Canva is an online graphic design software that allows users to create not only beautiful professional designs for social media, marketing, and presentations, among others.
Are you still stuck on choosing whether to purchase a Canva subscription? This post will serve you right.
As a content creator and blogger, I am constantly writing blog posts, e-books, and social media posts that are complete only when accompanied by graphic images and designs.
I have used several design software such as Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, FlexClip, and VistaCreate, and I considerably have different thoughts in respect of each.
Having used Canva for a while as my primary design tool to create featured images for this blog, social media content for my clients, and design birthday cards and Christmas cards for my friends.
In this unfiltered Canva review, I talk about the nitty-gritty of this popular design tool, key features, pros and cons, and the pricing to help you decide whether Canva is worth it.
Canva Review
Canva provides a user-friendly interface, a vast library of templates and design elements, and easy-to-use editing tools that make it accessible to people without a design background.
It is available in both free and paid versions for individuals, businesses, and organizations looking to create professional-looking designs without the need for specialized software or design skills.
What is Canva?
Canva is an online drag-and-drop graphic design software that enables users to create designs with little or no graphic design experience.
Canva has many elements and templates to customize to create presentations, videos, posters, banners, and other graphic designs.
Canva is used by various persons, such as businesses, students, agencies, startups, freelancers, digital marketers, bloggers, and graphic designers, to create and edit designs.
Canvaās Key Features
Ease of Use
One perk that makes Canva stand out is its ease of use. Compared to traditional design tools like Adobe Photoshop and illustrator, you donāt need to be a tech genius to learn how to use Canva.
The tool is basic; its interface is also not clustered, which makes it easy to find all the tools you need to create or edit designs.
With the latest features, you are provided with an AI Canva assistant that can help you easily locate features that you seem not to have a grasp of where to find them.
I find this feature interesting especially for beginners who are new to the software.
Templates
Canva has plenty of templates both on the free and paid packages. The downside is that some templates are available for users on the Pro package. To find a template, place your keyword in the search box, such as; real estate, world stress day, and birthday among others.
Exporting Projects
Unlike other graphic design tools whose free packages do not allow high-quality downloads, Canva goes out of the way to allow users to download in the highest possible quality possible.
There are various formats you can choose to download and save your downloads in, such as PNG, PDF, SVG, JPEG, Gif, PPTX, MP4, and JPG, transparent or not, printable or standard quality.
Team collaboration
Are you working on a joint design project? Putting minds together to create something is outstanding. It brings creativity and produces stellar results.
Canva incorporates this by facilitating users to create teams. You can add up to 3000 members to a team. However, this feature is only available on Canva Pro.
Creating and Editing
Creating and editing content in Canva is easy. You have many templates, icons, shapes, royalty-free images, stock photos and videos, frames, and templates at your disposal.
Even when you are out of ideas, features like Canva AI writing assistant can help you brainstorm ideas.
You can also add resources, i.e., uploading images, fonts, and video clips. As of recently, you can also upload and edit PDF (Adobe Acrobat) and PSD (Adobe Photoshop) files. The file format is imported and can easily be formatted.
Canva lets you create presentations acting as an alternative to PowerPoint.
For users like businesses and agencies that have brands in their existence, you can set universal branding to be adopted for all designs. Set universal fonts, colors, and templates to have consistency.
Recommended: How to To Group Elements In Canva On Mobile & Desktop
Content Posting
Canva allows users to create content and publish it on various social platforms. Canva allows users to create a customized content calendar and curate and schedule content for posting on social media platforms like LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter social platforms.
Multi-platform Support
Canva is available on a multitude of platforms. Canva is an online tool that you can easily access on the web via your PC or Linux system. You can also download the Canva app on your Android or iOS device to create and edit designs on the go.
Integrations
Canva integrates with over 100+ platforms like Pixabay, YouTube, GooglePhotos, Dropbox, Google Drive, Google Maps, and Smartmockups within its platform. You can easily access and use your content from those various sites without moving an inch.
Canva Pricing
Canva is free to use.
- Canva Pro costs $12.99 per month.
- Canva for Teams costs $14.99 per month.
Paying annually costs $119.99 for Canva Pro and $149.90 for Canva Teams.
Canva Pro
For starters, the basic free version is enough.
The question stands, why should you pay for Canva Pro?
Canva Pro has extended features such as access to 100+ million stock photos, background removal, premium design elements, cloud storage, and excellent customer support. Some elements are only available to subscribers on Canva Pro.
As a Canva Pro user, my subscription is worth every penny. For a user on the free package, as you use pro elements, your designs will be downloaded with watermarks, which will make your designs distorted.
To accommodate more than one person, you need to subscribe to Canva for teams which cost $14.99 only. Canva for Teams contains similar features to Canva Pro but is specifically meant for two or more persons. It helps team members collaborate on projects, arrange work smartly in folders, and access a brand kit.
Is Canva Pro worth it?
Yes, Canva Pro is worth it! You get unlimited access to various templates, design elements, and background removal. You can also create teams to collaborate on designs with your teammates.
Want to try out Canva Pro? Subscribe for a 30-day free trial and explore.
Canva Pros and Cons
Pros
- Easy to use
- Affordable
- No graphic design experience needed
Cons
- Not suitable for complex design projects
- Less number of file output formats
- No background removal in the free version
Canva Alternatives
VistaCreate
VistaCreate is mainly similar to Canva. VistaCreate also helps users create designs and edit templates.
Verdict (Canva Pro Review)
For a simple, non-complex, easy-to-use graphic design tool, Canva is undoubtedly the best choice.