Coolors
The spacebar palette generator that designers have used for years to find colour schemes.
why this verdict
Cancel it — switch to Realtime Colors
Realtime Colors and Adobe Color now cover the same core job on a free tier, so the $3/mo is optional.
- A named launch, not a vibe named, unlinked
- Chat assistants generating accessible palettes with hex codes and CSS variables in one reply. Anthropic, January 30, 2025 — no announcement link recorded yet.
- How much of the job it covers all of it editorial call
- The whole core job — the thing the subscription was actually for.
- Is there a free way to do it? yes
- 3 of 3 listed replacements have a usable free tier: Realtime Colors, Adobe Color and Claude.
- What the call is worth $36/yr
- $3/mo at the entry paid tier — $36 a year per seat.
- Threatened by
- Anthropic
- Since
- January 30, 2025
- List price
- $3/mo
- Per year
- $36
The backstory
Coolors generates colour palettes by hitting the spacebar, with locking, contrast checks and exports. That is a single well-defined task, and it is now a free side effect of asking any chat model for a palette with contrast ratios and tokens already formatted. The AI answer also explains its choices and adapts to a brief, which the randomiser cannot. A beloved bookmark reduced to a novelty by one prompt.
Escape hatches
switching could free up $36/yrPreview palettes on a live mock website instantly
realtimecolors.com open_in_newColour wheel, harmony rules and accessibility checks
color.adobe.com open_in_newAsk for a palette with hex values and contrast notes
claude.ai open_in_new3 of 3 replacements have a usable free tier.