Canva is an easy to use graphic design and video editing platform that lets users create, design, and publish original artwork using a simple drag-and-drop editor. The platform comes with thousands of design templates and layouts for numerous projects, including social media posts, presentations, videos, posters, flyers and more.
Canva is also often used as Photo Editing of choice in Marketing and Ecommerce tech stacks.
Capabilities |
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Segment |
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Deployment | Cloud / SaaS / Web-Based, Mobile Android, Mobile iPad, Mobile iPhone |
Support | 24/7 (Live rep), Chat, Email/Help Desk, FAQs/Forum, Knowledge Base, Phone Support |
Training | Documentation |
Languages | English |
Are you a non-designer looking for graphic design software? If you need to create designs for your business, Canva is one of the top rated tools to choose. In this post, we’ll explore Canva’s pricing, features, and alternatives.
Canva is an online graphic design tool used by 55 million monthly active users to create visual content for offline and online marketing. Over 9,400 Capterra reviewers have given Canva an average rating of 4.7 out of 5 stars.
Canva offers hundreds of thousands of templates and elements you can use to create designs for personal or business use. Customize your visual content with your brand kit and media from your own library.
Canva offers three pricing plans. The Free plan includes the following.
The Pro plan starts at $12.99 per month (or $119.99 per year) for up to five people. It includes everything from the Free plan plus the following.
The Enterprise plan starts at $150 for five people. It includes everything from the Pro plan plus the following.
To get started on Canva, you will need to create an account using your email address, Google, Facebook, or Apple. You will then choose your account type between student, teacher, small business, large company, non-profit, or personal. Templates and additional resources will be recommended based on your chosen account type.
You can choose to start a free trial of Canva Pro or begin with the free version to see if it’s the right graphic design tool.
For your first design, Canva will suggest different post types to choose. Based on the type of account you set up, you will see template categories like social media posts, documents, presentations, marketing, events, ads, launch your business, build your online brand, etc.
Begin by choosing the type of post you want to create or searching for something more specific. Search by social network name, for example, to see a list of templates by post type on each network.
Next, you will be able to choose a template. Templates come ready to go, with customizable photos, text, and additional elements.
You can start your design by choosing a template, searching for a template, or working with a blank template.
Canva has a lot to choose from, so start with a specific search. If you’re in the horticulture business, you’ll find plenty of templates for a variety of post types just by searching for plants.
You may not find the perfect template, and that’s ok. Remember there are plenty of ways to customize any template. So choose the best fit and move on to Elements.
Inside the Canva designer, the Elements tab gives you access to lines and shapes, graphics, photos, videos, audio, charts, photo frames, and photo grids. You can use the search box on the Elements tab to search everything on Canva.
Again, Canva has a large library of elements to choose from, so be specific in your search query. You may also want to search in the following tabs to see various elements separately in the search results.
The Photos tab allows you to choose from millions of free, paid, and Pro-only stock photos.
You can replace photos on your templates to create a new look or to match a particular template to your industry.
Alternatively, you can use photos from another stock photography site or your own photos. Simply upload them in the Uploads tab.
Once you choose a photo, you can use Canva’s photo editing features to add filters, adjust the photo’s settings (brightness, contrast, saturation, etc.), crop, animate, and change the transparency.
Canva Pro subscribers have access to the Background Remover. This will remove backgrounds from stock photos in the Canva library as well as photos you upload to the Uploads tab.
The Text tab allows you to add headings, normal text, and fancy graphical text to your design.
When you click on the text on a template, you’ll see options to adjust the font, font size, color, format, spacing, text effects (like shadows), and change the transparency.
Canva Pro subscribers can set brand fonts via the Brand Kit or the Styles tab. Enterprise-level controls will ensure that your team keeps visual content on brand.
Creating an animated image or video? Search for audio elements to add to capture user’s attention in social news feeds.
Alternatively, if you want to use audio from another stock site or your own audio tracks, you can upload them in the Uploads tab.
Want to create video content? Choose from thousands of free and Pro-only stock video clips. You’ll find videos that range from a few seconds to two minutes long.
Similar to photos and audio, if you want to use videos from another stock site or your own videos, you can upload them in the Uploads tab.
Once you choose a video, you can use Canva’s video editing features to trim the video, flip it, and change the transparency.
In the Background tab, you’ll find free photos specifically geared to act as backgrounds on your designs. Change out the background on a template to give it a more custom feel.
The Styles tab allows you to change the look and feel of your template quickly with different color palettes and font combinations. If you have a Canva Pro subscription, you can upload your brand’s custom colors and fonts to keep designs on brand.
If you have a Canva Pro subscription, you’ll have a Logos tab. Here, you can upload variations of your brand logo to use throughout your designs.
You can also create logos with Canva. Note that you can’t trademark logos with stock content in them.
Free users of Canva can download their designs or share their designs to multiple platforms including Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Slack, and Tumblr.
Canva Pro subscribers can use the Magic Resizer to create multiple post formats from one design. For example, you can start by designing an Instagram post. Canva’s Magic Resizer can resize it for posts on other networks, Stories, Reels, and other formats.
Canva Pro subscribers can also use Canva’s Content Planner to schedule updates to up to eight profiles/accounts on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Slack, and Tumblr.
Canva Pro subscribers can work in teams to improve the visual content workflow. Designs can be created inside Canva and sent to the appropriate team members for approval. Teams can make comments, edits, revisions, and keep track via the version history.
If you create a design for offline marketing, Canva has a Print division to compete with companies like VistaPrint. They will print your designs on banners, wall art, mugs, t-shirts, business cards, stickers, invitations, cards, flyers, and more.
Canva Print is perfect for any business that wants customers to do some word of mouth marketing for them. Create designs people would want to stick on, wear, etc. Hand out business cards that people want to keep and share.
Canva offers their own mobile app on the Apple and Google Play stores. Canva has earned a 4.9 out of five stars from over 3 million Apple users and a 4.7 out of five stars from over 188,000 Google users.
With that said, the mobile app doesn’t have all of the features you’ll find on the desktop browser version. Fortunately, you can access most of them via a mobile browser by going to the Canva website and bypassing the app.
In addition to mobile apps, Canva has apps and integrations that allow you to access elements from third parties. You can add maps from Google Maps, Emojis, photos from Google Drive and Dropbox, YouTube videos, Flickr photos, Bitmojis, and other popular visual content elements.
Review networks like TrustRadius allow people to leave specific pros and cons about their Canva experience. Amongst the over 500 reviews, here are some of the highlights from the pros and cons users have identified.
If Canva doesn’t sound like the right fit for you, you may be interested in trying the following Canva alternatives.
Adobe has a suite of tools for beginner to advanced level graphic designers, photo editors, and video makers. One tool, Adobe Spark, is a Canva-like tool that makes it easy to create social graphics and videos. They offer a free plan and paid plans with premium features starting at $9.99 per month.
Those with graphic design skills may prefer tools like Lightroom and Photoshop for photo editing ($9.99 – $20.99 per month), Adobe Illustrator for vector graphics ($20.99 per month), or Adobe Premiere Pro for video editing ($20.99 per month).
Alternatively, you can get access to all Adobe tools for your visual content needs for $52.99 per month.
PicMonkey is a Canva alternative that boasts better photo editing features and no hidden fees for premium templates or elements. With that said, PicMonkey does not offer a free plan. Their pricing starts at $7.99 per month for basic features.
Crello is a free graphic design tool that is similar to Canva. It includes thousands of templates and features like the photo background remover and brand kits. The app on the Apple store has an average rating of 4.7 stars from over 600 users.
Piktochart is a graphic design tool that focuses on infographics, presentations, and reports. Their goal is to help you turn data-heavy content into a compelling visual story. They offer a free forever plan plus pricing for premium features starting at $24.17 per month.
If you are a GoDaddy customer, you can access their free tool, GoDaddy Studio. This tool gives you access to thousands of customizable templates.
Similar to Canva, no design skill is necessary to create professional graphics. The app on the Apple store has an average rating of 4.8 stars from over 94,000 users.
Yes, Canva does have a free plan that you can choose to create professional designs.
No, Canva does not place a watermark on your finalized images. You will only see a watermark on copyrighted stock elements in the Canva library unless you purchase the media or a Canva Pro or Enterprise subscription.
If you see a watermark on a previous design, it is because you had a Pro subscription and used a Pro-only template or element.
Yes, all free elements included in the Canva free subscription can be used for commercial and non-commercial use.
Non-designers can use Canva to design a wide variety of visual content for online and offline marketing. They include social media graphics, presentations, business cards, reports, infographics, and much more.
Canva markets itself as an easy to use design tool for non-designers. Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator are geared towards intermediate to advanced level photo editors and graphic designers.
Yes, Canva offers an easy to use video tool for visual content creators who aren’t video experts.
Definitely, when you consider the number of Pro-only templates and elements. You can always start with the free version or cancel after the 30-day free trial if you’re unsure about the platform.
Yes, unless it has any stock elements in it.
Yes, if it doesn’t include unaltered Canva media. You can read more about licensing, trademarks, and commercial usage of Canva content here.
Canva offers several free resources for designers.
If you want to five even deeper into graphic design, Adobe offers some insightful free guides as well. There are tips for various design types (tattoos, backgrounds, newsletters, logos, etc.) and use of graphic design principles, colors, and symbols.
Overall, Canva is an excellent solution for creators who need visual content. If you’re an experienced graphic designer, you will find their platform lacking in customization and other features – particularly vectors. But if you don’t have a lot of design experience, you’ll find Canva easier to use than advanced graphic design tools like Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator for most projects.
Using canva since 2018, its been a great journey. It's a really powerful tool for newbies and experienced graphic designers as well. Now I'm using it for video editing and animation also. Canva editor is so easy to use.
The amount of free elements is quite limited and their quality isn't all that great. Additionally, there isn't an option to use gradient colors for text. The collection of free music and videos is also somewhat limited in terms of variety.
Canva is helping me for creating designs for my social media. Ready made templates are very useful. They help me to create designs very fast and save my time. Thanks
Canva keeps me inspired as a designer and content creator. I literally find it to be a God send when it comes to designing anything. I started out with little to no design skills and Canva's intuitive interface made me a PRO. I honestly feel I could design anything from presentations to posters to packaging and even videos. It also gives me so many fresh ideas with all the templates and free graphics. I have beaten so many design blocks with their templates!! Thank you Canva for making my life so much easier...and more aesthetically-pleasing!
The only downside for me is not being able to transfer projects into Canva. When you export a file as a pdf, it often will render with errors and reduced formatting. I know they are working to improve that though!
Canva helped us totally eliminate paying for a full time graphic designer. We now design everything ourselves, in-house and our materials look professional! It not only saves us a full salary, it has empowered us to learn a whole new skill set and approach graphic design with a fun, can-do attitude!
Canva has a hugerange and variety of templates. Even earlier when I had the free plan, I had an option to choose from thousands of templates. It has a very good UI where both beginners and experienced people can use it easily. They also provide tutorials, design courses, and tips for users to improve their design skills, out of which I have used a lot initially to help me be more creative.
The level of customization might be limited for more advanced design needs. Professional designers might find some limitations in terms of fine-tuning design elements to their exact specifications.
Usually other design softwares are expensive but Canva's free trial also provides a lot of features. Canva's template-based system has allowed me to make quick edits to existing designs, making it efficient to update content for recurring events or changing circumstances.
There are so many options and editable templates to create your own unique product. Canva is intuitive and simple to use.
I would love to be able to easily import my project to Articulate 360 programs.
As a teacher, I was able to create engaging flyers and information for parents and students. As an Instructional designer I can create program flyers, how to flow charts and graphs. I use Canva to host my portfolio website.
Canva is a jack of all trades, there's anything there related to graphic design
Nothing, Canva is the best of all time .
It is helping me , to design Graphics for my clients such as logos , posters and flyers
Canva is so easy to use and affordable as an independent social media consultant. I love the addition of teams and the sharing features it offers. I especially love that having the Pro version gives me access to such a great library of stock photos, videos, audio, and graphics at no additional cost.
I wish that it were possible to connect multiple email addresses to the same account. Having to log out and log in with different credentials to access a client's folders is really annoying and unnecessary.
Many years ago, I used Photoshop, but I couldn't afford the hefty price tag, especially once it became an ongoing subscription instead of a software I could own outright and use until it was no longer supported and sometimes beyond. Canva came in as an affordable and easier to use solution at just the right time, and has allowed me the flexibility to keep doing intermediate level photo editing without the price tag of an advanced tool.
Canva provides the best and easy user interface. -I like how easily one can select the template can start editing at no time and delay. - The basic plan covers almost everything from beautiful templates to self build projects. - Downloading the built project is fast and reliable. -Users can also directly share the design made to the media platform. Overall there are many pros to using this software
- I genuinely miss the SVG support they disposed of from the free course of action. In advance, I can use my SVG parts in canva and change the SVG parts in canva anyway. However, unfortunately, they have taken it out of the free arrangement. It simply shows a blunder. -the free design, moreover, has a couple of paid parts. It requires a small amount to download the creative with those parts, or we can, without a doubt, dispose of them if we want; expecting that a configuration is free, it ought to reject any paid parts.
-I'm not a graphic designer, but the template assists me in starting my plans. When I have a photograph that should be altered, I have to upload and use ready-to-go tools to design and change my picture. -From pre-designed thumbnails to book covers,in that matter, any social media design template is readily available. We even can find animation and video editing options. -Being a Youtuber i create my thumbnails using this great software - Canva
So many options and inspiring designs at your figure tips. You can customize and design whatever your heart desires
Its hard to print your designs. so many extra steps to just simply print
easy way to make posters and news letters !
Canva has been an incredible tool for me.Whether I needed to design social media posts, presentations, or even custom graphics, Canva always had a template that suited my needs. The drag-and-drop feature made it easy to customize elements, and the extensive library of images, icons, and fonts ensured that I had plenty of options to choose from.
Please reduce cost or give affordable plans
I can do all my designing works in canva and I am using it to make thumbnail for my YouTube channel.
Canva is easy to use and doesn't need any kind ko special training
The features in unpaid version is still less
Canva is really helping me to design creatives for my Ad
I love how user friendly it is - it makes me feel like a photoshop wizard. The background remover is such an awesome tool, and all of the preset templates are amazing
I haven't found anything that would make me dislike Canva
Being able to use so many preset fonts and photos and elements to really make my designs flow smoothly and look professional, it makes my job so much easier
It's an amazing tool I recommend it to everyone. Features a lot of visual editing tools within itself. Presentations are a breeze thanks to this perfectly thought out piece of software.
There are a lot of features that are only for subscribers. There should definitely be more content available for free. But considering the vast library of free content I am still pleased in this aspect.
I can prepare presentations really quick and visualize data easily and very professionally. Certainly one of the most productive tools out there whatever you design it will be fast thanks to Canva
Canva is a fantastic tool for creating online assets like social media graphics, posters, leaflets, product lists, business cards, etc. It is a cloud platform, you could do everything you need from different devices. Start with your PC at work, finish it on your tablet at home.
Well, actually there are a few things I dislike about Canva. But if we should have to write it, then the price scheme is the same for all countries. Not all countries have the same buying power. People who lives in lower-income countries are less likely to afford the Canva price.
If you run social media campaigns for your small business than Canva is like a gem for you. I've designed my business card on Canva. In addition to that, I prepared many graphics for my business' online presence.
I love everthing about Canva. As an educator, it has made my life so easy when creating projects for the classroom! I love being able to edit the templates and change something to fit my needs!
I do not dislike anything! Canva has made my life so much easier!
Canva has every editing feature in one place. I am able to copy projects and edit them very quickly! Also, i love that I can choose the dimensions of my design.
Canva is what I use to make my designs. As well as social media content, labels, and flyers. Easy to use and addicting. Signing up is completely free and the free version provides ample tools to utilize.
I cannot think of anything that I dislike about Canva. I have not run into any issues with using the desktop version. I don't use the mobile app because I like to use my laptop when creating.
Canva helps me get inspiration to create eye catching designs for my products. It has also been useful in creating social media content.
Basically i cancelled any other subscription I had for design. It started as an experiment but the more I used it the more I found it useful, simple and reliable. And it has so much you start digging in that even the paid version comes very cost effective
You need to find your way around. Not a very steep learning curve but there is a lot of visual information you need to sort before making choices. Also the interphase is somewhat tricky because you can loose your self in navigation
I solve all of my design needs in canva. For brand identity, ad creatives, pics and design elements for presentations, visuals for podcast and blogs even background videos for presentations and website
Canva is an excellent option for people that are not experts in designing; it has a lot of options for your informal and professional needs, like, for example, presentations, invitations, cards,
Sometimes, some elements are limited, and you need to pay a subscription to get to them. Also, designers think it is a really basic tool that doesn't work for nothing, but the reality is that, if you're not a designer or doesn't have designing knowledge, it is really helpful.
I am not a designer, but it helps me a lot whenever I need to make a creative presentation, a logo, a resume, or publicity; it is fast, simple and easy to use; everyone can use Canva, kids, students, adults, etc.
The wide range of templates that canva has makes any kind of work very fast and productive. It is very easy to start a design process and make incremental changes accordingly.
One downside is that in some designs we can't make minute changes like we can do on photoshop or sketch. There can be new tools introduced for the user to be able to make micro changes.
I am able to design ads, cards, posters and these are helping me communicate with my target customers and tell better story about my brand and get conversions.
What a great tool it is? Been using Photoshop, illustrator, etc for years, but with Canva, I can create designs, reports, mindmaps in just a few minutes without asking help from the designer. We post a lot on Social Media on our accounts, and our clients account, so we have to design a lot of stuffs every week, but it will take a lot of hours if we design everything manually from scratch. But with Canva templates, we can able to design everything within a few minutes. For the entire month of social media stuff, we can design them all under a few hours (which takes us usually a few hours per design).
I don't know, because love using Canva, but had some issues while downloading some projects, and when designing sometimes the canva website changes to the white screen, but after reloading the page, it works good again.
We use it to design our Social Media Posts, Client Reports, Mind Maps, etc. The important part is its template library, it has thousands of templates to choose from, so we just need to select the template, change images, texts and you're done! It saves us lot of time to design everything manually.
Features for both free and premium are great and easy to use! I like the Brand Hub I am able to build and save; that makes my day-to-day tasks easier. I also like the visual aid options, which help monocular individuals keep things straight and properly aligned.
Sometimes it's overly complicated for a simple task, or the shortcut isn't particularly obvious, but over time, as with anything, it becomes easier and easier to use. Their "ask help" section is also intuitive and helpful.
A cheaper design option than adobe and more user friendly for beginner designers/social media managers.