, tablet and wide screens, with web blocks, sliders, navigation bars and widgets. The program saves the website as HTML with all associated files, and according to the release notes there are also hosting options. You export images as JPEG, PNG, WebP and AVIF, among others.

For books, catalogues and manuals Designer Pro+ offers an automatic table of contents. It collects the headings you have marked with paragraph styles, inserts them at the text cursor and includes page numbers if you like. When you change the document, you update the table via the context menu; adjustments to the styles of the table are kept. The function does not find headings that you have only formatted by hand.

Long texts run through linked text areas and automatically added pages. You insert page number and page count as fields.

The help and release notes do not describe other typical tools for long documents: index, footnotes, cross-references, a book file made of several documents, conditional text and XML structures. If you typeset such publications, try this out in the trial version before buying.

Data-driven layouts from a table, for example business cards or labels from a CSV file, are not described in the help either. Tables in documents take over data from spreadsheets, and SmartFields fill in recurring information in templates.

Xara documents no scripting language for your own workflows. You can extend the program with Adobe Photoshop plug-ins for image effects and, for websites, with widgets, including since version 24.5 a widget for your own HTML code.

Xara describes no AI tools for Designer Pro+, such as writing text, generating images from text or resizing formats automatically, neither on the product page nor in the feature list or in the release notes up to version 25.0. The background remover and Magic Erase are photo tools that Xara does not call AI; according to the help, you roughly mark the areas yourself when removing a background. Xara offers AI features with credits and an AI add-on for the online service Xara Cloud. The privacy policy does not explicitly say whether Xara uses content for AI training.

According to Xara, Designer Pro+ is not a cloud product: the program is installed locally and works without an internet connection. You need a Xara ID for sign-in and subscription management, and the template library Elements is online. According to the purchase page, you can also exchange files with Google Drive, Dropbox and OneDrive.

Xara does not describe several people working on the same document at the same time for the desktop program. Collaboration, comments and editing in the browser on Windows, Mac, Android or iOS run via Xara Cloud. Xara's comparison page lists this online use as a feature of Designer Pro+, whereas the current purchase page does not mention Xara Cloud among the included services. According to the Xara Cloud pricing page, real-time editing with comments is already included in the free Free plan; a brand library and automatic branding only come with the paid team plans, and the Scale plan includes Designer Pro+. Xara does not say that, conversely, the Designer Pro+ subscription includes a paid Cloud plan.

For templates you can set locks in Designer Pro+: lock an object completely, fix only size and position, or only the aspect ratio. According to the release notes, the two newer lock types only take effect in Xara Cloud; in the desktop program such objects remain freely editable. With the option for administrators you decide whether a team in Xara Cloud may remove a lock. Xara describes a brand kit with centrally stored colours, fonts and logos for Xara Cloud, not for the desktop program.

Designer Pro+ saves documents in its own XAR format, which the Xara programs share. According to the format list, the program does not write an open exchange format for layouts such as IDML. Whether other programs open XAR files is not verified here.

For handing files to the print shop, PDF is the way, if you like as PDF/X with bleed and printer's marks. The help does not describe a package with fonts and images for the print shop; you embed fonts in the PDF in full or as a subset.

On import, Designer Pro+ opens PDF files as editable documents and takes over embedded fonts from the PDF. You import Word documents in DOCX format with formatting; the release notes mention, for example, line spacing being taken over. You can also export to Word again, and tables remain tables. Other formats include RTF, PowerPoint, Illustrator and EPS files, Photoshop files (PSD), SVG and older CorelDRAW files. Designer Pro+ opens InDesign documents in IDML format only via an import that Xara marks as beta; the format list does not name INDD files.

For switching programs this means: layouts from InDesign come in via IDML only with reservations, while content from PDF and Word can be taken over. Out of Designer Pro+ you take text via Word or RTF, layouts as PDF and graphics as SVG, EPS or image files. If you like, you embed the original XAR file in the PDF so that you can open the document in Xara again later.

In our view, Xara Designer Pro+ suits you if:

• you want to design flyers, brochures, catalogues, business documents and graphics in one program on Windows,
• you need print files as PDF/X with spot colours, bleed and colour separations,
• you want to open and change existing PDF files,
• you also want to design websites without coding alongside print work,
• a German interface and a regularly extended template library matter to you.

In our view, Designer Pro+ is less suitable if:

• you work on a Mac or on Linux,
• you typeset books or manuals with footnotes, index, cross-references or book files,
• you regularly exchange InDesign files with clients or print shops,
• you are looking for a perpetual licence without ongoing costs,
• you need locked brand templates and team collaboration without an additional online service,
• you expect AI tools in the layout program itself.