Proxima Nova is one of the best-received fonts on the Web. Designed by Mark Simonson in 2005, it provides great readability and rendering on and off the Web.

This cool-looking font comes with both personal and commercial licenses through Adobe. See the online preview before obtaining a license that suits the nature of your project.

Premium fonts like Proxima Nova come at a good cost. If you have a non-profit site or small project, you can save money with free alternatives to Proxima Nova.

Google Fonts as Proxima Nova alternatives

Google fonts, licensed as open source, can be used on any project for free without any worry. This FAQ page has more details on Google font usage and licensing.

Here are some Google Fonts that may serve as alternatives to Proxima Nova and can be used for free:

Montserrat

Julieta Ulanovsky drew inspiration from old posters and signs in the Montserrat territory to create this font. Observe the comparison of Proxima Nova and Montserrat in the screen capture below.

Lato

Looks smaller than you expect from a font, Lato is a neat alternative to Proxima Nova. Łukasz Dziedzic began working on a cool font project in 2010, resulting in the creation of Lato. I have used this font on this website before with some font-size adjustments. It looked pretty good.

Nunito Sans

Nunito Sans is my choice of font, and I find it pretty neat these days. It may not be a perfect alternative to Proxima Nova if observed closely, but it gives the impression that it is. Jacques Le Bailly extended Vernon Adams‘s Nunito and came up with a 7-weight sans version of it.

Bonus: Raleway

Raleway, created by multiple font designers over time, looks more like a display font. Matt McInerney created it as a single-weight thin font. Later on, Pablo, Rodrigo, and Igino extended it for a 9-weight typeface.

Other Proxima Nova lookalikes

Another typeface that resembles Proxima Nova is Gotham, which is a premium font as well. Both appear almost the same; however, the former is more prevalent on the Web.

A couple more premium typefaces that appear to be the closest alternatives to PN are:

Conclusion

If I were to pick one out of the above options, I’d choose Montserrat. For a premium font, I’d recommend Proxima Nova itself, which offers a variety of licenses.

If you know of more fonts that should be included on this list, feel free to send them through.

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