If you are looking for an easy-to-use, feature-rich, and popular graphic design software then it is hard to think past Canva and Adobe Spark.
You might have concluded the same finding yourself but you probably want to learn more to make the final decision between the two.
In today’s post, I’II will be detailing the good and the bad of both platforms so that you can choose the right one for your business with a sober heart.
Table Of Contents
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- Ease of Use
- Platform
- Performance
- Design Tools and Features
- Photo Editing Capabilities
- Video Editing Capabilities
- Integrations & Plugins
- Price
- Conclusion
Our Pick
Canva is our recommended online design software.
Try it for free and you won’t be disappointed.
Without wasting anymore time let’s dive in.
Ease of Use
The reason why everybody loves the word easy, is because easy saves precious time. Being able to create professional-looking designs in a matter of seconds is a huge plus for any business owner. Canva is notoriously known for doing just that.
With Canva’s 420 000 + readymade templates you can simply choose one of the great-looking templates, drag and drop some text, charts, icons, images and borders etc. click save and you’re done.
Adobe Spark is also a very easy to use platform – way easier than its sister Photoshop. Adobe Spark offers more or less the same drag-and-drop capabilities as Canva but because they have some more advanced features you will have to spend some time learning how to use it.
Ease of Use Score: Canva: 5/5 Adobe Spark: 4/5
Canva takes this round because they are by far the easiest graphic design platform out there – a tagline they always use in the marketing campaigns.
Platform
The main difference between Canva and Adobe Spark is their page editor. Canva’s visual drag-and-drop editor allows you to drag and drop design components anywhere,easily.
Everything that helps you to design your projects is located on your left whilst when you look to your right you will find real-time previews of your designs.
This easy-to-digest interface is beginner friendly and super accessible which makes it easy for newbies to start creating their designs with relative ease.
Adobe Spark has a similar design interface as Canva but their visual drag-and-drop page editor is located on the right side of your screen instead of the left. Their real-time editing previews are located on the left side of your screen instead of the right like Canva.
Platform Score: Canva: 4/5 Adobe Spark: 3/5
Canva beats Adobe Spark even though they have very similar platforms. Adobe Spark can do with some improvements.
Performance
Both Canva and Adobe Spark are cloud-based apps meaning that you will have to have a stable internet connection to use them.
Canva has a lot of different features which can lag a bit depending on the computer you are using, the size of your RAM and the speed of your internet.
After using Canva for some time I noticed that when I upload and tried to edit any type of media, there was a little bit of lagging.
Adobe Spark has a similar situation to Canva when uploading. It can sometimes lag even when you use the premade templates.
Performance Score: Canva: 4/5 Adobe Spark: 3/5
Again Canva takes the round with lesser glitches experienced than Adobe Spark.
Design Tools and Features
One thing that you will notice as soon as you sign up for a Canva account is that it is jam packed with a variety of different design tools and features, below are a list of my favorite.
- Over 3 500 000 graphic elements
- Over 21 000 videos
- 60 million + images, illustrations, vectors etc.
- A professional brand kit
- One click resize capabilities
- One click background removals
- A storage of up to 100 GB
- Great team collaborations
- Video editing capabilities
- Photo editing capabilities
- Ability to create animations and GIFs, etc.
Adobe Spark has similar goods to Canva in many ways. I have realized that Adobe Spark has most tools that Canva has even though there are some minor variations. They offer:
- Custom brand designs
- Web page design capabilities
- Cross-device syncing
- Text overlays
- A much more robust video creation capabilities
- Importing and recording of audio files
- Many different layouts, etc.
Features that Adobe Spark has that Canva doesn’t are importing and recording of audio in your videos as well as web page design.
Design Tools and Features Score: Canva: 4/5 Adobe Spark: 5/5
The tools and features Adobe provides us with are a bit better than those we get from Canva, for that reason Adobe Spark takes this round.
Photo Editing Capabilities
The photo editing capabilities for Canva are very basic. The only thing you can do when editing your photos are resizing, cropping, cutting, minor filters, and adding speech bubbles etc. This simply means that if you are looking to do some advanced adjustments on your photos, you should use another platform.
Adobe Spark’s photo editor is almost the same as that of Canva, just that they have a few improvements. You can add more filters and overlays with these guys.
Photo Editing Capabilities Score: Canva: 3/5 Adobe Spark: 4/5
This round goes to Adobe Spark because it has better photo editing capabilities than Canva.
Video Editing Capabilities
Now when it comes to video editing, Adobe Spark has an upper hand because you can import and record audio onto your videos unlike Canva’s video editor.
What you can do with Canva’s video editor is add images, text, and basic overlays. These two were not meant to be used as video editors even though they provide these capabilities.
Video Editing Capabilities Score: Canva: 2/5 Adobe Spark: 3/5
Adobe Spark will take this one with a one point lead just because they offer more features to go along with their video editor.
Integrations & Plugins
Canva integrates with so many cool apps like:
- Dropbox
- Google Drive
- Social media sites
- ColorMix
- Pixabay
- And Pexels, etc.
What you will notice is that most of the platforms they integrate with have something to do with images.
Canva also has a WordPress plugin that you can use to connect your site with Canva so that you can add your designs easily to your site.
Adobe Spark integrates with:
- Drupal
- Hubspot CRM
- OneNote
- And Canvas etc.
Integrations and Plugins Score: Canva: 3/5 Adobe Spark: 3/5
Both integrations on Canva and Adobe Spark are great, so I will call this a draw.
Price
The price for using these two varies a bit. The pricing plan for Canva goes like this:
- The Canva Free Plan is of course completely free
- The Canva Pro Plan starts at $9.95 per month when billed annually
- The Canva Enterprise Plan starts at $30 monthly when billed annually
When we check out Adobe Spark’s pricing plan, you will find out that it is different from that of Canva. Adobe Spark offers a free plan and one plan that costs $9.99 per month or $99.99 if you subscribe to their annual plan which will save you a whopping $19.
Pricing Score: Canva: 4/5 Adobe Spark: 4/5
The Price between the two is quite similar, so I will give both platforms a 4/5 score.
The overall score stands at: Canva: 29 Adobe Spark: 29
This means that our champion for today’s comparison is both Canva and Adobe Spark. It is a draw, but I would go with Canva because it has everything you would want from design software and it is easy to use.
Conclusion
When to choose Canva: Choose Canva if you are looking for the easiest graphic design tool to use on the market.
When to choose Adobe Spark: Choose Adobe Spark if you want to do some video edits and design some webpages.
It’s now your turn; which of the two platforms do you favor most?