Likelihood to Recommend I would recommend Adobe CC Express, especially if the colleague were an established Adobe user. The interface is designed so that anyone familiar with Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, or any other Adobe software products, will be familiar. This is a product that competes with Canva, but it's great to have the simplicity of Canva with an interface that feels familiar from day one.
Read full review This is perfect for any individual or organization that's working on a budget. You'll get stock photos that, while there's a more limited selection than the usual paid sites (Getty, iStock, etc.), are often just as high-quality. For smaller businesses and nonprofits where every dollar counts, I've found myself leaning on Pixabay quite a bit for stock images and, from time to time, will end up buying one of the linked commercial images when Pixabay doesn't have what I need. However, if you have a large budget for stock images, Pixabay will likely not be your best choice, as the paid services offer generous discounts for bulk credit purchases.
Read full review Pros Out-of-the-box templates save a lot of time and effort for designers and new users. Collaboration to share resources and monitor task status centrally. Great design elements bring a wow factor to digital content. Single design tool for all types of content design. Read full review Separate photos, illustrations, and vectors—Many competitors have these images all lumped together with a limited ability to sort through them, while Pixabay has a robust library of all of these, making it easy to find what you're looking for. Free, high-quality images and easy-to-understand licensing rules—Often a new client will have bad image usage habits, freely snagging any image off of google. Pixabay is an excellent resource to give clients a huge range of photos without the fear of getting into copyright trouble. Sound effects—Free, good-quality sound effects are surprisingly difficult to find amongst competitors, but Pixabay has them in their lineup as well. Read full review Cons Adobe Creative Cloud Express's video possibilities could be improved - I'd really like to see more options for animating text. Animoto is a great example of this. But the video is already improving, so perhaps these options are coming! Sometimes images don't download properly from the web app and I have to download using the phone app and then transfer to my desktop for scheduling. It would be cool if there was an approve / feedback option, so you could request feedback from a team member without having to share a link and send a separate email. Read full review One thing that kind of sticks out is that with so much to choose from, you can feel overwhelmed. Some of the photos I sometimes can find separately by googling. In the music business, it seems like many photos rotate on the web so there isn't as much to pick from. I didn't see an option for more vertical videos for use in Instagram or TikTok. Read full review Usability The overall usability of the software was strong. The application, especially relative to other Adobe services like Photoshop that can demand a lot of knowledge and skill, was highly easy to use. At the same time, that also speaks to the somewhat limited amount of customization opportunities that allow content designers to truly create content that is dynamic, engaging, and different than the standard stuff that floods our vision every day.
Read full review Support Rating Because adobe is so widespread the community support is amazing. I have never actually used adobe support short of their website, but I go to youtube a lot to get my questions answered. You can google any problem you have and not have any issues finding an answer. In my opinion, community support is much more meaningful and helpful than support directly from the company
Read full review Alternatives Considered I used
Canva for a long time, but since we already had the Adobe Creative Suite and Adobe Creative Cloud Express was included, I went ahead and started using Adobe Creative Cloud Express, as it was more cost-effective. Unfortunately, Adobe Creative Cloud Express doesn't offer any content calendar and scheduling, so it was a difficult choice.
Read full review Pixabay has given me the free vectors I need for my whiteboard animation videos, which aren't available on the other sites, in addition to the video and audio clips. They've been around for a long time and have stayed consistent, valuable, and easy to use throughout the years. They were my first site for free downloads and remain my favorite image download site to this day.
Read full review Contract Terms and Pricing Model Adobe Creative Cloud Express is included with an Adobe Creative Cloud account. Our company has a corporate team membership so it is nice to have a professional and powerful tool that anyone on our team can use for free. The pricing structure of giving the tool away for free will be fundamental to users utilizing the tool. Similar tools, such as Canva, cost significantly more but do not offer the same features
Read full review Professional Services The professional services for Adobe Creative Cloud Express is top notch and should be highly commended. I am thoroughly impressed with how far Adobe has come. In the past, I had several issues with how something were handled, but in the past few years things have been better than ever and they get no complaints from me
Read full review Return on Investment I started with the free version, but I soon found that I was unable to save my custom templates. With the paid plan, The number of templates and art work are greatly increased. Using this subscription was a timesaver, thus saving in creative time. Read full review We don't lose any money trying to buy images Our videos get more views if we put the good quality images we find in Pixaby The posts we make with their images always get a professional aspect, and get more engagement from a diverse social media users. Read full review ScreenShots Adobe Express Screenshots