Canva vs. Figma – a debate that has been going on for some time now among professional designers and business owners looking to find the best tool for their design needs. But with so many features and advantages offered by both tools, it can be challenging to decide which one will work better in different scenarios.
Canva and Figma are both popular design tools with different focuses. Canva is geared towards non-designers who want to create simple graphics and designs quickly and easily, while Figma is aimed at professional designers who need more advanced collaboration and prototyping features. Ultimately, the choice between the two depends on your specific needs and design goals.
In this blog post, we'll compare Canva and Figma side-by-side, exploring their key features and when they should be used over the other option. We’ll also look at alternatives if neither platform meets your requirements – so stay tuned!
Canva Overview
Canva is a user-friendly yet powerful graphic design tool that allows users to craft visually-appealing projects with its drag-and-drop tools and built-in templates. It offers features such as photo editing, logo creation, and more.
Today, the Canva design platform has a complete Work Suite with useful applications to create documents, presentations, social media graphics, websites, and more. Its core value, though, remains in the design of visual marketing materials.
More in-depth info: Canva Pro Review
Features & Benefits:
Canva provides an extensive library of stock images, illustrations, fonts, shapes, icons, and more graphic elements that are fully customizable. Its easy-to-navigate interface makes it a breeze for even inexperienced designers to utilize its vast array of visual elements and pre-defined templates to craft stunning visuals in no time.
They also have advanced features, such as color palettes, background removal, and more photo editing tools to have other aspects of your design personalized.
Canva enables users to collaborate on their designs with others, allowing them to comment or chat in real-time. Their latest addition of Whiteboards, with an endless canvas and full collaborative features including sticky notes, comments, and more, is perfect for brainstorming ideas and later transforming them into full-blown projects (A whiteboard can be converted to a design for a different purpose, too).
The Canva Brand Kit is a very useful feature for small businesses. It lets you set up your brand colors, logo, and other brand identity elements once and apply them automatically to all your designs. Furthermore, users can save their work as templates that can be used again in future projects without starting from scratch every time.
Pros & Cons:
One of the most significant advantages of using Canva is that it is more visually oriented and thus has a lot of photo editing tools. Another important benefit is that it englobes various apps in one platform, saving you the hassle of using presentation tools or infographic makers on the side.
Plus, it’s free for basic functions like image editing or logo creation and has limited free access to other more advanced features.
Still, paid plans are available if you need premium features like premium imagery, additional fonts or graphics packs, and more. However, one downside is that some of the most useful advanced features, like automatic image resizing or intelligent background removal, are not free compared to other software tools like Adobe Creative Cloud Express.
Pricing:
There are three different pricing plans offered by Canva – Free Plan (limited access), Pro Plan ($12.99/month), and Teams Plan (starts at $15.99/month for up to 5 people). The Canva Pro plan gives you access to all the premium features, including unlimited downloads of premium content and unlimited storage space. The Teams plan includes everything in the Pro subscription but adds a few special features for multi-user functionality.
Here you can learn more about Canva pricing!
And if you're unsure if you need the free or the premium version, our Canva free vs. paid analysis will help you decide.
If you're after something more oriented to prototyping and more complex designs like UX and wireframes, then Figma could be the better option. Let's delve into the depths of its features.
Figma Overview
Figma is a vector editing and prototyping tool with a collaborative interface that allows real-time collaboration. It provides features like vector editing, prototyping, collaboration tools, and more. This quick overview will discuss the features and benefits of Figma, its pros and cons, and pricing options.
Features & Benefits:
Figma offers a wide range of features for designers to easily develop their professional or personal projects. Vector editing capabilities allow users to edit individual elements from a graphic as much as they like without losing quality or altering the proportions of the entire design.
This is a more sophisticated tool with functions for complex graphic design, such as a pen tool to draw lines and shapes and CSS support to completely edit the layout of their premade graphic elements, among others. It also includes ready made templates, and you can upload your own design elements with endless canvas enabled.
Prototyping enables users to create interactive designs without writing code. Collaboration tools make it easy for teams to share designs and ideas and provide feedback on each other’s work in real time from anywhere in the world. Versioning also ensures that modifications over time are traceable, thus allowing all involved to stay abreast of the most recent progress.
Additionally, Figma has multiple plugins to connect the tool to third-party software and expand your workflow possibilities.
Pros & Cons:
One major advantage of using Figma is its capacity to design website mockups, user flows, and other projects of added complexity. Furthermore, since all files are stored online, there’s no need to download large software packages or worry about compatibility issues between different versions of the same program across multiple devices.
However, Figma has a steep learning curve –as complex tools tend to have– and if you’re not a designer, it can take some time to master it. Plus, you will find that certain advanced functions are not available in Figma yet due to its relatively young age compared with more established competitors. For example, with a Figma account, you can only design websites but can’t build them.
Pricing:
Figma offers both free plans as well as paid ones. The free version includes access to basic vector editing tools, unlimited personal files, and collaborators, but not much more. The paid plans start at $15/mo per person, and they offer additional features such as sharing permissions, unlimited version history, an increased number of editors/projects/team members allowed, etc.
Figma is a powerful, complex design tool that offers users many advantages, making it an ideal selection for those seeking to cooperate on prototyping designs. Now let's make a Canva and Figma comparison regarding design tools, collaboration capabilities, user interface, and usability.
Comparison of Canva vs Figma
Canva and Figma are two of the most popular design tools available today. Both these design tools present an array of possibilities for clean and compelling design, yet distinct distinctions between them make one more apt for specific jobs than the other. In this comparison, we'll look at how Canva and Figma compare in terms of design tools & functionality, collaboration & sharing capabilities, user interface & usability, and more.
Design Tools & Functionality:
Canva is an easy tool for visual design that offers an extensive library of templates for web graphics such as logos, banners, social media posts, business cards, and flyers. Its drag-and-drop editor has such flexibility that it helps improve productivity considerably as it gets things done quickly, especially for those without previous design knowledge. It’s ideal for designing visuals for social media platforms, as well as for video designs to use in marketing or creative purposes.
On the other hand, Figma is more focused on vector graphics and prototyping. With its robust selection of drawing tools, including shapes and lines, and various advanced editing options, it is a much more powerful application for handling intricate projects. Moreover, with the capacity for plugins from third-party sources, its capabilities can even further be extended.
Collaboration & Sharing:
When it comes to collaboration, both Canva and Figma have great features that allow multiple users to work together on projects in real-time without any issues or delays due to lag or network problems. Both platforms provide commenting systems so team members can discuss ideas directly within their documents, making communication much easier during the creative process. Where Figma goes one step further than Canva, is with their addition of audio conversations, which are available in paid plans only.
User Interface & Usability:
The user interfaces for both platforms are intuitive. Still, there are some differences between them regarding usability factors such as navigation menus or toolbar placement, etc. For example, Canva’s UI is designed around quick-access panels. At the same time, Figma’s is based around tabs allowing users to switch between different sections quickly without having to search through menus whenever they need something specific. Ultimately, these minor differences won't affect overall productivity too much since each platform provides all necessary functions needed for successful designing regardless of working alone or collaborating with others remotely.
Overall, both Canva and Figma offer great solutions for digital design needs, whether looking for simple graphic creation tasks like social media design or complicated UX designs involving multiple users.
It's critical to assess your project specifications and contrast how they align with the two in terms of design tools & functionality, collaboration & sharing, user interface & usability – which we'll delve into further – to decide which is optimal for you.
When to Use Canva vs Figma?
Regarding professional design projects, Canva and Figma are two of the most popular tools available. Both platforms offer vast options, rendering them suitable for various types of users and ventures. So, when should you use Canva vs. Figma?
For Professional Designers
For experienced designers who need more advanced tools than what’s offered in Canva, Figma is the better choice. It offers powerful vector-based design capabilities with support for multiple layers and effects. Its collaboration features make it easy to work on complex designs with other team members or clients in real time.
For Non-Designers & Beginners
If you’re new to graphic design or don’t have any experience using software like Photoshop or Illustrator, Canva is probably your best bet. Canva's user-friendly drag-and-drop interface makes it a cinch to produce gorgeous visuals, even for those with little to no knowledge of graphic design fundamentals and strategies.
Creative Teams
When working on larger projects involving multiple people from different locations collaborating, both Canva and Figma can be advantageous depending on the type of project being worked on. For instance, if you are constructing an infographic, then Canva might be a more suitable option due to its extensive library of templates and assets; conversely, when designing a website then, Figma would likely prove more beneficial as it has advanced layout features such as grids and columns which are essential for web development tasks.
Regarding creating designs, both Canva and Figma offer great features for different types of users. Yet, which of the two tools is more appropriate for your project and expertise with design software may vary. To explore even more options when designing digital projects, let's look at some alternatives to Canva & Figma in the next section.
Alternatives to Canva & Figma
Adobe Creative Cloud Express is a powerful yet simple design tool used by professionals worldwide. It features simplified versions of the most useful features in Adobe’s flagship, professional-grade tools, including Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign, enabling users to easily craft stunning visuals for print and digital media. The intuitive, user-friendly interface and Adobe's collection of templates and tutorials make it effortless to kick-start your creative journey, allowing you to generate amazing designs with no prior experience necessary. Read our full Adobe Express review! And see how it compares to Canva in our Adobe Express vs Canva breakdown!
Sketch App is another popular design tool used by many professionals in the industry today. Sketch provides features such as vector drawing tools, text styling options, and layer effects that allow users to create complex illustrations or web pages easily. Moreover, Sketch offers a host of plugins to extend its capabilities even more. Sketch offers a significant advantage with its ability to generate output in different formats, such as PDFs and SVG files, which can be employed on other platforms, such as websites or mobile applications.
FAQs about Canva Vs. Figma
Are Canva and Figma competitors?
No, Canva and Figma are not competitors. While both platforms offer design tools inserted in the same industry, they serve different purposes. Canva is a graphic design platform that enables users to create social media graphics, presentations, posters, and other visual content. Figma, in contrast, is a collaborative platform for designing user interfaces and mockups that teams of designers employ to construct web and mobile applications. Though they possess distinct qualities, Canva and Figma do not vie with one another in terms of use or operation, and users usually don’t go for both for the same projects.
Do professional designers use Canva?
Yes, professional designers use Canva. While it’s a tool intended for non-designers, its ease of use and professional templates, along with its collaborative features, make it an attractive option for professionals who want to create beautiful visuals faster and without too much effort.
Is Canva good for UX design?
Canva can be used to design simple user interfaces for the web, but it’s not a recommended tool for more complex UX design, as it lacks the capabilities and features to handle such projects.
Do graphic designers use Figma?
Yes, Figma is a popular design tool many graphic designers use, primarily for its vector-editing functionality. When professionals need to work with vector illustrations, Figma is a good alternative to more expensive and more complex software applications such as Adobe Illustrator or Adobe InDesign.
Canva vs Figma = Simple Visuals vs Complex Designs
In conclusion, Canva and Figma are both great tools for graphic design. Both provide an expansive selection of features to facilitate creators in generating captivating visuals with rapidity and effortlessness. Nevertheless, depending on the project specifications, one may be more suitable than the other.
If you need more complex vector editing capabilities and advanced UX designing, Figma is your best bet.
Canva, on the other hand, is great for creating breathtaking visuals for all kinds of purposes, including marketing, advertising, and even educational content.
Ultimately, deciding which one is the best designing app between Canva vs Figma, is entirely down to your project’s needs and your personal preferences.
Which one are you choosing?
