Canva Reviews

Pros

Canva is a great tool, very flexible, easy to use, and full of assets and features that will make your life as easy as it can be.- The asset library is great, you can usually find what you are looking for- It is easy to find yourself inside the tool- Organization is key if you have too many projects and files, Canva helps you with that beautifully- You can usually find templates for what you are trying to do, so it is easy to get inspired and have a starting point for any design you are creating- Support is great, they reply quickly and help you with anything you need

Cons

The tool feels a bit limiting if you are coming from an Advanced tool like Photoshop or Figma, but the feeling I have is that even if you need Photoshop or Figma for more advanced work, you can still use Canva for simple tasks as it saves A LOT of time compared to these other tools.- Limiting when it comes to pixel-perfect designs- Most graphics in the asset library do not have professional quality, you have to spend some time searching for something that is usable- Lacking when it comes to customization of mock-ups, you can pick a mock-up, and drop your image in it, but if it doesn't look exactly as you need, well you can't do anything.

Pros

Canva has variety and allows you to choose the right template for your documents, whiteboards, presentation, social media posts
The UI is so user friendly that it can cater to audience of all age categories and professions.
Students may also use it to prepare their projects
It also allows you to create your own template

Cons

Few of the templates are marked under premium and you will to upgrade and buy subscription to use them.

Pros

It's very easy to use and offers a ton of design content for free. You don't necessarily need to search outside of Canva for images but you can if you want. It's great for designing simple social banners or marketing materials quickly but there is a catch. They are trying to sell you printing services and their pricing is not competitive with quality printers.

Cons

I recommend Canva to clients who need to create social media marketing images. I have worked with clients who need me to print postcards, flyers or brochures that they designed on Canva and there are issues. Canva is trying to sell printing services. Their design templates are sized and setup for the printer companies they outsource to. If you design on Canva and download the files to send to a professional printer then those files are not setup correctly and require alterations to be printed. That's if there is room for alterations, but not all designs will allow for easy alteration so therefore the customer is forced to print on Canva at higher costs.

Pros

I love that Canva has free version Available, and it almost gives you the full experience of canva, you can use it both on mobile and on a PC.
it has a variety of pre-designed layouts and templates that you can use to save time and its suitable for all tastes, pictures and graphics quality is high.
i love how it has AI tools which you can use in your designs , some of them can even create logos and different elements.
you can use it for school presentation, to create videos and reels.
It's really the all in one designing app.

Cons

It's an online graphic design tool so if you don’t have Internet access, you won’t be able to use it.
you can't download designs with transparent backgrounds in the free version ( it will be white)

Pros

I love the templates and the abundance of graphics available to use. I also enjoy the free use for Canva Pro for teachers, it’s a nice perk.

Cons

So far I haven’t had any trouble with the Canva platform.

Pros

Features are great for graphics animation and audio

Cons

Overcomplicated sometimes but overcome with the tutorials

Pros

Pro: Canva is incredibly user-friendly, making it accessible for individuals without any graphic design experience. Its drag-and-drop interface and extensive library of templates and elements allow users to create professional-looking designs quickly and easily.

Cons

Con: While Canva is great for basic design needs, it may not be suitable for more complex design projects. Advanced users might find its features limited compared to professional graphic design software like Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop.

Pros

It allows me to create almost anything I need, despite the fact that I am not a professional designer. It's fabulously friendly,easy to use, the learning curve is very gentle. I love the newly integrated AI tools and the fact that I can bring digital assets that I created in other software and assemble a completely new design in Canva really quickly. It's a creative powerhouse that feels incredibly friendly and helpful. And while the paid version is the best, you can create practically any digital product you want just using the free version.

Cons

I did so many projects in it and it was(is!) so helpful and practical that I really can't fault it.

Pros

i love that it user friendly and easy to use.

Cons

there is a cost for the premium, everything else I love.

Pros

Whether you're a social media influencer, a small business owner, or a student, Canva offers a practical and efficient way to bring your creative vision to life. Its user-friendly approach and extensive resources make it a valuable asset for anyone looking to enhance their visual communication.

Cons

If you want to do professional work then you cannot do it in CANVA

Pros

Canva is incredibly easy to use, even if you've never worked with any kind of design software. It provides everything you need to design high-quality graphics of all kinds, whether you know anything about design or not. Their "Design School" videos and articles are useful for people new to design, but also for sparking ideas and jumpstarting creativity for experienced users. I use it myself, my company uses it, and I recommend it to all my self-publishing clients.

Cons

I have only two minor quibbles, and the way Canva goes, they'll probably have them fixed by the time this review comes out: I wish Canva kept a temporary list of the fonts tested in a particular design (even if they weren't chosen), and I wish the stickers were searchable, or appeared in search results. In both cases, I end spending a LOT of time scrolling.

Alternatives Considered

Adobe Illustrator and GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program)

Reasons for Switching to Canva

While I'm sure the other products I tried are great, their interfaces are complex. Since I'm a very small business, I just don't have time to learn something complicated while also doing the business of the business AND running and promoting the business itself. Canva's interface is simple, friendly, and intuitive, so you can jump in and begin creating in minutes.

Pros

I am not a designer. Last I draw or make something was 12 years ago. But with Canva, I can make a presentable graphics in 10-15 minutes. With my skill level (I used to use MS Word Clip Art tool and Paint), I should not be able to do anything at all.

True I havent been able to draw a masterpiece, but Canva is not for that sort of work, at least not that I know of. But if you are looking for a social media post, image for your blog post, poster, cover image, Canva can handle all of those. Sure, you still need to hire a designer if you are going to do stunning artworks. But the day to day grind to produce several images everyday, either professional or personal needs, Canva is there for you. You can even create memes with it!

Another nice surprise is, you dont need a paid plan to use Canva. Only the premium features and elements are paid. And to be honest, most users dont even need them. Even I haven't used the premium feature for myself. The free plan is more than enough, better than any other free tool in the market and a few premiums too.

Cons

There is absolutely nothing I want to change. This is simple, intuitive, free or very, very cheap. What more can I ask for??

There is some grumblings among pro-designers who use Canva about some high-level features being absent, certain export formats not there or background remoal option not available. But this is not Photoshop and we should not treat it like that. Also, last I heard, Canva is working very hard to add more functions to their toolbox.

Pros

The ease of use in Canva is as simple as a drag and drop.
You can choose from a lot of objects like images, text, shapes and now even video and gifs to create an engaging post for social media.
Since you have all the sizes available from start you choose your end use, pick the size and from there you just let your imagination do the rest.

Cons

For the free plan you get a LOT of benefits, but the problem is if you need to purchase or get a few extra things like premium images or shapes or export in specific ways like transparent PNG.
The payment plan is kinda cheap and you unlock good things but the problem is the micro transactions of stock imagery which you have to purchase item by item and those arent cheap.
I recommend to get the free plan and an external stock if you need the basic process.
If you want to replace photoshop all together you have to go pro (of course you wont be able to do the same) but at least you get more export methods and lots of stock included.

Alternatives Considered

RelayThat

Reasons for Choosing Canva

We had the license for corel but needed a better pc for design and took a lot of effort. Since our designs are simple for social networks and need to be made ASAP we recommend canva for the ease of use and you can store everything online.

Switched From

CorelDRAW

Reasons for Switching to Canva

The problem with relaythat is that it has a lot of potential, but since it makes you do specific mockups you dont have a free to use software. For example you want a mockup for a diner, and it will give you space for 3 images only, but if one of those is rectangle and 2 squares you have to adapt the images you put in there. Its too strict on the use of images and stock and canva lets you do as you wish.

Pros

This tool is great for quickly creating infographics for real estate educational pieces that you can post on your social media platforms. Canva has templates for all types of postings that are fairly easy to customize. If you know the look and feel of the design you're going for then just flip through their large selection of templates, select the one you want, and make the adjustments you desire. It's that easy. The functionality is limited but powerful enough for almost any task. One positive to the limited functionality is that you don't get overwhelmed with all the options like some other programs which leaves you getting stuck in an endless loop of trying to find the "best" font or the best transitions. It's a simple, clean, inexpensive tool. Also, the export and import features are great. You can import your own photos, logos, etc. and the export function let's you export your creation to a bunch of different formats for whatever platform you want to share on. It's a great program with a large volume of quality stock images, graphics, fonts and templates to tackle any presentation. It works seamlessly with our real estate posts.

Cons

One downside to the software is the difficulty of changing the location of certain items in the layout. It can be cumbersome when compared to some of the other programs out there to relocate items within the presentation. The only other downside is that a lot of the graphics and templates are not free so you options are limited with the free version.

Pros

Canva has changed my work life. As part of a small agency team, we try to keep dollars in-house, where possible. Canva enables us to create a wide variety of simple marketing materials that in the past we would have sent out to a freelance designer. Posters, flyers, mailers, social media videos, presentations... it seems like every week we discover another marketing tool that Canva makes easier, faster and cheaper to handle in-house. The platform has also helped streamline our workflows and resources: We can access stock images, stock video, fonts and even stock music from within the platform and easily output into a variety of formats... and even directly send out to a professional printer from the platform. It's very intuitive... and easy to create nice-looking work. And I really appreciate that Canva elegantly enables you to resize artwork, if you need multiple versions of things. This may sound like a small thing, but even just having easy access to such a simple platform for creating transparent .png files -- knocking out images from backgrounds -- is amazing. It's also useful for inviting others on the team to collaborate on projects.

Cons

I look forward to Canva adding more stock images, video and music. That's not a gripe; I'm fairly pleased with the choices already. An easier internal filing system for files would be helpful... as would more tools for preparing print-ready files. The platform offers fairly limited photo retouching capabilities-- I find that Canva's photo adjustment controls are not particularly subtle.

Alternatives Considered

Vimeo

Reasons for Switching to Canva

Adobe Indesign certainly has its uses. But while it offers a lot of design horsepower, it's not intuitive. It's taken a lot of hours and tutorials to use it. Canva, on the other hand, is extremely intuitive, plus it offers a lot of image content from within the platform. I use Vimeo to create simple social marketing videos. Vimeo has a better array of stock video and music, but it's expensive, slower, and it doesn't offer the breadth of design tools. Canva has helped us get more work produced and out the door faster and easier than ever before.

Pros

It is incredibly easy to use when you need to do something quick and you don't want to use more complex tools like CorelDraw/Adobe products. It has tons of templates which you can use directly or can be used for inspiration for your own stuff. What I like the most that you have already recommended sizes of different posts for social and print media, which are predefined. You can quickly switch between different sizes and adjustments are super easy. I also like that I can work with video and decently animate pictures. All the tools which you would probably need for simple and medium complex projects not only for social media. Also, the smartphone app is really useful, for some minor operations when you are on the go.

Cons

As far as I know, there is nothing I could complain about. It has everything I need for quick creation. It is not usual that you can find a tool which really does everything you would expect.

Alternatives Considered

Adobe Creative Cloud Express

Reasons for Switching to Canva

I also use Adobe Spark from time to time because I have it prepaid in my Adobe creative cloud subscription but Canva has more options, more templates and is easier to use. The overall feel is more user friendly and you can make more with Canva if you use it well.

Pros

This is a key tool for my creative team. Social media, flyers, presentations, investor pitches, sales pitches... anything and everything goes through Canva. It is SO easy to use that you need no onboarding. We constantly get congratulated on our designs, and they are most times just templates adapted to our branding. SO many options to choose from, it's great for when you're on a creative rut.

Cons

Nothing, I absolutely love Canva and cannot recommend it enough.

Alternatives Considered

Adobe Photoshop

Reasons for Choosing Canva

No difference in the easiness of use, options, countless templates... and PRICE!

Switched From

Adobe InDesign, Shutterstock Editor and Adobe Photoshop

Reasons for Switching to Canva

The cost and the fact that Canva has no comparison for social media and presentation creation

Pros

I absolutely love this software. I use it multiple times in my day, both on it's own and along with other programs, such as Photoshop. It makes it really easy to create high quality social images and other business designs. It is easy to use and has a number of features including stock imagery, shapes, frames, layouts, fonts, colours etc. It allows you to upload your own images and quickly organize them. I have used both the paid and free versions. Both are great tools and the free version gives you access to more than you need if you are a small business. The paid version allows you to upload your brand elements and gives you access to additional images and icons. I have also used the Canva app which is great for on the go but is not as easy to use, however, it is getting better as they update it. Canva also has several download options and the newest version gives you the option to make basic moving images.

Cons

I wish there was a better way to organize and manage images and designs. It would be great if I could rename images and organize them within the folders. I also dislike that the image folders have a mass capacity.

The Canva app for your mobile device is not as easy to use. While it is helpful for on the go edits and designs I often times find myself limiting my design or pulling out my computer because it is a little too frustrating to use. However, they are making improvements which are making it easier.

I wish I could do multiple sizes of a design in one template. Because I resize for all of the different social platforms, I often end up with 3 to 5 of the same image in my design library, all different sizes.

Pros

Easy to use: I used canva to create social media images, Social media cover pages/headers, PDF presentations and ebook covers(and ebooks). I've also used Adobe spark, Photoshop and Illustrator to do the same thing but Canva is a lot easier to use. Photoshop and Illustrator require some level of experience to figure your way around it when creating designs especially for social media, but Canva comes with lots of templates so all I have to do is select a template and modify it.

Mobile App: The Android app has definitely gotten better, at the beginning of the year, it was a bit unstable so I had to use the mobile site which was the most frustrating experience of my life. The app is a lot better now and I use it weekly to create social media images and ebook covers

Lots of Design options(Templates): Another thing I like about Canva, especially compared to spark is the number of templates available for each design. For example there are different templates for IG story, Facebook post, Social media image (800x800px), Instagram image (1000x1000px). NO matter how stuck I am design-wise, when I go through their templates I always find something that catches my eyes and suits the concept my client wants.

No Branded logo on my final design

Cons

Limited Logo design options: Technically you can design a logo in Canva, realistically Canva is really not the best place to design a logo as almost all their logo templates look the same.

Undo/Redo Design: Maybe I have bad luck but the undo/redo option almost never work on me on the desktop site (It works just fine on the android app). Sometimes when I delete an element either on purpose or accidentally, when I undo it to get the element back, the undo option doesn't work and sometimes takes me much farther than I expected (I've ended up with a blank space more times than I can count). Same with the redo button.

Reload design: I'm not talking about times when I'm working on a design and I have to leave my desk for thirty minutes, and when I come back I see the prompt that tells me my last change (or something like that) wasn't saved and I need to reload the design. This has happened so often I always save my design before leaving, But I'm talking about how when I'm working on a design and all of a sudden I'm told the last few seconds were not saved and I need to reload the design. This happens to me at least once every two weeks and ALWAYS on the desktop site and never on the android app.
The android app is so stable that once I was working on a design and my data ran out but I continued without any disruption and even when the wifi was turned on there was no prompt to reload my design.

Pros

It allows me to choose according to the type of social network in which I am working, to select the most varied templates adapted to the specific formats; and if I'm not satisfied with the predesigned material, I can modify it by making my final presentation more personalized. It has the ability to accept own photographs, adapt them and edit them within the same application with filters that give a professional appearance of excellent quality. If there is no format within the predesigned templates, you can also change the size. It offers a wide range of designs that fit the type of advertising desired, which are required to present both in a work meeting or disseminating information by various social networks.

Cons

There are times when not all the details of a presentation are saved, and it is annoying because some need time to do them again. If you select a specific template, the system opens a new tab, once you finish all the work and save the information, you must go back to the previous tab and close it, this is a bit tedious. Depending on the complexity of the presentation, sometimes the program can delay in processing the changes efficiently, which can sometimes make you lose the work done previously. In other opportunities if you upload your own image, in some occasions editing it on the platform is not friendly if the connection that is used on the internet does not turn out to be fast enough.

Pros

As an engineering student, I have to do many presentations for my academic activities. Therefore I used to use same presentation template to create my every presentation and it became very boring after using several times. Therefore I need to use different templets to create my presentations and I had to use many softwares to create my own template. It is very time conseuming process to develop a new preentation templates there for I started for looking new for that. And thats how I met The Canva. First thing that I choose Canva because It has a very attractive web site. That is the first thing that moves me to the Canva.Canva web page is very user friendly to use even for a beginer. guide me to fullfill my needs. It has very beautiful templates not only for presentations it has many beautiful designs for any work which you are looking.I mainly use this to create my presentations in many beautiful desings and after every presentation my batch mates and teachers start to geting ask how I created such a beautiful presentation. Now they are all using Canva to done their desings. Canva is very good website to anyone who need to done a desing work without having any desining knowledge. It also help me to done my CV in very attractive desing and after that every one wants to make their CV like my one. You can create you'r own desings with help of Canva without using any templates.

Cons

Actually there is nothing that I don't like in Canva. It is very optimized designing website. But It restrict many good options and you have to pay to have these options. I like to use some of these options in free package. It will give some much more space to the creator or user to work with the Canva. It need to buy pro version of Canva to download high quality file of my design. I prefer high quality download feature must be free because lot of people come for Canva to do their designs easily and free. So i like to have free high quality file download.

Pros

I have no design credentials but have needed to create social media graphics for community events. Canva has stepped in to support my lack of training in this area and is so simple to learn, create beautiful graphics and print materials. Their templates are well designed and easy to edit. Their premium suite allows you to set color schemes for your organization and use premium stock images and icons in all of the materials for no additional cost. The ability to add team members to designs so you can work collaboratively is incredibly helpful as well. You are able drag, drop and resize everything so it's incredibly easy to edit the design into the exact style you want. The ability to print at a low cost directly from Canva provides such a streamlining effect. I've printed everything from posters to business cards and I've always been impressed by the packaging and the final product of what I've ordered. There are so many customizations with the style of paper and finishes that it's easy to meet quality standards printing directly from Canva.

Cons

Every once in a while, I will get a design to exactly where I want it but, when the graphic downloads, text and/or icons will be out of place and misaligned. I have to do trial and error guessing to figure out where to misalign the text/icons on the design so it would download in the proper locations. It's frustrating. Otherwise, I have no complaints.

Alternatives Considered

Adobe Illustrator

Reasons for Switching to Canva

Cost, ease of use

Pros

I like it because it's very easy to use and It allows me to designs anything in my mind and it only takes a few seconds from start to finish especially with all the useful elements Canva provides.
I like the Image Library because I'm allowed to find whatever I'm looking for there with just a few clicks I'm able to find high-quality images.
I'm using it for creating marketing campaigns for my business and I really like all the social media templates especially for Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest...etc.
I really enjoy video editing especially for Instagram stories and I don't need any super video editing knowledge because with Canva everything is easy and I can create cool videos using the templates they offer.
I also, like the Amazing fonts Canva has, and I can find any font I like because they have hundreds of them, and they all are modern fonts.
I like the commercial use agreement because I'm able to use all the elements and Images without any problem thanks to Canva for allowing millions of users and me to have the right to use everything with full commercial rights.
Canva is one of the best Graphic Design tools and I really like using it because It's an online platform and you don't need a high-performance computer to use it like other Software.
It's an all-in-one tool and it's very helpful especially for those who don't have any Graphic Design knowledge.
I like the new features they added recently for example like the curved font style and it's a very helpful option.

Cons

I hope they will give us more features in Canva android app.
I hope they can add some options like removing the background from Images, Convert Images, Stroke for fonts, Erase Tool, Pin Tool...etc.
I hope they can add a section where we can see the elements we have in the projects.
I hope they will add more templates especially for social media (Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest) in the future.
But, after all, Canva Team is doing a great job, especially with the last updates.

Pros

It's a cake walk to get started and use Canva, and I am a proud user since 2014! After a fellow blogger introduced me to Canva, it was love at first sight and no other graphic design platform has been so efficient and intuitive to me.Here are some of the Pros:1. They have plenty of templates, and more added every month almost!2. They also have pretty easy integrations with other API-driven platforms - zapier, pabbly, etc.3. With a paid subscription (that I have, it's a no-brainer), I get to create branded color sets and easy to use presets.4. Not to forget the plethora of design elements that come with the paid subscription. 5. The free version of Canva itself is more than enough for someone who is a casual user for design creations. E.g. Bloggers, Teachers, YouTubers, etc.

Cons

The biggest con to me with Canva is that the tool (rarely) sometimes doesn't sync well, and it hangs. I have to refresh or wait for sometime to pickup where I left. Maybe I am too fast in designing and using it, but when the tool doesn't catchup with my pace, it's kinda annoying.

Alternatives Considered

Adobe Photoshop

Pros

I've been using Canva for a while now and honestly it's been an amazing journey so far.It's user friendly especially for newbies.I can use Canva for practically anything!A one app with so many features? It's definitely an A+ for me.I remember writing my first freelance Resume through the Canva app.Mind you I had no single experience at all.But with Canva it was all easy it guided me through and I did it.I wrote my first Resume!What's more thrilling is that it offers both free and pro packages.As a beginner I started with the free package but I ended up loving the app.Graphic Designers need to get this app, it makes work easy.And your unfinished works are saved as drafts so you can go back and complete them any time.

Cons

In as much as the app is great, it glitches and there are bugs too.There are times it just shows blank white with no features to display (even with a steady internet connection) but otherwise it's nice