Canva Free Alternatives (Are There Better?)

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Canva Free Alternatives

Canva is one of the best-known sites and apps used by those who often publish on social media to create graphics, and collages, edit photos, add effects, and much more. Everything is quick and easy.

However, when too many use the same tool, everything they publish is similar if not the same. If you want to create something different but still look like it was done by a professional, then you can try the various alternatives to Canva that I want to show you in this article, both free and paid.

There are, in fact, other services that are great and even have extra extras. I want to show you the ones I have tried and consider to be among the best design sites to edit photos and create collages and graphics of many types for any eventuality.

You can use these services not only for images to post on social media but also to create invitations to events, covers, brochures, and various types of advertising material that a professional graphic designer would pay you a fortune for.

4 Online Canva Alternatives

The most used Canva is the online version for Pc and Mac. Many influencers use the computer to publish on social media, where the various programs and sites to edit photos online and all kinds of graphic work are more easily used.

Although the Apps are now advanced, having a bigger screen, keyboard and mouse allows you to work much better and faster.

Whether it is to embellish a photograph by adding writings, frames etc. or to create a flyer to promote events or shops, these services will allow you to obtain a stunning result, as if they were made by a graphics and advertising agency, in a few minutes.

In addition, you can use them for free, but I have already tell you that all the most advanced functions for professional work are active only in the paid plans. But they’re not too expensive, so it’s worth checking out. 

Here are the best online Canva alternatives for computers:

Fotojet: the best alternative

One of the first services I want to tell you about is the one offered by FotoJet. This is a great site and one of the best choices for those who want to create collages and graphics with a professional-looking design and edit the photos, adding numerous effects.

When you enter the site, you immediately have 3 options to choose from, and you can: create a design, make a collage, or edit a photo.

By design, we mean all those graphics used in social networks for posts or covers, such as Facebook, Youtube, etc., but also postcards, invitations, and posters. However, if you want to create a collage, you have many grid and configuration options, from classic side-by-side photos to 3D effects, cartoon-like configurations, and much more.

In the online photo editor, however, you can add frames, texts, shapes, and color effects and adjust colors, contrast, and much more, to embellish the image.

Incidentally, FotoJet has also recently added an online video editor to create your videos. In this regard, you may be interested in the article on extracting audio from youtube videos.

The only problem with this service is that it is in English, but even if you don’t know the language, I assure you that it is very intuitive and, by trying a little, you can do everything you want, without too many problems.

Stencil: perfect editor for social media

Among the sites that I recommend, there is also Stencil. An online program focused on creating graphics for social media and websites. In general, it has fewer features and functionality than Fotojet and even fewer than Canva, but it is perfect for those looking for clean software with few but good features. So it is a valid alternative for those looking for a simple and clean interface.

To use Stencil, you need to create an account on Namecheap, as it is one of its products. However, the account is free, and registration takes a few minutes. Once done, you can log into the platform and choose from dozens of templates, effects, and more.

Stencil also provides advanced editing tools reserved for those who subscribe to a premium subscription. In this case, some features are slightly better than Fotojet, but the prices are much higher since it starts at 9 dollars per month for the premium plan and 12 for the unlimited one.

Stencil is perfect for web admins who have a blog with WordPress, as it offers integration with this CMS, thanks to a proprietary plugin. 

Snappa: photos, graphics, flyers, and much more

Another great tool to create outstanding graphics for social media, advertising, or your website without any experience in Design is Snappa. The thing I like the most is that it has tons of templates, and even in the free plan, it puts you over 6000 to choose from.

To use Snappa, however, you need to register on the site, and it is impossible to do so without first registering. Fortunately, creating an account takes less than a minute, as you need to send an email and choose a password. As always, I advise you not to use your primary email address unless you need it for business purposes. If you don’t have an alternative one, you can read the guide on how and where to create a second email address to use for sites like this.

At this point, you will have entered the editor, and you will be able to access all the features such as: adding free images and backgrounds, or upload your photos, texts, shapes, graphics, and icons, or adding effects such as saturation, contrast, overlay colors etc.

In addition to social media, the nice thing is that you can create infographics and images for your posts if you have a website or even eBook covers. Once you have created the graphic you like best, you can directly share it on social networks (you must first connect the account) or download it.

Many of Snappa’s basic features are free, but the advanced tools are, again, paid. The premium versions have some exciting features such as integration with social media, for a direct publication on your page and account, or even removing background images and changing backgrounds very easily.

Visme: the alternative for professionals

One of the complete solutions on the web is called Visme. Among the alternatives to Canva, it is perhaps the most complete. Unfortunately, however, it is so dispersed and very limited in the free version, while the paid variants are pretty expensive.

Let’s start from the strong point of Visme, which is the language: the site and the tools are also available in Italian. It is a service used by over 16 million users and has a very high average in reviews on Capterra or the like that I can not recommend in this guide.

To use Visme, you need to create an account or log in directly with google or Facebook. First, select what you want to create, login, and enter the work screen.

Here you will see many tools on the side of the screen, even more than the software seen so far. First, you select what you want to create, then the dimensions, and, finally, the template you want to start from. Many animated templates are increasingly popular on social media but more challenging to create.

In addition to graphics for social media, on Visme, you can create diagrams, graphs, videos, gifs, mockups, content for printing, and even entire presentations. Presentations and documents can become very large and cannot easily be sent by email. In this case, the article I wrote on how to send large files may be helpful too.

In short, Visme is a more professional tool and, therefore, a little more complicated to use. You have to choose the paid plans to unlock all the features (and there are so many of them). Still, they are quite expensive and more suited to those in the graphics sector rather than people looking for an easy and free solution to do some images now and then to use on the site or on social networks.

In short

Canva is one of the most used sites by amateurs and professionals to create high-level graphics and design in no time. The alternatives, however, as you can see, are not lacking: some are not so complete, but in principle, you can easily find a replacement and create something “different” from the crowd.

I recommend Fotojet, the most complete, second only to Visme, and the one that offers more tools in the free version. In addition, the premium plan is cheap compared to the others.

If, on the other hand, you are looking for truly professional software, then Visme is perhaps more suitable. However, there is talk of the paid versions in which it has something more than the others, but the purchase is justified only in a few cases and for truly professional jobs.

Have you got to try the programs listed above? Let me know how you feel in the comments.