If you are searching for a feature-filled graphic design app that is easy to use, you should consider Canva and Adobe Spark. In this comparison guide, we will compare these two online design tools and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of both platforms.
Canva. Design for everyone.
In a visual world, Canva Pro makes it easy for anyone to achieve their goals and create professional designs with premium content and features like Brand Kit, Background Remover, and more.
Adobe Spark offers a variety of options for creating visuals, including webpages, videos, and graphics. It has an extensive range of customizable templates and design options that are easy to use, even for those without design experience. Additionally, Adobe Spark can be integrated with other Adobe products, such as Photoshop and Illustrator, making it an ideal choice for professional designers.
Canva is a web-based design tool that allows users to create visuals quickly and easily by providing them with ready-made templates they can customize according to their needs. Although it doesn’t offer as many advanced features as Adobe Spark, it’s still a great option for beginners who want to create visually appealing designs without learning complicated software tools. Additionally, Canva provides access to stock images so users can easily find images that match their style or message.
Adobe Spark and Canva are powerful tools for creating visuals to help you engage with your audience and promote your products or services. Ultimately, the right one will depend on your specific needs and preferences.
If you’re looking for an advanced design tool with many customizability options, then Adobe Spark could be the right choice; however, if you’re starting out or don’t have time to learn complex software, then Canva might be more suitable. Whichever one you choose, please take advantage of its capabilities, so you can create amazing visuals!
Platform
One of the main differences between these two platforms is their page editor.
Canva
The editor of Canva allows users to drag and drop design elements anywhere and easily. On the left, you will find everything that will help you with the design of your projects. If you look to the right, you will see real-time previews of your designs. Canva is perfect for complete beginners who have never created their designs before.
Adobe Spark
The interface of Adobe Spark is similar to Canva’s interface. However, there are still some differences. For example, their page editor can be found on the right side of the screen, while real-time editing previews – are on the left side. In general, it is possible to say that the platforms of Adobe Spark and Canva are very similar, though the platform of Adobe Spark needs some improvements.
Performance
Since both Canva and Adobe Spark are cloud-based apps, a good internet connection is required to use them.
Canva has many great features, but it can lag, depending on the speed of the internet, the type of computer used, and the size of RAM.
There is a similar situation with Adobe Spark, but it can even lag when using premade templates. Therefore, it is possible to say that in terms of performance, Canva is a bit better – there are fewer glitches.
I run my software on a MacBook Pro and have no lag time with Canva.
Features and Design Tools
Canva
One of the best things about Canva is its many different features and tools. They include a professional brand kit, over 21,000 videos, over 3,5 million graphic elements, video and photo editing capabilities, one-click size capabilities, the ability to create GIFs and animations, storage of up to 100 GB, and others.
Adobe Spark
Adobe Spark is similar to Canva. It has similar tools and features, though some differences and variations exist. In addition to the features Canva has, Adobe Spark also offers text overlays, cross-device syncing, custom brand designs, and others.
Plugins and Integrations
Canva integrates with many other apps, including Google Drive, Dropbox, ColorMix, Pixabay, Pexels, social media websites, etc. In addition, Canva also has a WordPress plugin that can connect your website with Canva. As a result, you can add your designs to your website easily. Adobe Spark integrates with certain apps, such as Drupal, Hubspot CRM, OneNote, Canvas, etc.
Price
Here is the price for both of these apps:
Canva
If you’re looking to take your design skills up a notch, then the paid version of Canva, called Canva Pro, might be worth investing in. It offers a number of additional features and benefits that can enhance your designs. These include access to over 60 million stock images, creating and saving your design templates, advanced features such as color palette customization and animation tools, and much more! It also provides unlimited storage space so that your designs are always backed up in case anything happens.
What’s more, with Canva Pro, you can collaborate with others on shared projects in real time. This makes it much easier for teams to work together on projects without worrying about losing any progress if someone accidentally deletes something or saves over another person’s work! Plus, there’s even a free trial period to test out the Pro version before committing fully.
Many of Canva’s features are available for free, including the following:
- 25,000 templates
- Thousands of graphics and photos
- Access to social media posts and presentations
- 5 GB of cloud storage
- Possibility to comment and collaborate in real-time.
The app also offers premium features, and its pricing plan goes like this:
Canva has plans ranging from free to $149.90 for a team of up to 5.
If you unlock a premium membership, the following features become available: the ability to upload your logos and fonts, a one-click resize feature, access to over 75 million premium stock photos, audio, and videos, and 100GB of cloud storage space. In addition, you can schedule social media content to seven platforms and save designs as templates to use later.
When it comes down to choosing between Canva Free and Pro versions, much depends on your individual needs and budget constraints. If you’re getting started out with graphic design projects, then the free version should provide plenty of features for creating stunning visuals quickly and easily. However, if you need more advanced features, such as collaboration tools or access to more than 500k stock images, you will probably want to consider upgrading to the Pro version of Canva.
Either way, one thing is certain – with Canva, your visual content will be taken up a notch!
Adobe Spark
The approach of Adobe Spark towards premium pricing is different. It also has a free plan, but its features are minimal. Users receive access to the premium features when they pay for an individual account.
A personal account costs $9.99 per month or $99.99 per year. Adobe Spark also offers a 14-day free trial period, during which you can try all the premium features and decide whether you need them or not.
The individual plan of Adobe Spark includes the following:
- Access to thousands of icons and images that you can use for your designs
- Access to Adobe Fonts and other templates
- Possibility to personalize your projects with fonts, colors, and logos.
In addition, you can also create from branded themes and templates, and create, manage, and share your designs with Photoshop libraries in Spark.
There is also one critical difference between these two apps: online Canva, and Adobe Spark has an additional fee that you will have to pay if you want to add new team members.
When it comes to pricing, Canva is better:
- Because it has an excellent free plan with numerous valuable features.
- Adobe Spark’s fee for adding new team members is almost twice higher.
- There is also an additional fee that you have to pay to remove Adobe Spark’s watermark.
Usability
Usability is how users can use an app to achieve specific goals. It also includes how easy the content is available and whether it is available offline.
Canva
Canva has both advantages and disadvantages in usability. First, many users find the template search process quite challenging.
It is difficult for some users to find the templates they need. In addition, some users struggle with design elements and editing text.
Adobe Spark
There are also some problems that the users of Adobe Spark report. One of them is the embed functionality. Users usually experience this problem when they embed self-hosted videos on Spark’s platform.
Also, even though Adobe Spark has the building website feature, it cannot create multi-page websites, which is considered a severe disadvantage.
Stock Photos
Stock photos are images that are already prepared for use. First, they are created without a particular concept or project in mind. Then, they are licensed to individuals and organizations for use on their websites, book coverings, packages, etc.
Canva
Canva provides access to thousands of stock photos that you can use for creating your designs. While selecting stock photos, you can stay inside the app’s editor to test your design elements against the stock images seamlessly.
Adobe Spark
The approach of Adode Spark to working with stock photos is different. To use a stock photo in your editor, you must first add it to your image library.
That means that Adobe Spark has several impressive integrations that can be used on your project. In addition, it is also integrated with the popular stock photo collection – Unsplash.
The collection of Unsplash includes over 2 million photos from more than 207,000 photographers.
Conclusion
Canva and Adobe Spark are great design apps with many advantages and useful features.
However, it is essential to consider certain things to choose which is better for you and address your needs and expectations.
It is recommended to choose Canva if you need a simple graphic design tool. However, Adobe Spark would be a perfect choice if you need an app to design a webpage or edit your videos.
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