Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Canva VS Adobe Illustrator

Compare Canva VS Adobe Illustrator and see what are their differences

Canva logo Canva

Canva is a graphic-design platform with a drag-and-drop interface to create print or visual content while providing templates, images, and fonts. Canva makes graphic design more straightforward and accessible regardless of skill level.

Adobe Illustrator logo Adobe Illustrator

Adobe Illustrator is a vector graphics editor.
  • Canva Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-01-10

Canva is a web-based design platform allowing users to quickly and easily create stunning visuals. With various templates and tools, businesses can create professional designs for social media posts, presentations, flyers, and more. Canva also allows users to save templates and collaborate with other designers, making it great for teams working together on projects. Not only is Canva easy to use, but it is also affordable, making it an excellent option for businesses on a budget. Use Canva Teams to connect with your team members and work on a project from different locations, making tracking progress and managing deadlines easy. You can also upload and store files, assign tasks, and communicate with each other in one centralized place. With Canva Teams, you can quickly and easily create stunning visually pleasing visuals that effectively communicate the project's message.

  • Adobe Illustrator Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-04-15

Canva

Website
canva.com
$ Details
freemium $12.99 / Monthly (Pro)
Release Date
2013 August
Startup details
Country
Australia
City
Sydney
Founder(s)
Mel Perkins, Cliff Obrecht, Cameron Adams
Employees
2,000 - 4,999

Canva features and specs

  • Document Creation
    Writing AI
  • Custom Prints
    Over 30 products to pick from
  • Presentations
    magic shortcuts, animations, recording
  • Websites
    Performance Tracking
  • Video Editor
    One-click video background remover, animations
  • Social Media Content Creation
    Resizing options, content planner
  • Whiteboards
    Flowcharts, planning, and brainstorming
  • HEIC to JPG Converter
    Convert HEIC to JPG to easily share images on any platform or device using Canva's HEIC to JPG converter
  • PDF to JPG Converter
    Convert PDF to JPG to easily share images on any platform or device using Canva's PDF to JPG Converter

Adobe Illustrator features and specs

  • Vector Graphics
    Illustrator allows for the creation of infinitely scalable graphics without loss of quality, making it ideal for logos, icons, and other detailed illustrations.
  • Precision
    The program offers precision drawing tools, providing exact control over shapes, lines, and text, which is essential for professional work.
  • Integrations
    Seamlessly integrates with other Adobe Creative Cloud applications, enhancing workflow efficiency among platforms like Photoshop, InDesign, and After Effects.
  • Extensive Toolset
    Adobe Illustrator features a vast array of tools and features that cater to various design needs, from simple sketches to complex illustrations.
  • Regular Updates
    Adobe regularly updates Illustrator, introducing new features, improving performance, and enhancing user experience.
  • Industry Standard
    As an industry-standard tool, Adobe Illustrator is widely recognized and used by professionals, making it an essential skill for graphic designers.

Possible disadvantages of Adobe Illustrator

  • Cost
    Adobe Illustrator is subscription-based software, which can become costly over time, especially for hobbyists or small businesses.
  • Complexity
    The software has a steep learning curve with many features and tools that can be overwhelming for beginners.
  • Performance
    Illustrator can be resource-intensive, requiring a powerful computer to run smoothly, which might be a limitation for those with older hardware.
  • Subscription Model
    The subscription-only model can be a disadvantage for users who prefer a one-time purchase rather than ongoing payments.
  • Limited Raster Capabilities
    While excellent for vector graphics, Illustrator's capabilities for raster images are limited compared to software like Adobe Photoshop.
  • User Interface
    New users might find the user interface to be cluttered and less intuitive, which can complicate the initial learning process.

Canva videos

Canva Review

More videos:

  • Review - Canva Pro | 7 Reasons To Upgrade To Canva Pro

Adobe Illustrator videos

Adobe Illustrator CC 2019 NEW Features!

More videos:

  • Review - Adobe Illustrator Draw with iPad Pro & Apple Pencil | Adobe Creative Cloud

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Canva and Adobe Illustrator)
Design Tools
92 92%
8% 8
Graphic Design Software
76 76%
24% 24
Image Editing
75 75%
25% 25
AI
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Canva and Adobe Illustrator

Canva Reviews

  1. Yansiliang
    · Working at Xspiral ·
    Good

    good

  2. Abizer Izzy
    Best Blog Image Generator

    I consistently use Canva to create featured images for my blog. The free version itself is amazing.

    🏁 Competitors: DesignCap
    👍 Pros:    Free elements|Free templates|Easy logo creation
  3. Arshia Jabbar
    · Marketing intern at PITB Incubation Wing ·
    A app where you make your profile by your own

    User friendly app for beginners, also their features are easy to use, and they have fun features too. Also they have multiple templates whatever you make you have many options. Also they support beginners in start.

    🏁 Competitors: PicMonkey
    👍 Pros:    Variety of graphics|Advanced features
    👎 Cons:    Download music from deezer premium

12 Best Free PosterMyWall Alternatives and Competitors
Canva is a user-friendly tool that helps people create stunning, creative content without any hassle. It’s great for making social site images, posters, videos, websites, and much more. Whether you’re a beginner or a pro, Canva can boost your design skills.
Source: mockey.ai
Top 10 Best Animoto Alternatives For Stunning Video Creation
The graphic de­sign king offers more than images now. Canva provide­s video editing capabilities also. Add move­ment to social campaigns. A library of premade vide­o styles awaits within its interface. Making e­ye-catching videos is approachable for all skill le­vels through Canva.
Source: sharetool.net
Top 6 Alternatives to Animoto to Create Videos Online
Are there any Canva alternatives to make an amazing graphic design? Luckily, this post will provide you with the 5 best Canva alternatives. Read this post now!
The 13 Best Free PDF Editors (February 2024)
Unlike most free tools, Canva lets you fully edit text, and you don't need to sign up to do it. Click any text area to change what the text says and to adjust the font type, size, and color. You can also add hyperlinks to text and other objects, and special fonts are available to easily type out your signature.
10 Best AI Background Removers for Flawless Edits in 2023
Canva offers two primary pricing tiers. For the individual, Canva Pro is priced at $14.99 per month or $119.99 for a whole year. Should you need a platform for collaborative work, Canva caters to teams as well. It offers a team package at $29.99 per month - this price covers up to five team members. For an annual option, teams can avail it at $300 per year, good for the...
Source: picofme.io

Adobe Illustrator Reviews

10 Best Photopea Software Alternatives in 2024 (Free & Paid)
When you want to make images, icons, illustrations, or logos, Adobe Illustrator is one of the best Photopea alternatives. It helps artists make designs, work together, and share them in various forms. It includes features like pattern creation, perspective drawing, and the ability to turn sketches into polished designs.
10 Best Adobe Illustrator Alternatives
Adobe is without a doubt the industry standard for graphic design, and Adobe Illustrator is one of the most popular.
6 Best Free Adobe Illustrator Alternatives For Designers
Adobe Illustrator has been the best friend for many graphics designers while creating vector graphics. But as it is an expensive tool, designers usually look for less expensive or free alternatives especially when their needs are simple. Thus, hereby presenting before you the best free Adobe Illustrator alternatives that can prove as brilliant picks especially when you have...
Source: wethegeek.com
The best free Adobe Illustrator vector alternatives in 2022
The best vector editor overall is Adobe Illustrator CC (opens in new tab) If you're a professional designer or illustrator, there's no beating the industry standard vector editing software. Adobe Illustrator is available as a standalone app, or as part of the Creative Cloud suite along with Photoshop, Lightroom and much more. Whether you're creating app icons or billboards,...
10 Best Procreate Alternatives For Windows & Mac [Top Picks]
The best vector and graphic designing software and the best Procreate alternatives for Windows is hands down, Adobe Illustrator. This is the most well known and most used software in the designing arena. It has an impressive collection of colors and gradients along with some designing tools, typographies, and other advanced tools and features up on its sleeves.
Source: fixingport.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Canva seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 226 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Canva mentions (226)

  • Here's how to build a Canva like UI using Reactjs
    Chances are, you’ve used Canva — maybe to whip up a poster, design an Instagram story, or create something that just looks good without breaking being a professional designer. - Source: dev.to / 15 days ago
  • The Best 100 Free UI/UX Resources for Every Designer & Developer
    Canva Canva.com Drag-and-drop design platform with free templates for social media, presentations, and more. - Source: dev.to / 2 months ago
  • CSS is Emotional: z-index and the Hierarchy of Needs
    Imagine shuffling papers on a desk. Even though the desk is flat, papers stack in layers—some on top, others below. That's exactly what z-index does on websites. If you're familiar with tools like Canva, PowerPoint, Photoshop, or Figma, you know this feature as "Send to Back" or more accurately, "Arrange" or "Position". - Source: dev.to / 4 months ago
  • My tech stack for startups in 2025
    I'm continuing to use Adobe's Creative Cloud. Photoshop, Illustrator, and Premiere Pro are tools that I already know my way around so I'm keeping those close. I know that many people love how quick and easy it is to get something done with tools like Canva or Figma. I think whatever you are comfortable with and enables you to move fast you should keep using. - Source: dev.to / 6 months ago
  • How I promoted my open source repo to 6k stars in 6 months
    Now, I’m not a designer, so for the promo images I just used Canva templates to create the promotional images in a style that seemed to fit. I think they came out good enough. What I was mostly going for was consistency. - Source: dev.to / 9 months ago
View more

Adobe Illustrator mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of Adobe Illustrator yet. Tracking of Adobe Illustrator recommendations started around Mar 2021.

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Canva and Adobe Illustrator, you can also consider the following products

Piktochart - Piktochart for Business Storytelling

Sketch - Professional digital design for Mac.

PicMonkey - PicMonkey is a feature-rich online photo editor that works right in your browser; no downloads...

Inkscape - Inkscape is a free, open source professional vector graphics editor for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.

Adobe Photoshop - Adobe Photoshop is a webtop application for editing images and photos online.

Affinity Designer - Professional creative software, exclusively for Mac.