Canva Review: Online Design Made Easy

ByMacy Michelle

What is Canva? Check out this detailed Canva review to learn everything you need to know about designing online!

What is Canva? 

Canva is a web-based platform that allows anyone to create beautiful presentations, social media graphics, graphs, and more through the use of professional layouts. This online software has simple drag-and-drop design templates to make online design simple. 

Canva is very user-friendly and intuitive and can be used to create both print and online graphics. Currently, Canva has over 15 million monthly active users.

Canva Plans

Here is a breakdown of all of the different plan options that Canva offers.

Canva Free

Price: Free

Best for: for individuals and small groups working on quick projects

  • 8,000+ free templates
  • 100+ design types (social media posts, presentations, letters, etc.)
  • Hundreds of thousands of free stock photos and graphics

Canva Pro 

Price: $9.95/month billed yearly or $12.95/month billed monthly

Best for: for individuals and small teams who need more customization and productivity

Everything Free has, plus:

  • Create your brand’s visual identity with logos, colors and fonts in 1 Brand Kit
  • One-click design resize
  • 60,000+ free templates
  • 60+ million premium stock images, photos, videos and graphics
  • Upload your own fonts and logos
  • Custom templates

Canva Enterprise

Price: $30/month, billed yearly

Best for: for larger teams who need advanced brand and collaboration control

Everything Pro has, plus:

  • Establish your brand’s visual identity with logos, colours and fonts across multiple Brand Kits
  • Control what team members can see, access, and upload in Canva with brand controls
  • Built-in workflows to get approval on your designs
  • Protect your design from team edits with advanced template locking
  • Unlimited storage
  • Single-sign on
  • 24/7 support

Canva Pro is available for free for nonprofits and schools. 

How Does Canva Compare? 

How does Canva compare to other top online graphic design software? Check out the comparison chart below. For the sake of this comparison, our team sourced simple design software platforms similar to Canva and left out more complex options such as InDesign and Photoshop. 

Though all of these options look relatively similar in this comparison chart, Canva and PicMonkey are far superior than the other choices. The other programs are less comprehensive than Canva and many offer storage for only a certain number of designs. 

What Can You Design On Canva?

You can design virtually anything you desire on Canva! There are over 60,000 templates and you can also create your own designs from scratch. Here are just a few of the many items you can create on Canva. 

  • Social media graphics such as Facebook posts, Instagram posts, Twitter graphics, Pinterest pins, Facebook cover photos, YouTube thumbnails, etc. 
  • Documents, such as presentations, letters, resumes and more.
  • Birthday cards, photo collages, photo books.
  • Marketing materials such as logos, business cards, posters, banners, brochures, media kits, etc.
  • Ads such as banner ads, Facebook ads. 
  • Education worksheets, lesson plans, table of contents, class schedules, etc. 
  • Event invitations, announcements, wedding invitations.
  • Menus
  • Newsletters
  • Calendars

Canva History

The idea of Canva began in 2007 by Melanie Perkins. At the time, Perkins was studying at the University of Western Australia and was teaching students how to use programs like InDesign and Photoshop. Perkins found that there was a steep learning curve for InDesign and Photoshop. Perkins told BBC.com that “it could take a whole semester to learn the very basics. Even the simplest tasks, like exporting a high-quality PDF file, could take 22 clicks.” Perkins wanted to solve this problem and come up with a simpler solution. 

Perkins came up with an idea to create an online tool to create school yearbooks. Cliff Obrecht and Perkins took out a loan to build Fusion Books. Fusion books is now the largest school yearbook publisher in Australia and is gaining popularity in France and New Zealand. 

After their success with Fusion Books, Obrecht and Perkins knew that their technology could be used beyond the yearbook market. They partnered with Cameron Adams and Canva was launched in 2012 to select professionals. As of January 2014, Canva had 150,000 users and opened publicly. As of 2021, Canva has over 15 million monthly users. 

Frequently Asked Questions

Here are some of the most frequently asked questions regarding Canva.

What is Canva good for?

Canva is great for designing or creating social media posts, flyers, presentations, Pinterest pins, logos, social media headers, and any other form of visual content you may need.

Do professionals use Canva?

Canva and Adobe Illustrator are two popular design programs that are used by professionals such as designers, business owners, and bloggers.

Is Canva Pro worth the money?

With the brand kits, templates and access to over 60 million stock photos, Canva Pro is easily worth the cost.

How do I get Canva Pro for free?

You can get started with Canva Pro with a free 30-day trial. To get started with a trial of Canva Pro, head to Canva, make an account. After you make an account, you will see a pop-up dialog box with 30 days Canva Pro free offer. To claim, hit the “Try it free for 30 days” button.

Bottom Line

If you’re looking for simple design software, Canva is the best choice@ Canva is perfect for inspiration, templates, and a simple way to design graphics, flyers, logos, and more.

Start designing beautiful graphics today with Canva!