Simmers have mixed feelings about the general idea of paid expansion packs, especially when features such as seasons, pets, and university have been with the franchise for so long that they feel like they should be base game content at this point. And with an influx of new players now that the base game is free-to-play, it can be overwhelming looking at all of the DLC available (and the associated costs). In fact, as of the time of this writing the total retail cost for all available Sims 4 DLC, not counting bundles or sales, is well over $1000 USD!
Check out our top picks for free Custom Content that can be compared to official DLC from EA. You’re not going to find an entire EP’s worth of stuff from a single set, but most of these links could easily be compared to a Kit or Stuff Pack or even more if you download more than one. Most of what you’ll find here is Maxis-match since we’re aiming for pieces that feel like in-game DLC. That being said, if you like something in particular make sure to check out other creations by the author!
Jewelry Store Set
This collection is lovely on its own but it also makes a wonderful addition for players with the Crystal Creations Kit. We got some cool new displays with that Kit to show off our sims’ gemstone creations, but if you want your jeweler to have a Retail store to sell their wares the shelves will look empty pretty quickly unless they’re churning out new pieces constantly. Using this collection will add fullness to any functioning or decorative retail area, as well as the bedrooms/closets of the super rich. A few of the items would even look right at home as part of a museum display. The 21 items are perfectly detailed and almost everything is base game compatible.
HOMME
13 casual pieces for masc framed sims that can be mixed and matched for a range of looks, and since everything is in simlish it will blend perfectly with EA clothing too. We particularly love the throwback pieces that use imagery from older installments of The Sims such as the Bella Goth missing poster and the headless bear(!) Items from this collection will work anywhere from downtown noodle shops to rustic cow farms, and everything in between.
First Love Collection
A great collection of 11 items that range in style from prep school misfit to urban casual, with a few recolor overlays to give you even more options. This set serves as a nice addition to High School Years attire with a slightly more mature slant, and transitions into University seamlessly.
Beat The Heat Collection
Rock summer styles with a bit of fashion flare for your masc framed sims, thanks to this collection of 21 warm-weather focused pieces. Tops, bottoms, hair, and a few accessories will give your characters more options to wear on those warmer days, including a set of oft-derided sandals with socks. Dads across Simlandia, rejoice!
Patriots
Strangerville finally brought back the military career track which has been a staple of The Sims since day 1. It’s a limited track that doesn’t explore all branches of the military, which makes sense considering that the game is played by people in multiple countries all over the world. This little 9-piece set can be used to give your military sims more variety in their attire, or you can use it for storytelling purposes to represent ranks/branches that aren’t available in the vanilla game.
Want to know how to make these pieces part of your sim’s actual work uniform? We’ve got a guide!
Assorted Collection
With 44 pieces in total your masc framed sims aren’t going to have room in their closet for all this stuff! The entire collection consists of variations on EA content across multiple DLCs, so it’s kind of like an add-on but for multiple packs instead of just one. You’ll find assorted pants, shorts, and shirts in this set with many of the tops now featuring bare-chested sims which makes them great for pairing with your favorite accessory shirt.
We’re linking you to Part 2 but if you click “Assorted Collection” in the download page’s intro it’ll bring you to Part 1.
Werewolves Add-Ons
We’ll never say no to an add-on pack which takes your EA favorites and expands on them for even more options! In total there are 30 new pieces modeled from objects that came with the Werewolves Game Pack, but these are base game compatible so you can still enjoy the Lupine aesthetic even if you don’t have the associated DLC.
Our download button will bring you to the masc half of the set but you can get the femme half here.
Unify Collection
You get 36 pieces in this clothing set which is full of basics for all genders, with graphic overlays available as an accessory. It’s almost like you’re getting twice as many tops since your sims can wear them with or without the overlay! It’s a great set because everything is simple yet stylish, easy to pair with other pieces of CC or EA clothing, and can serve as the backdrop to another signature clothing item or grab the spotlight on its own with the right color and overlay combo.
Night On The Town
Though The Sims 4 hasn’t given us a lot in terms of older time period-oriented content, CC is full of it! A small set of 10 pieces, this collection is full of clothing and accessories in a 70’s style that the Luxury Party Stuff Pack wishes it could be! A few of the gowns are very glam but a majority of the outfits here can be used any time, making them a lot more usable than what EA gave us.
Candlelight Set
A fairly small set coming in at 12 pieces, we wanted to feature it here because it’s not often that you see CC clothing sets that try to give equal attention to both body types. Masc and femme framed sims can enjoy a new blazer and trousers, a hairstyle, and several pieces of flashy jewelry. Suit up your sims in matching attire for a cute date, or just hit the runway in this bold collection.
Rusty’s Basics
Going back 5 years, Rusty has created multiple clothing under the Basic name with over 20 pieces to date. They’re mostly tops & bottoms in a range of simple colors and patterns, with items for masc and femme framed sims. If you’re after more pieces to stuff your sim’s closets that are incredibly wearable and versatile, take a look!
Because this collection is spread over multiple posts, you’ll want to search for “Basic” on the Patreon page to find it all.
The Sophom*ore Collection
Sporting 31 new pieces, this set is on par with EA Kit offerings. A collegiate collection featuring full body outfits, tops, bottoms, shoes, and more all done up in a cohesive style parameter of solid colors, stripes, and color blocking that will make your University sims look ready to take in a football game, shine bright at a debate, or just look cute while at an event at the student quad.
It’s a 2-parter so follow the link on the download page for the other half!
Pink Ribbons Collection
Though we’ve had pieces show up here and there in various DLCs, The Sims 4 hasn’t ever really offered anything substantial for femme sims into super girly fashion. Pastels, lace, hearts, and bows all await you in this 17 piece set full of super feminine fashion!
This is a 2-part set so be sure to check the download page for a link to the other half of the collection.
Disorder
A 13-piece mini set with clothing in a range of basic silhouettes, but the prints and patterns give a vibe that would play well with the clothing from the Werewolves GP or the Grunge Revival Kit. I mean, just look at that wolf dress!
Laces And Spikes Collection
If the Goth Galore Kit left you wanting a little more, this collection from Trillyke is a great way to fill things out. It’s more punk-rock themed than goth but the two styles often blend, and most if not all pieces from this set should play nicely with pieces from that Kit. Items come in 25 swatches that include a solid black as well as a fun pink pattern covered in a damask skull design, which your goths and Goths will surely love!
The Cruise Collection
EA recently gave us some new swimwear to prepare for the Summer of Love roadmap, but if you’re craving even more hot summer looks for relaxing at the pool or beach take a look at this swimwear set. Sporting new swimsuits in bold colors & patterns and lots of accessories like a sunhat, sarong, and cute beachy jewelry, this collection is a welcome add-on to the recent SDX drop.
Play With Me
One DLC we’re surprised hasn’t come out yet is “Gamer Stuff,” which would be a great opportunity to introduce more video game items to The Sims 4 (such as an arcade machine in a normal size). This 10-piece collection focuses more on the CAS aspect of a gamer, and though the offerings are limited to femme framed sims we figure you’ll want to check it out anyway since Girl Gamers don’t always get they love they deserve. Plus, the details on these pieces are too good not to share! Combine it with the Arcade Room Pack and it’s like your own free Gamer Kit!
My Wedding Trauma
Tacky, trashy, kitschy, and cool are not adjectives you go to when first picturing a wedding but by golly, this collection perfectly captures all of that and more. There are 15 pieces total with clothing, accessories, a wedding arch, seating, food and drink items, and some decor objects. Though a few pieces require specific DLC to work there are base game compatible pieces as well, so you can enjoy it all even without those extra Packs.
This is a 2-part collection so be sure to check the download page for the link to the other half!
Pride CC Recap
We’ve had multiple updates to The Sims 4 over the years bringing more and more Pride-themed content to the game but you’ll likely never see a Kit or other paid DLC for it. The simming community is full of queer folks however, and many of them turn to amazing Pride CC to fill that gap. Though not a set exclusively, Bellassims has made several different pieces of Pride-focused CC and gathered them all together into one handy page so you can get your fix of everything on offer. Jewelry, accessories, and even a few decor items can be found in this collection, with plenty of swatches to show your Pride.
DECORA ACCESSORIES
Imagine getting a Kit of just accessory pieces for our sims. That would be pretty neat, right? Well, you can have the next best thing with the DECORA accessories collection which features jewelry, hats, and face decorations in a colorful aesthetic that matches perfectly with pieces from High School Years. With all 3 parts combined you get over 40 items total, making it bigger than an average EA Kit! Click for Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 or follow our download button to the main page where you can search “DECORA” for everything at once.
Snuggle Set
If you’ve ever wished for a “cozy bedroom” themed Kit, check out the Snuggle Set. This 2-part collection has 25 new pieces of bedding, furniture, and various accoutrements to make the space feel warm and inviting, with a soothing neutral color palette to match the vibes. We particularly love the detail of the antique floor and table lamps.
Our download button will bring you to part 1 of the set; go here for part 2.
Muwebles For Rent Add-Ons
Perhaps you’re not looking for custom content that feels like its own DLC and instead just wish that EA’s offerings had more to them. If that’s you, add-on sets are what you need. In addition to making lots of great original content, simmer marso has put together a few EA add-on sets and this one for For Rent is their largest. New beds, furniture, lighting, and more will make EA’s DLC feel even more well-rounded, but everything is base game compatible so you can enjoy it even without For Rent.
Simlish Bookstore CC Set
11 Simlish items to make the perfect Maxis-match book shop, with tons of swatches to choose from. Stock your community or private libraries, and give the Avante Guards club some real ambiance in their hangout spot. Plus, you can never have enough book clutter!
Rosa Bathroom
Bathrooms don’t get as much love in the CC space as other areas, but they’re one of the most important rooms in any home; this is one of myshunosun’s smaller sets with only 8 items total yet look at how lovely they are! Everything is nicely detailed and despite the name of the set, comes in more than just a rose color. It’s got a nice mix of slightly modern styles, slightly old fashioned styles, and a range of swatches to fit multiple design styles.
Feline Fiesta
Pets stuff is tricky because if you want EA to give us more content for them, they’ll try to get you to pay for it. This mini set is not only free, but cute as heck too! A small 7-piece collection, it’s got everything you need to make your cat-owning sims’ homes trendy, colorful, and fun! The self-cleaning litter box has many expressive patterns, the blocky scratching post can double as a piece of art, and the tart bed is too cute to not download!
Leaf-motif makes awesome stuff for humans too, so if you love this collection be sure to check out their other work!
Arcade Room Fanmade Pack
For some reason to this day there is only a single video game arcade cabinet in The Sims 4, and it’s unrealistically massive. This amazing modpack adds 11 new game attractions such as skee ball and claw machines, as well as furniture, displays, clothing, and some really cool neon lights! Build an arcade for your sims, pair these pieces up with Bowling Night Stuff activities, or make a kid-oriented restaurant if you have Dine Out. With 30 items in total, this set sits on par with EA Kits.
Talvera Pop Set
Though they’ve started fixing this in recent years, The Sims 4 originally didn’t come with much base game content for varying ethnicities and global locations. The Talavera Pop Set is a beautiful collection of Mexican-inspired Buy/Build content and comes with 55 items including an incredible range of arched windows that are so nice, they make it worth downloading the entire pack!
Cheap & Chipped Used Grunge CC
A lot of players enjoy The Sims 4 for its ability to live the idyllic life, but not everyone works that way. Other than the Basem*nt Treasures Kit, a few items from City Living, and some clothes from the Laundry Day Stuff Pack, we don’t have a lot of stuff for the game that’s busted up or grungy. With the Cheap and Chipped set you get 25 pieces to fill that niche with something for every room of the house. Old worn furniture and plumbing items, ratty decor pieces, broken flooring, and even an ancient computer round out the collection but the piece we really love is something that everyone has dealt with—an empty roll of toilet paper. This is a great set for run-down builds or even as part of a fixer-upper type challenge!
The Judith Trio
Judith Ward is definitely a sim introduced in The Sims 4 whose legacy will follow her into the future, even if she doesn’t make it into the next game. Here’s a trio of miniature sets that combine to give us over 175 items dedicated to our favorite Studio Town starlet:
- The Judith Living Room comes with 60 pieces that include an amazingly luxurious sectional sofa & matching chaise lounge, a 16-piece modular built-in bookcase, marble tables, a grand fireplace, and tons of decor and clutter. The bookcase has a similar vibe to the ones that came with Crystal Creations Kit, with pieces that include a decorative ladder, and they would work so well in any type of grand library you want to build!
- The stunning Judith Bedroom is oozing with statement pieces like the matching dresser and wardrobe, grand chandelier, massive headboard, and show-stopping decorative panels. There’s an Art Deco Luxury feeling to this 18-piece set and while that seems like a low amount, when you see the quality of the objects you’ll understand that less is more.
- Would it be her without the Judith Walk-In Closet? A huge modular system with all sorts of shelving, storage, and clothing/shoe clutter, your jaw will drop when you learn that there are almost 100 items here. It’s actually kind of surprising EA hasn’t thought to release a closet-themed Kit yet, but after seeing this CC version I doubt they can improve on the idea!
Master Bedroom Pack
With the 2024 summer roadmap seemingly focused on getting sims “in the mood” there’s no better time to add this collection to your game. There are 26 pieces in this set and their style is just neutral enough that, depending on which swatches you choose, you can make your sim’s bedroom look like a basic suburban room, a romantic love nest, an incredibly modern and somewhat minimalist space, or something else completely! Plus, it sports an aquarium that has normal proportions unlike the giant tanks you find in the vanilla game. You’ll surely find yourself using these pieces over and over again with how versatile they are.
Cottage Kitchen CC Stuff
If you’re a player that just cannot get enough of the cottagecore life, this collection is going to make your kitchens amazing. Boasting over 50 new items including a suite of counters and cabinets, tables, appliances, and an impressive selection of cozy decor items, it blends well with the Cottage Living aesthetic and puts the Country Kitchen Kit to shame! There are so many beautiful details to these pieces and it makes you want to download them, even if just to have the chance to admire them fully.
Modern Living CC Stuff
A mini CC pack, this set gives us 13 objects with a super-modern aesthetic. There are multiple colorways available but with all the green in the preview pictures it makes this collection look like a perfect option to furnish an Alien’s home. We particularly like how varied each surface object is while remaining cohesive, so you can use them all together or individually based on what you like.
Pufferhead Stuff
In the base game there is a poster for a wizard named Henry Puffer. Obviously this is a Harry Potter reference, but for fans of the series that’s sadly all there is in the game that alludes to this character.
Unless you have this pack! The Pufferhead (fanmade) Stuff Pack takes the Henry Puffer character and expands it into a fully Maxis-match property with everything from clothing, accessories, and bedding to rep your favorite house to posters, games, and toys featuring the property to readable books and even a new consumable drink! There are 56 items included in this pack and even if you’re not a Potter fan in real life, the quality of the items will have you considering adding it to your Mods folder anyway.
Garden At Home Pack
If you’re a simmer who can’t get enough garden-based content, prepare for a fan pack with 35 beautiful items for the outdoors! This pack has all you need to make the garden of your dreams: functional planters in several styles and orientations, lots of decorative plants and a lovely greenhouse, new rocks and landscaping options, some gorgeous seating so your sims can sit and enjoy all the work they (you) put into it, and more. This offering is on par or even above your average Kit, since they usually sport fewer than 30 items.
Forever Autumn
Forever Autumn is a 5-part (so far) collection of home furnishings in a country-eqsue autumn theme featuring natural wood tones and calming neutral colorways. This Game Pack-level collection has pieces for the dining room, kitchen, living room, bedroom, and bathroom, with a total of 138 new creations total!
Because the parts are spread over multiple posts, your best bet is to visit the Patreon page we’ve linked and search “forever autumn” from there. You won’t be disappointed!
The Furniture Showroom
A CC pack that’s like several mini-kits in one, we had to share this because of the massive nostalgia factor. If you played The Sims 1 you recognize that heart-shaped hot tub and coordinating bed! Talk about a throwback.
Even if romance isn’t what you’re after you will still find pieces you love in this 38-item set, which is made up of 4 different collection themes. It’s also only one of over 60 different collections by SIXAM and each one is a real banger. If you can never get enough furniture Kits, take a scroll through their offerings!
Postmodern Living
This living room set is just one of a plethora of incredible collections Peacemaker_IC has released. With 36 items it’s larger than your standard EA Kit, and the bright colors of this one in particular reminds us of the days of The Sims 2. Not your forte? No worries! Peace has 100+ different downloads they’ve made over the years in a variety of aesthetics, in addition to multiple add-on sets for established DLCs. Even if you don’t like his original work his page is worth checking out for the EA add-ons.
CHALK
CHALK is a 3-part kitchen set with a timeless style and colors to match almost any decor you want. Part I contains cabinets, counters, and kitchen island pieces in 40 swatches. Part II consists of coordinating wall and floor tiles in 80 colorways, and Part III gives us clutter and decor along with a sink and a new trash bin. It’s the kitchen kit you didn’t know you needed!
The Fallout/Tomorrow Collection
Surely-Sims has made several sets of furniture modeled after the Fallout game and TV franchise, which boasts an idyllic atomic-50’s aesthetic. This includes the Fallout Baby! Nursery, Bedroom of Tomorrow and Kitchen of Tomorrow sets, the House of Yesterday Simblreen collection, and most recently the Patio of Tomorrow. Search for “fallout” on her Patreon page and you’ll get access to all of these great creations, plus a few other similarly-styled elements as well. For even more mid-century furnishings take a look at the Office Space set.
If you wished for DLC with a retro-futuristic or standard 1950’s theme, you’ll have half of the house already done thanks to Surely-Sims!
The Tui Collection
Tui is an expansive collection of maximalist home furnishings which currently boasts 9 different posts covering pretty much every room of the house with the exception of the kitchen and bathroom. Bright colors, bold patterns, and unique design elements make up Tui, and it’s a must-have for players who love loud design.
All told Kiwisim4 has made at least one CC set for every room of your sims’ homes, with quality and quantity that rivals any EA Stuff Pack. If you loved the Decor To The Max Kit and need more, you might just end up downloading everything Kiwi has ever made!
Photographic Memory 2.0
If you’ve ever dreamed of a DLC that expands the Photography mechanic, Photographic Memory 2.0 will blow your mind. This mod has two main elements to it. Existing photos can be upgraded in quality, cleaned up (no more nosy Gnomes!), have filters applied, assign moodlets, add descriptions, and more. Also, photos can be converted to a variety of items for keepsakes or to be given away as gifts such as Polaroids, calendars, cross stitch, and they’re compatible with Ravasheen’s own Ink It Yourself Journal.
This is just one of several photography-oriented mods by Ravasheen so be sure to check out their entire page!
Gradual Aging Mod
Wishing for DLC that makes the passage of time feel more meaningful? You can read our dedicated post about the Gradual Aging mod here, but the TL;DR version is that the mod makes your sims’ transition from Young Adult to Adult to Elder much more visually realistic with wrinkles and greying hair. Aging sims can try to fight Father Time with hair coloring and skin treatments but like most things in The Sims 4, there’s a change they can suffer a bad outcome from these activities.
Family Gameplay Mod
We recently did a write up all about this mod but the gist is that it adds new dynamics to family relationships. It’s got a new Trait, new Aspiration, new Skill, special Events, and deeper aspects like disabilities, family drama, and more. All in all you’ll find more than 160 new interactions, making it quite a robust little package! If you’re a player that can never get enough family-focused DLC, this mod is for you.
Meaningful Stories
If you’re after DLC that makes your characters’ lives deeper this is a mod you’ll want to try. Meaningful Sroties completely revamps the mood and emotions system in the game to be more, well, meaningful. Sims aren’t Happy by default, emotions no longer flip between extremes without working through the moods, and residual feelings will last more realistic amounts of time. When a sim experiences a truly happy event, the emotion will hold more meaning to them. It’s a very impactful mod and will completely change the way you look at your characters.
