Are you a newbie in graphic design and looking for an affordable and high-functioning platform to create stunning graphics? Then Adobe Express and Canva will be best suited for you. Even seasoned graphic designers swear by them and you can first try out their free version before investing in the paid subscriptions. Do you want to get a full-fledged comparison and overview of Adobe Express vs Canva? Then we got you covered!
In this blog, we have done an in-depth comparison of Adobe Express vs Canva exploring some of their most important aspects and features. So let’s get started!
What is Canva?
Canva is one of the most popular, mostly free, web-based design tools that is preferred by professionals and beginners alike. It has a user-friendly interface and comes loaded with lots of features that allow users to create stunning digital designs. You can access Canva easily from a web browser or Android and iOS applications.
It is best suited for beginners who want to learn the knick-knacks of graphic design before delving into the complexities of other design platforms. Even students and learners can use it for designing project pages and charts using the drag-and-drop interface. Users who are not working in creative positions and do not have any prior designing experience can also perform quick editing and designing tasks on Canva.
What is Adobe Express?
Adobe Express is one of the most popular designing platforms that is preferred by designers worldwide for creating unique and attractive graphic content. Not only does it have a robust interface, but the feature set is professional, unique, and interesting which graphic designers really enjoy. You can mostly access it from the web browser, but the team is working to bring an application to your fingertips real soon!
With Adobe Express, you can create some unique and stunning graphics for social media posts and marketing materials like logos, posters, charts, and much more.
Main Premises of Comparison: Adobe Express vs Canva
- Interface
- Mobile App and Accessibility
- Pricing
- Feature Set
- Templates
- Content Planning and Scheduling
- Stock Photos
- Maintaining Brand Consistency
- Generative AI Features
- Third-Party Integrations
Adobe Express vs Canva: Rating and Comparison
| Feature Comparison | Adobe Express | Canva |
| Interface | ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ | ★★★★☆ |
| Mobile App and Accessibility | ✅ | ✅ |
| Pricing | $9.99 | $14.99 |
| Feature Set | ★★★★☆ | ★★★★☆ |
| Templates | 63,000 templates | 250,000 templates |
| Content Planning and Scheduling | ✅ | ✅ |
| Stock Photos | 200 million | 127 million |
| Maintaining Brand Consistency | ✅ | ✅ |
| Generative AI Features | ✅ | ✅ |
| Third-Party Integrations | Seamless Integration with Adobe Apps. | 300+ app integrations |
Interface: Adobe Express vs Canva
Both platforms are preferred by designers for their ease of use and navigability. You can find the essential controls for basic editing and designing quite close at hand. Especially the drag-and-drop editor features make them accessible to beginners as well. Let’s take an in-depth focus on the usability of both platforms.
Adobe Express User Interface- Features
- The newest version of Adobe Express has become more robust and easier to use. The interface is more user-friendly than Canva, and it is easier to navigate and organize.
- Adobe Express provides better layer controls than Canva. They are present right on the top-right corner of the screen so you can always access them easily.
- It is very easy to access other Adobe flagship application libraries and various file types like PSD, PDF, AI files, and more.
- It provides you with a whole menu to perform quick actions and one-click tasks, and you can do them faster and more easily. For example, resizing images, animating from audio, file conversion, removing background, and much more can be done quickly.
Canva User Interface- Features
- When you select elements on Canva, the ruler and pixel sizes like inch, millimeter, and pixels, are displayed on your canvas and you can modify them if you want. This comes in handy if you want to print posters or charts of exact sizes. This is one advantage that Canva has over Adobe Express.
- You can get several layer control features like selecting and moving layers.
- The template search process can be a bit challenging, and several users face difficulties while searching for specific templates.
- Even quick action keys like converting image files, creating QR codes, combining PDF pages, and other simple tasks require many extra steps. You either have to do it on the standard page editor or get help from third-party apps.
Verdict:
Canva is very impressive, especially for beginners who just want to create quick designs easily. However, Adobe Express wins when it comes to a robust and easy-to-use interface, accessible editing, and layer controls. It also helps maintain the workflow with its quick access to Adobe flagship applications.
Mobile App and Accessibility
Mobile apps are an added benefit because they allow lots of users to access the platforms anytime and anywhere. Let us look at how Adobe Express vs Canva performs in terms of mobile apps and accessibility.
Adobe Express- Features
- Adobe boasts of several robust mobile apps for its diverse products like Acrobat Reader and Photoshop, but it does not have a desktop application yet.
- It does have a mobile app for Android and it is quite easy to use. You can create quick graphics and short videos for social media, and also use generative AI tools for better results.
Canva- Features
- The mobile app is available for a diverse range of devices like Android phones and tablets, and iPhones and iPads.
- You can access lots of features on the app and even beginners can create attractive designs from the app itself, and share them instantly.
- You can use the app to do various tasks like modifying the filters on all kinds of images.
- The app also works with Siri to make your workflow more streamlined.
Verdict:
While Adobe Express still has a lot to do to up its game, the Canva app is popular among lots of users for its accessibility and ease of use. Beginners especially benefit from this app, as they can get many tasks done within minutes.
Pricing
Both Adobe Express and Canva have kept their pricing quite competitive as per the features that they offer.
Adobe Express Pricing
Canva Pricing
Verdict:
Both Adobe Express vs Canva have very competitive prices but Adobe hands down wins in this one for its affordability and price point. Of course, Canva is very generous with features and integrations even for users of the free tier, but Adobe is loved by seasoned designers and newbies alike for its professional, unique, and high-quality features.
Feature Set
While looking into Adobe Express vs Canva, we can come across several similarities and differences. However, both come with different feature sets that are unique and interesting in their own way and ultimately ease the work of their users. So let us explore the various features of Adobe Express vs Canva.
Adobe Express:
- Adobe comes with the Creative Cloud Express visual story editor through which you can create compelling videos and visual stories. You can use various types of visual elements like images, videos, icons, graphics, and more, arrange them accordingly, and apply cinematic effects to make stunning visual stories.
- Adobe Fonts packs and huge library of a wide range of designer fonts to enhance the typography of your designs. Adobe Express integrates seamlessly with it to provide a wide range of high-quality fonts that are attractive and stylish.
- It has an animated effects tool that you can easily add to photos and designs to animate them. The Creative Cloud also has a huge library of animations ready for use.
- The Social media graphics creator is another unique and interesting feature of Adobe Express. With the help of Creative Cloud Express, you can take your customization level a notch higher and amp up your social media game.
Canva:
- One of the most impressive features of Canva is its real-time collaboration aspect. It allows many devices to collaborate on projects and create better and faster results. You can collaborate with your whole team and create social media posts, campaign posts, other graphics, charts, and posters.
- You can ditch the flat backgrounds of your images and take the help of the Canva textured backgrounds tool and create unique and interesting designs.
- Canva has a built-in font library for both free and premium users that can make your designs more interactive and stunning.
- It offers a precise cropping tool that comes in handy when you are working with several images and want to apply uniform aspect features.
Verdict:
Both Adobe Express and Canva come with a unique feature set, and you can choose one according to your preferences. If you want a collaborative platform, Canva can be a good pick, while if you are looking for robust performance, Adobe shines through.
Templates
Templates are pre-designed digital assets that are easy to customize and work with. Both Adobe Express vs Canva come with several design templates that you can modify easily and create attractive graphics. They can help amp up your social media posts, and poster designs, and also help you design your CV. So let us explore this feature that the two platforms have to offer.
Adobe Express:
- Their template library has over 63,000 pre-made templates.
- Their range of templates is very popular among designers because they are professional, diverse, interesting, and attractive at the same time. They make use of bold colors, dynamic imagery, and different shapes.
- Thanks to its integration with Adobe Fonts, it can feature templates with animated texts.
Canva:
- You can access up to 250,000 templates on their free plan and more than 400,000 templates on their paid tiers.
- The templates are no doubt quite attractive and high-quality, but some of them can be repetitive.
- You can also customize the colors and images on these templates to suit your taste.
Verdict:
When it comes to quality, Canva wins fair and square. But the pre-made templates of Adobe Express is also quite popular among designers for their professional and unique designs and high quality.
Content Planning and Scheduling
Many designers use Adobe Express vs Canva to create impressive designs and often want to post directly to social media platforms. Both platforms provide ample features not only for directly sharing on social platforms but also for planning and scheduling the content and enhancing their social media strategies.
Adobe Express:
- Unlike Canva, this feature is available on the free plan.
- You have several content planning tools right at your fingertips and you can directly schedule posts for social media platforms.
- Helps with easy content posting on social media platforms like TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, and LinkedIn.
Canva:
- This feature is only available for paid plans.
- You can schedule and post your content on various social media platforms like Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Additionally, you can also post on Slack, Tumblr, LinkedIn Pages, and Facebook Groups.
Verdict:
For the content planning and scheduling features for Adobe Express vs Canva, Adobe is quite advantageous for providing these features on the free plan. However, Canva provides a high-quality and more diverse range of scheduling and collaboration features, so both of them tie in this regard.
Stock Photos
Oftentimes, we do not have the resources and energy to create our own pictures for different design uses. That is when Stock photos come to the rescue. Stock photos are pictures that are already made for use commercially and might sometimes require a license for use. The good news is that when it comes to Adobe Express vs Canva, both provide a lot of stock images even for free. Let’s take a look at everything they have to offer!
Adobe Express:
- You can access up to 500,000 pictures on the free version and more than 200 million images from subscriptions.
- Several images available on Adobe Express are taken from the ‘Adobe Stock’, and that can pose some restrictions. For instance, Adobe stock photos cannot be used on any printed product. The stock photos on Adobe Express also do not include premium content.
- On the brighter side, it also comes with an integration called Unsplash, which is a popular stock photo collection.
Canva
- You have to follow certain policies for using the stock photos and graphics on Canva, but they are much more flexible than Adobe Express.
- It also gives you access to more pictures compared to Adobe Express. Through the free plan, you can get 3.2 million images, graphics, audio, and video. You can get up to 127+ million images from the paid plans. While the number is smaller than Adobe Express, it is still quite a lot.
- You can also easily edit the stock photos and videos and create your desired results.
Verdict
Adobe Express vs Canva are both quite impressive for their huge stock photo collections and high-quality graphics. However, using the Adobe Express stock photos comes with some restrictions. On the other hand, Canva is much more flexible and also offers easy photo-editing features.
Maintaining Brand Consistency
While working with both Adobe Express vs Canva, we have noticed that both offer impressive features to maintain your brand consistency. Often, many brands work on these platforms to create graphic designs and content without a background in design. These features come in handy to ensure uniformity and uniqueness in designs so that you can highlight your brand values while also standing out. Let’s take a look at these features.
Adobe Express:
- You must upgrade to the paid plan to access this feature, but paid plan members can create as many brand kits as they want.
- The brand kit allows you to upload your brand logo, specify your brand fonts, and select the color palette best suited for your brand.
- You can upload several logos, colors, fonts, photos, graphics, icons, and also video content and templates.
- The interface is very user-friendly in this case as it shows you the brand on the left side to help you work easily.
- The premium version allows you to use up to 25000+ Adobe fonts.
Canva:
- The free plan allows you to create only one brand kit, but the paid plans let you create up to 1000 brand kits.
- You can upload multiple logos, colors, fonts, photos, and icons, but Canva does not support videos yet as Adobe does.
- You can access around 3000 typefaces and modify them as per your needs.
Verdict:
In this case, Adobe is preferred more by professional designers and beginners alike. But absolute newbies can start with Canva for free access, and then upgrade to premium plans.
Generative AI Features
Generative AI features are the new cool thing in town, and everyone is doing it! Both Adobe Express vs Canva have incorporated some top-notch AI features that help users to work faster and smarter. Let us take a look at some of them.
Adobe Express:
- Adobe Firefly is Adobe’s AI technology, and it was built in-house by the brand. This was built with the consent of referencing libraries like Adobe Stock and adhered to the strict protocols of the Content Authenticity Initiative. Therefore, they have maintained the ethical and legal concerns that arise while working with generative AI.
- The AI text-to-image feature is very useful in Adobe Express. You can insert long and descriptive details and also choose from various styles and content types, and Adobe will create a suitable image for you.
- You can apply interesting styles and textures to create stunning text effects by only inserting descriptions. You can modify the font and weight styles and also apply sample effects.
- Through the AI generative fill feature, you can insert and customize elements within an image by only offering simple text descriptions.
- Offers 250 credits per month for paid customers for using AI features.
Canva:
- Canva does not share the source of its AI technology, and that makes its ethical concerns of AI quite debatable and grey.
- They offer three different text-to-image AI features. While you can use their built-in text-to-image tool, it also integrates with Google’s Imagen AI software and all-E image generator by OpenAI.
- Other AI features include Magic Eraser and MagicWrite (created by OpenAI).
- Offers up to 500 uses per month for Canva Pro and Canva Teams plans.
Verdict:
Canva is more generous when it comes to using AI features. While Adobe does offer limited use, it still provides lots of features and adheres to ethical and legal concerns. As big fans of the legal use of AI, Adobe wins this one for us.
Third-Party Integration
Third-party app integration helps to boost productivity and streamline your workflow so that you get everything right at your fingertips. Let us explore the third-party integrations offered by Adobe Express vs Canva.
Adobe Express:
- Adobe Express can integrate quite smoothly with business applications and social networks like Google Drive, Microsoft Teams, Dropbox, Google Classroom, Blackboard, and OneDrive.
- Of course, Adobe Express seamlessly integrates with other apps in the Adobe ecosystem like Creative Cloud Libraries, Adobe Stocks, Adobe Fonts, and more.
- It provides you with a library of up to 80 different tools like QR makers, pattern makers, and icon makers. You can use these tools in addition to the built-in tools in the platform.
Canva:
- Canva provides integration with over 300+ apps and is very versatile to help streamline your workflow.
- Offers direct connection with social media apps like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and LinkedIn to help with easy scheduling and posting.
- You can also smoothly connect with other productivity tools like OneDrive and Slack, file-sharing apps like Google Drive, Dropbox, and Box, and form builders like Typeform, and a lot more.
- It helps you with several tech stack integrations, like email marketing apps, project management tools, and much more. You can integrate with your required tools and create your own productivity stack.
Verdict:
Canva exceeds Adobe Express in this feature. Although Adobe Express undoubtedly provides high-quality integrations, Canva’s integrations are more in quantity and cover a diverse range of applications. From social media platforms, file-sharing apps, and productivity tools, to management and email marketing apps, Canva is clearly the winner.
Final Thoughts
Both Adobe Express and Canva have some very impressive features, support lots of integrations, and are very accessible to everyone. We have done an in-depth comparison between Adobe Express vs Canva so that you can decide which one you want to use. So don’t wait anymore. Set sail to your design dreams today!
Srijita Datta is a content writer with over 4+ years of experience in various niches. Her active interest in exploring new and emerging SaaS software and the evolving world of AI motivates her to write crisp, engaging, and informative articles to share her knowledge. She is working with How to Buy SaaS as a content writer and curating fresh and unique content every week with an added expertise in SaaS content.
