Last Updated on January 10, 2024 by Andrew Shih
Are you considering upgrading to Canva Pro, but you are unsure is Canva Pro worth it?
In this Canva Pro review, we will compare the key features difference between Canva Free vs Canva Pro and other popular image providers. Hopefully, you will be in a better position to decide if Canva Pro is worth the cost.
If you are new to Canva, check out this Canva Review to learn about it.
Disclaimer: Wisdom Depot is affiliated with Canva, which means we may earn a commission if you choose to make a purchase. This commission comes at no additional cost to you. Please review the full affiliate disclaimer.
What is Canva Pro?
Canva Pro is a cost-effective premium graphics platform that combines powerful editing tools and millions of audiovisual assets in one place.
The program has an intuitive drag-and-drop structure which is easy for beginners to start applying immediately. Individual and team users can create stunning visuals or presentations by employing its premium features – like Magic Resize and Background Remover, Image Animation, or Canva Pro Video Editor.
Canva Pro is available in a Free version for Non-profits, students, and educators – or through a paid subscription monthly or annually. We compare Canva Free vs Pro in this blog to see if the cost is worth it.
Canva Free vs Pro: Canva Free Basic Features
Canva Free and Pro share the same basic features – so what you get with Canva Free you also get with the premium upgrade. Let’s have a quick look at the benefits that come with signing up for the free basic version:
● Collaborate and Comment in Real-Time:
Canva software allows team members to comment on – and even make changes to designs while still in creation mode on a template, saving time when making important marketing decisions.
Interactive templates for teachers and learners such as reports, lesson plans, graphs, and projects that allow feedback will bring your virtual classroom together in one space.
● 5 Team Members:
You can invite your family, friends, co-workers, and associates to collaborate with you on designs or work on their projects, presentations, or prints. You can have up to a total of 5 team members.
Get your team together on Canva to work on media and graphics for your blog using templates for email sign-up, infographics, photo galleries, and more!
Learners can invite fellow students to work on projects together in real-time. And individuals can create small working teams to accomplish tasks together, putting their skills and talents together to achieve impressive results.
● Access to over 250 000 Free Eye-Catching Templates:
Access a quarter of a million pre-designed templates for every occasion and function with a Canva Free subscription. From social media posts to YouTube and Instagram videos, Canva has you covered.
Canva Free templates are beautifully pre-designed with a theme for every occasion – and study or work application.
● Enjoy 100 + Design Types:
Canva Free offers templates optimally sized for all your marketing, promotional, educational, and office needs.
Need a stunning presentation for work? Or a beautiful post for your social media marketing campaign? Or the perfect template for a video advertisement or website?
Canva Free has you covered.
● App or Browser Platforms:
Access your free Canva program for iOS, Android, and Windows – on your tablet, laptop, phone – or any other device via a browser window or by downloading the application.
● 5 GB Free Cloud Storage:
You get up to 5 GB of storage for your Canva Free projects and designs – ample to create hundreds of engaging and attractive designs – and store them in your project folders.
8 Top Canva Pro Features that Beat Canva Free Version:
1. Collaborate and Brainstorm on Canva Pro:
Working together as a team is easy with Canva Pro because you can organize your brand assets; like templates, logos, banners, and photos – into team folders.
Individuals can work on projects or in teams, then click on the collaborative link to share a design (or design folder) by email or copy-link to anyone else subscribed.
Once invited, users can view or drop comments in real-time as the work unfolds, saving time by eliminating the need for emails or calls. And there is an option for project manager approval before anything gets published, ensuring project quality and excellent standards across the team.
Brainstorm engages your team’s creativity by allowing them to build visually inspiring ideas and projects together. Canva Pro’s Workflow and Mind Map templates – and unique graphic elements – allow the free flow of ideas and inspiration.
Members can create eye-catching presentations, videos, social media posts, or websites using brainstorm templates. And invite others to comment with text or stickers, bringing the whole team on board with the project.
2. Canva Pro Content Planner:
Designers can create stunning audiovisual or animated social media posts for TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Tumblr, and others with Canva Pro’s 610 000 + pre-designed templates. Then schedule them for publishing directly to the platforms without leaving the program.
This Canva Pro functionality saves time, and saving time is saving money. Furthermore, it allows advance campaign planning over days, weeks, and months, with all your designs in team and project folders – ready to go!
3. Brand Consistency with 100 + Canva Pro Kits:
Canva Pro has over 100 Brand Kits ensuring your brand stays true across multiple projects.
Brand consistency is essential, and Canva Pro’s tools keep you on course with design by defining your colors, fonts, logos, and graphics. Let’s take a quick look:
● Fonts:
Select from thousands of sensational fonts – or set your brand’s font to repeat across various design sizes. With Canva Pro, you will have many more font choices than the free version. The premium version is indicated with a crown icon on the right side of the font.
With so many font choices, Canva makes the font easy to find by categorizing the font styles, listing the fonts you recently used and making font suggestions.
● Color Palette:
Apply the same color palette across all designs, keeping true to your brand.
● Filters:
It’s quick and easy to apply a filter to an image with a click of a button. Choose from an exciting range of image filters – or set your unique filter across all your campaign images.
● Brand Elements and Compositions
Keep your brand element and compositions consistent by locking templates and logos to team projects or designs.
4. Branding Merchandise:
Canva content is licensed. That means you can design merchandise on the platform with your branding; T-shirts, mugs, hoodies, caps, calendars, posters – anything is possible.
The world is your oyster because of the 100 million assets available. With Canva Pro, you take control of your brand – by overlaying your Branding Kit – overall design templates to ensure consistency.
Canva allows you to use any of their content for marketing and social media – and even sell your merchandise designed with it. However, you may not take credit for unaltered media provided through Canva – or resell or redistribute any content as your own.
5. Print to Order:
You can create beautiful designs with Canva Pro – and then send them straight for printing with free delivery included – because Canva partners with the leading printers near you. There are many print options such as T-shirt, business card, flyers, stickers, tote bags, calendars, infographics, tri-folds, posters, and many more.
You will get the most competitive rates in your local area without needing to leave your design platform. Canva also plants a tree as part of their native reforestation program for every print ordered.
Best of all, what makes Canva powerful and easy is that you only need to come up with one design, and Canva can take care of resizing the design for you.
6. Canva Pro Magic-Resizer Tool:
The Magic Resizer Tool magically takes any design – such as a social media post, presentation, or poster – and instantaneously resizes it to another – while maintaining perfect dimensions. It’s truly magical.
Without this tool, it can take hours to resize social media posts to the correct proportions for another platform – or a presentation to a flyer. But with Canva Pros Magic Resizer Tool – you get magic results fast. It’s a tremendous time-saver.
7. Canva Pro Background Remover:
The Canva Pro Background Remover does just what its name promises and removes any background from the focal subject of your photo or image.
It is super easy to use; the background is gone with one click. It provides unlimited opportunities for more design creativity.
Here is a photo demonstration before and after using the Canva Pro background remover tool. The tool was able to properly remove the background in difficult areas around the hair and her right elbow areas. It was done with one simple click.
Canva Pro Background Remover tool is perfect if you need to overlay an image on one of the hundreds of pre-designed backgrounds. Or when you need a profile image set against a blank backdrop, such as on a resume or passport shot. The sky is your limit when it comes to designing with Canva.
8. 100 GB + Cloud Storage:
You get an extra 95 GB of cloud storage when you sign up for Canva Pro. It is over and above the 5 GB storage on the Canva Free plan – enough to drive your campaigns for all your teams.
Photoshop vs Canva Pro Cost
Photoshop is well-known among graphic design professionals for its powerful photo editing capability. However, Photoshop can be overwhelming, and novice users have a big learning curve.
While Canva Pro does not offer granular control of all the image editing capabilities, Canva makes it up with its ease of use for the most popular editing functionalities.
Photoshop monthly subscription costs $20.99/month, whereas Canva Pro only costs $12.99/month.
Shutterstock vs Canva Pro Cost: Worth it!
An annual subscription to Shutterstock, a platform marketing stock photos and videos, costs $99 per month for 50 licensed images. If you’re subscribing to up to ten members, an annual plan is $479 per month for 750 licensed images.
Adobe or Getty Images have similar pricing for a limited number of images or video clips per month – without the collaboration and editing tools that Canva Pro offers. Extra software programs or applications would be necessary to complete the design process.
However, with Canva Pro, your entire team can access a virtually unlimited digital library of photos, illustrations, icons, templates, fonts, elements, animated graphics, and video and audio content – with zero restrictions – and at a fraction of the cost.
There is no need to pay for any other software to edit, enhance, frame, or filter your photos – thanks to Canva’s Photo Editing features.
Everything you get in Canva Free you get in Canva Pro. Plus, Canva Pro makes remote collaboration and teamwork effortless – and fun. Let’s dive deeper into the features of Canva Pro – for companies committed to creating audiovisual graphics with a strong visual impact.
Canva Pro’s 5-for-1 Customizable Team Pricing Plans
Canva Pro costs $119 per year for up to five team members, and you can add a team member for only $60 per year. Alternatively, pay monthly, with the option to unsubscribe at any time, at $12.99 per year -or $7 per month per additional team member.
Canva Pro pricing plans are available for teams of 10, 25, and 50 – and if your company has more than 50 staff, Canva will customize a plan to suit your needs.
Canva Free vs Pro cost does not have to concern you – if you are a non-profit organization, a teacher, a student, a college, or a non-K-12 school. A Canva Pro version, tailored to suit every need, is free to those committed to learning and change.
Why Do I Use Canva Pro
When I started my blog with a shoestring budget, I began using free image sites and Canva Free. However, once I was able to monetize from my blog, I upgraded to Canva Pro because of the value and time-saving.
I no longer need to waste time looking for a suitable free photo as the feature image on my blog and finding other tools to edit images. The premium version allows me to save time choosing the most stunning pictures from millions of premium images, with powerful and easy-to-use image editing tools all in one place.
Canva Pro helps me serve my audience better while saving time and effort. I have been a Canva Pro user since 2021 and have never looked back.
Is Canva Pro Worth it – Our Verdict
Overall, Canva Pro is a great value – it combines Photoshop’s graphic editing capability and extensive image libraries comparable to Shutterstock, yet at a much more affordable subscription price.
Compared to Canva Free, Canva Pro has unbeatable features for an excellent return on investment, increasing productivity, driving more conversions, and saving time with its user-friendly interface.
The powerful editing tools plus over 100 million visual and audio assets can help you create attractive images that boost click-through rates and increase sales.
Try Canva Pro Risk-Free
Still cannot decide if Canva Pro is worth it? Why not give Canva Pro a try today?
It is risk-free, and you can cancel the subscription anytime within 30-days.
The best way to find out is to give Canva Pro a go yourself and decide if it is worth the money.
