Canva Free vs Paid: A Point-by-Point Comparison

The debate over Canva Free vs. Paid has become even more relevant as Canva’s user base continues to grow exponentially. 

As of 2024, Canva boasts a staggering 130 million active users—up from 60 million in 2022, with a major milestone of 100 million users achieved in October 2022. 

Notably, 67% of the platform’s community opts for Canva subscription plans, taking advantage of Canva premium features like templates, advanced tools, and exclusive design elements. 

In this Canva Free vs. Pro review, we’ll explore the key differences between Canva Pro vs. Free plans to help you decide which option aligns with your design goals. Let’s dive right in!

Table of Contents

• Transparent Backgrounds
• Resizing for Different Platforms
• Brand Kits
• Animated Graphics
• Collaboration Options
• Exporting Files
• More Goodies
• AI Add-Ons
• Pricing
• Storage Limits
• Frequently Asked Questions
• The Verdict: Canva Free vs Paid
• Choose Penji and Never DIY Again

Transparent Backgrounds

If you know you’ll want to learn how to remove background in Canva, upgrading to Canva Pro is a must. In the free version, your images will be saved with a white background.

Of course, you can also find a free background remover on the internet and carry on with Canva’s free version. This will probably work better for simpler graphics – For complex graphics, a background remover might not work. Keep in mind that you can even remove backgrounds from videos in Canva Pro.

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Resizing for Different Platforms

Canva Pro offers a convenient feature called one-click resize. This allows you to quickly create several varieties of the same graphic. For example, say you want to post the same graphic as an Instagram post, a story, and a physical flyer. You can simply click ‘Resize’ and scroll down until you see the appropriate format. You can also type in the exact dimensions you need manually.

Brand Kits

Now, on to a crucial part of Canva features free vs. paid: brand kits.

The free version only allows users to save their colors, making it one of Canva Free limitations. One of the Canva Pro benefits, meanwhile, is the ability to have a more extensive brand kit that includes font styles and sizes. You can also install your specific brand fonts for use in Canva Pro. Pro also gets you unlimited brand folders for organizing different projects, brands, or clients. So, if you need a lot of brand folders and saving colors alone isn’t enough, you’ll need to pay for Canva.

To recap, Free enables you to:

• Choose a color palette.

Pro enables you to:

• Upload your logo
• Choose a color palette
• Add fonts
• Add photos
• Add graphics

Once you add these visual assets to your brand kit, you can seamlessly incorporate them into any design.

Animated Graphics

Another upside of Canva Pro is the ability to export simple animations. Graphics can instantly be turned into animated graphics, which can give your social posts a bit more flair. Not everyone uses animations in their marketing and social posts, so it’s a nice way to stand out.

Collaboration Options

If you’re working on a team, the extra collaboration features in paid Canva can make a big difference. Free Canva lets you comment, share links, and assign tasks. Paid Canva lets you do all of this and have team-only links, approvals and notifications, and team reports. It’s a great way to organize who can do what on Canva and get your design projects completed faster.

Exporting Files

Another difference between Canva free vs paid is that you can export your work as a CMYK or SVG (scalable vector graphics) file in the paid plan. Some say SVGs are best for websites because they load faster. This can increase the overall performance of your web pages. You can shrink an SVG file down without losing any quality (unlike JPGs and PNGs).

If you only need to export PNG, JPG, or PDF files, the free plan will be enough for you.

More Goodies

One of the primary reasons people upgrade to Canva Pro is that there’s simply more of everything:

• Templates
• Stock photos
• Graphics
• Videos
• Audio

Canva Free comes with some of these, too, but Pro has way more to choose from (an estimated 60,000 assets vs only 8,000). Sidenote: You can also save designs as brand templates in the paid versions.

AI Add-Ons

If you’re a sucker for fancy AI tools, you might want to upgrade your Canva account. Paid plans offer:

• Beatsync – This is a feature that lets you sync your videos to the beat of a song – a nice touch for engaging your audience, and it’s all done automatically
  
• Magic Eraser – This is a feature that lets you remove unwanted objects or people from your photos (Just don’t let your ex-boyfriend see that you’ve magic-erased him)
  
• Magic Write – This is a classic AI text generator that allows you to write captions, product descriptions, or whatever else you need

*Canva’s text-to-image generator is available on the free plan.

Pricing

A Canva cost analysis is straightforward as the tiers are simple and practical. For Canva pricing comparison, the two paid versions are Canva Pro and Canva Teams, and the prices below are annual. If you want to pay monthly, Canva Pro costs $12.99 per month, and Canva Teams costs $14.99 per month.

Storage Limits

Canva Free offers 5GB of cloud storage, while Pro and Teams offer 1 TB. When compared to other design platforms, this is quite a bit of space. When comparing Canva vs. Adobe Express and Canva vs. Visme, neither offers as much storage space as Canva.

Some people care a lot about storage, while others simply don’t need it. If your storage needs are minimal, Canva Free should suffice.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

The Verdict: Canva Free vs Paid

Canva is a robust platform with a lot to offer. Whether or not you decide to upgrade, you’ll get plenty of bang for your buck. To decide between Canva free vs. paid, ask yourself the following questions:

• What will I be creating the most?
  
• What are my must-have features?
  
• Do I keep bumping into paywalls for Pro features I want to use?

For someone who wants to create basic designs, upgrading from free to paid might be negligible. But if the features in this article entice you, Canva Pro may be the better option. In any case, Canva is affordable enough that you can test-drive both versions. Try Canva Pro free for 30 days and decide.

Why Penji Outshines Canva

Canva gives you access to more than 600,000 premium templates, over 3,000 fonts, and around 100 million premium photos, videos, audio, and graphics. However, browsing through all those to find the most suitable design elements can take up your time and energy. Not to mention laying them out, finding the best composition, and tailoring them to fit your online platforms.

Penji designers will handle all these for you and more. You only need to write your project brief, and we’ll take care of the rest. Plus, you no longer have to worry about copyright infringement as you get full ownership of your designs. 

Best of all, you get more time to focus on what matters most to your business.

Choose Penji and Never DIY Again

While Canva is a powerful tool for DIY graphic design, Penji offers distinct advantages that make it a superior choice for anyone seeking high-quality, hassle-free designs.

Here’s why Penji stands out:

• Unlimited Custom Designs: Unlike Canva’s DIY model, Penji provides access to a team of professional designers who create custom designs tailored to your exact needs—no templates or generic layouts.
• No Learning Curve: With Penji, there’s no need to navigate tools, compare Canva pricing plans, or figure out the difference between Canva free vs paid pricing. Simply submit your request, and our designers handle the rest.
• All-Inclusive Service: Canva’s appeal often requires exploring Canva upgrade options, like Canva Pro subscription. Penji simplifies this with one flat monthly fee for unlimited design requests and revisions.
• Consistency Across All Projects: Canva Pro’s free trial may provide temporary access to premium features, but Penji ensures long-term consistency and quality for all your designs, adhering to your brand guidelines.
• Faster Turnaround: Penji delivers high-quality designs quickly, saving you time compared to DIY efforts, like how to combine two elements in Canva.

Here at Penji, Oor AI matching system instantly pairs you with a designer who specializes in what you need (eg. Facebook ads, social posts, event flyers, product packaging, and more). In addition, you’ll be assigned a Support Specialist to help with onboarding and support you throughout the duration of your subscription. No automated responses – We’re a team of real humans helping you execute your design strategy from start to finish.

Don’t like a design? Feel free to swap designers at no added cost (and no awkwardness). Get a draft back in as little as 24 hours and put your design workflow on autopilot.

Wanna see how it works? Check out a demo to learn how to get unlimited graphic designs.

Say Goodbye to DIY

Get all your custom graphics done for you

Watch Quick Demo