5 ALTERNATIVES TO CANVA IN 2018

Canva is arguably one of the graphic design tools. Founded in January 2012, Canva is a one-stop shop for free graphic-design tools. With handy tools and features, Canva offers you the opportunity to create images in little or no time. Canva provides access to over 1 million stock photos, graphics, and fonts. Loved by amateurs and professionals alike, Canva amassed close to a million users in its first year of operations.

However, if your adventurous side kicks in and you want viable alternatives to Canva, then you are in luck! Your desire for a new approach, new templates or more adaptable interface options, leaves you well within your rights to try out other options. These platforms are just as good as Canva and offer even more utility in specific areas and tasks.

Without further ado, here are five credible alternatives to Canva for your graphic/design needs:

Stencil
Stencil prides itself on the go-to platform that equips your designs for active and effective marketing, with less emphasis on the design process itself. In fact with Stencil, you can engage more on your social media handles with tools and aids for beautiful social media images.

Stencil offers you a kind of a niche ecosystem, where you focus on marketing engagements, whereby you might lose flexibility in using templates and stock photos.

With Stencil, you can access hundreds of templates, thousands of CC0 images, over 800,000 icons, 100,000 quotes and loads of other smart and functional features.

Stencil is available as a free platform where you can create ten images every month. For access to a broader range of functions and features, you might decide to go for paid plans starting at 9 USD per month.

DesignBold
DesignBold gives Canva a good run for its money. This graphic design website boasts of a simple and navigable interface, that keeps you focused on the task at hand, which is churning out stunning images and photos for your web pages and social media handles.

Unlike Canva, DesignBold understands the power in quantity, depth, and spread. In this regard, you can access a much larger and diverse selection of stock photos. This feat results from the partnership between DesignBold and popular stock photo site, DepositPhotos. This synergy makes available stock images to give your work better perspective and depth.
Thinking you are in a rut with Canva’s templates? Then look no further than DesignBold, as the site brims with creative pieces that push your imagination and fuels your creative onus.

While a free plan is available on DesignBold, there are paid plans that give extra functionality including uploading file sizes up to 20MB, downloading transparent PNG files, downloading PDF for Print in beta versions, accessing custom colour palettes for your own design information,
uploading custom fonts as well using the magic resize tool to adapt designs across different orientations.

Desygner
This credible alternative to Canva, welcomes one with the words: “ What do you want to design?” This prompt forms the basis for a rich and rewarding user experience on the Desygner website.
For starters, users have access to a simple interface that pays a great deal to details and minute nuances. The work area consists of elements in the sidebar located on the left, the photo editing space on the right as well as a ruler that guides the creation/editing of images and photos to desired specifications.

If functional adaptability is your goal, then Desygner will tickle the right spots for you. The site stands tall regarding file format support. You can work with, edit and design PSD, PDF and PPT files, with effective and functional tools. Capabilities also extend to being able to download pictures and images directly from sites like Facebook, Google Drive, Instagram, Flickr, and Dropbox. You have a range of choices for downloading your images; whether as a JPG, PNG or PDF files.

Desygner offers appropriate templates for images posted on Facebook, Instagram as well as Google adverts.

You can begin with the free version to enjoy these features. However, for extra functionality, Desygner offers paid subscriptions from 2.99 USD a month.

Fotojet
Fotojet is the go-to graphic/design website for individuals that need efficiency and smoothness. This is because Fotojet works seamless across different web browsers, hence the user enjoys the same clarity and quality across any browser.

Fotojet receives plaudits from industry enthusiasts for other reasons as well. Firstly, the website organizes design elements into categories, in an easy-to-reach structure. If the desired element(s) is unavailable, you can initiate a search for the appropriate element via a search of its catalogue (online and offline).

Fotojet is ideal for creating collages and editing photos. The app works in tandem with your computer’s fonts and designs. Seamless integration exists with Facebook, hence you can login into your Fotojet account and import photos from Facebook.

Do you want to know the icing on the cake? The plans on Fotojet are free of charge!

Pablo
Pablo comes as a super-simple online photo/image editor. Users commend the ease with which images are worked on, with quality and attention to detail. Work capabilities of the Pablo include the option to upload one’s one photo to fit into several filters.

Industry watchers are thrilled with the auto-resize feature available on Pablo. This feature permits users to adjust image/photo sizes to suit the requirements for different social media platforms, with a click of a button.Pablo also supports social platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Google+.

Overall, you will find that Pablo provides a nifty, quick, no-frills solution for posting/sharing images on various social media handles.

Visual content has the capability to draw traffic to your website and engage with existing/prospective clients or customers. Creating images for social media is a step in this regard. The process is facilitated by these online photo editing applications.

Your final choice of an online photo editor depends on the scope/complexity of the job, the kind of social media platform as well the availability of helpful features and options. Price also plays an important role in selecting an online photo editor for your needs.