Canva Pro Evaluate: Is It Worth It? (2021)

Small and medium-sized companies face many obstacles when elevating their model’s profile to extend gross sales and buyer engagement. 

One such roadblock is discovering easy-to-use software program to create stunning graphic designs for social media posts, posters, paperwork, and different enterprise collateral and advertising and marketing supplies. 

Nowadays, a number of content material creation instruments require little (or no) design or tech expertise. Nevertheless, discovering the one which most closely fits your online business wants amongst the web litter will be time-consuming. 

So at the moment, we’re taking a deep dive into one such content material creation design instrument: Canva, extra particularly, Canva Pro.

That’s lots to cowl, so let’s go.

What Is Canva Pro

Created in 2013, Canva is an Australian firm with its HQ in Sydney. It goals to empower “the world to design,” describing itself as: “an internet design and publishing instrument with a mission to empower everybody on the earth to design something and publish anyplace.”

With 600+ staff and 15 million month-to-month energetic customers throughout 190 international locations in 100 languages, Canva is clearly doing one thing proper!

The aim of Canva and its premium plan, Canva Pro, is to make it straightforward for companies and people to create attractive-looking designs. 

How?

By offering a big number of simply customizable templates, a alternative of layouts, and a drag-and-drop editor to create supplies for varied mediums, together with social media content material, advertising and marketing emails, book and journal covers, displays, posters, resumes, movies, and extra.

Total, it’s a fast and straightforward method of making professional-looking visuals with none design abilities. 

As well as, you possibly can collaborate along with your workforce in real-time in your designs, and it’s straightforward to enroll. You simply have to create an account with an e mail deal with and observe the on-screen directions.

Canva vs Canva Pro

The primary distinction between Canva vs Canva Pro is that the paid model offers you entry to a a lot wider alternative of customized templates and inventory photos, tons extra cloud storage, and extra performance.

The free model of Canva comes with 5GB price of cloud storage, 250,000+ free templates, a whole lot of hundreds of pictures and graphics, and greater than 100 completely different design sorts — together with social media posts, displays, letters, and extra. You too can invite workforce members and collaborate in your designs in real-time.

With Canva Pro, you get 600,000+ free and premium templates (new designs are added each day), hundreds of thousands of premium inventory photos and graphics, and 100 GB of cloud storage.

The professional account permits you to create a Model Package the place you possibly can add your fonts and logos to make sure branding consistency. The Magic Resize performance is one other professional characteristic that permits you to resize your designs for varied platforms with only one click on.

With a Canva Pro subscription, it can save you designs as templates in your workforce to make use of, schedule content material to eight social media platforms, and use Canva’s background remover instrument. You too can create limitless folders, so in case you’re engaged on bigger tasks or creating a number of marketing campaign paperwork, it could be price upgrading from the free plan.

Design Dashboard and Templates

Canva is fairly straightforward and intuitive to make use of, and the design dashboard is self-explanatory. Instantly, you’ll see the completely different sorts of visuals you possibly can create inside a horizontal bar throughout the display. Canva can even immediate you to pick out the kind of graphic you wish to create and counsel which templates swimsuit you greatest.

On the left-hand aspect of your dashboard, you possibly can view all of your designs, entry your folders and Model Package, and see all of the work that has been shared with you.

As I’ve already hinted at, the Model Package performance is barely accessible to Canva Pro members. Right here, you possibly can create your brand and different enterprise collateral to make sure branding consistency. 

For instance how the Canva dashboard works, I’ll shortly present you how one can create a video.

When you’re logged into your Canva account, you’ll be introduced with a alternative of various design sorts. Merely click on on the video possibility, and also you’ll see the next display:

Right here, you’re introduced with a collection of templates organized into many several types of video classes, together with advertising and marketing, instructional, birthday, actual property, explainer, well being, gross sales, and extra. As there’s just about one thing for everybody, you’re sure to discover a template you possibly can adapt to fulfill your wants. 

Nevertheless, Canva Pro customers are given a a lot wider alternative, as beforehand said. The professional templates are simply identifiable as they’ve a gold crown within the backside right-hand nook. 

After getting selected the template you wish to use, drag it onto the clean display. If you wish to customise any component of the video, click on on it and use the utility toolbar that reveals up on the display. There’s one other toolbar on the left-hand aspect of the dashboard that permits you to select a special font and textual content fashion in your video heading, subheading, and physique textual content. 

You too can add design components to your video by clicking the Components tab. These are completely different traces, shapes, graphics, pictures, video, audio, and frames you possibly can click on on to customise the template additional.

For instance, whenever you add audio, the component seems above your video, and you’ll hit the play button to listen to the sound. For those who determine you don’t prefer it, there’s a trash bin proper subsequent to the component, and you’ll maintain wanting till you discover the precise sound.

You too can add your individual photos by clicking on the Uploads tab or dragging and dropping them onto the video canvas out of your desktop. 

When you’re completed modifying your video, click on the Obtain button on the highest right-hand aspect of the display. Then you possibly can share it, for instance, in your socials.

If you wish to resize your video to make it Twitter-, Instagram-, Fb-, or LinkedIn-friendly, you’ll want the professional model. In any other case, you’re higher off utilizing the social media templates offered by the free templates.

You too can print your designs straight from Canva. As with all different components of the Canva web site, it’s straightforward to navigate the print perform. You may select a designer-made template in the identical method you’d create on-line content material, customise it, and Canva will print and ship it without cost to the doorstep (you’ll need to pay for the prints, although).

It’s doable to make use of your designs on t-shirts, enterprise playing cards, photograph books, prints, mugs, marriage ceremony invites, and extra. 

When you’ve chosen the kind of print venture you’re engaged on, merely click on on it, and observe the step-by-step directions. This contains deciding on the scale format, paper high quality, and so forth. 

Right here’s an instance of some advertising and marketing fashion postcard templates you possibly can select from to print:

Inventory Photographs and Graphics

Canva Pro offers tons of inventory pictures and graphics. Your entire photograph library, together with free and professional photos, is well accessible from the Options menu on Canva’s homepage.

For those who don’t have time to wade via all these snaps (there are hundreds of thousands!), Canva helpfully categorizes the pictures into themes similar to flowers, seaside, nature, enterprise, pc, social media, journey, and extra.

You may see which photos are on the Pro plan as a result of they every have a forex icon within the backside right-hand nook. 

To provide you a really feel of picture high quality, right here’s a snapshot of Canva’s journey photos:

After getting chosen a picture class, you possibly can filter your search additional by matter. For instance, underneath journey, there are sub-categories similar to baggage, enterprise journey, airport, and others. 

Simply click on on the picture you wish to use, and both add it to your Canva folder(s) or use it straight off in a design. 

Apps and Integrations

Canva natively integrates with many third-party apps and providers. You’ll find the Apps Listing by clicking the Options > Apps menu.

Right here, you possibly can see which apps you possibly can work with — for instance, you possibly can add Google maps, YouTube movies, QR codes, and different embeds to your designs.

You too can entry apps to assist improve your photos additional and publish your designs onto platforms similar to Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Slack, MS Powerpoint, and others.

Studying Supplies

Though Canva is easy, enjoyable, and intuitive to make use of, even for non-designers, it’s all the time reassuring to have studying supplies and person assist simply in case. So, how does Canva stand as much as scrutiny on this space? 

The homepage has a drop-down menu, the place you’ll discover the Be taught part. Right here, there are brief video programs on social media, graphic design fundamentals, branding, and different matters.

You too can discover tutorials on getting began, designing, and a selected tutorial on utilizing Canva Pro. Just like the video programs, tutorials are concise as effectively.

On prime of that, Canva has a useful weblog. Matters are organized into classes similar to advertising and marketing, branding, design, and extra. There are additionally separate blogs for lecturers, college students, and non-profits.

Buyer Help

As for buyer assist, there’s a assist middle on the Canva web site. Right here, you possibly can kind your downside or query into the search bar, and this can convey up related supplies that may hopefully reply your question.

The assistance middle separates its documentation into completely different classes relying in your questions, similar to account settings, funds and pricing, modifying and designing, and others. 

To contact Canva immediately, you’ll need to sign up to your account and head over to Canva’s contact assist web page. From there, you possibly can submit a assist ticket. Response time is way shorter for professional customers — Canva’s assist workforce will get in contact with you inside 24 hours versus one week which is what free customers can anticipate.

Pricing

Canva Pro’s pricing relies on the variety of customers you wish to register, beginning at $12.99 per yr for as much as 5 members, with annual billing. Any person on prime of that’s billed at $7 a month.

There’s a beneficiant 30-day free trial, although you must present your bank card particulars to entry it.

It’s additionally price noting that training and non-profit organizations can entry Canva Pro without cost, and Canva will tailor it to their wants.

Canva Pro Evaluate: Last Verdict

Relying on what you’re hoping to realize, Canva Pro is a wonderful funding. That stated, when you’ve got a lot of customers and collaborators and your online business continues to be comparatively small, the prices might mount up, so it’s price bearing that in thoughts earlier than spending your hard-earned money. 

Canva Pro is definitely price it in order for you entry to hundreds of thousands of photos, graphics, audios, and movies, and hundreds of graphic design templates. It’s additionally price upgrading in order for you the liberty to resize designs and a ton of cloud storage.

I’d suggest attempting it out first without cost for 30 days and assessing whether or not you actually need that many photos and templates and that a lot storage. For those who don’t, then keep on with the free plan. Then, after all, you would all the time improve as your online business or particular person wants develop.

Are you prepared to begin utilizing Canva Pro and wish to join its free trial? Tell us what your designs seemed like and what you used them for within the feedback field under!