6 Best Canva Alternatives Compared (Including Free Options)

Canva revolutionized the design world by providing simple graphic design tools for all experience levels to make beautiful designs. Non-designers and complete beginners are able to create awesome graphics with the use of Canva. However, it does have some downsides, making some users opt for Canva alternatives.

In general, Canva provides a wonderful space for designing things like presentations and blog images, as well as simple social media posts and basic photo editing options, but since it was acquired by Atlassian we’ve seen price changes, feature restrictions, and attempts to upsell customers.

You can still make free digital assets with Canva the DIY way. However, since the inception of this type of designer we’ve seen an onslaught of Canva alternatives, some of which are entirely free, while others have cleaner interfaces or unique features that you either have to pay for or can’t find on Canva. Of course, we’re not talking about options like Adobe Photoshop, since it’s something you have to pay handsomely for. Let’s leave those to professional designers.

Whether you’re on the hunt for a cheaper option, or you want to try a new interface, the best Canva alternatives below should help.

👉 Read our full Canva review to compare it with our alternatives below.

The absolute best Canva alternatives 🏆

1. Adobe Express (formerly Adobe Spark)

The Adobe Express tool offers an even more impressive set of features than its predecessor, Adobe Spark. Spark was a worthy Canva alternative in its own right, but Express is even better. This is particularly true of the free version which no longer has the Adobe watermark – something you previously had to pay to remove.

Overall, Adobe Express really does a great job of going head-to-head with Canva. It lets you start a brand new project from scratch, but you can also use Adobe’s templates to give yourself a head start. For convenience, there’s an entire suite of “quick action” buttons that you can use to make easy changes to your images, videos, and even PDF files.

⚙️ Features:

• Desktop version that also comes with a mobile app so you can design on your desired device.
• Easy-to-apply effects, filters, textures, and overlays, courtesy of Adobe Photoshop integration.
• Mega collection of pre-made templates in the exact sizes you need them.
• Library feature that lets you create collections of your digital assets for future use and share them with others if you want to.
• Access to licensed, elegant fonts from the Adobe Fonts library.
• Social integration so you can schedule directly to Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest (though the free plan has a scheduling cap).
• Quick conversion between PNG, JPG, or SVG for images and MP4 or GIF for videos.
• Customizable QR code generator.
• Lots of helpful tutorial videos that guide you through how to use the tool’s features.

💵 Pricing:

• Free – $0 for unlimited access to core features, including thousands of unique templates, design assets, Adobe Fonts, a limited collection of royalty-free Adobe Stock photos, basic editing and photo effects, and 2GB of storage.
• Premium – $9.99 per month for everything in the free plan, plus premium templates and design assets, over 20,000 licensed Adobe Fonts with curved type, grids, and font pairs, over 160 million royalty-free Adobe Stock photos, premium editing features, 100GB of storage, and more.

The premium plan has a yearly payment option that saves you 16%. It’s $99.99, which is the equivalent of roughly $8.33 per month.

2. Visme

Although Visme is a bit more expensive than other Canva alternatives, it’s because it focuses on complicated designs like infographics and marketing documents. It’s great for people looking for sites like Canva, but that specifically allow you to generate charts and widgets to share within your company. Visme also comes with a suite of collaboration tools so you can easily work on and share your creations with your entire team. People like social media marketers will find these features particularly useful.

⚙️ Features:

• Beautiful templates with ready-to-go layouts to make everything from infographics to charts.
• Brand kit to keep your color scheme and logo the same.
• Importing and exporting for PowerPoint.
• Privacy controls on some plans.
• Large library of images, audio, video, illustrations, GIFs and more.
• Team collaboration with comments, annotations, user types, and folder permissions.
• Organization tools like a file manager, analytics, and sharing with other team members.

💵 Pricing:

• Basic – $0 for up to five projects, limited templates, JPG downloads, limited charts, and public projects. This plan has Visme branding.
• Starter – $12.25 per month for 15 projects, more storage, all assets, no branding, PDF downloads, and all charts. You also get premium support.
• Pro – $24.75 per month for unlimited projects, advanced download formats, folders, privacy controls, analytics, and more. This one also has collaboration.
• Visme for Teams – Everything in the previous plans, more storage, improved analytics, onboarding, and more.

3. VistaCreate

This powerful online graphic design tool is a formidable Canva alternative. Boasting an extensive library of over 150,000 ready-made static and animated templates, VistaCreate ensures that you’ll always find fresh inspiration and stay up to date with the latest trends. It’s arguably the most feature-rich free Canva alternative on this list.

VistaCreate’s free plan is extremely generous and will be enough for many people, especially one-person operations like small blogs or freelancers who need a robust Canva alternative for their graphic design needs. If you’re part of a multi-person organization, then you might consider investing in VistaCreate Pro. It opens up new features like team editing, so you can create visual content and brand assets for your business or nonprofit with your coworkers.

⚙️ Features:

• Create custom designs for Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest with pre-made social media templates.
• Plan your social media content using VistaCreate’s scheduler.
• Access fonts, color palettes, and logos in your brand kit to easily use in your content.
• Use pre-made shapes as semi-transparent overlay masks, add thematic stickers, create icons, and customize labels to enhance your brand design.
• Send your designs directly to VistaCreate for printing and get them delivered to your doorstep.
• Design right on your mobile device with the VistaCreate app on both iOS and Android.
• Don’t forget about video, with VistaCreate’s video editor and easy-to-use editing tools at your disposal.

💵 Pricing:

• Starter – $0 gets you access to over 150,000 free design templates, 1M+ photos, videos, and vectors, a Brand Kit with colors, logos, and fonts, as well as free fonts, music, animations, backgrounds, and objects. Additionally, you’ll have 10 GB storage for files and projects, and the ability to schedule and post to Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest.
• Pro – $10 per month will get you the entire Starter pack, plus additional features such as a background removing feature, access to over 70 million templates, photos, videos, and vectors, a team account, infinite Brand Kits, unlimited storage, a resize feature, a Sticker Maker, version history, and the ability to download in HD.

The Pro plan has an option to pay yearly, which cuts the price back to $10 per month ($120 up front).

4. Stencil

If you’re seeking a Canva alternative that offers a familiar set of features, Stencil is an excellent choice. Powered by the good folks over at Namecheap, it offers a wide selection of templates, allowing you to jumpstart your visual content creation. The availability of thousands of web fonts, including Google Fonts, ensures that you can find the perfect typography for your designs. Additionally, Stencil allows you to upload your own fonts, enabling you to maintain brand consistency and personalization, similar to Canva.

Another Canva similarity is that Stencil provides access to a vast collection of icons and graphics that are royalty-free and safe for both personal and commercial use. You can enhance your visuals with these elements, adding flair and creativity to your designs. Stencil also offers a comprehensive range of preset sizes, including optimal sizes for social networks, ads, and blog posts, making it effortless to create content tailored to different platforms.

With these shared features, Stencil offers a compelling alternative to Canva, ensuring a smooth transition between the platforms, while providing a comprehensive toolkit for your visual content creation needs.

⚙️ Features:

• Over 1,350 premium templates available for you to jumpstart your visual content.
• Access thousands of web fonts from Google to find the perfect font for your image.
• Upload your own fonts directly to Stencil for a perfect match with your brand.
• A collection of beautiful icons and graphics, royalty-free and safe for personal or commercial use.
• Over 140 pre-loaded optimal sizes for social networks, ads, blog posts, and more.
• Download your images at high quality, including 300dpi for print.
• Share images to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and Buffer.
• Save favorite colors and use the eyedropper tool to pick colors from anywhere in the canvas.
• More than five million royalty-free “CC0” images with thousands of new photos added every week.

💵 Pricing:

• Free – $0 for up to 10 images, 10 collections, and 10 Instagram shares per month.
• Pro – $9 per month for everything in the previous plan, millions of photos and icons, beautiful templates, logos, watermarks, font uploads, premium support, and increases in limits like images per month and Instagram shares.
• Unlimited – $12 per month for everything in the previous plan, unlimited images and collections, and up to 100 Instagram shares.

The two premium plans get a little cheaper (much closer to Canva pricing) if you pay yearly.

5. Snappa

If you’re looking for sites similar to Canva, then look no further than Snappa. This Canva alternative works well for making graphics for social media, profile pages and has excellent options for bloggers. The templates come in handy for getting the perfect dimensions, while the millions of free, high-resolution photos make for a rapid design process. The Snappa pricing is slightly higher than that of Canva, but you do receive a few unique editing features.

⚙️ Features:

• Sleek designer with thousands of free templates.
• Access to millions of free photos and graphics.
• Links to social media accounts and Buffer.
• Font uploads.
• Potential for collaboration and multi-user accounts.
• Quick background removal tools.

💵 Pricing:

• Starter – $0 for one user, more than 6,000 templates, millions of photos, and three downloads per month.
• Pro – $10 per month for unlimited downloads per month, all templates and photos, social integrations, font uploads, and image background removals.
• Team – $20 per month for everything in the previous plans, plus support for five users and team collaboration.

The yearly plans cost less per month than if you pay monthly.

6. Pixlr X

Last (but certainly not least) on our list of websites like Canva, is Pixlr. This graphic design tool provides an online Photoshop alternative and a Canva alternative, making it one of the top design software options on this list. You can use it to make more complex designs in Pixlr E, while also going for the quicker design process offered by Pixlr X. Overall, Pixlr X is a solid choice that’s also cheaper than Canva or other tools, like PicMonkey.

⚙️ Features:

• Access to both an advanced photo editing tool and graphic editor and a simpler Canva alternative.
• Thousands of stock images, overlays, and stickers.
• AI CutOut tool for eliminating parts of your design.
• Access to thousands of texts, icons, and other assets.
• Beautiful templates and preset dimensions.
• One of the more advanced image editing tools, especially when compared to Canva and most options on this list.

💵 Pricing:

• Free – $0 for full access to the Pixlr basic editing tools, along with limited access to overlays and stickers. This version is supported by ads.
• Premium – $7.99 per month for more overlays, icons, and stickers. You also get video tutorials, templates, and more assets, not to mention an ad-free environment.
• Creative Pack – $12.99 per month for the largest collection of templates, assets, overlays, and stickers.

Yearly plans are cheaper in the long run.

Which of the best Canva alternatives is right for you? 🤔

A lot of your choice should really come down to interface, as that’s one of the most important considerations in these simple design tools. Thankfully, all alternatives to Canva that we recommend offer a free version, so you can test out the ones you find most interesting and choose the one you find to be the most intuitive.

If after checking out these Canva alternatives you’re left feeling unsatisfied, there are also other tools, not covered in this article that you can check out. Easil, Fotor, Piktochart, BeFunky, DesignBold, Desygner, and Venngage, are among some of the few. However, we cannot guarantee that all of them offer free versions that let you first test them out before committing long-term.

No matter which tool you choose, you’ll need images and illustrations to use in your designs. To find those, we have some great posts for you:

• The 10 best spots to find free illustrations
• The 21 best free stock photo sites, including our very own MyStockPhotos

Still have any questions about these Canva alternatives? Let us know in the comments section!