Mar 2 2022
10 min read
Mar
Last Updated: March 10, 2022
17 min read
So, you are trying to achieve better branding goals with more expressive graphic designs, but your favorite Canva features don’t seem competent enough!
And now you are looking for the best alternatives to Canva?
And why shouldn’t you!
For the longest time, Canva has been a firm favorite of many DIY graphic designers (and even non-expert designers), whether it is to create attractive digital menus for restaurants or to showcase their design flair on social media.
But, it’s not always feasible to opt for the Pro version of Canva. Hiring expert designers also costs a lot.
It’s more sensible to switch to one of the thousands of new design software out there. Creating your posters, banners, images, and videos shouldn’t cost you a fortune, right?
Thankfully, designing visual content has become a cakewalk.
Whether you’re creating an office presentation or a content for digital signage to attract customers, upgrading to the latest graphic design trends is imperative for your branding goals to work. Many of the Canva alternatives are already popular with digital marketing professionals.
Which one to choose among those?
Don’t worry. We are here to help.
Check out the following list of 10 graphic design applications that function equally good as Canva, and sometimes even better.
PicMonkey is a product from the renowned creative agency Shutterstock Inc. It’s one of the most brilliant and most affordable Canva alternatives that got favored and approved in 2021 by users. And this year its popularity is increasing even more.
Why? For the user-friendliness of the software that allows you to create appealing designs in a jiffy.
PicMonkey has three different paid plans to serve users.
Basic Plan: The Basic plan comes at $7.99/user/month. You won’t get unlimited access to all the premium features. Nevertheless, it won’t hurt you much if you are a beginner.
Pro Plan: The Pro plan is $12.99/user/month.
Business plan: This plan has a few collaboration tools for enterprise customers. The bill is $23.00/user/month. It is a customizable plan.
Well, for PicMonkey, you have no option for Free features. You can surely try out the editing options and the templates, but the moment you download it, you need to subscribe to the monthly plans.
Before buying the plans, don’t forget to opt for the 7-days free trial. Trying before buying is always good, especially when you can.
Use multiple layers and get to edit each layer separately. Now that’s what we call real flexibility of design.
Get 1GB of cloud storage with your basic plan. Keep creating designs without much fuss to store them.
Enjoy unlimited storage to keep your creative illustrations safe and secure.
The Automatic Background Remover feature- that people die to get- comes with PicMonkey.
Users can create their own fonts and add them to their Brand Kit. So, you have enough scope to emerge as unique and outrun your competitors.
New brands can try designing their logos. PicMonkey offers excellent logo templates for beginners, and the templates are 10X more professional than the ones available on Canva.
Considering the business plan features, we recommend PicMonkey for entrepreneurs and those who want a graphic design software that requires limited creativity from the user’s end.
One look at the Visme website, and you know you have landed in the right place. Everything about Visme shouts professional. Besides the quality of templates, what makes this design application a notch above Canva is the competitive pricing.
Visme has a very flexible pricing model with four tiers.
Basic Plan: This plan is free, and that’s what makes you the happiest. Use as long as you want, of course, with limited access to the features and templates.
Personal Plan: The Personal Plan starts at USD 12.25/month. You can access the entire Visme template library.
Best Value Plan: This is great for teams. The plan starts at USD 24.75/user/month.
Enterprise Plan: This offers more advanced and personalized features, including training & onboarding, along with 25GB of cloud storage. But to avail of this premium plan, you must contact the sales team of Visme.
Visme has many awe-striking features that you won’t get in other design software.
You get Motion Icons to add to any design and make it look sophisticated.
Users can add Data Widgets to present any statistics in an intelligent and snackable format. This feature makes the application one of the most versatile Canva alternatives.
The drag-n-drop feature makes the software easy to use for newbies.
The software lets users embed polls and quizzes, clickable pop-ups, and hover effects, making the designs more interactive.
There is more. Users can assess the audience reach of the published designs with the help of a built-in analytics feature.
So? Isn’t it the most versatile alternative to Canva App you’ve come across so far? Let’s see the paid features now.
If you upgrade to the paid plans, you can do much more:
Create custom-color palettes, brand fonts, and design templates with the Branding tool.
There is a much better scope to integrate with various applications for a more empowered design experience.
Video, graphics, Marketing Tool, Forms, and Storage Integrations allow you to pull your creative assets from several sources, as well as share your designs on those platforms.
When it comes to privacy concerns, Visme is the ultimate alternative to Canva. Users can set folder permissions and limit user access.
With Visme, you are sure to make your visual content way more engaging. But to use it to its full potential, one must go through a few hours of learning the Software features thoroughly. That should be okay considering what you get: excellent design results to build your brand story more efficiently. If you are a business, then absolutely try it.
What makes Stencil popular is perhaps its enormous stock photo library. Imagine getting access to 5million+ high-resolution, royalty-free images to use for your designs! If your primary goal is to publish eye-catching social media posts using simple yet exciting features, Stencil is for you.
Subscription plans for Stencil are simple.
Free Plan: Though you have free access to the features, they won’t be of much use because you can create only ten designs in a month – which is not suitable for any business, no matter how small scale it is.
Pro Plan: The Pro plan starts at USD 9/month and offers incredible features, but with a limitation of 50 image uploads in a month.
Unlimited Plan: This is the best plan that offers complete access to all features and limitless design creation and upload facility. You get it for only USD 12/month.
On top of the exceptionally pocket-friendly rates, they offer huge savings when you choose yearly billing.
All the features of Stencil mainly focus on speed and performance and are centered around social media integration.
One exciting feature is the Chrome & Firefox extensions of Stencil that can significantly reduce the time spent on designing media for any marketing channel. With the extensions, users can instantly turn any web text into an editable image or add a caption to any image. This is a fantastic tool if you want to send clients snippets from your website or want to launch quick (and brief) social media campaigns.
To make things even faster, Stencil has 140+ preset sizes. For example, presets for social media posts, billboards, leader boards, zoom virtual background, Youtube Ads, email banner, Amazon Product image, and more. Stencil’s pool of size presets is 10X higher than Canva or many of the alternatives of Canva, for that matter.
Access to unlimited high-quality royalty-free images from media partners like Unsplash and Pexels.
Access to 3100K+ icons from partner sites like Round Icons and Those Icons.
Stencil allows the users to automate their social media posting as per their brand calendar by connecting with Buffer. The design application makes social media content management way too easy for beginners.
You also get access to 4750+ Google fonts that make your design look professional, even if you are a novice.
Stencil is a fantastic tool for creating media for various types of marketing channels, especially for businesses that want graphic design software primarily for social media campaigns. However, you have to manage with limited download options – only jpg and png. But the best part is, it’s so easy that anyone with minimal creativity can use it.
Venngage is more into data visualization. It is the perfect alternative to Canva if you are looking to transform complex data into charts, infographics, timelines, diagrams, and reports. With several feature-rich benefits, the software beats Canva just like that!
Venngage pricing model is distributed in four tiers.
Free Plan: The Free plan Venngage has is of very little use as it offers a kind of trial for the software. You will eventually have to move to the paid plans to use the application further.
Premium Plan: The Premium plan comes at USD 16/user/month. It allows you to explore unlimited design options but lets you upload only 50 images.
Business Plan: The most popular plan is Business Plan which offers almost all features you would need, and it comes at USD 39/user/month.
Enterprise Plan: An enterprise plan is also included that starts at USD 499/month and is customizable as per control and support requirements.
You don’t get much to do with the Free plan. Yes, you can share the designs you make (only 5 with free access) and use diverse icons and widgets.
Users get a personalized brand kit and can keep their designs inimitable.
With the Enterprise plan, users can get custom integrations with other apps.
The software also allows adding human avatars in the design.
Venngage is not your regular marketing collateral design buddy. It is one of its kind as it simplifies designing presentations, white papers, certificates, academic & business projects, and case studies. This brand is focusing on a very niche requirement. Therefore, the quality of the templates is far better than those available in Canva.
Suggested Read: Various content that you can play on a screen (industry-wise) .
Crello is one true alternative to Canva. It has a similar interface as Canva, which gives you an upper hand with the usage.
Crello subscription plans are too simple to believe.
Starter Plan: This is the free plan which gives you a generous collection of features.
The Pro Plan: It costs $10/month, which is reasonable compared with other similar software.
The best free feature that Crello offers is the background removal. You will rarely find a design application that offers background removal as a free feature.
The software offers 1M creative assets and 50K+ design templates, which beats even the vast collection that Canva offers its non-premium members.
Brand kits with dedicated colors, logos, and fonts are also accessible with the free subscription.
And with the video trimming option, you won’t have to worry about using another app to cut short the video length.
Crello even has a music library that lets you add music to your designs directly from the software without having to look elsewhere. Convenient, right?
Crello Pro isn’t very distinct from the starter plan. We suggest trying the paid version for 14-days and then deciding about buying it.
Many resources are unlimited with the pro plan. For example, unlimited storage and unlimited brand kits.
Users also get 50M+ creative assets – a jaw-dropping number of design resources to explore.
Resizing is an important feature that is available only for paid members.
Team accounts & collaborative tools are available.
The free Crello (Vista Create) plan is quite enough for individuals, like bloggers, vloggers, or students. The Pro plan is clearly for more regular users like marketers and creative businesses.
As the name suggests, the software in itself is a designer. When you go blank and lack ideas for new poster designs or maybe just want some graphics to make your digital notices interesting, take a resort to Desygner. Easy usage and an enormous template library make this one a competent alternative to Canva. Therefore we have kept it at the end of our list.
Free Plan: Guess what! Desygner gives you access to almost all the fundamental features free of cost. However, it is restricted to a single user.
Pro Plus Plan: The Pro+ tier costs USD 4.95/month with access to six users.
Business Plan: A business plan is also there that comes at USD 9.95/user/month. However, it can include up to 100 guest accounts.
Access to 300+ design assets, layouts, free fonts & icons.
Users can also resize their creatives (a feature rarely available in free plans).
Downloading designs with transparent background.
125 million Shutterstock images and illustrations & videos
Auto-publish your social media posts with an in-built scheduler
Team collaboration features like setting up multiple asset libraries, defining user roles, and advanced search with filters.
Desygner is the most cost-effective and high ROI alternative to Canva, and that is why it has made it into our list. It is equally helpful for individuals trying out DIY graphic design tools and for professionals aiming to achieve better results in branding & marketing.
After going through the software, it seems as if the creators have kept the beginners in mind. Even if you have zero experience with graphic designing, you can quickly move through it and make exciting designs.
Simple pricing and a simple interface make this a trendy alternative for Canva users.
Starter Plan: You can access the free plan that gives you access to the HD images and graphic templates but with a restriction of 3 downloads each month. It restricts the user limit to one.
Pro Plan: It costs USD 10/month for 1 user
Team Plan: It charges USD 20/month for 5 users
Snappa offers an ocean full of templates. So, you don’t have to bother about creating your designs from scratch. And that’s all that you get with the free version.
Social media integration
custom font upload
One-click background removal feature
collaboration features like folder creation, brand assets & more.
Snappa is near-identical to Canva. Its simple User Interface is what gives it a competitive edge. The Snappa Pro Plan is not a catchy deal if you compare the pricing (Canva allows upto 5 users in its Pro Tier, while Snappa allows only 1 user). However, for enterprise users, the Snappa Team Plan can be an affordable alternative to Canva.
Also Read: List of the 34 best RSS feeds to follow in 2022.
For professionals, Adobe Creative Cloud is undoubtedly the best alternative to Canva. The application was formerly known as Adobe Spark. It’s fun to use and consists of excellent features that you can use for free as long as you want! Yes, you read that right.
Free Plan: As already mentioned, a free plan is there for you. We’ll get to the free features in a few short seconds.
Premium Plan: The paid Premium plan is only USD 9.99/month. On top of that, there is a 30-day free trial. So, you get to uncover your creative potential to its fullest without feeling it heavy on the pocket.
Users can personalize their design projects by adding brand-specific logos and colors.
There is access to the limited (which in itself is vast) collection of copyright-free Adobe Stock photos.
Again, this is one of those rare brands that offer animation effects & background removers in free plans.
One of the features that sets it apart from the other Canva alternatives in our list is the inclusion of mobile usability in the free package. Since graphic designers often need to make changes on the fly, it comes as a generous bonus.
Premium templates and design assets become accessible with the Premium plan.
Users can unlock the complete Adobe stock library of 160 million royalty-free photos.
There is king-sized cloud storage of 100GB.
More advanced features like graphic groups, resizing, sharing media across other creative cloud libraries.
If you are ready to go beyond the beginners or intermediate level and enter the advanced graphic design zone, Adobe Creative Cloud is your right choice. It is definitely a tool for professional graphic designers.
This design application is slightly different from the others on the list because it is a graphic design tool and a user interface design platform. It is a revolutionary software that can easily replace Canva (but not for novice designers) and take the world of design by storm.
Designers can work on creative projects from simple to complex graphic designs to interface design, wire-framing for websites, and prototype designing.
Figma provides three different subscription plans – Professional, Organization, and Enterprise.
Professional Plan: USD 12/editor/month
Organization Plan: USD 45/editor/month
Enterprise Plan: USD 75/editor/month
Figma offers a significant number of advanced features in the free plan. Such as unlimited storage, unlimited viewers.
Users get plug-ins, template libraries, advanced drawing tools, transition & animation effects, and overlays.
Access through the mobile app and cross-platform activity is allowed.
REST APIs, third-party integrations, and live embeds for developers.
You can navigate this web-based app and create as many designs as you want. But, only 3 Figma files can be downloaded with the free account.
Unlock unlimited Figma files and version history
Sharing permissions, access to shared projects, multi-player collaboration, on-canvas commenting, observation mode.
Team libraries, Custom workspaces, and design system analytics are available only for Organization and Enterprise plans.
Advanced animation features for both graphics and videos ensure high-quality design output.
Figma is one of the strongest contenders to Canva. It is also a powerful competitor to Adobe. Needless to say, this application is for professionals and design teams. If you are a beginner or a hobbyist in this domain, we suggest you go for the starter pack. In fact, designers can also use the free plan unless there is a need for advanced admin and custom tools.
This design software uses an interface similar to Adobe that includes layers and art boards. So, if you have experience with Adobe, you’ll get the hang of it soon. Digital Wizard is a beautiful alternative to Canva as its feature-rich and easy to use.
The pricing is subscription-based and there is only one paid plan.
Basic Plan: This is the free plan. But, unless you can download for free, nothing is actually free. Design Wizard’s free program lets you create designs, but you will need to pay as you use it for downloading & sharing your creations. Nevertheless, it is great for users with occasional design needs.
Pro Plan: The Pro plan you can access for USD 9.99/month
With the free version, you can access fundamental features like resizing, access to media (for use, not download), and custom color palettes.
One million high-resolution images and create crisp & intelligent designs.
Social media sharing & scheduling features
Design Wizard Basic is suitable for sporadic users. The Business plan can be a decent choice for serious & teams. But, the Pro plan is not a real deal unless your design needs perfectly fit the offers.
Imagine, designs in every sphere of art would have remained the same for ages!
What would happen?
We would look at the same monotonous creations and would stop praising them one day. As they say, ‘change is the only constant.’
The creative minds of artists and designers have always come up with new trends that keep the aesthetic hunger in them, in us, alive!
Hence, new features, tools, and elements are always in demand. Therefore, we will keep refreshing the list as we find new and promising software applications that may be a desirable alternative to Canva.
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