What is Canva?
Canva is a graphic design platform. It is used to create social media graphics, presentations, posters, documents, and other graphics. The app includes pre-made templates for users to use. The platform is free to use and offers paid subscriptions like Canva Pro and Canva Enterprise with additional functionality.
Features
Canva has many features and resources on its website. This includes:
1. Photo Editor and Stock Images – You can either edit your photos with Canva’s pre-made filters or play around with their photo settings. They also have photo settings where you can change transparency, add texture, and add different photo effects.
2. Print Products – Canva has expanded and now provides printing. They can take designs made on Canva and print them out. Their print products include: canvas prints, mugs, cards, photo books, t-shirts, rack cards, trifold brochures, stickers & labels, postcards, etc.
3. Learning Resources – Canva provides courses, tutorials, and blogs for users to help out with their content creations. Click to learn more!
4. Pre-Made Templates & Extensions – If you upgrade to Canva Pro, it comes with more features. Canva has “apps” that connect social media and other brands to it.
Pricing
1. The Free Version – Just for $0/month, you can use Canva. With the free version, you have access to all the available free designs, fonts, icons, and stock images, to create specialized graphics.
2. Canva Pro* – For just $12.95/month. you have access to unlimited premium tools.
3. Canva Enterprise – For just $30/month, you and your team can manage your company brand with much ease.
*Note: Education (K-12) and Non-Profits Get Free Canva Pro When Registered
Pros & Cons
Here are my pros and cons for Canva:
Pros
- Easy to use (Drag and Click)
- Has an app
- Templates automatically formats to social media/presentation dimensions
- Free version has a lot of features
- Constantly updates website
Cons
- Canva heats up my laptop and drains my battery!
- Poor Resolution – your graphics may get pixelated when exported off of Canva
- Limited Fonts and Features (for free Canva)
- App is not the best (it has improved since it was first launched)
- Cannot access offline, which is inconvenient
Comments & Recommendations
Overall, Canva is a great content curation and graphic design platform. I have personally used Canva since my freshman year of high school, so I have seen the changes they have made in the past 5-6 years.
While I love their features and user-friendly interface, I would not recommend it to larger companies or advanced graphic designers. Their resolution is not the highest, when you export or download off their website.
Canva would be more useful to influencers, small bloggers, small businesses. It is a great website, with great resources, and it seems to be growing every day. Its functionality and features make it so popular.
Now, if they turned their website into software, so you could access files offline, I would love that! It would make things easier than manually downloading content. Something I would also improve is their app. While it is functioning and simple, it is often slow and crashes frequently. I think fixing the bugs, so it runs smoother would help.
Also, if Canva did not drain my laptop (and phone) battery, I would be forever grateful. There is nothing frustrating when things do not save because it crashed while you were trying to download your graphics.
In conclusion,
Canva is a great company and platform, and every day they continue to improve their website!