The 7 best Canva alternatives in 2025

If you're throwing together a quick social media graphic, making a poster for an upcoming event, or even creating a presentation, Canva is one of the best design tools you can use—but it isn't the only one. There are plenty of great Canva alternatives.

I've been using and writing about graphic design apps since Photoshop was available on physical disks, and while I enjoy Canva, it isn't my go-to tool in most situations. That's personal preference, of course, but I feel it puts me in a good position to talk about the best apps like Canva. Let's dig in.

The best Canva alternatives

• Adobe Express for the best Canva alternative overall

• Snappa for creating occasional images

• Pixlr for an affordable Canva alternative

• BeFunky for photos and collages

• VistaCreate for print designs

• Desygner for small teams

• Clipchamp for video editing

What is Canva?

Let's get one thing out of the way: Canva is popular for a reason. So we should probably quickly address what you're ignoring. 

Canva is a powerful template-based design tool. Its hundreds of thousands of templates, countless resources, images, and other graphic elements, and drag-and-drop editor make it incredibly easy to create almost anything you need. Seriously, there are templates for everything from restaurant menus and political posters to birthday cards and memorial posts. There's even an integrated docs suite so you can create reports and budgets and the like, though I suspect most people are sticking with Google Docs or Microsoft Office.

Over the past few years, Canva has also started implementing a wide range of AI-powered features. As you'd expect, there's a text-to-image art generator and a text generator, but you can also create a custom template from a prompt, automatically remove backgrounds, and reformat templates into different dimensions. Some of the features work better than others, but Canva is continuously improving on them. 

On top of all that, Canva has a solid free plan, an affordable paid plan for solo users, and a great team plan with collaboration features for businesses. It's an app that can fit almost any workflow or budget. 

Still, for all that, Canva isn't the only design app. It's not even the design app I use. It's a great default for many people, but there are reasons to use other tools—so let's look at some of the best options.

What makes the best Canva alternative?

For this list, I considered almost 50 different design apps, including free Canva alternatives. While most of them were functional, very few of them were real Canva alternatives. Here's what I was looking for in order to consider something a true alternative to Canva:

• Canva is first and foremost a powerful and flexible graphic design app—so any alternative had to be too. I wanted apps that could make everything from social media posts to posters, or at the very least were laser-focused on doing one thing exceptionally well, like photos or videos.

• Being able to do one-off designs is fine, but for influencers, businesses, and anyone who cares about consistency, you need to be able to create professional, repeatable designs. 

• Look, Canva is great. To make this list, the apps had to be better than Canva in at least one way, or otherwise offer up a big reason to use them. 

• We're more than halfway through the 2020s. We've had awesome design apps for more than 30 years. I have no time or patience for design apps that are awful to use. 

• One of Canva's selling points is that it has a great free plan and affordable paid plan. There are plenty of other more powerful design apps, but to be a true alternative to Canva, an app also needs to be a good value. 

And now, on to the apps. 

The best Canva alternatives at a glance

The best Canva alternative overall

Adobe Express (Web, iOS, Android)

Adobe Express pros: 

• Has a better editor than Canva

• Integrates with Adobe's other apps

Adobe Express cons:

• Fewer templates than Canva

• Adobe isn't for everyone

It's impossible to talk about graphic design without mentioning Adobe. A big reason Canva is so popular is because it's a more accessible alternative to the industry-standard Adobe apps like Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign. If you're really serious about photo editing, graphic design, or typesetting, you should probably check them out, but for most people, Adobe now makes an amazing template-based Canva competitor: Adobe Express.

Full disclosure: I've been using Adobe apps for well over a decade. Express is the app I turn to if I want to create a social media post, birthday party invite, or other quick design without all the rigmarole of creating something from scratch in Photoshop or Illustrator. 

And Express is the best Canva alternative for most people, really. While it has fewer templates than Canva, there are still hundreds of thousands of them—and I find the editor is more powerful and nicer to use. Express also integrates with other Adobe products, like the generative AI Firefly, Adobe Fonts, Adobe Stock, and, of course, the big apps like Photoshop. You can do things like create wild generative text effects, include your professional brand fonts, and have edits you make in Photoshop automatically sync to Express.

For all that, Express is also a good value. The free plan has more than 100,000 templates, 10 Firefly AI credits per month, and 5 GB of cloud storage. The paid plans start at $9.99/month and include more business-focused features like branded templates and logo uploads, the excellent Premiere Rush video editor, plus 250 AI credits and 100 GB of cloud storage. Express Premium is also included with some Creative Cloud plans, so if you use Adobe's apps, you might already have it.

Adobe Express pricing: Free plan includes 100,000+ templates, 1,000,000+ design assets, and 4,000+ fonts; from $9.99/month (billed monthly) for premium features and a lot more of everything. 

The best free Canva alternative for creating occasional images

Snappa (Web)

Snappa pros: 

• All the features available for free

Snappa cons: 

• Features are more limited

Freemium apps like Canva can be great, but if you're on the free plan, you often aren't allowed to forget it. Search for a template or graphic design element, and you'll find dozens of options you can't use. Click around the interface, and you'll often get a pop-up telling you to upgrade if you want to use a particular tool. Although it's understandable, it can still be really annoying—which is why I love Snappa. 

With Snappa, you have access to every template, graphic, and feature even on the free plan. The catch is that you can only save three designs per month. If you're creating lots of designs, you're obviously going to hit that limit very quickly. But if you only need to create the occasional design, it's nice not having to fight with an app that wants you to upgrade.

Of course, Snappa has its downsides. It has fewer templates than Canva, and they're all more general. You won't find lots of options for birthday Instagram posts for 4-year-old dogs. Instead, you need to use the default templates as a base to customize and build from rather than something you can just drop your photos into, change a few words of text, and post. Also, the only AI feature it has rolled out is one-click background removal. The app isn't packed with the kinds of AI features that are now a major selling point of a lot of design tools in this category, so if that's a concern, give it a miss.

Snappa pricing: Free plan includes 6,000+ templates and 3 downloads or shares per month; from $15/month for Snappa Pro (billed monthly), which includes unlimited downloads and shares, and integration with Buffer and your social media accounts.

The best affordable Canva alternative

Pixlr (Web, iOS, Android)

Pixlr pros: 

• Great value

• Easy to use

Pixlr cons:

• A bit rough around the edges

• Tools are split between multiple apps

Pixlr is a solid alternative to Canva if cost is a concern. It's got both a good free plan and super affordable paid plans. While it's a bit rough around the edges, it's fast becoming one of my favorite image editing suites. 

Pixlr is actually five apps: Pixlr Editor (a photo editor), Pixlr Express (an AI-powered photo editor), Pixlr Designer (a template-powered graphics design app), Remove bg (an AI-powered background remover with really annoying capitalization in its title), and Batch Editor (a bulk photo editor). Don't put too much stock on these app designations—they've changed up over the years I've been testing Pixlr, and all of them are included in the one subscription.

While splitting different features out into somewhat separate apps can be annoying, it does make Pixlr very user-friendly. Pixlr Designer is the most Canva-like, as you select a template and customize it to fit your needs—but you can also open whatever you're designing in Pixlr Editor or Pixlr Express. That way, you've got access to more powerful image editing tools and generative AI features like a background replacer and image generator. 

If you've got the budget for Canva or Adobe Express, Pixlr probably isn't the tool for you. But I can't help but be charmed by it—rough edges and all—and it's the best bang-for-your-buck graphic design tool I've tested.

Pixlr pricing: Free for 3 saves per day and limited AI use; from $2.49/month (billed monthly) for the Plus plan which includes an ad-free experience and 80 AI credits/month.

The best Canva alternative for photos and collages

BeFunky (Web, iOS, Android)

BeFunky pros: 

• A surprisingly powerful photo editor, AI filter app, and collage maker

BeFunky cons:

• Graphic design tools aren't as good as Canva's

If you're mostly looking for a Canva alternative so you can edit photos and turn them into collages or use AI to convert them to oil paintings or other artsy efects, whether for sharing to social media or even printing out, then BeFunky is well worth a look. 

Like Pixlr, BeFunky splits its tools across a number of apps. In this case, Photo Editor, Collage Maker, and Graphic Designer. Images you edit or use AI filters on in the Photo Editor are available in the Collage Maker and Graphic Designer. Similarly, create a collage and save it to BeFunky, and you can use it as part of something in the Graphic Designer.

While the Graphic Designer has a small fraction of the templates available through Canva, it's still a decent app. But it's the Photo Editor and Collage Maker where BeFunky stands out. 

The Photo Editor is legitimately good. It's got a mix of traditional photo editing tools and AI-powered options, and you can use it to do almost anything you want to your images. And I'm not just talking simple edits—it's got tools to replace one color with another, restore old photos, erase objects, or make your photo look like a comic book spread or watercolor painting.

Similarly, the Collage Maker works really well. The Collage Wizard can take a group of photos and automatically arrange them so they work seamlessly without needing to be cropped, or you can use one of the dozens of preset layouts. 

While certainly a niche use, if you want a Canva-like app for editing your images and creating designs to showcase them, BeFunky is easy to recommend. 

BeFunky pricing: Free plan includes basic editing tools; from $14.99/month (billed monthly) for all features.

The best Canva alternative for print designs

VistaCreate (Web, iOS, Android)

VistaCreate pros:

• Integrates with VistaPrint for web printing

VistaCreate cons: 

• Not as feature-filled or flexible as Canva or Adobe Express

Many graphic designs are never printed: you create something for social media or to use as the header image for a blog post or in an ad. Of the dozens of designs I create for various reasons each year, I print just two or three. But if you're a more frequent printer, then VistaCreate is worth a look. 

VistaCreate is a design app from VistaPrint, one of the largest commercial printing companies in the world. While it's a solid Canva alternative, with templates for things like social media posts, podcast covers, and other digital designs, it's the integration with VistaPrint's web printing service that really sets it apart. There are thousands of print-ready templates for posters, certificates, thank-you cards, business cards, brochures, and almost anything else you can imagine. There's even an AI image generator should you need to create something truly out there.

Of course, you can always use Canva to design things and print them with VistaPrint—or even print them directly with Canva. But if you want the most seamless possible workflow for creating professional posters and other printed marketing materials, VistaCreate is hard to overlook. 

VistaCreate pricing: Free Starter plan includes 100,000 templates plus 10 GB of file storage; from $13/month (billed monthly) for the Pro plan, which includes advanced editing tools, team features, 100 AI image generator credits, and unlimited storage.

The best Canva alternative for small teams

Desygner (Web)

Desygner pros: 

• Very affordable for small teams

• Quick and easy to use

Desygner cons:

• Not as powerful as other apps

Desygner is another Canva alternative that's aimed at SMBs. It's slightly less powerful and doesn't have the same overwhelming number of resources, but it's still worth a look if you want something quick and easy to use.

Desygner's Auto Design feature makes it super fast to customize any of the templates. You just upload an image, write in some text, and it does the rest. It's a really easy way to get something to 95% done in a single click. 

The other thing Desygner has going for it is that it's very affordable for a team. The Pro+ plan costs $12.95/month and includes six seats as well as an AI image generator and a few other AI features. The Business plan at $29.95/month for six seats adds more powerful team features, like asset libraries and template collections; it's worth upgrading to if you want a more organized and repeatable workflow.

Desygner pricing: Free plan includes basic editing tools; from $14.99/month (billed monthly) for all features.

The best Canva alternative for videos

Clipchamp (Web, Windows, iOS)

Clipchamp pros: 

• A great video-focused Canva alternative

• Works in a browser without issues

Clipchamp cons:

• Really just for videos

While Canva isn't best known as a video editor, there are still thousands of templates that cover everything from Instagram Stories and TikTok videos to YouTube Q&As and highlight reels. It works fine, but if you want a more robust video editing workflow, then Clipchamp is the tool for you.

Clipchamp ticks a lot of the same boxes as Canva, but with a much bigger focus on video editing. The Microsoft-owned app works in any Chromium browser including Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge. There are thousands of free and premium templates covering almost every video use case you can think of. Crucially, the multi-track editor is far better than Canva's. I wouldn't attempt to edit a video longer than a few seconds using Canva, but would have no problem using Clipchamp to edit a long-form video essay for YouTube. 

Clipchamp also has a great free plan. If you don't use any premium assets, you can export your videos in 1080p without watermarks. There's also AI subtitles and voiceovers, and even AI video editing that will automatically combine photos and videos into a short video ready for social media.

Clipchamp pricing: Free plan includes free resources and all editing features; from $11.99/month (billed monthly) for 4K exports, premium resources, and brand kits.

Other apps like Canva worth considering

Depending on what you're trying to create, there are some other alternatives to Canva that are worth considering.

• Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and the rest of the Creative Cloud. While Adobe's major apps come with a serious learning curve, they're incredibly powerful and allow you to create absolutely any kind of design you need. 

• Fotor is an affordable Canva alternative. It's pretty similar to Pixlr, though its free plan isn't as good. 

• And if you use Canva for presentations more than graphic design, any of the best presentation apps or AI presentation makers can serve as a solid alternative.

Which Canva alternative should you choose?

As is probably pretty clear by now, I'm a big fan of Adobe Express. It's the Canva alternative that I personally use and obviously recommend checking it out first. But the other apps on this list are all also worth trying. They all have some kind of free plan or trial, so if any of them sound like they might suit your needs, give them a go. Or maybe you stick with Canva—if it works, it works.

Related reading:

• The best free graphic design software to create social media posts

• 40+ best digital marketing tools 

• The best free photo editors

• The best AI photo editors

• How to make a website on Canva

This article was originally published in June 2024. The most recent update was in June 2025.