A free BioRender alternative for every teacher

Describe the diagram your lesson needs. TeachFigs drafts it for a slide, a worksheet, or a poster — preschool through college, tutoring, and homeschool.

Teachers do not lose the evening because they cannot draw. They lose it hunting for a figure that matches the lesson in front of them. The same account is for preschool and early childhood, elementary, middle school, high school, college, tutors, and homeschool. The samples on this page are the files in the gallery: a water cycle, photosynthesis, a labeled plant cell, a solar-system study guide, and a digestive system.

BioRender is a research icon library. Its free Basic plan, checked on biorender.com/pricing on 2026-10-27, includes one graphing file and free credits for AI tools, and it does not allow publication or commercial use. The pricing FAQ says you should upgrade to create more than 5 figures, to download in high quality, or to publish. Leo, BioRender's AI agent, needs a paid AI add-on and is not available on free accounts. BioRender also sells student plans that include K-12 students through postdocs, paid out of pocket. That is a student discount, not a worksheet tool for the person teaching the class.

TeachFigs starts from the sentence you would say to a colleague: what should this figure show, and who is looking at it? AI generation is the normal path, including on the free tier, not a separate add-on. The free tier is 10 credits when you sign up, every illustration style, high-resolution export, and no credit card. Starter is $8 a month for 30 generations. Lab is $24 a month for 100 generations. Teams and University are coming soon, so this is not a district site license.

You are not locked to BioRender's icon set. You describe the figure, then you can ask for a change: fewer labels for younger students, or a tighter diagram for a college course. The gallery on this page is real TeachFigs output: the water cycle prints Evaporation once and Condensation twice; photosynthesis labels carbon dioxide, glucose, a chloroplast, and water absorbed through the roots; the plant cell prints nucleus, cell wall, vacuole, and chloroplast; the solar system shows the Sun and eight planets; the digestive system labels esophagus, liver, stomach, pancreas, gallbladder, both intestines, and rectum. If your campus already pays for BioRender and you need icon-level control for a journal figure, use BioRender. If you need the figure for class, start here.

Competitor facts checked 2026-10-27. Free plan (1 graphing file, free AI credits, no publication or commercial use) and the upgrade FAQ about more than 5 figures: https://www.biorender.com/pricing. Leo is not on free accounts and needs the AI add-on: https://help.biorender.com/hc/en-gb/articles/39403365116701-Designing-with-Leo-BioRender-s-AI-Agent (help article updated 2026-10-26). AI add-on prices, from about $5/month academic or $25/month industry: https://help.biorender.com/hc/en-gb/articles/31740274739229-How-to-access-and-manage-the-AI-Add-On-in-BioRender (updated 2026-10-21). Academic Individual is about $35/month billed annually or $39 month-to-month; Lab is about $99/month for 5 seats (biorender.com/pricing). Industry Individual is $1,140/year or $115/month: https://help.biorender.com/hc/en-gb/articles/20116149197469-Understanding-BioRender-subscriptions-Industry-Individual-Team-and-Enterprise (updated 2026-10-01). Student plans, including K-12 students: https://www.biorender.com/solutions/student-plans. TeachFigs prices on the credits screen: Free (10 credits at sign-up, high-resolution, no card), Starter $8/month (30), and Lab $24/month (100). Teams and University are coming soon. Re-check competitor prices before you rely on a cell.

Dimension	Us	Them
Who it is for	Any educator: preschool and early childhood, elementary, middle, high school, college, tutors, and homeschool. Lessons, worksheets, slides, and posters.	Life-science figures for researchers. Student plans include K-12 students through postdocs paying out of pocket, which is student pricing, not a teacher worksheet product. biorender.com/solutions/student-plans, checked 2026-10-27.
Free plan	Free: 10 credits at sign-up, all styles, high-resolution export, no card. Starter $8/month (30). Lab $24/month (100). Teams and University are coming soon.	Free: 1 graphing file, free AI credits, no publication or commercial use. Pricing FAQ: upgrade to create more than 5 figures, to download high-resolution files, or to publish. Academic Individual about $35/month annual or $39 monthly. Lab about $99/month for 5 seats. biorender.com/pricing, checked 2026-10-27.
How a figure gets made	You describe the lesson. TeachFigs drafts the diagram. You can ask to change labels, layout, or how simple the language is.	The core tool is an icon and template library. Leo can plan a figure with you inside that library when you have the paid AI add-on.
AI	AI diagram generation is part of the free tier. There is no separate AI add-on to turn it on.	Leo, BioRender's AI agent, needs a paid AI add-on and is not on the free plan. Free accounts do get a one-time grant of AI credits for some image tools. Add-on from about $5/month academic or $25/month industry. Help center, checked 2026-10-27.
Choose BioRender if	Choose TeachFigs if you need a clear diagram for a class, a worksheet, a slide, or a poster and you would rather describe it than assemble icons.	Choose BioRender if you need its life-science icon library, a campus license you already have, or journal publishing rights on a paid plan. Checked 2026-10-27.

Water-cycle textbook diagram. The word Condensation is printed twice. Evaporation is also labeled. The scene shows a sun, ocean, clouds, rain, and a lake. — Generation prompt (K-12 Textbook style): Simple water cycle diagram for children showing evaporation from ocean, condensation in clouds, and precipitation as rain, with colorful arrows and labels. Printed words on this file are Evaporation once and Condensation twice.

Photosynthesis diagram of a sun and a leaf, with carbon dioxide, glucose, chloroplast, and water absorbed through the roots labeled. — Generation prompt (K-12 Textbook style): Colorful educational diagram of photosynthesis showing a green plant leaf with the sun providing light energy, arrows indicating CO2 entering and O2 leaving, water being absorbed through roots, and glucose being produced. Clear labels for each component. Educational K-12 textbook style. Labels that read on this file include carbon dioxide, glucose, chloroplast, and water absorbed through the roots.

Black-and-white plant cell with the nucleus, cell wall, vacuole, and chloroplast labeled. — Generation prompt (Worksheet style): Clean black and white diagram of plant cell structure showing labeled parts including cell wall, nucleus, chloroplast, vacuole, suitable for student worksheet. Those four words are printed on the file. The cell is labeled.

Solar-system study guide with the Sun and eight planets in order, each with a short fact. — Generation prompt (K-12 Textbook style): Visual summary of the solar system showing all eight planets in order with key facts, designed as a study guide for student review and memorization.

Digestive-system diagram labeled esophagus, liver, stomach, pancreas, gallbladder, small intestine, large intestine, and rectum. — Gallery figure (no generation prompt is stored for this file): a digestive system. Labels that read include esophagus, liver, stomach, pancreas, gallbladder, small intestine, large intestine, and rectum.

Is this only for K-12 biology teachers?

No. TeachFigs is for preschool and early childhood, elementary, middle, high school, college and university instructors, tutors, and homeschool teachers. Biology is a common request. So are earth science, chemistry, physics, a solar-system study guide, and any other subject you can describe. The app's subject list also includes math, history, geography, language arts, and computer science.

Does BioRender have AI?

Yes. BioRender's AI agent is named Leo. Leo needs a paid AI add-on and the help center says Leo is not available on free Basic accounts (article updated 2026-10-26, re-checked 2026-10-27). The free plan does include free credits for some AI image tools, and figure drafting is not available on the free plan. The AI add-on starts around $5 a month for academic plans and $25 a month for industry. TeachFigs includes AI diagram generation on the free tier. There is no separate AI add-on.

What does BioRender's free plan include?

Checked on biorender.com/pricing on 2026-10-27: the free plan lists one graphing file, free credits for AI tools, 3D models from the Protein Data Bank, and no commercial use or publication. The pricing FAQ says to upgrade if you need to create more than 5 figures, download figures in high quality, or publish. TeachFigs free is 10 credits when you sign up, high-resolution export, and no card. Those are different limits. Do not treat them as the same plan.

Can preschool and college use the same tool?

Yes. Ask for fewer labels when the students are young, and for a fuller diagram in high school or college. The samples on this page are a water cycle, photosynthesis, a labeled plant cell, a solar-system study guide, and a digestive system. Coloring-book and illustrated styles suit younger rooms. The higher-ed style is in the product for university courses. You still review the labels before you teach with the image.

Can I use the figures in class and in a paper?

TeachFigs terms say you keep ownership of your prompts and of the illustrations generated from them, and that generated images may be used for personal, commercial, and academic purposes, including publication. You still follow your school or journal rules on disclosing AI-made figures. BioRender's free plan does not allow publication or commercial use. That restriction is theirs, not a claim that every paid BioRender plan works the same way.