It is no doubt that Canva has saved many sleepless nights for beginner graphic designers, small business owners, bloggers, content creators and social media marketers when it comes to image editing. You can check my step-by-step Canva tutorial here.
They have tons of ready-made templates, stock photos, and free graphics that you can choose for your presentations. You can also create social media graphics, Youtube thumbnails, Instagram stories, and more!
Aside from this, they have a very beginner-friendly user interface that can help you create content that looked like it was made by a professional designer.
However, if you have noticed recently, the platform has started to change. They have now a paid premium version with exclusive features, and they increased some of their prices, and restricted some nice templates to only their subscribers.
So, if you are looking for some best alternatives for Canva that are free or not pricey and are still perfect for beginners, then I have the perfect list for you!
15 Best Canva Alternatives
1. Colorcinch
Colorcinch is a photo editor and cartoonizer that enables hobbyists, photographers and designers to create stunning artwork and enhance photos in minutes. It’s a simple, straightforward, and intuitive app that provides a variety of ways to edit your work.
Some of the most powerful features Colorcinch can offer:
- simple, intuitive interface
- ultra-realistic cartoonizer, sketcher, painting effects
- a vast library of filters and presets, templated masks, overlays and frames
- crop, resize, enhance photos, remove background
- text editor and drawing tools
- offline capabilities and PWA-enabled
The basic Colorcinch account is free to use, requires no registration, and provides access to numerous essential effects and features. The Plus account costs $5.99 per month or a 33% discounted price of $47.88 if billed annually (once a year).
2. Visme
Visme is a great online design tool that goes above and beyond what you may expect from a standard graphic design platform. The drag-and-drop editor is simple to use, intuitive, and loaded with functionality. Visme specializes in providing engaging charts and infographics templates that are good for presentations. They also have other professional templates perfect for invoices, letterheads, proposals, and more.
And did I tell you that they also help with your videos and animations? Yes, they have a video editor built in that offer movement effects and transitions, animated stickers, royalty-free audio, and more to keep your video alive!
More of their features include:
- Collaboration/sharing feature
- Photo editing tools
- Importing and exporting to Powerpoint
- Privacy control
- Organization tools
- And more.
You can start using Visme via their free plan but they also have monthly and annual plans that give you access to more features and tools.
3. Adobe Creative Cloud Express (Formerly Adobe Spark)
If you are an editing beginner and you still get so lost in Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator or other Adobe Suite softwares, then Adobe Creative Cloud Express (formerly Adobe Spark) is perfect for you. Not only has it a free plan, but it is also like Canva which provides you with several beautiful templates and tools to make graphic designing way easier.
Aside from this, you may also use Adobe Creative Cloud Express (Adobe Spark) to make basic, responsive website designs and short animated films. The editor’s design tools appear simple at first glance, but they are actually pretty good with lots of functionalities available.
More of their features include:
- A library of templates, icons, backgrounds, and stickers
- Saving and generating as GIF
- Direct integration to Google Drive
- Sharing tools
- And more.
You can start using Adobe Creative Cloud Express through its free plan but you can also have the option to upgrade to their Premium plan which starts at $9.99 monthly.
4. Stencil
Stencil is a very easy-to-use and easy-to-navigate graphic design tool for bloggers and business owners who do not have that much time in their hands to start a design from scratch. They have over 5 million royalty-free stock photos and a full library of templates and icons! And another cute feature they have is that they also offer some pre-made quote sections perfect for social media posting.
More of their features include:
- Social sharing
- Browser extension
- WordPress plugin
- Uploading your own fonts
- And more!
You can start using Stencil using its free plan but if you want access to more tools, you can upgrade your plan to their Pro plan ($15/month) or Unlimited plan ($20/month).
5. Easil
Easil is a very easy drag-and-drop design tool for beginners. They have a catalog of over a million free stock photos, fonts, colors, icons, templates, and more! You also have the ability to create animated GIFs which you don’t find on most graphic design websites.
The platform specializes in having the feature to lock your designs and freely resize, edit, and remove elements without messing everything up. You can easily resize your templates to an infographic, Instagram story, posters, banners, and more without having to redo everything.
More of their features include:
- Design approval workflow
- Color palettes generator
- Collaboration and sharing features
- And more.
You can start using Easil with their Basic free plan and upgrade it to their paid plans: Plus ($7.50/month), Edge ($59/month), and a custom plan for your team.
6. Snappa
Snappa is a great tool for creating social media graphics, blogging, and personal profiles. Personally, I love Snappa because they have tons of ready-made templates and a library full of royalty-free high-resolution photos. The Snappa interface is clean and easy to navigate and they have tons of design elements to choose from including icons, vectors, and more.
More of their features include:
- Links to social media accounts
- Removing image backgrounds
- Social media scheduling
- And more.
You can start using Snappa for free but you also have the option to upgrade your plan and get access to more of their tools. Their Pro plan is priced at $15/month and they also have a Team plan for 5 users billed $30/month.
7. VistaCreate (Formerly Crello)
VistaCreate is almost similar to Canva in terms of they feature a simple search bar for finding hundreds of templates and pre-set measurements for certain projects. Aside from this, their workspace includes a large library of animated illustrations, stickers, icons, and photos just like Canva. You can simply drag-and-drop certain elements to your design and that’s basically it.
They have a wide range of templates including social media templates, video and animation, covers and headers, marketing materials, and more!
More of their features include:
- Removing image background
- Creating brand kits
- Audio editing tools
- Animated logo design and effects
- And more!
You can start at VistaCreate for free but you can also upgrade to their Pro plan which is $13/month which you will already gain access to their 50m+ creative assets and more.
8. Fotoramio
Fotoramio is a free photo editor and collage maker that comes with an impressive set of photo editing features. You can rapidly improve and edit images with their online tools, which include both simple and complex features such as filters, effects, frames, overlays, text, and much more.
You can easily create photo collages and even transform a photograph into an art-styled piece!
More of their additional features include:
- Adding of Frames, Text, and Clipart
- Photo Filters, Effects, and Overlays
- Basic Photo Editing Tools
- Photo to Art
- And more!
You can start using Fotoramio for free!
9. DesignBold
DesignBold is another good alternative to Canva that allows you to start creating and customizing images in a stunning, professional way! What’s great about this online graphic tool is that they have its own Google Chrome extension! So, if you see some pictures you like online and do some editing to them, you can just right click any image and select “Open with DesignBold”.
More of their features include:
- 11,000++ beautiful design templates
- Workspace to store all your designs
- Powerful design and photo edit tools – Grids, crop, lines, filters and so much more
- Direct sharing option to Social Media Networks
- Works on any website, any image!
- And more!
You can completely start using DesignBold for free but they also do offer upgrades and paid plans.
10. Photopea
Photopea is a very straight-to-the-point online graphic editing tool that may be used for image editing, web design, and image format conversion. It works with nearly all web browsers, including Opera, Edge, Chrome, and Firefox. You can also easily save your work in different file formats such as PSD, JPG, PNG, SVG, and more. Photopea is an advertising-supported software so you do not need to create any accounts before using the platform.
Photopea is completely free to use with no sign-ups required!
11. Digifloat
Digifloat is another Canva alternative that offers graphic designing, UI/UX development, and video creation services to businesses of all kinds at a fraction of the cost. The company started last 2019 and they have been helping small business owners and startups to improve their online presence through design.
You can request unlimited designs from their design team at a flat monthly rate. The team does work quickly as they can deliver design results in about 24 – 48 hours.
Their graphic design services include but are not limited to:
- Branding & Logo Design
- Web UI & UX Design
- Mobile APP UI/UX Design
- Posters, infographics, illustrations
- Social media posts
- Videos
- And more!
Their rates range from $399 per month, $649 per month, and $999 per month.
12. Pixlr
I am sure most of you are familiar with Pixlr. But if you do not know what it is, Pixlr is a photo editing and design tool that edits photos and creates stunning designs right in your browser, on your phone, or desktop for free. They also offer advanced photo editing, collage maker, and even video editing. They also have professionally crafted templates that range from Youtube banners, social media posts, resume, brochure, and more.
More of their features include:
- Animations
- Background image removal
- Picture collage maker
- Filters & Effects
- One-click visual creator
- And more.
You can start using Pixlr for free but they also do offer Premium access which you can start with a 30-day free trial.
13. Xtensio
Xtensio is an easy to use graphic design tool that lets you create and edit social media images within seconds – with no design skills necessary! You can easily select from their 100 different layouts, modify color schemes, add your own content, and much more.
Their advanced features can make you seem like a professional graphic designer but their drag and drop editor is perfect for beginners!
More of their features include:
- Templates
- Social media integrations
- Guest accounts
- Editor
- PNG exports
- and more!
You can use their free version forever but you can also avail their paid plan that has more features.
14. Fotojet
Fotojet is one of those easy designing platforms that is straightforward and does not need you to register or sign up. They have a multi-functional photo editor that can help you create professional graphics and design elements in just a few clicks.
They also offer customizable templates including infographic templates, data visualization templates, and more!
More of their features include:
- Photo collage maker
- Photo editor
- Designing tutorials and tips
- Free templates
- and more!
You can start using Fotojet with their free plan but you can also upgrade to their paid plan if you want to unlock more features.
15. Desygner
If you are looking for design mobile apps, then Desygner might just be what you are looking for. From the get-go, you will have access to easy-to-use editing features like Background Remover, PDF Editor and Animation. They also have one of the largest professional stock photo collections with 150+ million images.
They offer an easy drag and drop feature for beginners and do collaboration projects with your team.
More of their features include:
- Free stock images
- Resize images online
- Background remover
- PDF editor
- Animator / animated videos
- Brand library
- and more!
You can try using Desynger with their basic plan or upgrade to their paid plans which can unlock more design features.
Benefits of Online graphic design services
As cloud computing technology advanced, various organizations began offering web-based graphic design services aimed largely at individuals who have very little to zero background in graphic design. Whether it be for personal use or professional use, an online graphic design tool will be your new best friend!
And if you are a business owner, you would know how crucial it is to your digital marketing initiatives to have good promotional materials through graphic designing. But if you are someone who has no idea how to make eye-catching online posters, business cards, and such, will you really have to start learning about graphic design from scratch?
The answer to that is: no. That is why online graphic design services like Canva exist.
With that in mind, here are a few benefits of online graphic design tools and services:
Pre-made design templates, and more
This one is pretty obvious. Almost all graphic design tools already have pre-made free templates, layouts, and icons for you to use. This means that you do not need to start from a blank canvas and design everything from scratch.
Wide range of presentations
Most graphic design tools offer a wide range of presentation templates and layouts. These could range from business presentations, product mockups, white papers, business cards, reports, Instagram posts and other social media posts, marketing materials, and more!
Saves you time and manpower
If you are a new business owner, then you will most probably start doing everything alone. With online graphic design services, you will not need to hire a graphic designer to do the graphic designing for you and pay them monthly. Online graphic design tools can help you create your desired marketing material very quickly and easily.
Final Thoughts
I believe that editing photos and videos should never be so hard and complicated for small businesses. Online graphic design software and tools have advanced features that will help you make the best visual content for your business.
This is why I made this post to help you guys who are design beginners like me to create beautiful and professional-looking designs. If you know any more websites like the ones I mentioned, do let me know in the comments section below!
I’m Anastasia and I’m a full-time blogger, online entrepreneur, and Pinterest marketing strategist. I help digital entrepreneurs and bloggers drive targeted traffic from Pinterest either through my online courses or through Pinterest consultancy.
