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.
There are so many templates to choose from and they are completely customizable. It's so easy to use.
Nothing. The tool is great and easy to use
Theo helps with branding my internal communications for employees
Canva is intuitive, easy to use and has a range of templates to use. It cators to people using it on a personal scale, starting out or experienced users with both free and paid templates with a multitude of editing options. I have been using it for years and never had an issue.
At a basic level with the free templates I do not have any complaints. On a more advanced level for professionals I wouldn't able to give feedback but happy otherwise.
The ability to customise short videos, photos and gifs for social selling on LinkedIn as well on a personal note for my own business whhich I promote across social platforms like facebook and instagram.
I like Canva's drag-and-drop interface easy to use, even though I'm not a designer. It's user-friendly and has plenty of features. I can choose from thousands of social media graphics, posters, brochures, presentations, and more templates, and I can personalise each one. Plus, Canva has a great selection of premium stock images, drawings, and fonts, many of which are free. Working with a team is also a breeze with Canva's design collaboration feature.
I find that Canva's interface is simple but limited. When it comes to designing and editing graphics, I find it difficult. Canva doesn't export vector or high-resolution files, which makes it hard for businesses to brand across platforms with Canva's limited branding possibilities.
I'm looking for more editing capabilities, so I'm trying out Canva in combination with other design software, such as Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop. I want to upgrade to Canva Pro for higher resolution files. I'm also creating a brand kit within Canva to keep all of my branding elements in one place and easily accessible.
I like how easy it is to use. It is a very simple program to navigate that gives great results.
I wish they had more fonts to choose from. I can use this program for in house things but cannot use it for advertisements since our chosen font for our brand is not available.
It helps me spread the word to our employees of events and giveaways in a fun and informative way. It also made it possible to create an infographic to share with our community what we have done this year.
Canva makes creating and editing visual content an effortless and fun-to-do task. The bouquet of intuitive tools and resources makes it a one-stop solution for all my graphical content problems with no to little hassle solution.
Personally, I didn't find any flaw that big that sours up the user experience of Canva. It offers pretty much all I want and the only thing that bothered me as a beginner on Canva was the humongous variety of tools and options to choose from that made gaining traction a bit slower and confusing as a new user for me.
Canva has enabled me to create visual eye-catching content for all kinds of uses possible for me including office presentations to Instagram posts. Prior to using Canva, I believed graphic editing was a fearsome task for me, but after spending a few weeks messing around with templates, it feels like a really fun to-do task, thanks to the palette of intuitive tools provided by Canva that might look scary in the beginning as they did to me, but after getting a hold of them, it's all smooth cruise.
I can use Canva for just about any creative use, social media, flyers, business cards, birthday cards, anything!
Not much. Even the monthly fee is worth the all of the additional content.
From a business perspective, I'm able to create all of our company's logo needs, business cards, flyers, newsletters, holiday cards...anything creative we need, we're able to produce in-house using Canva.
It's easy to use and can be used for any social platform video, or static graphics.
Nothing, the price is fair and it does it all
Helping me to create content for my social media marketing business, and my clients.
The easiness of usage and the alignment of every material + resizing
I do not like the fact that you need to create a copy each time while you could easily change the title of the project (like Office programs)
It is very easy and quick to use and it allows me to choose also templates and images
I love canva because it is very easy for everyone to create designs and all the graphics are available in just one click. Most important any beginner who do not have any knowledge of graphic designing can use canva.
I like everything in canva but I mostly use canva in my mobile and it runs slow in mobile as compared to a laptop or a desktop. Also, if they can provide more designs for free because there are more free users who need the paid designs.
I do freelancing and canva is a fast way to create designs andI sold many designs by participating in competitions. I also work in a YouTube channel to create their thumbnails and Canva, is again, the fastest way for me.
I love that canva makes creating professional graphics super easy. Canva has so many templates that I use to show a variety of graphic content. I am not a graphic designer, so being able to start a project with a template and then work things around makes my various projects super simple. I can create social media posts, website banners, blog images, flyers, and video content, all of which look professional. I use canva daily and love it!
Within the pro feature, I can access many great photos to use in my designs, but I would love to see more diversity in the images of people I look for. Often it will be the same few people in different poses.
None at the moment. Canva is really good at making frequent updates that benefit the work I am doing. Sometimes it feels like I will think of something I want to see and then it is there!
Canva is so simple and intuitive to use. It offers so much flexibility for both design and for use. One can create anything from a business logo to a spreadsheet presentation on Canva.
Nothing really. It's an excellent platform. Sure, it doesn't have the photo editing capabilities of Photoshop, but that's not what Canva is.
Canva helps me design most digital assets for websites I create, and anything else my employer needs (social media ad designs, logos, business cards, etc.) It is very effective.
I like the fact that Canva has a large database of images, videos, etc.
Canvas is not photoshop, but I would like more image editing features
search for photos for a product, search for ideas for presentations, creation of materials for videos
Canva is a popular graphic design platform that offers a range of design templates and tools for creating visual content. Canva is user-friendly and easy to navigate, even for beginners without design experience. It provides various design templates for social media, marketing materials, presentations, and more.
While Canva offers a range of design tools, more advanced design features may be limited, making it less suitable for professional graphic designers or those with advanced design needs.
The platform allows team members to collaborate, making it easy to share designs and feedback. Canva offers a free plan with basic design tools, making it accessible to small businesses and individuals. Canva provides an extensive library of free and paid stock images, icons, and other design elements.
Canva is a free (or inexpensive if you upgrade) design tool that offers an abundance of templates for multiple communication channels, images, and design tips and tricks. Don't like their graphic, video, or photo options? Upload your own! You can even make t-shirts.
It would be great if Canva and Microsoft products were integrated. Great designs from Canva could then be incorporated into Powerpoint presentations, forms, etc.
Canva is an exceptional tool for individuals with little to no design experience. The design tips and hundreds (thousands?) of templates stir the imagination and/or provide starting points for all types of design projects.
Simple, Its editing made easy. Canva has a wide range of templates that allow you to create documents that you would normally be able to create in Microsoft Word, Microsoft Publisher, and other Adobe editing platforms. The templates available for labels and flyers are amazing on their own and help to get the inspiration flowing. It makes it much less mentally consuming to create a graphic. Even more, the templates are fully customizable which still gives us the users/editors the creative freedom to innovate an already amazing template. The creative possibilities are practically endless; I was recently creating a label for a book and ended up customizing an entire book cover to cover only using graphics available on Canva. If you're having issues with keeping your graphic theme consistent there's a button that automates color themes and respective texts that would suit the template. It's really great, honestly, and the paid version that I use is even better you really get the most out of the money you spend, especially if you use Canva a lot. The web app also offers collaboration between team members and can be effectively integrated into other platforms. For instance, I was able to schedule Instagram posts right from Canva without having to go into Instagram.
Unfortunately, making contact with the technical support and customer support teams feels impossible. I've tried many times but haven't made any progress in that regard. When I wasn't Canva pro user, it felt that all the great looking templates and graphic designs were only available for Canva pro users. However this is not the case for all templates, it's really a case-by-case basis that depends on the type of template you're looking for. Another thing is that when too many pages are added to the Canva document it becomes impossible to edit; in the sense that if you ever leave that document you can't open it to delete the pages that went over the page limit. Which almost feels like you would have lost the work and time spent to get said work done.
For me, sometimes getting inspiration to create a graphic is hard, but with canva I find it easier to overcome my creator's block. It also helps me bring out my creative side when I do not want a graphic to look exactly like the template.
Es una herramienta de facil uso que tiene muchas utilidades para realizar imagenes, videos para redes sociales, posters, entre otros. Cuenta con una gran variedad de plantillas prediseñadas listas para ser usadas, ademas cuenta con una versión gratuita.
A pesar de ser una herramienta de diseño, tiene algunas limitaciones comparandola con otras herramientas como photoshop.
He utilizado algunas de sus plantillas y facilmente he podido realizar diseños para redes sociales.
I list down some of the features of Canva I really like: 1. It's user-friendly interface. It's really easy to access and navigate. 2. Wide range of templates. 3. Customizable elements. Elements that can be easily added to your designs and further customized to meet your design preference. 4. Affordable pricing. 5. Collaboration features. Canva makes it easy to collaborate with others on your designs.
Limited file format options. Canva only supports a limited range of file formats, and sometimes you may need to convert the designs you created to different file formats before using them in other applications.
Difficulty in graphic design. Canva makes it easy for us to create professional-looking designs without learning complex graphic design software.
As the person in charge of planning events at one of our locations, I frequently utilized it to make visuals for websites, social media, event handouts, etc. Being able to generate pretty much anything I need whenever I need it was liberating and greatly aided my ability to complete my work.
It is the finest tool for those who are new to or require some valuable materials for their careers in digital marketing. Given that it offers students a free subscription, it is the finest program for them to use when working on assignments or other projects. Work in a different industry than design but still want to produce plans. Thanks to the user-friendly interface, you can do so easily without any prior training or experience.
Easily create wireframes. Creating material for different sizes is made easier with pre-built size templates. The tool's transparency feature being available for all items. There are countless elements, icons, and illustrations available. The capacity to vignette and frame images. All skill levels may easily operate the user-friendly UI. Designing content is quite quick thanks to the free design templates. Access to cost-free, secure stock photos. With team access, you may comment and work together. The potential for creation is limitless.
Canva is an online graphic design tool that makes it simple for users to produce beautiful graphics. Users who might lack the technical or creative ability to create high-quality images might benefit greatly from it. With the help of Canvas's many tools, anybody can create stunning designs quickly and effortlessly. These features include templates and layouts, drag-and-drop editing, free stock photos, and user-friendly features like pre-sized templates. Canva is a great option for individuals who are on a budget or are just starting out in graphic design because it is also free to use.
The major drawback of Canva is that it might be challenging to switch from Canva to other well-known design applications like InDesign, Illustrator, and Photoshop. Additionally, some of the more sophisticated capabilities need users to upgrade to the Canvas premium edition, which may be pricey. Last but not least, Canva is not always the greatest option for expert designers because it may be extremely simplistic when it comes to more complicated design jobs.
Canva is a fantastic tool for companies of all sizes since it makes it simple and quick to produce attractive graphics. It is especially useful for startups, small firms, and company owners who might not have the funds or people to engage a qualified designer. Canva has a tonne of tools that enable anybody to build beautiful graphics without needing to be an expert in graphic design, including templates and layouts, drag-and-drop editing, free stock pictures, and pre-sized templates. Canva is also cost-effective, enabling businesses to save money on design projects. Additionally, it aids companies in developing polished and consistent branding for their goods and services.
I tried this the first time and found its easy to use, Android & iOS compatible.Can be used to design and reinnovate graphics designs with audio,video,maps and animations for social media & other platforms.just tried and completed in 5 minutes only.
Everything is very innovative and useful.thanks to the developer who created such an app for instant graphics editing in short time.as of now nothing to dislike.
Graphics designing with audio, video & maps etc. For social media, banners, posters,flyers,cards etc.Apart, i used this for my personal graphic designing and editing.