After over 2 years using Canva Pro virtually every day, I decided it was time to give the community my honest thoughts towards Canva premium by writing a super in-depth Canva Pro Review.
Is Canva Pro worth it, or does the Canva Free Trial offer more than enough resources?
Come find out.
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Table of Contents
Is Canva Pro Worth It?
An Introduction to Canva Pro
Watch This Video Before Starting
What is Canva.com?
In short: Graphic Design Made Easy
Every blogger knows the importance of being on-brand in everything we do.
Having stunning graphics not only looks professional, but also it gives life to your website and increases your online presence as a whole.
If you’re totally new to blogging, know that Canva will be your best friend, even if you opt for the Canva free version.
But what is Canva… you might be wondering?
In short, Canva is a Freemium graphic design platform that easily allows users easily to create gorgeous social media graphics, presentations, posters and a variety of visual content.
It is available both on web and on mobile, integrating millions of images, videos, fonts, templates, and illustrations.
Users don’t need any prior Graphic Designer experience to start using Canva.
It is so easy that it is dangerously addicting.
If you don’t set limit of daily Canva usage, you risk spending hours creating beautiful graphics.
The Concept of Time for Bloggers
Be it if you are new to blogging or if you have been blogging for a while, we all want the same thing at the end of the day:
MORE TIME.
And maximizing your time + efficiency is fundamentally a quicker way towards success (ever wondered why Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg only wear the same shirt?)
Small mundane tasks add up and can be extremely costly in the long-run.
Companies spend millions of dollars in research to find bottlenecks that are as inefficient as 5 seconds because they understand how these seconds lost can add up to hours.
That is why you, as a sole blogger, absolutely MUST pay attention to your time.
Every minute in your day is important and should not be thrown away.
Aim to maximize your time and cut out tasks that are not giving you a ROI.
Canva Pro Tutorial for Beginners, Step-by-Step Guide by Socially Nina Thomas
What’s the Difference Between Canva Free and Canva Pro?
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so here is a quick comparison of features from each:
Now we will go individually through each of these features and talk a little about them.
Canva Pro Review: What Are The Benefits of Canva Pro ?
Brand Kit Features
I will start with the BIG reason why I decided to upgrade (and never looked back since): the Brand Kit feature available on Canva Pro.
Canva Pro allows you to save your brand’s Style Guide. This means, you don’t have to search your font or insert your brand’s color hex code every time you are designing something.
This is one of my favorite elements and is such a HUGE time saver (and a big reason I decided to write this Canva Pro review).
Beow you can see how your Canva Pro Style Guide shows up when you are editing:
Store your color palette, add your main fonts, upload your own fonts, and save your logos.
This way, whenever you’re creating a new design everything you need is easily accessible.
The (Famous) Magic Resize Button
Reason #2 that made me do the switch was the resizing button.
As bloggers we are all too familiar with the importance of repurposing content to maximize your reach in all platforms.
However, as each platform has a different format and sizing features, re-creating designs again can get tiring VERY fast.
All you need to do is hit the resize button and it instantly copies all your work into a new template at the right size for your desired platform.
WOWZAAAA
That is why I live for the resize button.
With one single click, I transform my Instagram story into a Facebook post, into a YouTube banner, a Freebie cover, etc.
The time I save is now otherwise invested into creating more content that is valuable for my audience, such as this Canva Pro review post. 🙂
Photos Pro: Unltimited High-Quality Photos (and Videos)
If you’re thinking Cava Pro will be yet another cost to your already ever-growing fixed costs, know that by having Canva Pro you have access to a library of high-quality stock images at your disposal.
If you’re currently paying for another website for stock photos alone, now you can cancel your subscription and have it all with Canva Pro.
You’re welcome 🙂
P.S. With Canva’s free version, you also have access to a (limited) number of pictures.
These pictures however can get very repetitive, since everyone who uses Canva Free version usually goes for the same images.
Update:
On April 2020, Canva has announced that it has unlocked ALL of its stock images for all its Canva Pro users, at no extra cost.
No more extra fees and watermarks EVER.
This further means having a library with over 60 MILLION stunning stock images.
You probably won’t find another stock photos website for that price
(if you do, please let me know in the comments section).
Unlimited Folders Storage
Another HUGE reason I needed Canva Pro was to be able to save my designs and not have to start from scratch every time.
With Canva Pro, you can save your favorite designs as templates, which is a great way to keep creating graphics aligned to your personal branding.
With Canva Pro, you can get unlimited storage for all of your assets, photos, and designs compared to the 1 GB of storage the regular plan offers.
Also, you have unlimited folders to save your designs, so you can categorize your projects by group (which will also allow you to save time).
Access To More Fonts
With Canva Pro you can have access to 1000+ fonts.
And if you still don’t like ANY of the beautiful fonts that Canva Pro offers, you have the option of uploading your favorite font into Canva.
I want my Pinterest graphics to stand out and it’s so much easier to do that when I have more options to choose from instead of the basic free Canva fonts.
Create Animations and get GIFs with Canva Pro
Another Canva Pro feature is the ability to create animations and GIFs.
These are perfect for Instagram, Facebook Posts, online invites, or even Pinterest now that they allow video pins!
Check out this quick animated blog design that I did in under 2 minutes using Canva Pro:
Thousands of New options of Elements to Choose From
You can now add so many more elements to your designs.
Choose roma variety of frames, lines, icons, illustrations, charts and gradients.
Transparent Background (sooo useful)
Last but certainly NOT least, Canva Pro allows you to create designs with transparent backgrounds.
Whatever photo you upload, the background attached to the photo won’t show.
Then, you can use it anywhere you want on your website or add a different background to the image.
This is a great feature as well if you wish to create your logo yourself (such as I did).
I created my logo in Canva then removed the background.
This gives you a lot more flexibility with what you can do with your designs.
Templates Pro
The reason I love Canva so much is because you don’t have to be creative. Or have a single clue about Graphic Design to get started.
Canva makes it super simple to create amazing, on-brand designs with its templates.
And they just keep adding more and more templates, so it never gets boring.
There’s literally thousands of templates for every platform you can think of.
Unlimited Uploads
With Canva Pro you have up to 100Gb storage so you’ll never run out of space for all your favorite images and templates.
Backgrounds Pro
Now you get access to over 1k+ different backgrounds which are much more advanced than the selection we had before.
So manyyyyy different options to choose from.
From patterns and gradients, to textures and photos.
There is something that’s suited to every style and branding design.
Canva Pricing | How Much Does Canva Pro Cost?
Canva Pro is currently priced at 8.99 annually, or 11.99 monthly.
Honestly, there are so many features that I feel I owe Canva money for so many awesome options.
If you’re wondering which one I went for, I decided for the annual version
(and I haven’t regretted one single cent).
Should You Upgrade to the Canva Pro Plan?
So.. is Canva Pro worthit?
As you can see from this Canva Pro review, there are thousands of amazing reasons to upgrade from Canva’s freemium version.
From being able to save your style guide and save hours of design time, to having a huge library of premium fonts, stock photos, etc, there are hundreds of reasons to upgrade.
If you need Canva to create Pins it can be especially valuable, especially in 2021 with Pinterest’s algorithm change that favors fresh pins.
Now more than ever you absolutely must save Pin graphic design time to be able to create a lot of high-quality pins in as little time as possible.
Canva Trial – Here’s Your Chance!
Start your Canva Subscription today for FREE.
GET A 30-DAY CANVA PRO FREE TRIAL
Cancel Your Canva Subscription at any Time!
I hope this Canva Pro review was useful to help you decide it is worth it upgrading your account to Canva Pro’s features.
Comment below your favorite Canva Pro feature.
OTHER USEFUL BLOG RESOURCES:
Planning to start your own blog? That’s exciting!
To help you get started, find a domain name and a server on Blue Host today and start your own website for as little as 2,90/month!
If you would like detailed tips, check out my step by step guide to start a blog.
Have an existing blog in need of powerful growth?
Check out some services I use and love:
- Tailwind: Pinterest + Instagram scheduling tool
- Envato Market: Premium blog templates (the one I use)
- Canva – Ridiculously easy Graphic Design
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