Adobe PhotoShop vs. Canva

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Adobe PhotoShop
Score 9.2 out of 10
N/A
Adobe Photoshop is the best known graphics product on the market.
$20
per month
Canva
Score 9.2 out of 10
N/A
Canva is a popular, simple online graphic design tool. Users can import images, use templates to design banners and logos, or pay to use Canva's premium stock images/paid templates (elements starting at $1).
$12.95
per month
Pricing
Adobe PhotoShopCanva
Editions & Modules
Single App
$20.00
per month
Pro
$12.95
per month
Enterprise
$30.00
Per Month Per User
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Adobe PhotoShopCanva
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Adobe PhotoShopCanva
Considered Both Products
Adobe PhotoShop
Chose Adobe PhotoShop
I have used Canva in the past but it's really hard to compare with Photoshop because Canva is a lot more simple and has way less options.
Chose Adobe PhotoShop
PhotoShop far outclasses Canva for the photo editor/designer. Nuances of a pixel or pica can be the difference between balance and misproportion - and Canva can sometimes move elements in the process of editing > final export. This is frustrating. We recommend PhotoShop for …
Chose Adobe PhotoShop
Both Illustrator and Canva have similar features that Photoshop does, but Photoshop is by far better than either of those 2 for the number of features that it has. When editing pictures, Photoshop seemed to run a little faster than those other 2 as well which is why we use that …
Chose Adobe PhotoShop
I had used Canva previously and it's a good site for basic graphic editing. However, there's simply no comparison to Adobe Photoshop. Photoshop has a huge number of tools and editing functions built in. And the sheer number of Photoshop templates for every conceivable project …
Chose Adobe PhotoShop
I like Canva a lot and do use it for some graphics we use on social media, but Adobe Photoshop is definitely better suited to editing actual images and getting them appropriately sized and colored for our website, social media, print publications, and more. They are both great …
Chose Adobe PhotoShop
I have prior experience with Photoshop, and it's a lot more flexible than Canva.
Chose Adobe PhotoShop
GIMP can become another excellent tool very similar to Photoshop, however, it is very limited in terms of features, Canva is another web image editor, it allows me to make quick designs, however its options are very basic.

Chose Adobe PhotoShop
Adobe Photoshop is one thousand times more advanced, sophisticated and versatile than Canva is. Although there is a free version of Canva, and there are no free options for Adobe Photoshop, I still think that Adobe Photoshop is definitely worth the investment for professional …
Chose Adobe PhotoShop
Canva and Adobe Spark are two programs that are able to accomplish similar tasks as [Adobe] Photoshop. However, Canva and Spark are extremely simplistic when compared to Photoshop. These two apps are perfect for beginners who want to create simple graphics and want help with …
Chose Adobe PhotoShop
Adobe PhotoShop is the mac daddy! These others (Canva, Pixlr, etc.) don't have much on Adobe PhotoShop--the functionalities could take a lifetime or longer to understand every little thing. However I will say that online software like Canva and Pixlr are good for a layperson …
Chose Adobe PhotoShop
Canva is the most user friendly for sure but not as many capabilities.

I personally prefer Adobe Illustrator to Photoshop as I think it is more intuitive and can do many of the same things, but it is probably because it is the first one I learned. They are best used together.
Chose Adobe PhotoShop
Adobe Photoshop is in a nutshell just a more robust program. It really opened up options that the other programs we used or were looking to use could. Upgrading from Canva to Adobe Photoshop has enhanced our final products in every aspect, from the idea phase to the final …
Chose Adobe PhotoShop
I have also used other Adobe products in the CC like Lightroom, InDesign, Illustrator. I have also used Canva, which is a great tool for people who are not skilled with Photoshop, since that program does take some training to understand how to use.
Chose Adobe PhotoShop
Photoshop is a quality with a number of solid features. For graphic design, Photoshop works incredibly well. As for ease of use, for many Photoshop seems easier to pick up than Illustrator. The bonus of Illustrator is that it works with vectors rather than rasterized images. Can…
Chose Adobe PhotoShop
Canva is a great tool for creating infographics and it's free with limited options. Adobe Illustrator CC and Adobe InDesign are much more suited for creating infographics, however, I still selected Adobe PhotoShop primarily because of my familiarity with all of the tools and …
Chose Adobe PhotoShop
Canva is a graphic editing program, but on a basic level. Adobe Photoshop provides a better alternative than Canva for clients who require complex graphic design because of the software's reach and the tools provided available for customizing the graphic design. Even the user …
Chose Adobe PhotoShop
GIMP is one of the free alternatives for Photoshop. Although it has got many features that photoshop offers, it still has a lot of catching up to do. Also GIMP's UI is quite clunky and not as polished as Photoshop's UI making it a bit harder to navigate. Canva on the other hand …
Chose Adobe PhotoShop
I've used Canva as a quick alternative for designing brochures or flyers, but it does not meet the functionality of Photoshop whatsoever. It's good for a quick, on-the-go type design, or for someone that does not have a lot of design experience - but Photoshop is truly the only …
Chose Adobe PhotoShop
Photoshop is definitely way more comprehensive than Canva when it comes to creating complex designs. For simpler design needs, we use Canva's free version
Chose Adobe PhotoShop
I'd say there are different use cases for each tool. PhotoShop is a beast at image editing, I haven't used anything else for this purpose. But with the other tools, they serve different purpose - Canva is good for templated stuff, illustrator is good for anything …
Chose Adobe PhotoShop
Adobe photoshop is flexible with simple tool. The user interface is not clumpy but very clean. You can customize the canvas to what you like and set your own shortcuts key to keep the software accustom to yourself. Photoshop is unmatched when it comes to images manipulate and …
Chose Adobe PhotoShop
PS is a well-known tool for many years and I have been a user since before they used the CS part.
For the flexibility the tool has and all the functions, I never really "completely" switched to other tools, I use other tools for other things. There are ALOT of assets for …
Chose Adobe PhotoShop
I found GIMP much harder to navigate and the features not fully fleshed out. In the end, while a free product is great, I felt like I was wasting my own time instead of just paying for Photoshop where I could get the project completed much more quickly and easily.
Chose Adobe PhotoShop
PhotoShop is far superior to the other programs out there. If you can dream it, you can create it in PhotoShop. I honestly can't imagine my life without it at this point. If there is ONE program out of the whole Adobe Creative Suite that you need, it is Photoshop, because it …
Chose Adobe PhotoShop
We have access to the full Adobe Suite, so this makes it very convenient to use. The general interface is similar through many of the Adobe programs, so using Photoshop has allowed us to have an easy of use on other Adobe Cloud Products.
Canva
Chose Canva
Canva is more intuitive and easier to use than Adobe PhotoShop or Illustrator. I'm not a designer, I work in Marketing so when I needed creatives made I had to outsource to our design team and try to fit my project on their calendar. I tried to learn other programs myself but …
Chose Canva
While less powerful and with fewer features, for our purposes, Canva is more effective than Adobe PhotoShop. It is much easier to use and creates beautiful presentations that meet the needs of our organization. We do not need trained graphics professionals or a large budget to …
Chose Canva
Canva offers the best value for the money graphic software solution. Its costs are exceptionally lower than Adobe PhotoShop and its graphics are much lower in costs compared to Getty Images. Canva does not offer the full extent of graphic tools like Adobe PhotoShop and the …
Chose Canva
There is no doubt that Adobe PhotoShop has great potential. The software can be used to do almost anything, but it requires a lot of practice and mastery. Canva is easy, fast, and creative, and even a beginner can use it without any experience. Adobe PhotoShop requires users to …
Chose Canva
Canva takes the top used features in Adobe PhotoShop, Illustrator, and InDesign and combines them all into an easy to use web based software. What's not to love about that? Sure, you can't do insane photo editing in Canva, but it does have a nice selection of stock photos that …
Chose Canva
Canva is cost Effective as compared to Adobe Express
Canva does not lag at all while Adobe Express frame rate drops sometimes
Canva has collaboration feature while adobe misses out with this
Chose Canva
User-friendly interface: Canva has a user-friendly drag-and-drop interface that makes it easy to create designs, even for those without design experience.Templates and design elements: Canva offers a large library of templates and design elements, so users can create …
Chose Canva
Other softwares for designing need technical skills and also have high cost. Canva does not need any technical skills and also have a low-cost model with a lot of amazing features. Also other softwares don't have pre-made templates as per category wise as much as Canva has. All …
Chose Canva
Adobe products, well compared to Canva has a wide and long learning curve. Adobe spark almost comes close to Canva but lacks these tiny features that Canva focuses on to make the product irresistible to use. Canva also does a great job organizing and recording the designs in …
Chose Canva
Canva is faster and easy to use. There aren't complex menus like Adobe products and everything is generally intuitive. Menus are mostly open and visible or relatively small. Small changes to the program add to it's usability rather than detract. I also appreciate that Canva …
Chose Canva
Canva is easy to use; it is a SaaS, and you can use it anywhere in the world. It only takes a few minutes to learn how to use it, and it saves me time, energy, and money. Photoshop is complicated and you need to be tech-savvy. You also need to install it and take that …
Chose Canva
Canva is easier to use and requires less experience. Canva is also so easy it makes it significantly faster to produce content than using any Adobe products. Canva allows you to use professional designs and can help even make the most novice designers produce …
Chose Canva
I have selected Canva as it is User friendly, no much designing knowledge needed and is very easy for beginners to handle. The exporting option is quite easy compared to others and can be easily shared with the team. Images clips or elements needed for the design is easily …
Chose Canva
The other programs listed above arent better or worse than Canva, they all bring different things to the mix. If you don't want to buy an Adobe license or learn how to use Photoshop or Illustrator than Canva would be right up your alley. Create social posts, fliers, …
Chose Canva
Canva is easier, faster, and less expensive than Adobe. It allows for people who are not graphic artists to create quality professional looking content fast. I have been able to save hundreds of dollars annually with a single Canva pro subscription vs. a full Adobe …
Chose Canva
Photoshop and GIMP are both excellent tools in their own right. However, what I love about Canva in comparison is it's simplicity, user-friendliness, and usability. Canva feels like the graphic tool anyone can use, even if you're a total tech or graphic amateur, while Photoshop …
Chose Canva
Canva has a special niche when it comes to stacking up against the products that I listed above. When it comes to learning curve, with Canva, there is virtually no learning curve; the interface of Canva is easy for any user. Where I reach my limit with Canva is that it …
Chose Canva
Canva is a lot more efficient and easy-to-use for quick things - social media posts, cards, flyers - because the templates are so easily accessible and customizable. Using photoshop, I have to start from scratch, which takes much more time! Photoshop is much better-versed in …
Chose Canva
For rapid turnaround time projects with limited graphic scope, Canva is a great tool and I prefer using it to Photoshop. The ability to quickly create a canvas, drag and drop and rearrange uploaded images and free-to-use graphics is not something that Photoshop does well. If …
Chose Canva
You can just about forget about using Publisher or PowerPoint once you start using Canva! Canva blows them out of the water! PosterMyWall is good for posters, just like it says in its name. If you are not a graphic designer by nature, then Photoshop is not for the …
Chose Canva
Canva’s free version has more than enough to effectively create beautiful graphics. The user interface is more user-friendly, in my opinion. and is able to provide more direction in the way of templates that meet every specific need I can think of in terms of digital and print …
Chose Canva
Canva's ease of use and multifaceted toolkit are the gold standard for me. I can create new content on Canva in minutes with any necessary images, elements, or fonts that I am likely to need. The ability to then collaborate with team members or share to social media makes my …
Chose Canva
Canva is easy to use and offers a free version with basic features. It doesn't take a lot of time to figure out how to create stunning images in a few minutes. We selected Canva as it more free features than the other applications and had sharing feature as well so others could …
Chose Canva
Canva is FREE! That is why this makes Canva the best! You only upgrade for specific fonts and templates. Canva is seriously the most amazing tool out there and has no competition!
Top Pros
Top Cons
TrustRadius Insights
Adobe PhotoShopCanva
Highlights

TrustRadius
Research Team Insight
Published

Adobe Photoshop and Canva are both graphic editing software. Adobe Photoshop is the market incumbent, while Canva is a new, more niche offering. Both products are rare among enterprises, but Canva is more concentrated in the small business market due to its robust free package and focus on user-accessibility. 

Adobe Photoshop is positioned as the legacy market incumbent, with advanced features for a range of more intensive editing uses. Canva specializes as an online entry-level editing software particularly well suited for social posts and graphics. 

Features

Both Adobe Photoshop and Canva offer basic graphic editing features, including graphic creation and editing existing content. However, they each provide features tailored to their specializations. 

Adobe Photoshop has invested more heavily in powerful and advanced editing capabilities. This allows Photoshop to provide deeper functionality for most editing and graphic design needs. The range and depth of its capabilities makes Photoshop ideal for frequent or power users. Broadly speaking, Photoshop has set the baseline on which editing software is compared to. 

In contrast, Canva differentiates by being more accessible for more casual or inexperienced users. Canva provides a free version that is fairly sufficient for many basic tasks, and includes a range of prebuilt templates for common use cases, such as social media graphics. It is designed to be extremely user friendly and accessible to users, regardless of prior experience or skill level. 

Limitations

While both Adobe Photoshop and Canva offer strong features, they also have some limitations worth considering. 

Adobe Photoshop’s power also entails greater complexity. The more advanced features and interface often requires a steeper learning curve to become proficient and work efficiently within the tool. Additionally, Photoshop has no free version. This requires more up front investment in the application than freemium products. 

In contrast, Canva is more limited in its functionality. Many of the better or larger graphics and images are paywalled, placing a ceiling on what can be done with the free version of Canva. There are also more limited account management features within the software. The lack of these features is most pertinent to freelancers or contractors, who may manage graphics for multiple clients within the software. 

Pricing

Adobe Photoshop is sold individually for $20.99/month. It can also be bundled with Adobe Lightroom for $9.99/month. 

Canva has 3 pricing tiers. The free version provides 8,000+ templates, 100+ design types, and many free images and graphics. The Pro version additionally offers a Brand Kit for white labeling, more free templates, premium images, and custom templates. The Enterprise version includes multiple Brand Kits, team management, workflows, and additional security features and support.

Best Alternatives
Adobe PhotoShopCanva
Small Businesses
CorelDRAW Graphics Suite
CorelDRAW Graphics Suite
Score 9.5 out of 10
CorelDRAW Graphics Suite
CorelDRAW Graphics Suite
Score 9.5 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Canva
Canva
Score 9.2 out of 10
Adobe PhotoShop
Adobe PhotoShop
Score 9.2 out of 10
Enterprises
GIMP
GIMP
Score 9.1 out of 10
Adobe PhotoShop
Adobe PhotoShop
Score 9.2 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Adobe PhotoShopCanva
Likelihood to Recommend
8.7
(189 ratings)
8.7
(173 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.4
(30 ratings)
8.0
(7 ratings)
Usability
9.8
(14 ratings)
9.2
(12 ratings)
Availability
9.0
(3 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Performance
9.0
(3 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
10.0
(54 ratings)
6.9
(15 ratings)
In-Person Training
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
9.0
(6 ratings)
10.0
(2 ratings)
Configurability
8.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
9.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
4.0
(1 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
9.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
9.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Adobe PhotoShopCanva
Likelihood to Recommend
Adobe
I use Adobe PhotoShop to do practically all of my business from my home in Turkey. Many customers find the cost of Adobe PhotoShop to be prohibitive, thus they turn to substitute alternatives and illegally downloaded pirated software. Regulations like torrents, sales, and price increases lead to a number of financial issues. Change can be advantageous.
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Canva
I would say that Canva is best suited for beginner and Novice level applications. If you're an experienced designer, there's definitely no point in using Canva as it's developed for designers entering the field. OR, if you want to experience that flexibility while you designing and let the creativity flow, You shouldn't consider Canva as your Choice. If you feel like delivering quick and not spend your time on deciding on 'How to Design', then you should go for Canva.
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Pros
Adobe
  • Brush customization. There are many available brushes for illustration, and each can be customized to fit the needs of your specific style.
  • Integration with other Adobe products. It is essential that the images I create be accessible in Adobe Indesign and Illustrator, and [Adobe] Photoshop can be placed and edited easily within those programs.
  • Advanced editing. The possibilities for editing photos [are] endless, with new features being added constantly.
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Canva
  • Provides readily accessible approved fonts and colors for our university publications.
  • A great selection of templates to select from.
  • Lots of resources for design, like photos, clip art, backgrounds, and other design elements.
  • The ability to share your design with others at the university.
  • The ability to download your design as a png, pdf, jpg, svg, even MP4 video or gif.
  • Easy to edit and alter the design and not lose what you had by creating clones of previous designs and then make the changes.
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Cons
Adobe
  • Expensive - It is too expensive to buy Photoshop alone, and hence leading the user to purchase the entire Creative Cloud Package though he/she is not even aware of half of those apps.
  • High System Spec - Requires high system specifications to run the application smoothly, and to use it at its best.
  • Process lag - When it comes to large-sized files, the application becomes laggy taking much time even to render a single layer.
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Canva
  • Some pretty basic fonts are missing from the database, which proves to be annoying when trying to stay on brand
  • Pre-grouping sections of templates can be a hassle to figure out
  • Creating your own template from scratch can have it's hiccups, but that could be my lack of design experience.
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Likelihood to Renew
Adobe
We get a lot of use out of this software. It's vital for work with production in our industry and has a lot of cross-functionality - creating social media images, retouching photos, editing photos, creating gradients, and more. It's pretty fuss-free in that we haven't had to reach out to support and the program hasn't crashed on us. We are trained on the software (so again, this isn't for beginners), but for detail-oriented designers and creatives like ourselves - it's a no-brainer.
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Canva
The ease of use makes Canva a powerful tool for manipulating images, creating original content, and testing ideas without requiring the involvement of graphic design or more time-intensive image editing software such as Photoshop. While it doesn't have the full functionality of a mature software, such as Photoshop, The speed and simplicity of Canva makes it a necessity in a business of any size
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Usability
Adobe
I've used it for a long time and would consider myself a Pro user at this point. I know where everything I need is, have custom actions set up to make common actions faster, and have my workflows automated so much that everything is easy. Occasionally, a new version of Photoshop will change a common usability feature which will slow things down for a short time before I'm able to adjust, but generally I really like my setup. However, if you're new to Photoshop, it is likely going to take you a while to figure out how you can best use the features.
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Canva
It is super easy to use, but it could be limiting if you're on a small device. It is easier on a bigger device because you can resize graphics and text easier than with your fingers on a small device. I do think it's perfect and easy for non-designers who don't have any training. As long as you have a good eye for visuals, Canva is a wonderful substitute for graphics programs on-the-go.
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Reliability and Availability
Adobe
Adobe Photoshop is very reliable, but is never 100%. There have been times when Adobe Photoshop has had trouble opening, but nothing a little computer restart couldn't fix. I use Adobe Photoshop on a Mac for both work and at home on a daily basis, and I would be lost without it.
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Canva
I have yet to encounter Canva being offline in at least 6 years of using it regularly. They also announce well in advance if there may be upgrades to the code and the hours during which there may be issues accessing the service.
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Performance
Adobe
Speed can be an issue when you are dealing with large files for large format printing or billboards. When working on web images, speed is not an issue.
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Canva
I haven't ever had issues with a slow-loading site and there haven't been any lag issues within the software. There have been maybe a handful of times over the past six years where I have tried to upload a large image and it will slow down as it loads the last megabyte, but I have yet to have the system time out or require any interference by me
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Support Rating
Adobe
While I never contacted Adobe directly, there is so much content out there in the form of YouTube videos, Lynda/LinkedIn learning that almost any issue, including bugs, can be worked around (and this method is generally faster as there's no turnaround time involved).
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Canva
Overall, Canva is easy to use, easy to train others to use, allows for creativity with a professional look without enormous associated costs. The mobile apps works almost as easily, but at a minimum allows for easy review and downloading in a pinch. Really, anyone can learn to use Canva quickly and will immediately benefit from the results.
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In-Person Training
Adobe
So, I received the training at the HQ and it was train the trainer training. A good time, I spent a week at their campus
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Canva
No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
Adobe
I took a course so it really helped. I didn’t take the course until much later after beginning to use it, so I wish work would have sent me right off the bat. It would have alleviated a lot of frustratinon
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Canva
Remember to download the mobile app onto your phone for easy image manipulation on the go. Adding company colors, logos, and typefaces to your company account is an easy process. When images are uploaded, these can also be shared between accounts within a company, as can canvases you've created for easy editing among teams.
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Alternatives Considered
Adobe
Canva is a great tool for creating infographics and it's free with limited options. Adobe Illustrator CC and Adobe InDesign are much more suited for creating infographics, however, I still selected Adobe PhotoShop primarily because of my familiarity with all of the tools and hotkeys. There are always workarounds from with Adobe PhotoShop, and I just haven't taken the time to learn how to use Adobe Illustrator CC as effectively.
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Canva
Canva is faster and easy to use. There aren't complex menus like Adobe products and everything is generally intuitive. Menus are mostly open and visible or relatively small. Small changes to the program add to it's usability rather than detract. I also appreciate that Canva helps the user become more creative through use. By giving you editable examples through templates you can choose to re-design something ir create something from scratch w/ a similar concept or feel. Canva often gives me ideas that I can implement into my design or into the entire project even. I also like how Canva is intuitive in it's approach. The program gives you suggestions when it comes to graphics, etc. without getting in your way if you know what you already want
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Scalability
Adobe
It seems expensive compared to the free/cheap programs now available
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Canva
Very easy to add accounts and share content between them. Collaboration is also easy to manage and can be done on a project-by-project basis. The cloud-based software means it is incredibly fast to add a coworker and have them editing images within minutes. A live internet connection is required to access Canva so this is something to consider if expecting to use the software while on journeys without access to wifi etc
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Return on Investment
Adobe
  • Saved our company thousands of dollars by editing in house.
  • Has given us the ability to do things on the fly and get projects done faster.
  • Having the original .psd files saved has given us the ability to go back and reuse and update photos and graphics instead of starting all over again.
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Canva
  • As far as ROI is concerned, Canva has proven itself time and time again as having a positive impact for business.
  • Just yesterday, I had to prepare an hour-long presentation on the fly; the great reviews of the presentation and the materials (all made in Canva) only served to advertise for Canva and it proves that Canva is a smart investment.
  • I don't think in the time that I have been a Canva pro user that I can say that my ROI has been negatively impacted. Highest recommendation. The software more the casually pays for itself time and time again.
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