Recommendations for map design.

The most popular browser-based fantasy map maker. Paint worlds, regions, cities, interiors, and battle maps with a huge library of hand-painted stamp assets, so no artistic skill is required. The free tier is a great way to make your first map; Pro unlocks HD exports and the full asset library.

A desktop app dedicated to world and regional maps. Generate landmasses procedurally or sculpt coastlines by hand, then brush in mountains, forests, rivers, and labels in a painterly style. Exports crisp high-resolution images that look beautiful as editor backgrounds.

A remarkable in-browser generator that produces an entire living world in one click: landmasses, biomes, rivers, nation borders, cultures, religions, settlements, and trade routes. It also lets you edit every layer of it. Perfect when you want a rich starting point instead of a blank canvas.

Wonderdraft's sibling app, focused on interiors: dungeons, buildings, taverns, and encounter maps with walls, floors, lighting, and asset packs. Ideal for the battle-map and floor-plan scale; pair it with a sub-map in the editor for locations your story visits often.

A free browser tool (from the Roll20 team) for fast, old-school dungeon line maps. Sketch rooms and corridors in seconds with a classic hatched, hand-drawn look. The quickest way to go from idea to usable dungeon map.

A beloved collection of one-click procedural generators: the Medieval Fantasy City Generator plus villages, mansions, dungeons, and more. Instantly produces elegant, stylized settlement maps you can restyle and export. They are wonderful for filling out the towns your nations contain.

The veteran professional mapping suite from ProFantasy. CAD-style precision with decades of art styles and add-ons covering everything from continents to city districts to dungeon floors. The steepest learning curve here, and the deepest toolbox once you climb it.

For total artistic control, nothing beats drawing the map yourself. Krita is a professional-grade, free painting app with excellent brush engines, and the community offers many free fantasy-map brush packs (mountains, trees, cartouches). The most work, and the most personal result.