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
Microsoft Publisher
Score 8.2 out of 10
N/A
Microsoft Publisher is a desktop publishing application available with an Office 365 subscription, or as a standalone download.
$139
one time purchase
Venngage
Score 10.0 out of 10
Small Businesses (1-50 employees)
Venngage is an infographics creation platform. Users can create inforgraphics for their marketing team from scratch or from a template.
$19
per month per user
Pricing
Canva
Microsoft Publisher
Venngage
Editions & Modules
Pro
$12.95
per month
Enterprise
$30.00
Per Month Per User
Microsoft Publisher
$139
one time purchase
Premium
$19
per month per user
Business
$49
per month per user
Enterprise
starting at $499
per month 10+ seats (billed yearly)
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Canva
Microsoft Publisher
Venngage
Free Trial
No
No
Yes
Free/Freemium Version
Yes
No
Yes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
No
No
No
Entry-level Setup Fee
No setup fee
No setup fee
No setup fee
Additional Details
—
—
50% discount for Premium and Business plans for annual pricing.
Before turning to Canva's online platform for my printed pieces, I was using MS Publisher. Publisher is a good tool but Canva has taken things to a new level and is designed with the end-user in mind. It's simple to use; has many built-in templates, fonts, backgrounds, …
Co-Owner, Executive Director of Marketing & Public Relations
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 …
Canva is a lot easier to use than Publisher. I actually started using Canva after getting frustrated in Publisher trying to create a simple graphic that featured numerous sponsor logos and a little text. Canva also defaults to saving as either jpg, pdf, or png and will prompt …
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 …
It works better than PowerPoint if it is one-page sharing content or poster, as opposed to a full presentation. It doesn't have as much functionality as Canva, but is more cost effective as it is included with the MS Office 365 Suite.
I have used Canva and multiple other tools like Adobe Express for creating same type of graphics, designing and banner designing, and it had outcome with very well and defined result, and it can compete with Publisher, and both can be stack up against each other very …
Microsoft Publisher is more predictable than Canva for more experienced users. There are fewer issues with someone having something unexpected happen. With that being said, Canva has advantages over Microsoft Publisher. They are two distinct programs with different strengths …
Overall, they are pretty similar platforms. Canva is a nicer platform and more professional. Venngage is easier for people with zero experience to use, which some of the people on our team have, so we like that. Canva also offers more options we have noticed and more …
Venngage's template library is easier to sort through than Canva, in my opinion. I also found the templates to be more applicable and valuable to my organization (more corporate, whereas I found Canva to have more social and e-commerce driven templates).
I prefer Canva. It has a greater number of free options, more flexible pricing, and a great printing package.
Verified User
Director
Chose Venngage
We prefer Canva but feel Venngage is easier for us. In comparison to Adobe, we prefer Venngage because of the ability to have everything in one system and not have to jump around.
Canva had a lot of features, which is great, but I got overwhelmed and I didn't know where to start. Adobe PhotoShop is great too, but I think it's better for more experienced editors/designers? I'm not an editor, I don't know a lot of stuff with editing, so it was difficult. I …
All though these other programs work well, they are not as user-friendly as Venngage... I was able to do a 30min review with my team and they were all able to start producing quality infographics. The other programs were a little more complicated and were not able to ensure …
I think Venngage is easier to use, navigate, and fewer people know about Venngage, so I feel like when I need customer service, they are more responsive to my requests.
They are suited to serve the non-profit space, offering premium features at no charge for up to 50 users. They provide tools for non-graphic designers that help to create appealing and attractive pieces. For those who are unsure about where to start with a project, Canva offers templates that can be edited to suit the current need.
Microsoft Publisher is well suited for almost any situation. It is something that I'm sure has far more advanced tools than I use or am aware of, but it is also very simple for entry-level users to create professional documents quickly. I have used it for very involved brochures in real estate scenarios and I have also used it for very simple "Construction Zone" signs at a job site under construction. There are so many uses for this program!
I find it great for personal use especially when you are a visual person. As an assistant that needs a lot of organizing, it's wonderful. It helped me a lot and I usually don't require a lot of features. I also find it great for accessibility stuff, I respect that since I have a relative who has special needs. I didn't really need that specifically, but it's nice to know it was considered.
It helps you find the right design and helps you start with the right template
It helps in creating for all platforms, basically you need to create the design only once and Canva takes care of the rest by resizing the design for whichever platform you want to publish it to.
It also comes with a content planner which is extremely helpful for obvious reasons. It relieves you from the hassle of posting when the right time hits.
There's a Brand feature which is also extremely fascinating as it helps you store all your brand information (even color) at the same place.
Extremely user-friendly: simple, easy-to-follow interface really made ramping up on the offering incredibly fast and painless.
Variety of templates: Venngage has a HUGE assortment of templates ranging from corporate reports and business decks to more visually-engaging, "fun" content such as infographics, awesome charts, and highly customizable social graphics.
Brand-alignment: we really appreciated the opportunity to tee up our brand guidelines and have those remain on the back-end and let us apply our style guide to multiple templates instantaneously.
I have a hard time coming up with any improvements, perhaps increase the number of free elements to use in design.
Maybe, Canva should check if you start editing a previous document to see if you want to change the current design or create a new one as a clone of the current document (design).
I'm sorry, I really can't think of a 3rd. Overall, I really like working in Canva.
Formatting in general. It's a pain to refine a layout in Publisher in my opinion.
Microsoft is so invested in their approach to software and making it look and feel like an Office 365 application that they inadvertantly cripple applications like Publisher.
Earlier versions of Publisher gave you a lot more latitude and creative freedom. They were also much easier to work with. Not everything has to look like it's part of Office 365. They did the same ... thing to Access.
It's hard to lock graphics into place in Venngage once you create something.
Layering is next to impossible. The feature is there but is very difficult to use and most times the user is better off copying the object over instead
Unless you have a business account (we have a professional account- middle grade) you cannot sort and organize your infographics. This is messy and cumbersome to go through and the price difference between professional and business grade accounts was quite large.
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
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.
There are a few quirks with Microsoft Publisher that make some functions a little tricky for new users at first, but most of our employees are able to figure out the quirks and work around them to use the product for their job. It is relatively high on the scale of usability.
I find it very user friendly, straight to the point, and the minor issues I found wasn't really impacting on my role. So I think it would depend? but personally I find it perfect for me. There were lots of templates I could use, and they were very open to feedback and customer service was very accommodating.
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.
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
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.
While I have not directly used support for Microsoft Publisher, I have used their help files and found them to be useful. I have also found that most answers that I need can be found through simple web searches and chat platforms. In all though, there are very few times when the preloaded help files have not given me the answers that I need.
I think that the attention that I get as a small business owner from Venngage is excellent. They quickly respond to questions and provide information that helps to resolve the issue that I am having.
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.
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
Microsoft Publisher is more for beginners, or for basic needs, anyone with some familiarity with the Microsoft suite should be able to use it easily. If you’re looking to create something more graphic and advanced, you’d probably want to look into something like InDesign, which is not as user friendly if you’re not familiar with it at all. For basic needs the average employee should be able to use Microsoft Publisher with ease.
We prefer Canva but feel Venngage is easier for us. In comparison to Adobe, we prefer Venngage because of the ability to have everything in one system and not have to jump around.
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
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.
we have invested on our Microsoft license for our team and that has made a very big productivity for making banners and holdings for our projects as making it from third party would cost much higher and the return is very well over the comparison with third-party vendors
Functionality is very easy, so we don’t have to train much to get it in production and use it efficiently so we don’t have to invest much on training and learning things and we can work on it directly with a very basic knowledge as well
It has functionality to get stored and share things directly to the OneDrive and using curated links, which is very secure and reliable to transfer files without losing picture and banners quality and share them in lossless quality.
