Canva vs. Pixabay

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.

Pixabay is excellent for those trying to create content on a budget, whether for yourself or for a client. It has a huge library of high-quality images and videos for use in creative applications. Beyond that, Pixabay also has a library of free music and sound effects, which is enormously helpful for people trying to create content on a budget without worrying about getting in copyright trouble. Also, due to the fact that you can sort images by "transparent," it's easy to find cut-out images to use in composites.

• Canva exports in a wide variety of software extensions in exceptionally high quality images. The pro license even allows .svg and background-less exports.
• Canva's pro license has a terrific set of available fonts that are easily matched or are exact matches to other web fonts. Basically, in a word, Canva gives its (pro) customers an easy-to-use and cross-compatible set of design options. Everything is customizable.
• For me, Canva shines in its usability. There are variety of preset, pre-sized canvases. As a designer, marketer, presenter, educational technologist or even if you are just getting started, Canva has its UI and UX geared toward each level of user.
• Canva's strengths are with its original features and the fact that even the most novice user can produce a professional looking design in little time.

Incentivized

• Pixabay License: Pixabay has its own license which allows the use of the content for commercial and personal use without any attribution. However, attribution supports the talented creators behind the content.
• Pricing: Pixabay is completely free for everyone.
• High-resolution: Photos and videos on Pixabay are of high resolution, especially several videos in 4K, which makes them perfect to use in bigger projects.

• 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.

Incentivized

• One thing that kind of sticks out is that with so much to choose from, you can feel overwhelmed.
• Some of the photos I sometimes can find separately by googling. In the music business, it seems like many photos rotate on the web so there isn't as much to pick from.
• I didn't see an option for more vertical videos for use in Instagram or TikTok.

Incentivized

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

Incentivized

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.

Incentivized

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.

Incentivized

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

Incentivized

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.

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.

Incentivized

Adobe products, well compared to Canva has a wide and long learning curve. Adobe spark almost comes close to Canva but lacks these tiny features that Canva focuses on to make the product irresistible to use. Canva also does a great job organizing and recording the designs in cloud so that it might increase the efficiency of Social Media management. Canva also provides features for designing ebooks, travel brochures etc which couldn't be easily done in Adobe. So finally, from a personal perspective, Canva ended up being the first choice.

Pexels is free and fully licensed for commercial use, as is Unsplash to a certain extent. I generally open all 3 to search for free stock images for budget-sensitive clients; that being said, I always find myself searching Pixabay first. They have the best user interface of the three and generally have the best image options. Adobe, Shutterstock, and iStock have better images, and I use those for clients who are less budget-sensitive.

Incentivized

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

Incentivized

• I think Canva has had a very positive impact on our designs in that there is consistency with colors and fonts and approved school logos across all publications.
• Since I am a only one user of many, I can't really speak about reduced costs or risk mitigation. But, I believe it has increased efficiency because our media department can access the designs done by other departments easily and make changes or corrections as necessary to keep the "brand" consistent.
• I have not tried to use it on my phone, but I would think it would make it easy to work on designs no matter where you are.

Incentivized

• We don't lose any money trying to buy images
• Our videos get more views if we put the good quality images we find in Pixaby
• The posts we make with their images always get a professional aspect, and get more engagement from a diverse social media users.

Incentivized