The 8 Best Canva Alternatives for Graphic Design

Are you looking for the best Canva alternatives (free or paid)? Then you have landed in the right place. In this comprehensive blog, we have curated a list of the best hand-picked free Canva alternatives for graphic design tools. 

So, sit tight and grab a cup of coffee because it is going to take a while. 

What is Canva? 

With a global base of more than 150 million users 85% of Fortune 500 companies and a 100M+ content library, Canva is one of the leading ad-free graphic designer tools worldwide, especially in the United States, followed by Brazil and India. From designing brand logos to creating professional resumes, presentations, or whiteboards with beautiful pre-designed templates, editing photos and videos, social media posts, and so much more, this software is the one-stop solution for all your graphic design requirements. 

Learn further about- how to create a perfect video for a social media feed.

Moreover, Canva is powered by Magic Studio, a hub of all the essential AI power tools that entirely reinvent the way of designing anything with more ease, simplicity, speed, and creativity than you have ever imagined before. 

Not just that, the software lets you free yourself from the boundaries of sticking to the web browser of your Windows or Mac system all the time. You can now enjoy all the same functionalities and features with its mobile (Canva for Android and Canva for iPhone) and tablet (Android Tablet and iPad) versions. 

Canva Features

Photo Editor:

Its built-in robust photo editor gives you full control over editing with more sophisticated features.

• Easily crop, rotate, and expand your photo in any direction and any ratio.
• Adjust the light, color, white balance, and texture of the whole area of the image, or just the background or foreground.
• Add aesthetic effects and filters to enhance the photos.
• It comes with additional premium features like BG Remover, Magic Eraser, Grab Text, and more. 

Video Editor:

Create professional video in just a few taps.

• Crop, flip, position, and playback in the video editor.
• Add multiple elements from different categories, like charts, tables, stickers, etc., to make your video engaging.
• Add smooth transitions between multiple pages.
• Add branded fonts or draw your style in the editor.
• Discover different audio tracks, add multiple audios at the same time, and overlay them.
• Create and save the videos in separate folders. 
• Free Templates: Explore and customize thousands of pre-designed personal and professional-looking templates with Canva’s easy-to-use drag-and-drop editor. 
• Design and Print in One Place: With its eco-friendly printing, bring your ideas into reality, print them on your products like business cards, A3 portrait posters, T-shirts, mugs, bottles, or invitations, and have their door delivered.
• Use it for social media:
• Design Instagram posts and stories, Facebook landscapes, YouTube thumbnails, and Twitter banners like a pro with these stunning kits.
• Plan, create a schedule, and publish all your posts on different platforms directly from Canva.
• Create campaign posters for any social media channel. 
• AI-powered Magic Studio: Bringing new avatars of creativity into your designs with its AI-backed magic tools.
• Magic Design: Upload your media and let Canva craft magical PowerPoint, video, and social media posts for you.
• Magic Media: Now dream big as much as you can because Magic Media transforms your imaginative words into amazingly visual content.
• Magic Expand: Fix any difficulty framing and expand your image in any direction.
• Magic Eraser: Erase any unwanted obstructions from the background and help your subject shine out. 
• There are more, such as Magic Morph, Magic Animate, Magic Edit, and Background Remover.
• Additional Features:
• Real-time collaboration with your team members across different departments and countries.
• Built-in comments for real-time communication and resolving suggestions quickly.

Also, check out these 20 best photo editing apps, specially designed for Android and iOS mobile devices, and make your picture-perfect moments even more beautiful.

Canav Free vs. Pro

The below screenshot showcases the features provided in the free vs. pro version of Canva.

Canva Subscriptions

The company has very well considered the needs of everyone and provided the following three subscription models, which are a perfect fit for everyone.

• Canva Free: Suitable for Beginners Create a design and share it with your family and friends.
• Canva Pro: It is for professionals like freelancers or solopreneurs who are looking for premium features at the following plans. However, educational institutions and NGOs can access them free of cost.
• Canva for Teams: In addition to all the pro features, this model lets you collaborate with your team on your designs.

Canva Reviews

The Best Canva Alternatives

All our top Canva alternatives recommendations start with the free plans, followed by their premium versions if you want to take your creativity to the next level with them. The following are they (in no particular order):

Desygner

The first pick on our list of the best Canva alternatives is Desygner, a comparatively less expensive, more affordable, and premium option for graphic designers. The software provides handy drag-and-drop editing functionalities such as a sea of 150 million awe-inspiring images, a galaxy of fully customized stunning templates for every occasion, such as state-of-the-art social media posts, captivating animations that you can craft merely in a fraction of seconds, and so much more.

From an individual standpoint to giant enterprises like Hudson, Amazon, Oracle, and many others, the Desygner software is a versatile graphic design tool for all creativity lovers. 

Key features

PDF Editor: Import, transform, and directly share your PDF from the Desygner with your friends, team members, or on social media with 100% ease. 

Enjoy multi-device compatibility: All the designs you create using this software can be accessed on iPhone, Android, MacOS, and Windows, ensuring that creativity does not get hindered by gadgets. Thus, it comes into the league of one of the best free apps, like Canva.

Got some spare time? Then, read about the best free video editing software for Mac. 

Ad-free: In-app ads can be pretty annoying all the time. But thanks to the creators, you won’t have to face such external issues in Desygner. 

Royalty-free images: Get your hands on an extensive library of royalty-free images, use them on your designs, and distribute them without third-party permission with this free Canva alternative. 

Free templates for every occasion: Explore a whole range of free templates in different categories like documents, resumes, greeting cards, flyers, advertisements, and a lot more, and seamlessly personalize them with a handy WYSIWYG editor. 

Collaborate with fellow designers: Working with like-minded fellows helps you turn your ordinary ideas into masterpieces, and Desygner software gives you that opportunity. With the Pro+ model, you can collaborate with up to five members. 

Manage your digital inventory in one place: With their Digital Management Asset System, you can maintain harmony between all your notes in one place. 

In addition to the above, Desygner lets you resize your image online with plenty of custom size options, a background remover, the ability to print ideas on products and have them delivered to your door, and breathtaking animations to spice up your visuals. Overall, it is a great free Canva alternative. 

Pricing

This Canva alternative offers all the premium features in the following pricing plans:

• Free: Suitable for beginners, it provides single-person access.
• Pro+: Best for professionals and fields like content creators.
• Business: This works best for enterprises with up to 100 employees.

Rating

4.0-star (App Store) and 4.7-star (Play Store).

Adobe Express

Formerly known as Adobe Spark, Adobe Express is another one of the greatest free Canva alternatives for creators. With its intuitive drag-and-drop API and AI-powered functionalities by Abode Firefly, the software lets you design effortlessly standout flyers, social media posts, TikTok videos, resumes, logos, and a lot more. It offers countless professionally designed templates with the fully customizable ability to take your work from drab to fab. 

Not just that, within its free subscription model, you can get your hands on premium features like text-to-image, background removal, access to 1000+ Adobe fonts, real-time collaboration with other friends or team members, and much more. Another best part about this free Canva alternative is that it also lets you download your creations with no watermarks, something you needed to pay for in its former version. 

Key Features

Image Editor: From removing the background to resizing the image, converting to JPG, PNG, or SVG, cropping, fine-tuning with filters, or adding animations, create impactful photos and share them on any device. 

Create stunning videos with a few clicks: Simply drag and drop videos from Adobe Stock, swiftly add background music from the library, trim, crop, and resize your video according to your needs, and there you go. For formats, you can convert your video into MP4 or GIF. 

QR Code Maker: Generate a QR code in the blink of an eye and add a link to it. Style it further with different formats (like dots, marker center), and colors, and save it into either of these file formats (PNG, JPG, or SVG). 

Want to save and store your designs in one place? Then, try these best free scanner apps for iPhones.

Take your PDF game to the next level: Edit your PDFs in Adobe Express with visually appealing text, backgrounds, and images, and export them. You can even further combine multiple PDFs into one file. 

Tonnes of professional templates: Turn your ideas into reality with their whole range of free templates, specially designed for flyers, Instagram posts and stories, TikTok videos, and Facebook posts. Then, further add elements like icons, Adobe fonts, or gifs to elevate your design in the picture editor. 

Have control over your social media feed: Similar to free apps like Canva, through its built-in planner, you can preview, schedule, and publish all your social content from one place. This way, you never miss posting content for a major event. 

Pricing

Adobe Express offers competitive features with the following pricing plans:

• Free: Beginner-friendly and designed specifically for NGOs, institutions, and individuals.
• Premium: Professionals looking to scale up their creativity can go ahead with this plan.
• Teams: Works well for enterprises with extra storage.  

Rating

4.8 stars (App Store) and 4.4 stars (Play Store). 

PicMonkey

PicMonkey is next one of the best Canva alternatives and is highly known for its image editing and photo retouching features. It is one of the best photo editors that smoothly lets you edit your photos with its jam-packed functionalities such as stunning filters, amazing color changer effects (like turning your red t-shirt into blue), smart resizing tools, background erasers, and much more.

Furthermore, the software offers countless fully customizable templates for flyers, Instagram feeds, YouTube thumbnails, brand logos, invitation cards, formal presentations, and much more.

With 9000+ vector graphics and textures, hundreds of impressive fonts, and access to HD photos from Shutterstock, the PicMonkey tool is mindfully crafted to keep the photo editing-related needs of graphic designers in mind. 

Key Features

Create wow-worthy images: Design stellar images with PicMonkey’s power-packed features, such as cropping, resizing, adjusting exposure and colors, image sharpening, luxe photo effects, erasing background with ease, adding text within the photos, and much more. 

Retouch photos: One of the best features of PicMonkey is that it gives it a competitive edge over other Canva alternatives. With its in-built digital makeup and touch-up tools, you can easily

remove blemishes, whiten your teeth, change hair and eye color, and remove wrinkles to give your photos a fresh look to your photos.

Design Bundles: PicMonkey offers seven design bundle themes packed with graphics, effects, templates, and more, perfect for all your marketing campaigns and any event themes. These are brush and burnish, rustic gold, paper, retro-static, frame job, wanderlust, and wrapped up.

Endless design tools: Be it memes, collages, whiteboards, slide shows, or presentations, create all of them in one place with their endless design tools, such as unique graphic animations, textures, smart resizing, and much more. 

Brand kit: Design and build your brand with thousands of pre-designed, beautiful templates. With just a couple of clicks and edits, you can create your brand kit with your fonts, colors, and an out-of-the-box logo. 

Multi-device compatibility: Start creating your designs online and finish them on your desktop, or similar to other free apps like Canva on the mobile app (for even faster results). The creativity here is no longer bound to the device.

Pricing

Unlike other tools, PicMonkey is a paid alternative to Canva and offers the following pricing plans with a 7-day free trial:

• Basic: Offers powerful photo editing features; works best for beginners.
• Pro: It offers unlimited storage and works best for emerging companies.
• Business: Carries the power of Pro Plus and works amazingly for collaborators. 

Rating

4.7 stars (App Store) and 4.4 stars (Play Store).

Affinity by Serif

What started as a suite of applications including image editing, graphic designing, and publishing, Affinity is now the leading photo editing software for Max, Windows, and iPad and, needless to say, one of the strongest and best free Canva alternatives. 

Affinity itself comprises a bundle of different software, including Affinity Designer 2, Affinity Photo 2, and Affinity Publisher 2, each responsible for providing a certain set of functionalities.

So far, the software has won the trust of more than 3,000,000 users globally and has also bagged some prestigious awards with its ultra-modern technology and extremely smooth experience. 

Key Features

A hub of professional illustrations: Affinity Designer allows you to grab electrifying vector graphics, icons, mock-ups, top-notch art ideas, and print designs for your project.

Moreover, add zillions of elements and organize them with groups of layers at the same time; zoom in on an object a million times; set up grids; use pixel preview mode to see vectors in

standard or retinal mode; create layouts for different social media content; and much more with this free Canva alternative.

Breath-taking photo editor: Affinity Photo is encouraged as the most preferred choice for photo editing by photo and videography professionals globally. With its unbelievable speed and precision, you can edit in real-time, super steady pan, extremely flawless retouch-up with blemish, dodge, patch tools, work on the 32-bit experience, and bring out even the tiniest detail, a library of enormous custom-made potent brushes, and what not. 

A powerhouse of layouts and designs: If you want to turn your ideas, images, and graphics into one single beautiful layout that is ready to publish, either for a book, social media, magazine, or any mock-up, then nothing can bring the best experience other than Affinity Publisher. 

Using this software, you can create layouts for simple to complex projects, apply styles across all your pages, and create standout typography. All of these will help you make an everlasting impression with your design. 

Add-ons: Craving for more graphic tools and elements? You can also get that from the Affinity store. 

If you are looking for a premium bundle of features with a free Canva alternative, then Affinity is the ideal choice for you.

Pricing

In addition to a 30-day free trial, Affinity offers subscription-free pricing plans for individuals, businesses, and educational institutions.

Rating

Affinity is rated as the most cost-effective Canva alternative, with a bundle of excellent features.

VistaCreate

VistaCreate is another one of the best free Canva alternatives for creators and graphic designers. The tool eliminates the complexity by providing easy-to-implement solutions with its 150k+ fully customizable professionally designed state-of-the-art templates, extensive library of design elements, sticker maker, brand kit and styling features, real-time collaboration with friends and colleagues, and much more.

With its wide array of editing features and multi-device compatibility, the software provides a one-stop solution for all your needs. 

Key Features

70M+ HD photos, videos, and vectors: Get your hands on an entire library of 70 million+ royalty-free images, videos, and vectors and choose the one that best suits your project. 

150k+ ready-made templates: Whether it’s Halloween, Christmas, birthday, fashion, sale, or any other, VistaCreate offers a bundle of pre-designed templates for any occasion with no prior experience required. 

Staggering image editing features: This graphic designer tool provides an array of killer editing features such as circle cropping, combining images, black and white filters, a picture outline maker, a custom photo grid, adding frames, changing color styles, adding speech and text to photos, and more to enhance your visual content, thus making it a great free Canva alternative for all your designs.

Edit videos like a pro: Make your videos more engaging with the moving animations, transition effects, text effects, and more, and convert them into GIFs or MP4 format. 

Post, schedule, print, and deliver: Plan and schedule your social media posts directly on the tool in advance so that you never miss a deadline. Next, if you want those prints on your products, you can also do them and have them delivered to your door delivered.

Take charge of social media content: The VistaCreate tool lets you design awesome posts, stories, and ads for all major social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. In addition, you can even design impressive banners or posters for your marketing campaigns.

Pricing

Even though this free Canva alternative offers a whole bunch of features in its free pricing plan, you can always level up your designs with its premium plan. 

Rating

4.7 stars (App Store) and 4.3 stars (Play Store).

Pixlr

The next one of the best free Canva alternatives is Pixlr, a free online image editor and design tool with the power of artificial intelligence. From creating quick and easy high-quality designs using Pixlr X to going into deeper advanced photo editing functionalities using Pixlr E, this software has something in store for everyone.

Moreover, you can always push your creative boundaries with their mindfully crafted innumerable staggering templates for every purpose, extremely moving animations, easy-to-use editing tools, filters, and whatnot. 

Key Features

Photomash studio: It automatically removes the background of an image or a product and creates professional-looking studio profiles with a picturesque backdrop. You can do the same for 50 photos in one go. That is new! 

AI image generator: You can generate an AI image based on the description you provide to the machine. However, to achieve the results, it is imperative to give the right prompt. Only subscribed users can make use of this feature. 

Read how AI has changed the game for digital marketers.

Remove background: Using the ultramodern AI cutout tools, you can remove the background from any subject photos, selfies, or eCom listings in a fraction of a second. The background can be removed for multiple photos at the same time. 

Remove objects: The modern photo editor tool of Pixlr X allows you to remove objects from your photo. You just need to click on the object you no longer want in your picture. 

Collage maker: If you want to assemble multiple photos in one frame, you can do that too using the wide library of Pixlr pre-made layouts. Simply select a collage, drag and drop the photos, and arrange them the way you want. 

Filters and effects: Bring out most of your visual content using Pixlr’s creative photo filters and effects. 

Numerous templates: Whether you want to create posts or stories for Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, a thumbnail for YouTube, or a flyer or business card, Pixlr templates have something for everyone. 

Multi-device compatibility: Your designs no longer stick to your desktop or web browsers. Take your designs anywhere with you using the Pixlr mobile application (both for Android and iPhone), similar to free apps like Canva.

Pricing

By considering every requirement in mind, the Pixlr software offers the following pricing plans:

• Free: Offers limited access to Pixlr E and Pixlr X features.
• Plus: Enjoy an ad-free experience with unlimited savings.
• Premium: Have full access to Pixlr features plus no ads.
• Teamwork: Works best for collaborators. 

Rating

3.8 stars (App Store) and 4.1 stars (Play Store).

Venngage

Another of the best free Canva alternatives is Venngage, an online infographic tool that is widely known for its business-approved ADA and WCAG-compliant templates. You can create stunning infographics in just a few seconds; no fancy degree is required. All you need to bring down here are lots of creative ideas, and the powerful editor of Venngage will take care of the rest of it. 

Also, whether you want to create professional designs for marketing campaigns, a sales funnel, or flyers for real estate professionals, or transform your financial data into imposing visuals and any other business-related insights, Venngage is all you need. 

However, the only downside is that you can only access this tool online; there is no mobile app.

Key Features

10k+ templates: Explore their whole range of 10,000+ templates (including infographics, diagrams, timelines, reports, and data visualization) curated by expert designers, especially for business professionals. So, now customize your ideas with their eye-catching, insightful, and in-depth designs and make them stand out among the competitors. 

Powerful editor: The simple yet powerful drag-and-drop editor of this free Canva alternative offers you jam-packed features such as adjusting Color contrast, access to tables, reading order, charts, and much more, all from a single place. 

Design for visually impaired users: Using their color blind stimulation and following the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), the visually impaired users can see what their design would look like. 

Integration with Pixabay and Pexels: Bring more life to your design using the zillions of icons and illustrations from Pixabay and Pexels. 

Access data visualizations: Make your designs impactful by importing the data from CSV or XLSX and visualizing it using charts, tables, and diagrams. 

Work together from anywhere: The software helps you align with your team on the designs so that you or your co-members can access or edit them from anywhere. 

Pricing

Similar to other free Canva alternatives, Venngage also provides different solutions for everyone at different pricing plans.

• Individuals: designed for small businesses and individuals who are looking to lever up their designs.
• Professionals: for small teams with a need for consistent customer support.
• Enterprise: designed for large-scale teams who are looking for additional support, security, and storage.
• NGOs and classrooms: designed to create inspiring stories for social workers and students. 

Rating

The software got a 4.6 rating in terms of overall ease of use, features, and customer service from Capterra, making it one of the finest Canva alternatives for you.

Vectr

Last but not least, Vectr is another one of the best free alternatives to Canva. It is an online simple yet powerful vector graphic editor that lets you edit your designs with no prior experience required, or, should we say, no steep learning curve.

With its AI-powered tools, the software helps you create crisp and refreshing vector designs with so much simplicity and at a faster speed. So, whether you are looking to create pamphlets, presentations, mock-ups, invitations, or business cards at affordable prices, Vectr is a great free Canva alternative to go with.

However, the only downside of this software is that it is not ad-free. 

Key Features

Free for a Lifetime: You can access the basic graphics of Vectr for free for a lifetime. 

Live-chat: Being in consistent touch with all your designs with your collaborators with its real-time chat feature This way, you will be able to complete your design with minimal confusion.

AI-powered tools: Its AI-powered tools help you create and finish your designs in much easier and faster ways. 

Blur-free resizing: Contrary to raster graphics, the Vectr software lets you create vector graphics with neatness. 

Real-time collaboration via URL: Now you can share your real-time activity on Vectr Designs with anyone using a URL and let them see the changes you are making to your creation. 

Pricing

The Vectr offers the following pricing plans: 

• Free, Premium, and Premium 2

Rating

The software has managed to receive a 6-star rating in terms of features and an average of 9 stars in terms of usability, experience, and support.

Final Words: Which Canva alternative is best for you? 

Well, we have already shared our best picks with you above. From Desygner to Adobe Express, Vista Create, PicMonkey, and others, all of them provide the same functionalities as Canva at much more competitive prices. 

However, the question of picking the best one depends on your set of requirements. All the aforementioned Canva alternatives offer premium features in their free versions, have an intuitive interface, offer amazing fully customizable templates, and have received incredible ratings from users on their respective platforms, ensuring a lifetime investment of your time if you invest in one of these graphic design tools. 

Moreover, if you are still unsatisfied and craving more options, then you can also try either of these options: Photopea, Typito, or Easy Webcontent. These programs also have great reviews from users. 

Having said that, we take a rest from stating the best free Canva alternatives for your creative projects. We hope these tools help you bring out the most of your imagination on the screen.

Also, if you have some Canva alternatives on your mind, feel free to share them with us. We would be glad to learn from you.