Top 10 Canva Alternatives

11Aug

In the emerging digital world, designers, influencers, and many seek the easiest way to showcase creativity and innovation. Irrespective of expertise, many successfully created engaging and beautiful content through Canva. As a result, it has become arguably the easiest approach for many.

However, it isn’t necessarily to be Canva every time, and since you’re here, you might be looking for alternatives to Canva. Before finding alternatives to Canva, check out what it packs if you haven’t tested it.

Why search for Canva alternatives

While Canva is a powerful tool, it’s essential to remember that it’s not the only player in the field. There are many equally effective and efficient alternatives to Canva, each with unique offerings that might better suit your needs. Let’s dive deep into what Canva offers and why you might want to explore its alternatives.

Canva overview

Canva stands out as an easy-to-use online design tool and is favored especially by those new to the design world. Its key highlights are exclusive tools, including a drag-and-drop editor, an extensive stock image library, and many templates suitable for social media posts, invoices, and presentations.

The plans vary from a basic option (free) with limited features to the Pro and Enterprise plans that unlock much functionality.

Canva features

Listing every feature of Canva would be too long, so here are some of the prominent features of Canva.

Efficient video and picture background remover
Premium tools for video creation and editing
Instant animation capability
A broad collection of creative templates
Ability to generate transparent images
Handy tools to resize designs
Extensive range of font styles and many more exciting features

Canva pros

Wide selection of stock photos
Intuitive and user-friendly interface
Rich font library
Ability to publish directly to social media and maintain a content calendar (Pro Plan)
Customized color palettes (Pro Plan)
Impressive Brand kit (Pro Plan)
Basic photo editing tools
Extensive template library
Capability to create animated images
Available on multiple platforms

Canva cons

Canva’s mobile app fails to compete with its competitors
Mostly everything is paywall restricted, including templates and graphics in the free version
Lack of custom shapes and elements creation

Canva pricing

Navigating Canva’s pricing structure is straightforward. The Free plan is perfect for beginners trying to craft a few designs each month.

For frequent designers who make 15 or more designs monthly, the Pro plan at $9.99 per month (billed yearly) is an excellent fit for individuals and creators.

Lastly, the Enterprise plan is ideal if you’re part of a small business or a corporate team at $30 per user per month, billed per user yearly.

As most Canva’s premium offerings fall under Pro and Enterprise plans, it might be worth investing in these plans depending on your design requirements.

Best Canva alternatives

Making creative ideas a reality has never been so simple, thanks to Canva. However, Canva is not the only choice. If you’re looking for alternatives to this well-known application, here is a compilation of the top 10 Canva alternatives.

#1 Visme

Pricing: Free, Starter plan starts at $12.25 per month, billed yearly

Pros:

Cloud-based functionality for easy collaboration and accessibility
Animation tools that enhance design appeal with a low learning curve and time-saving benefits.
User-friendly capabilities, making integration into company processes seamless
‘My Brand’ option for consistent corporate branding across designs.

Cons:

Limited library of pre-designed elements for presentations and publications
Issues with duplicating projects, causing elements to vanish when moved
Platform navigation may need improvement, and pricing must be reviewed

The cloud-based functionality of Visme is one feature we adore the most. It makes it simple to collaborate with team members and clients by storing all your work and making it easily accessible.

Another benefit of Visme is its animation tools, which provide a quick and easy approach to improving the appeal of your designs. Additionally, these functions have a low learning curve and significantly save time.

Given its self-explanatory, user-friendly capabilities, integrating Visme into your company process is a piece of cake. The ‘My Brand’ option, which enables the entire team to retain a consistent corporate brand throughout designs, is a noteworthy feature that deserves recognition.

Visme, however, is not without flaws. When producing presentations or publications, we thought there was very little library of pre-designed elements.

Additionally, certain peculiar issues may emerge when you duplicate projects to make changes, causing images or text boxes to vanish as you move them around, and we believe the platform’s navigation also needs some improvement.

#2 Adobe Creative Cloud Express

Pricing: Free, Standard Plan starts at $9.99 monthly, billed yearly.

Pros:

Full range of design, video editing, and web development tools in one platform.
Real-time collaboration for remote teams or collaborative projects.
Digital content development powerhouse with stunning templates and a game-changing Generative AI tool

Cons:

Frustration with preset options, particularly fonts and object positioning
Intimidating due to the complexity of tools and high learning curve

Adobe Creative Cloud Express provides a full range of tools for design, video editing, web development, and more. As a result, it is a good option to consider if you’re looking for a unified platform for your creative requirements.

Real-time collaboration is one of its standout characteristics. This is helpful for remote teams or collaborative projects as it enables numerous people to work on the same project simultaneously.

It is a digital content development powerhouse with many stunning, ready-to-use templates for varied uses. The most recent Generative AI tool is a game-changer, and customization is simple. Adobe Express can produce astounding designs with simply text-based prompts.

That being said, Adobe Creative Cloud isn’t without its drawbacks. We have expressed frustration with the preset options, particularly regarding fonts and object positioning.

Also we found Adobe Creative Cloud’s usability intimidating and many users have complained the same. The complexity of tools can be daunting, and understanding the advanced features requires a high learning curve.

#3 Venngage

Pricing: Free, Standard plan starts at $10 per month, billed yearly

Pros:

Features an intuitive user interface, suitable for beginners
Wide range of resources, tutorials, templates, and pre-designed visuals for design projects
Access to hundreds of themes, fonts, and images for easy customization

Cons:

Lack of customization options for layouts and images
It tends to freeze when handling heavy designs

We’ve found Venngage to be a straightforward tool to use, with a user interface that’s intuitive and easy to navigate, even for beginners. For those eager to dive into a new design project, Venngage offers a wide range of resources, including tutorials, templates, and pre-designed visuals to get you started.

Access to hundreds of themes, fonts, and images makes it simple to create a visual presentation or infographic that fits your brand. Venngage is a great option for those on a tight budget, as it offers an affordable starting price.

Every tool, though, has its limitations. Although Venngage provides a wide range of layouts and images, we’ve found that they lack customization. So, if you like unique designs and a variety of possibilities, you might want to consider using another platform.

We’ve also observed that the tool tends to freeze when handling heavy designs. Although their pricing is generally affordable, it could still pose a hurdle for those on a strict budget.

#4 Curve (formerly Vectornator)

Pricing: Free, Pro plan starts at $10 per month.

Pros:

Free to use with access to 80,000 free icon resources
AR preview and auto-trace features enhance design creations
Advanced capabilities like Boolean and grouping options, integrated isometric grid, and CMYK preview
Supports Apple products and seamless integration with other apps

Cons:

No animation features
A lack of detailed tool descriptions can be challenging for new users
Exclusive compatibility with Apple products, not available for non-Apple users

There are various reasons why Curve stands apart. First, it is free and provides access to 80,000 free icon resources. Your creations can get a little more polished thanks to its AR preview and auto-trace features.

Vectornator doesn’t let you down, whether you’re an experienced user or just getting started. Advanced capabilities like Boolean and grouping choices, an integrated isometric grid, and CMYK preview are combined with its user-friendly interface.

It supports Apple products across devices and effortlessly connects with other apps. Additionally, Vectornator contains all you need if you enjoy experimenting with gradients.

However, like any other tool, Curve is not without its limitations. You might find a learning curve here if you’re accustomed to other illustrator software like Adobe or Microsoft products.

Unfortunately, Vectornator doesn’t offer animation features, which can be a deal-breaker for some. Another area where the software could improve is tool descriptions – it lacks detailed explanations for each tool, which could be challenging for new users.

Lastly, if you’re not an Apple user, you’ll be out of luck, as Curve is exclusively compatible with Apple products.

#5 Stencil

Pricing: Free, Pro plan starts at $9 per month, billed yearly

Pros:

Ideal for time management, no need to navigate complicated features
User-friendly design for most social media posting needs
Game-changing size-adjustment tool for different social media platforms
Access to free photographs on Unsplash for short and effective design work

Cons:

It lacks advanced functionality and may be too basic
Output may not always be perfect with the resize feature
Not suitable for complex design work that requires more advanced tools

We appreciate Stencil‘s simplicity because it is straightforward to use. You can quickly make posts by adding photographs, simple shapes, text, watermarks, and quick style adjustments like filters, font colors, shadows, and transparency.

It’s ideal for time management because you won’t spend hours browsing through complicated features. You won’t get lost with a user-friendly design that accommodates most social media posting cases.

The size-adjustment tool is a game-changer, automatically resizing your creations for different social media platforms. While the output might not always be perfect, it still saves you from the hassle of manually redoing designs for multiple sizes.

On the other hand, not everyone may find what we consider to be advantages. It can be too basic or missing advanced functionality for some people.

Even though the resize feature occasionally has output problems, it is a favorite because of how convenient it is and how many free photographs there are on Unsplash.

#6 VistaCreate

Pricing: Free, Pro plan starts at $10 per month, billed yearly

Pros:

Intuitive and easy-to-use software
Abundant templates for social media posts
Support for all major social media networks
Effortless adjustment of image size for different platforms
Automatic saving of projects for peace of mind

Cons:

Would benefit from more templates and improved editing functionalities
Editing complex designs with numerous layers can be challenging
The location of certain options may be confusing for beginners

VistaCreate is one of the best options for producing posts because it is intuitive and easy-to-use software. When creating content for social media, you won’t have to start from scratch because there are so many templates available.

In addition, VistaCreate‘s support for all well-known social media networks makes it easier to effortlessly adjust the image size to fit different social media platforms.

You can effortlessly access your past projects, copy or edit them, and ensure that everything is automatically saved, eliminating worries about losing your work.

We did, however, detect a few shortcomings. VistaCreate has a good collection of templates, although some categories might not have enough to choose from because of the topic’s popularity.

If a design has numerous layers, editing might be difficult because you must redo the layering to update the lowest layer. The location of some options can also be a little difficult for beginners to understand.

Overall, VistaCreate is a powerful tool with its user-friendly interface and template variety, but it could benefit from more templates and improved editing functionalities.

#7 Desygner

Pricing: Free, Pro+ plan starts at $4.95 per month, billed yearly

Pros:

Very Affordable Pricing
Easy to create eye-catching themes and posts
A vast collection of templates,pre-made themes, patterns, and fonts at no additional cost
User-friendly editing options that streamline the design process
Real-time collaboration tool for effective teamwork

Cons:

Learning curve for new users
Some limitations in functionality affecting design flexibility
Occasional bugs in the browser and mobile app usage.

Desygner makes it extremely simple to create eye-catching themes and posts that will attract your audience. We appreciate the vast collection of template and font choices, particularly because these don’t come with any added costs. Also, it couldn’t be simpler to share your work with others.

The editing options are simple to use, which streamlines the design process. Additionally, the selection of pre-made themes and patterns gives you a ton of creative possibilities. The real-time collaboration tool, which is extremely helpful while working as a team, particularly pleased us.

However, like all tools, Desygner isn’t without its learning curve, especially for new users. You may need some practice creating designs, such as an event logo, and incorporating them within the templates.

While Desygner is undeniably resourceful, it does have its limitations. We noticed a few areas lacking functionality, which might limit your design flexibility. Also, we experienced a few bugs while using the browser and mobile app.

#8 Snappa

Pricing: Free, Pro plan starts at $10 per month, billed yearly

Pros:

Swift and simple way to generate professional online graphics
Extensive library with high-quality, professional-grade images, themes, and templates
Excellent text editing features with various customization possibilities

Cons:

Limited capability to handle custom designs
Fundamental drawing tools are constrained and fall short of complex tasks
The template database is not updated as regularly as desired

We’ve had a genuinely positive experience using Snappa, and it’s a fantastic tool for content creators searching for a swift and simple way to generate professional online graphics.

What struck us most about Snappa is its extensive library brimming with high-quality, professional-grade images and templates. We were able to create excellent graphics thanks to these resources quickly.

Notably, Snappa’s text editing features are above average and offer various customization possibilities for fonts, color, and text size. This helped us create compelling headlines and captions that connected with our audience.

However, Snappa has some drawbacks. Its capability to handle custom designs is one area where we found it relatively inadequate.

Despite possessing some fundamental drawing tools, they are fairly constrained and fall short of complex tasks. Additionally, we observed that Snappa’s template database is not updated as regularly as we would like.

Despite these little drawbacks, we discovered that Snappa is an invaluable tool thanks to its extensive collection of high-quality photos and themes.

#9 Pixelied

Pricing: Free, Pro plan starts at $4.9 per month, billed yearly

Pros:

Affordable Pricing
Intuitive interface for easy navigation
One-click background remover simplifies tedious tasks
Impressive AI features and attractive templates
Provides collaborative post-creation with team members

Cons:

Stock databases could benefit from more variety
The absence of a layer list within a template hampers usability

Pixelied comes with an intuitive interface that makes navigating the tool a breeze. One standout feature is the one-click background remover, simplifying an otherwise tedious process. With impressive AI features and attractive templates, Pixelied is a versatile tool for beginners and experienced designers.

One thing that might grab your attention is that Pixelied is significantly cheaper than Canva while maintaining a similar suite of features.

Its superior vector tools set Pixelied apart from many other templated design tools. We found that these features make Pixelied an excellent option for creating more than just social media images but also useful for icons and logos.

The tool is a fantastic solution for quick graphic edits and multi-page creations. The ability to create posts dynamically and collaboratively with your team puts it right up there with Canva.

However, while Pixelied boasts a commendable stock database, we feel it could benefit from more variety. One usability aspect that needs improvement is the absence of a layer list within a template.

#10 Figma

Pricing: Free, Figma Professional starts at $12 per month, billed yearly

Pros:

User-friendly interfaces with project management software and development tools
Provides integration with popular development tools
Top-notch design layouts and fonts
Improved teamwork through collaboration tools
Wide variety of plugins in the community section

Cons:

Not ideal for beginners, as features can be overwhelming
Occasional challenges in locating and understanding specific functions
The icon placement is not very user-friendly.

Figma features an advanced workspace that can be a delight to navigate, and its editors are extremely reliable and quick.

To fulfill the needs of your project, Figma makes it simple to develop prototypes and wireframes. One feature that we especially love is the ability to integrate Figma with well-known development tools like Slack, Google Drive, and Adobe XD.

This advances development and gives more space to express thoughts creatively. Figma’s design layouts and fonts are top-notch, and its collaboration tools greatly improve teamwork.

Additional advantages that substantially simplify the workflow are the wide variety of plugins in the community section and its user-friendly interfaces with project management software and other development tools.

It’s crucial to remember that beginners might not be the ideal fit for Figma, as its features can feel a bit overwhelming, making it occasionally challenging to locate and understand a specific function. Additionally, some people might not find the icon placement very user-friendly.

Conclusion

The Canva alternatives mentioned in the article are considered based on purpose, usability, and cost. While Venngage, Stencil, and Vectornator provide simple, user-friendly UIs, Visme and Adobe Creative Cloud Express stand out for their collaborative and cloud-based features.

On the other hand, Pixelied shines out with its superior vector tools and affordability. Coming to Desygner, VistaCreate, and Snappa offer a wide range of templates and font options.

Finally, although it has a steeper learning curve for newcomers, Figma‘s extensive workspace, integration options, and vast choice of plugins make it a powerful alternative.

In conclusion, the best platform will rely on your needs, skill level, job, and budget. While Canva is a great tool for new and casual users, other options could be better for experienced users or people with particular needs.

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Top 10 Canva Alternatives