Is Canva Pro Worth It? (Here’s my Experience)

You can do a lot of things with the free version of Canva. I mean, it’s come a long way since Melanie Perkins founded the company in 2013.

However, the more you use it, the more you see its limitations. Maybe you’re thinking about upgrading to Canva Pro. 

Before you bite the bullet, it’s only fitting to consider how much it’s going to cost and whether or not you think Canva Pro is worth it.

I’ll share my Canva experience over the last five years with you.

Oh, and how did I make that image?

That’s right, with Canva Pro!

I literally use Canva every day, and for us, it’s 1,000% worth it.

Now, I’m not sure what you want to use Canva Pro for.

But, I can tell you that I’m the most frugal business owner you’ll meet (ask my wife) and that I’m happy to pay for Canvas Pro.

I think it’s worth it for our business, and we’ve renewed our annual subscription for multiple years now.

In this article, I will show you how different Canva Pro is from the free version.

That way, you can make a decision based on your design needs. 

Let’s get started!

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Canva Free vs. Canva Pro

I’ll go through and compare some of the top features. I’ll share the differences in the free version and Canva Pro.

Let’s start with…

Fonts

On the free version of Canva, you get limited access to the platform’s font library.

Sure, there are a lot, but you may need to use ones that are paywalled.

You also can’t upload your own fonts, so that’s a no-go for those who like to make custom fonts. 

With Canva Pro, you get access to the complete library with over 1,000 fonts to choose from! Plus, you can upload other fonts too. 

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Photos and Videos 

There are plenty of resources available on the free version of Canva, including 1 million+ photos, videos, and other graphics.

You can also upload your own pictures for free, and you don’t have to pay for the Pro version if you’d like to use premium photos. You can buy the rights starting at $1. 

On the other hand, Canva Pro lets you use its complete photo library, which has 100 million+ elements you can add to your designs at no extra cost.

That’s 100 million+ stock photos, videos, audio, and graphics.

If you can’t find it there, you probably don’t need it.

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Templates 

Some people prefer to start working with a Canva template. Templates are handy because element placements are already set for you.

Canva templates are awesome. They give you a great spot to start.

All you have to do is customize the graphic elements they start you with.

With Free Canva, you can use 250,000 templates.

With Canva Pro, you get unlimited access to templates. 

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Organization and Storage 

After using Canva for a while, you’ll find it helpful to organize your projects.

With the free version of Canva, you get 5GB of storage.

With the paid version, you get to create as many folders as you want and have a capacity of 1TB of storage for your projects. 

(I have no idea how much of the storage that we use, but we have never run out of storage!)

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Brand Kit 

Maybe you intend to use Canva to make branding images for your business.

Well, the free version of Canva doesn’t have a brand kit. You can’t upload transparent logo files, and your color palette is limited to only three colors. 

But with Canva Pro, you can upload your logo files so you can put your logo on your graphics quickly.

You can also create up to 100 color palettes containing up to 100 colors each.

That’s up to 100 custom brand kits that they give you!

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Sharing 

Of course, sharing is essential if you work within a company, however small.

Some collaboration is necessary for design most of the time. With Free Canva, you can share a link to your project via email. The recipient can then view or edit the project. 

With Canva Pro, you get to do the same thing, but the recipient is also allowed to use the project as a template.

I think this new feature is a tremendous improvement on only being able to share a link to edit a design. It eliminates the chances of having your work altered and stolen. I like that you can send essentially just a copy of your work and not the original. 

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Team Feature

This is only available with Canva Pro, but it’s a requirement for us!

Instead of the solo annual plan, we pay $149.99 per year and can have up to 5 people on our plan.

Teams are the way to go if you work with others and need to collaborate on projects together.

They can service from 2 users up to thousands – here’s more info on teams.

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Resizing

It makes sense that you’d be able to resize your design as a whole on any graphic design software, right?

Not with Canva.

With Canva Free, if you end up with a design that’s the wrong size, you have to start all over again because there’s no way to resize it. 

Canva Pro comes with the “magic” resize function.

This function will save you a lot of time.

This alone is worth my paying for Canva Pro!

You can also turn one design into multiple formats if necessary.

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Transparent Backgrounds 

Removing backgrounds is handy when you want to slap images onto things without having to crop out what you don’t want to see.

And you guessed it; this feature is not available in the free version. 

[If you want to be a bit cheeky, there is a simple workaround for removing your background if you want to do a bit of work. I’ll show you here or watch below…]

Of course, with Canva Pro, you can delete backgrounds in one click and save images as transparent PNG files.

This feature is perfect for designing and transferring logos. 

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Animations 

In Free Canva, you can animate your design in 6 ways. In the Pro version, there are 14 ways.

This is not a very important feature for most, but I thought I’d add it here for those who are interested. 

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Items I Think Canva can Improve

Canva has been a part of my blogging for years.

There’s not much about Canva Pro Pricing that I can complain about.

The only thing that I think could be better is its photo library search function. 

Canva has no filter to narrow down your searches. To chance on the right image, you have to scroll through loads of photos in the library.

But they continue to improve and search is getting better and better.

Also, Canva is not available offline.

So if you don’t have constant internet access or your service is slow, you can’t use Canva. 

Aside from these two drawbacks that apply to both the free and Pro versions of Canva, it’s still a powerful editing tool that’s worth using. 

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Recap of Canva Pro Features 

• Access to paywalled content in Canva’s library 
• Access to more than 1,000 premium fonts and the ability to upload your own
• Brand kit feature with 100 color palettes 
• “Magic” resize tool 
• Ability to share links and templates 
• Ability to upload and make clear backgrounds
• Access to unlimited premium templates 
• Unlimited folders for organization and 1TB for storage 

Who is Canva Pro Great For?

Of course, designers.

But it goes beyond that because Canva has done an incredible job at making design accessible to anyone with ‘design taste.’

Here are a few that can benefit…

• Those wanting to make money with digital art
• Office staff that’s being asked to ‘help with social media
• A hustler wanting to design and sell stickers online
• Teachers and students
• Someone looking to launch their own blog

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Testing Out Canva Pro 

If you’re still unsure about upgrading to Canva Pro, I have some good news for you. You can sign up for Canva’s one-month free trial.

During these 30 days, you check out all of Pro’s features to know if upgrading will be worth it for you. 

Don’t worry; if you don’t like the Canva Pro Pricing, you can cancel your trial any time before it ends and you don’t have to pay anything. 

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So, is Canva Pro worth it? 

I know I’m biased, but HECK YES, it is!

It is, for me. Canva Pro offers many features that I’d miss if I go back to the free version.

Actually, I could never go back at this point.

That being said, it’s possible to create great stuff on the free version, but upgrading is definitely worth it if you want to expand your business.

Ok, let’s cover some questions…

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FAQ