Canva vs. Ion, by Rock Content

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
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
Ion, by Rock Content
Score 8.0 out of 10
Enterprise companies (1,001+ employees)
Ion is an enterprise-grade content experience platform that empowers modern marketers and designers to create no-code interactive content experiences integrated with their CRM or marketing automation tools. Ion helps enterprises to build brand awareness and increase conversions and lead generation enriching their contact database with declared, high intent data. Ion helps brands launch quizzes, ROI calculators, assessments, interactive infographics, and other interactive formats in…N/A
Pricing
CanvaIon, by Rock Content
Editions & Modules
Pro
$12.95
per month
Enterprise
$30.00
Per Month Per User
Managed Services + SaaS
Custom
per year
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
CanvaIon, by Rock Content
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
YesNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoYes
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup fee$5,500 per customer
Additional Detailsion’s Build Anything SaaS platform provides organizations with an entirely new and agile interactive content marketing capability. It enables non-technical marketers and designers to create, test and measure an unlimited number of all types of interactive content marketing experiences. It includes unlimited seats, experiences, tests, customization, phone and email support, analytics and more.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
CanvaIon, by Rock Content
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
CanvaIon, by Rock Content
Content Creation
Comparison of Content Creation features of Product A and Product B
Canva
-
Ratings
Ion, by Rock Content
7.5
105 Ratings
7% below category average
Ideation00 Ratings10.099 Ratings
Content collaboration00 Ratings5.094 Ratings
Content Publishing
Comparison of Content Publishing features of Product A and Product B
Canva
-
Ratings
Ion, by Rock Content
8.7
120 Ratings
7% above category average
Content hub00 Ratings10.0104 Ratings
Forms / Gated content00 Ratings10.0107 Ratings
Embedded CTAs00 Ratings10.0108 Ratings
Content distribution00 Ratings8.093 Ratings
Content promotion00 Ratings8.086 Ratings
Content automation00 Ratings6.090 Ratings
Content Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of Content Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
Canva
-
Ratings
Ion, by Rock Content
8.5
118 Ratings
9% above category average
Audience profiling and targeting00 Ratings6.091 Ratings
Closed-loop tracking and reporting00 Ratings8.095 Ratings
Content performance analytics00 Ratings10.0116 Ratings
Campaign optimization dashboard00 Ratings10.0107 Ratings
Best Alternatives
CanvaIon, by Rock Content
Small Businesses
CorelDRAW Graphics Suite
CorelDRAW Graphics Suite
Score 9.6 out of 10
Vyond
Vyond
Score 8.7 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Adobe PhotoShop
Adobe PhotoShop
Score 9.1 out of 10
Vyond
Vyond
Score 8.7 out of 10
Enterprises
Adobe PhotoShop
Adobe PhotoShop
Score 9.1 out of 10
Vyond
Vyond
Score 8.7 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
CanvaIon, by Rock Content
Likelihood to Recommend
8.6
(172 ratings)
10.0
(135 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.1
(7 ratings)
7.0
(22 ratings)
Usability
9.2
(12 ratings)
7.4
(17 ratings)
Availability
10.0
(1 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Performance
10.0
(1 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
6.9
(15 ratings)
10.0
(18 ratings)
Online Training
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
Implementation Rating
10.0
(2 ratings)
10.0
(6 ratings)
Product Scalability
10.0
(1 ratings)
10.0
(2 ratings)
User Testimonials
CanvaIon, by Rock Content
Likelihood to Recommend
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.
Read full review
Rock Content
If you want to choose a quick start template and fill in the fields with your content, Ion will be fantastic for you. We've done this with whitepapers and quizzes and it's been great and extremely easy to use. If you have an exact idea of what you want, and a background in web development, you may get frustrated. Ion has some quirks that make it tricky to fully customize - everyone once in a while I really just want to go into the HTML and make some changes, but can't. If you are looking to reuse a piece of content for specific targeting (industry or account-specific), Ion is great. The dynamic substitutions are great and very helpful.
Read full review
Pros
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.
Read full review
Rock Content
  • Quick Starts make it so easy to get started.
  • Real-time updates are awesome and save a ton of wasteful process.
  • The combination of user friendliness for simple things and the flexibility to do more complex things is great.
  • Chat support is excellent and deeper-dive support has been super helpful.
  • The ability to use these tools in the cloud or embedded has given us tactic flexibility.
Read full review
Cons
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.
Read full review
Rock Content
  • Ion University, while stacked with a wealth of information, is difficult to navigate from a troubleshooting perspective. The tutorial videos are all very helpful, but they are also very long. Sometimes I would want to search for how to address a particular issue I was struggling with and it would be a two-minute segment buried in a 45-minute video.
  • Again, getting back the self-guidance side of things. I think a lot of the tutorials are set up in a way that makes sense to Ion, but not as much to the end user.
  • I think the controls admins use when creating new users could be a bit more straightforward.
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
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
Read full review
Rock Content
We use it for every landing page and we plan on only doing more dynamic content creation. We dont see that option coming in-house any time ever in the future. ION has a very robust platform for us to work with that really allows us to do more for our customers in regards to having the one-to-one conversation.
Read full review
Usability
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.
Read full review
Rock Content
Usability is straightforward, with extensive documentation and tutorials provided to ensure landing pages are built to specifications and can be optimized for performance. Built-in platform funnels give insight into customer dropoff, success/failures, and conversions (at a glance). Setting up a landing page can be done quickly and easily, with numerous integrations (CRMs like SalesForce, for instance) supported
Read full review
Reliability and Availability
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.
Read full review
Rock Content
No answers on this topic
Performance
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
Read full review
Rock Content
Sometimes the editor can be a little slow.
Read full review
Support Rating
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.
Read full review
Rock Content
The ION support team is amazing. There has not been a single issue they they could not solve for me. If there is a feature or request that they do not have, they have even, on occasion, created custom scripts for our team. *Update 6/5/17 - ION has continued to delight on multiple occasions. I appreciate their attention to detail and ability to solve whatever issue I have. After 3+ years of use and support, ION still has my full endorsement.
Read full review
Online Training
Canva
No answers on this topic
Rock Content
They offer a great amount of online training, videos, articles, etc. There is usually an answer available if you run into an issue. I would recommend taking advantage of the online training they offer. I wish I would have done it sooner.
Read full review
Implementation Rating
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.
Read full review
Rock Content
There were a lot of things we learned about the tool once we really got in and got our hands dirty. Being hands-on was essential for our team to be able to utilize ION in the most effective manner.
Read full review
Alternatives Considered
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
Read full review
Rock Content
I was not the decision maker to choose this over Uberflip, but the UI is much more appealing to me. It's incredibly easy to use, clean, and from a backend standpoint, it requires little to no tech savvy'ness. Our team has really enjoyed using it and has required no training what-so-ever.
Read full review
Scalability
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
Read full review
Rock Content
Separate client portfolios enable scalability, however, some elements are still grouped for all accounts so it's difficult to scale for an ad agency with multiple clients. Would prefer totally separate sections of the platform for all clients with each element housed separately.
Read full review
Return on Investment
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.
Read full review
Rock Content
  • Though we have not had the service long enough to see any measurable outcomes, we've been able to create interactive web content faster than ever before
  • The speed with which we can build interactive pages and re-use assets has been critical as projects we've done with Ion have made their way around and more and more internal clients have said "me too" for their own projects
  • It is very pricey at $28K for the base annual subscription (dropping to $24k after the first year), so depending on your budgetary situation, that may make no sense for your team--but we had contract money set aside for a company to build us a microsite for around the amount, so we just used it for Ion instead and will now be building the microsite ourselves using it
Read full review
ScreenShots

Ion, by Rock Content Screenshots

Screenshot of ion empowers your other marketing technologies to deliver higher fidelity, data-driven scoring, targeting, segmentation and personalization.Screenshot of The types of interactive experiences the ion platform can create is near-endless. These are the most common types used by our customers: Assessments, Calculators, eBooks, Interactive Infographics, Interactive White Papers, Landing Pages, Lookbooks, Quizzes, Resource Library, Solution Finder.Screenshot of See what our customers are saying about our platform and services!Screenshot of Starting at $2,000 per month, you get an unlimited, scalable interactive content platform with our full feature set. Including: Unlimited experiences, unlimited use of Quick Starts, Unlimited Seats/Users, Unlimited A/B/n Testing, Unlimited Sell-Side Experiences, Unlimited Phone, email & chat support, unlimited analytics... PLUS a FREE custom-branded theme that can be applied to all of your experiences.Screenshot of You have the option to start from a template or entirely from scratch. Our Quick Start template library includes more than 100 fully tested, responsive and flexible interactive experiences you can brand, customize and launch.Screenshot of ion is the only interactive content platform that provides the scalable foundation to grow from one interactive experience to one thousand interactive experiences. With ion, interactive content development complexity, long timelines, high costs and maintenance problems are replaced with freedom and agility.