Best embroidery software for beginners: pick by the job you need done

“Embroidery software” covers very different tools. Some just type a name in a nice font. Some resize and combine finished designs. Others let you build a design from a blank page, stitch by stitch. Buying the wrong kind is the most common software mistake beginners make.

So this guide sorts the options by the job you need done. Everything here is based on each maker’s published features. We don’t list prices because they change often; check the maker’s site for the current price.

Do you need embroidery software at all?

Not on day one. Most machines come with built-in designs and fonts. The Brother PE900, for example, lists 193 built-in designs and 13 fonts. Add purchased designs in your machine’s format and you can make a lot before you open a computer program.

You’ll want software when you need to:

• Add lettering in fonts your machine doesn’t have.
• Combine two designs, or a design and a name, in one hooping.
• Resize a purchased design properly (see embroidery design resizing).
• Convert a design to your machine’s format (see embroidery file formats explained).
• Create your own designs from artwork, which is called digitizing.

Quick comparison table

Software	Cost model	OS	Main job	Machine formats
Embrilliance Express	Free	macOS, Windows	Lettering with BX fonts; save BE files to machine formats	Machine formats via Express mode
Embrilliance Essentials	Paid	macOS, Windows (native)	Lettering, merging, resizing with stitch recalculation, colorizing, templates	Writes PES, JEF, DST, EXP, VP3, XXX, HUS and more
Brother Artspira	Free tier + Artspira+ monthly or annual subscription	Phone and tablet app	Download and draw designs, transfer to Brother Wi-Fi machines; Artspira+ adds photo digitizing	Transfers to compatible Brother machines
Hatch Embroidery	Paid tiers (Organizer, Personalizer, Composer, Digitizer); 30-day free trial	Windows 11 only	From organizing and converting up to manual digitizing	Reads and writes PES, JEF, DST, EXP, VP3, ART and more, per Hatch’s format list
Brother PE-DESIGN 11	Paid; trial with limited functions	Windows	Full digitizing for Brother machines; 1000+ designs, 130 fonts, Photostitch	Built for Brother; check Brother’s spec sheet for export formats
Ink/Stitch	Free, open source	Windows, macOS, Linux (inside Inkscape)	Digitizing from vector artwork	Writes PES, JEF, DST, EXP, VP3, XXX and more
Brother Design Database Transfer	Free	Windows	Organize designs and send them to Wi-Fi Brother machines	Sends PES, PHC, PHX, DST, PEN

For lettering and simple edits: Embrilliance

Embrilliance Express (free)

Embrilliance says Express mode lets you “type words/names using .BX fonts and to open and save .BE files into machine formats,” at no cost. You’ll need fonts in the BX format to use it. If your main goal is names on towels, bibs and tote bags, Express plus a few BX fonts may be all you need.

Embrilliance Essentials

Essentials is the step up. Embrilliance lists merging designs, resizing with stitch recalculation, removing overlaps, colorizing, printing templates and lettering. It says you can scale designs from 50% to 250% of their original size while keeping the same density. It runs natively on macOS and Windows, which makes it one of the few full editing programs for Mac users.

It reads a long list of formats, including ART, DST, EXP, HUS, JEF, PES, VP3 and XXX, and writes PES, JEF, DST, EXP, VP3, XXX, HUS and others. That makes it a practical converter if you buy designs that don’t come in your format.

Choose Embrilliance if you use a Mac, if you mostly work with purchased designs, or if lettering is your main job. Skip it if you want to create designs from artwork right away. Embrilliance sells separate digitizing products, such as StitchArtist, for that.

For phone-first Brother owners: Artspira

Artspira is Brother’s app for phones and tablets. Brother’s FAQ says the free version includes a library of embroidery, cutting and printing designs, basic editing tools, an embroidery drawing tool and unlimited transfers. Brother quotes slightly different design counts in different parts of the FAQ, so don’t rely on an exact number.

Artspira+ is a paid subscription, offered monthly or annually. Brother says it adds photo digitizing and cross stitching for embroidery machines, AI image treatments and designs that can be used for commercial purposes. On the PP1 page, Brother also says Artspira+ lets you import designs. Check Brother’s site for the current subscription price.

Artspira works with Brother’s Wi-Fi machines such as the PE545, PE900 and SE2000. The PP1 (Skitch) is the one machine that requires it: Brother says the PP1 can’t be used without Artspira.

Choose Artspira if you own a Wi-Fi Brother machine and like working on a phone or tablet. Skip Artspira+ until you know you need its digitizing or commercial-use designs.

For full digitizing

Digitizing means turning artwork into stitches yourself: choosing stitch types, directions, density and order. It’s the most powerful option and the slowest to learn. Our Ink/Stitch digitizing guide shows what the process involves.

Hatch Embroidery

Hatch is built on the Wilcom engine and comes in four tiers on its current pricing page:

• Organizer: manage your library, resize, recolor, mirror, rotate and convert between machine formats.
• Personalizer: adds lettering, with 66 embroidery fonts, monogram templates and TrueType/OpenType font support.
• Composer: adds auto-digitizing of photos and artwork, more editing and layout tools, and multi-hooping.
• Digitizer: adds manual digitizing with “full stitch control,” Color PhotoStitch, advanced appliqué and 130 fonts.

Hatch offers a 30-day free trial with no credit card required, and the trial includes every tool in the Digitizer level. Hatch says Hatch Embroidery 4 is Windows only and requires Windows 11, though it can run on Apple Silicon Macs through virtualization software.

Choose Hatch if you’re on Windows and want a path from simple edits to full digitizing in one program. Start at the lowest tier that covers what you do, and use the trial to decide.

Brother PE-DESIGN 11

Brother lists 1000+ built-in designs, 130 built-in fonts, a full-featured Photostitch with Auto Punch and Cross Stitch wizards, and an intelligent color sort that reduces thread changes. Brother describes it as suitable for both casual hobbyists and home-based businesses. It runs on Windows, and Brother offers a trial with limited functions.

Choose PE-DESIGN 11 if you own a Brother machine, use Windows and want software from the same maker as your machine. If you own a Mac or a non-Brother machine, look at the other options first.

Ink/Stitch (free, open source)

Ink/Stitch describes itself as “an open source machine embroidery design platform based on Inkscape,” and it’s free. It’s an Inkscape extension, so you need Inkscape 1.0.2 or later installed first. It has installers for Windows, macOS (Monterey 12 and later) and Linux.

It writes DST, EXP, JEF, PES, VP3, XXX and other formats, so it works with nearly any home machine. The tradeoff is the learning curve. You need to learn Inkscape’s vector tools as well as embroidery concepts like underlay and pull compensation. Ink/Stitch’s own workflow page warns that auto tracing “often creates tiny or fragmented objects that do not work well for embroidery,” so there’s no shortcut around learning to draw clean shapes.

Choose Ink/Stitch if you want to learn digitizing without spending money, use a Mac or Linux, or already know Inkscape. Skip it if you need results this week.

Which software should you start with?

If you want to…	Start with
Add names in more fonts	Embrilliance Express + BX fonts
Resize, combine and convert purchased designs on a Mac	Embrilliance Essentials
Resize, combine and convert on Windows	Embrilliance Essentials or Hatch Organizer
Draw simple designs on a phone for a Brother Wi-Fi machine	Artspira (free)
Turn a photo into embroidery on a Brother	Artspira+ or PE-DESIGN 11
Learn digitizing for free	Ink/Stitch
Digitize seriously on Windows	Hatch (try the free trial first) or PE-DESIGN 11
Send designs wirelessly to a Brother from a PC	Design Database Transfer

Whichever you pick, test-stitch every edited design before using it on a real project. And if you want free designs to practice editing, see our list of free embroidery designs. For moving finished files to your machine, read how to transfer embroidery designs.

Still choosing a machine? Software support is a good tiebreaker. The machine finder can help you narrow the list.