Is Canva Pro Worth the Cost?

​You’ve probably heard about Canva, the Australian graphic design platform launched in 2013 that helps you create social media graphics, marketing materials, and other visuals. You probably have even played around with their free plan and created social media posts and other visuals for your small business. But you might be wondering if the Canva Pro subscription is worth the annual fee of $119.99. Here’s 5 pros and cons to weigh when considering Canva Pro as a tool for your business. 

​For this blog post, I’m focusing on the premium features of Canva Pro. I’m assuming you’re already familiar with Canva’s free plan. You already know it’s an easy to use website that helps you create social media graphics and other visuals in mere minutes without Photoshop or a graphic design background. 

Now that that’s out of the way, let’s get into the premium features with Canva Pro. 

Canva is not a sponsor of this blog post, I honestly do love using it. This post may include affiliate links in which we earn a small commission without any additional cost to you. All opinions are our own. 

#1 Pro: Save Your Brand Kit
Con: Brand Kit Is Limited To Logos, Colors, and 3 Fonts

​One of my favorite and most used tools of Canva Pro is the Brand Kits. A brand kit is a set of brand elements that are saved and easily accessed when creating new content. This makes it easy to keep all your content on brand. The downside here is that the brand kit on Canva is limited to logos, colors, and 3 fonts. I really wish you could add just one more font to your brand kits! The upside is that you can have unlimited brand kits. I have one for each of my businesses all under the same Canva Pro account. Canva Pro also makes it super easy to switch between brand kits. 

#2 Pro: 100+ Million Premium Stock Images and Graphics
Con: Unsplash Is Free

​This feature is the one that got me to sign up for Canva Pro in the first place. I was paying ($10!!) for individual elements to use in my business. I quickly realized I would save a ton of money if I upgraded to Canva Pro. But if you’re using Canva Pro just for the premium stock images, know that they are pulling from Unsplash which is actually free to use. You could go to Unsplash, download your own stock images and import to Canva for free. I like that I get the premium graphic elements plus the stock image process is streamlined for me. 

#3 Pro: Social Media Content Scheduler
​Con: Designs Become Uneditable 

​One of Canva’s newer features is the Content Scheduler. Canva Pro allows you to schedule your content to 8 different platforms including Pinterest and Facebook without ever leaving Canva. The major downside of this feature is that once you schedule your design it becomes uneditable. I will often batch create a bunch of Instagram posts by creating one design, copying the first page to a new page and tweaking the design. So, I’ll have 10-20 “designs” (pages) all within the same document. If I schedule the first page using the Canva scheduler, all my other pages become uneditable and I cannot schedule them. So mostly I still use the social platforms native schedulers (i.e. Meta Business) instead of using this “Premium” feature. Since this feature is a newer element, I suspect (and greatly hope) that it will only get better with time. 

#4 Pro: Background Remover Tool
Con: Other Free Apps

​Another one of my favorite tools Canva Pro offers is the background remover tool. With just a click or two you can remove the background of any picture – yours or a stock image. It’s actually one of the top underutilized tools I mentioned in this blog post. The only Con I can think of here is that there are other tools that do just this for free, but they usually have ads and that means an additional step. 

#5 Pro: It's Way Cheaper Than Adobe's Photoshop or InDesign
​Con: It Doesn't Do Everything

​If you are creating social media graphics, you’re going to need some sort of editor. Adobe’s Photoshop or InDesign, while super popular, both run at $35.99/month or $84.99/month for the Creative Suite. Granted, Canva is not as robust as Adobe’s Photoshop or InDesign, but for what most small business owners use it for, it’s the perfect package. At $119.99/year for Canva Pro– you’re saving over $300! And that’s not all, read on to see how you can get your first year of Canva Pro for just $48 using my money saving hack! 

Final Verdict

​Canva Pro is just one of those things that make the day-to-day running of my business that much easier. And there’s a few more Pros that I left out, like it’s cloud based so I can access it from anywhere – my phone on the go, my Google Chromebook when I travel, or my desktop in my home office. And the company is constantly improving their service, adding more features and premium elements all the time! AND icing on the cake, I’ve never experienced a website crash or downed service. AND!! When you compare it to Adobe’s pricing, it’s honestly a no brainer. Go get yourself a discounted first year of Canva Pro! 

Canva Pro Money Saving Hack: Get Your First Year of Canva Pro for Just $48!

Step 1. Sign up for Rakuten (formerly Ebates) using my referral link. New users are eligible for $30 cash back after their first purchase of $30 or more! Rakuten will give you cash back whenever you shop online at participating retailers using their link. I’ve earned over $400 cash back just doing my usual online shopping for my personal and business needs. 

Step 2. From Rakuten’s website, look up Canva and click the SHOP NOW button to head to Canva’s website. ​Right now you can earn 35% cash back! 

Step 3. Purchase the YEARLY Canva Pro subscription (for the first time) for $119.99. ​This saves you $36.88 over paying monthly! Cha-ching! 

Step 4. Rakuten will send you $41.99 cash back. ​This is paid by check or through PayPal quarterly. 

Let’s Recap: You buy Canva Pro for $119.99, and you get $30 for a new sign up to Rakuten plus 35% cash back of $41.99. Meaning you’re “paying” just $48 for a whole year of Canva Pro! That’s less than $5 per month! 

​My numbers are correct at the time of posting, but are subject to change at any time. Let me know in the comment section if you know of any changes! 

​Hey! I’m Christine. I’m a small business coach who helps women who are new to business turn their passion into profit. Your first coaching call with me is completely free, and it’s not a sales pitch. Let me help you sift through the mental clutter and come up with a plan that’ll help you turn your passion into a profitable business.

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