17 Favorite Logo Fonts for Small Businesses

Choosing the right font for your logo is not easy. To help you out, we’ve compiled a versatile list of the absolute best logo fonts you can use for your business.

Some principles of good logo design include memorability, simplicity and connection to the brand. Whether you use a logotype which just includes lettering, or if your brand name accompanies a graphic element, the right choice of font can help make your brand more distinctive and increase brand recognition with your customers.

There are tons of free fonts online, as well as ones that require payment for commercial use. So to help you save up some time, we’ve come up with this list of the best fonts to use for your logo.

Happy browsing!

Modern sans serif fonts

Let’s start with the font family that is probably the most widely used in logo design and branding. Sans serif fonts (for those who need a reminder) are characterized by clean letters that don’t have strokes at the end or “feet” at the bottom of each letter. Some of the most famous fonts from this family include Helvetica, Arial and Futura.

However, these classic fonts aren’t a great choice for small business branding, since they won’t give your brand a very unique or memorable look. Instead, consider some of the following cool and modern typefaces.

1. Helvetica Now (from $35)

This modern take on the Helvetica font family includes 48 font styles, including italic, bold, hairline and regular. It’s a very professional looking font which would be suitable for a number of industries, including very serious ones like hospital and financial logos.

Individual styles cost from $35, and you can get the entire font family for $299. Sure, it might seem like a steep bargain for fonts. But if you just want a simple wordmark, the price of this font is still smaller than the average cost of logo design. Additionally, you can get also get an array of styles and fonts that you can use for creating a consistent and professional brand identity on different channels like your website, social media and email

2. Proxima Nova (from $29)

This trendy font is super popular in website design and is used by big players like BuzzFeed, NBC News and Wired. Mark Simmons, the creator of this font wonders if its recent popularity is due to “open, circular forms, which perhaps give it a “friendly” appearance, especially in the lowercase”.

If you need a sleek-looking tech logo that still has a “friendly feel” this typeface might just be the perfect choice!

3. Univers (from $35)

This font is rather similar to Proxima Nova, but the letterforms have more rounded curves. The geometric forms and wide lettering offer this typeface a great degree of versatility.

4. Avenir Next (from $89)

Avenir Next was designed by graphic design legends, Adrian Frutiger and Akira Kobayashi and published by Linotype. With individual styles starting at $89 and the price for the whole font family being $499 it’s certainly not the most affordable option for small businesses and startups.

Nevertheless, if you’re considering a rebrand and want to invest in a modern, professional font that commands attention, this cool and somewhat futuristic font is definitely one to consider.

5. Mont (from $35)

Many sans serif fonts have a very rigid feel that might ultimately create an unwelcoming logo. If you opt for this one created by Font Fabric, I don’t think this is a concern you need to have. This geometric font has generous kerning, so it will help any design breathe. An intricate graphic part of the logo would pair well with this font to help you create a strong brand image.

6. Kiona (from $28)

The geometric forms of this all caps typeface offer maxim legibility, so if you want to showcase a creative business name this might be the perfect font for you. It comes in four different weights, bold, light, regular and semibold. Use this crisp font if you’d like to create a modern, minimalist brand identity.

7. Bebas Neue(free)

Who’d have thought that Netflix has a free font on their logo? Well, it’s true and this popular display font is also a big favorite with Youtubers, so it’s definitely on-trend right now. However, it’s not the most elegant or subtle of fonts so if you’re looking for a boutique logo or something fitting to a luxury hotel, you might avoid this one. Even if it would mean getting a free logo!

Elegant serifs

Serif fonts often have a traditional look, although there are plenty of great modern alternatives in this decorative style of typography. Nevertheless, remember that even if you go with something ornate, your brand name should be legible, even in a smaller format.

8. Walk On (free)

The high contrast between lines on each glyph creates a very dynamic and powerful look. This Roman-inspired font would definitely make a great choice for fashion or boutique logos.

9. Garamond (free)

This classic font is available for free from Adobe Fonts, and although it’s quite well known it still makes for a great logo font. There are many variations on this font including Apple Garamond which is the typeface used exclusively by Apple. Garamond also supports Cyrillic letterforms.

10. Lucy Rose (free for personal use)

A dreamy font like this will certainly infuse your brand image with a sense of style and class. It’s available in uppercase only, so you will need a secondary font to use in your branding. The great thing about it, however, is that it supports 100 style alternatives, so you can really experiment and create a truly unique logo.

11. Modesto(free)

Another great font available from Adobe Fonts and free for both personal and commercial use. Created by Jim Parkinson, this font is inspired by old hand-painted signage, but given a more updated and modern look for better readability.

12. Playfair display (free)

This old style font represents a transition from writing with quills to contemporary writing tools and the development of printing technologies. It’s a display font (large size), which means you might need a secondary font for smaller blocks of text (Georgia is a good one to consider). It’s a free font available on Google fonts.

Romantic script fonts

A calligraphy or script font can be a wonderful way to give your logo design a more humanist and unique look. These font families are very popular in the beauty and wellness industry, for example with massage or hair salon logos.

13. Victoria ($9)

This sweet script font still has high readability thanks to the generous spacing between the letterforms. The simple ligatures give this font a more interesting look, and the font would look great as a wordmark for a food or beauty brand.

Although the commercial use is pretty affordable itself, the font is free for personal use and you can download a demo version and take time to think if this is the right font for you.

14. Paperchaser Calligraphy (from $18)

The issue with many script fonts is that they have “too much character”, in the sense that you can’t really imagine them being used in different ways. Paperchaser Calligraphy is a wonderfully versatile font that would be equally fitting for a wedding photographer logo as well as a hipster barber shop font (perhaps paired with a slab serif for a more masculine look). Since you definitely need a secondary font to use with this one, a minimalist sans serif typeface would balance the overall design perfectly.

15. Opulent (from $20)

Opulent is a hand-drawn font by designer Sam Parret. It comes in three styles, brush, solid as well as SVG format which allows you to customize this typeface to fit your needs. The watercolor texture on this typeface is stunning and would make a stunning and unique design for your business cards and other print materials.

16. Honest Designers ($24)

Created by Ian Barnad, a designer with a very impressive portfolio of typeface design, the value of this font is evident to almost anyone working in graphic design. The curves and ligatures make this a very unique font that still has potential for a wide range of uses: from signage to web banners and of course, stunning logo design. It was first used as the logo design for the Honest Designers podcast, but due to high demand, the designer decided to release it as a font for commercial purchase.

17. Rochester (free)

This elegant free font is inspired by the elegant calligraphic forms from the early age of Victorian and Art Deco. It definitely has an old style feel to it, so it might not make the best logo font for cutting edge startups. On the other hand, if you’re a lawyer or consultant, the lovely cursive lettering will certainly give your logo and stationery design a touch of class your clients will appreciate.

Need further logo font ideas? We’ve got you covered with our exhaustive list of 64 logo fonts. Also, make sure to check out our articles on retro fonts as well as this collection of free commercial fonts which you can use to create a unique logo on a budget!