Canva is a popular graphic and image design SAAS (software-as-a-service) with many. It is easy to use and is web-based, meaning you do not need to install anything. It comes in a free version and a pro version. How much is Canva Pro? Is Canva a good choice?
Canva pro starts at $9.99 monthly on an annual plan. With the monthly plan, you pay $12.99 monthly. You may also be able to get Canva Pro for free. Still, it will depend on your email accounts with education institutions.
In this article, we will explore the pricing of Canva and Canva Pro, as well as some differences between Canva free and pro.
We will also see if there are ways to get Canva Pro for free and some other questions about Canva Pro that you might have.
How Different Are Canva and Canva Pro?
With Canva Pro, you can access significantly more features such as more storage, image background removal, over 3,000 custom fonts, over 42,000 premium templates, and over 60 million premium images. These features will make your design work much more manageable.
If you compare between Canva free and Canva Pro, Canva Pro is a significant upgrade. With a Canva Pro account, you get to access a multitude of features, including:
- Over 60 million premium images (photographs, vector illustrations, and graphic elements)
- Over 42,000 premium templates
- Over 3,000 custom fonts, and you can also add your own.
- Unlimited stock media downloads (images, videos, GIFs, etc.)
- 100 GB storage
- Brand kit – You can automatically brand all of your visuals by uploading your logo, brand colors, and other custom elements.
- Magic resize – This feature lets you resize images with just one click, so they fit perfectly on a social media platform or a custom size.
- Custom templates – turn your personalized changes into a design template that can be used repeatedly.
- Background removal – This feature allows you to remove the background of an image. Makes things easy when you are working with a colored background.
- Team Feature – You can add people to your account to work as a team (up to 5 for the same price, for more seats, the price increases accordingly)
- Publisher Pro – Take care of your designs and put them out differently.
- Animation – It is easy to make a moving GIF.
- Download your designs in more file types (from JPEG and PNG to PDF and GIF)
These upgrades should make your designing and graphic tasks much more straightforward, smoother, and less troublesome.
Is Paying For Canva Pro Worth It?
Canva Pro is worth it, as you get excellent features without too much fluff at an affordable price. Aside from that, you also get access to many stock images from popular platforms at a lower price inside Canva. Canva is also significantly easier to learn and master than Photoshop or Illustrator.
Canva pro is worth it in many ways. Firstly is the value versus the pricing. With Canva, we assume you opt for the annual plan of $9.99 a month, which is $119.88 a year. With that, you can access power image and graphic editing, templates, and stock photos and videos from major stock media platforms.
Compare that to if you subscribe to Adobe Photoshop and a single stock photo repository (e.g., Shutterstock, 123RF). Adobe Photoshop is around $20 a month, and subscriptions to the cheapest stock photo sites require you to pay $20-$30 monthly. Higher quality stock photo sites that allow higher download volumes may cost from $199 upwards.
This has not taken into account that Adobe Photoshop alone may not be enough. You may need subscriptions to Adobe Illustrator, which further racks up the cost.
If you know your mathematics, you can very quickly tell that Canva is a better value and at a lower price too.
Aside from that, Canva is also worth it for its ease of use. It could be said that using Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator to edit images and graphics could be akin to flying an airplane. With Canva, many relate the experience to driving a car instead.
It is an accurate observation, as Photoshop and Illustrator have many buttons, functions, and features that not many of us would ever use. Canva simplifies the process by removing these rarely used features and keeping the ones used most.
As a result, it may be much easier to learn and master Canva than Photoshop or Illustrator. In fact, just looking at the dashboard of Canva makes you less anxious than the dashboard of Photoshop or Illustrator.
Can I Get Canva Pro For Free?
You may be able to get Canva Pro for free, provided that you belong to an educational institution as either a student or teacher. You may also use the pro features for free if you are part of GitHub Education.
Many tech companies such as Apple and Microsoft offer significant discounts to students, including Canva.
With Canva, they offer access to Canva Pro for free if you are a student or a teacher with a recognized educational institution. Canva verifies this by checking your email domain, requiring the domain to at least have a .edu to be recognized.
You may also get free access to Canva Pro if you are part of GitHub Education. Github is a website for developers, and they have a program to educate and create developers. Github has partnered with Canva to allow their student developers to access Canva Pro for free.
These free access are valid at the time of writing and may be subject to change later.
Will I Lose My Designs If I Cancel Canva Pro?
According to Canva, if you cancel your Canva Pro and revert to a free plan, your designs and brand kit will be saved. Your designs and brand kit will be accessible and reusable again when you upgrade back to Canva Pro.
If, for whatever reason, you see the need to cancel your Canva Pro, Canva will not remove the designs and brand kit you have created. It will be saved. The difference is you may not be able to access or use these media unless you upgrade again.
Once canceled, you will continue to retain access to your subscription features until your current subscription period ends. Your account will then return to the free version after that, and your card will no longer be charged.
However, suppose you completely delete your account. In that case, all the files and designs will not be saved. When you reopen your account using the same email again in the future, it should be a new account with no initial designs.
If you plan to cancel your subscription, it might be a good idea to just downgrade to a free account instead of deleting it altogether.
The image we used for this article came from Canva