Canva Pro: Is the Upgrade Worth It?

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There is an age old debate raging among bloggers and content creators alike as to whether of not upgrading the Canva Pro is really worth it.

I’ll admit, I’m tight when it comes to money and have spent the last 3 years using the free version of Canva. But, finally, this year, I took the plunge and upgraded to Canva Pro. Am I glad that I did it? Absolutely! And here, I’ll tell you why.

What is Canva?

Canva is an Australian based company who describe themselves as:

…an online design and publishing tool with a mission to empower everyone in the world to design anything and publish anywhere.

Canva.com

It’s a freemium SaaS (Software as a Service), meaning that as long as you have an internet connection, you can use Canva as it is hosted over the internet. There are downloadable options for Canva, but I prefer using it online. The reason? Less downloads and programmes saved to my Desktop which means that it runs faster as there’s less going on the processor.

I first started tentatively using Canva a few years (and a few blogs) ago, when I wanted to create a logo for my new blog without having to spend any money. I found Canva through recommendations on social media and was instantly surprised at how much I could do for free with this online software.

However, this year, and with the progress of this blog, I decided to bite the bullet and upgrade to a Canva Pro account to see how it would benefit me.

So far? I have no been disappointed.

Note: There is also an Enterprise version of Canva, however, as this blog is for those starting out and growing their WordPress blogs, for this review, I’ll only be looking at the features of Canva Pro.

What additional features do you get with Canva Pro?

The graphic below shows you the features of the Free and Pro plans, but just for clarity, the Pro package gives you everything in the Free package, plus:

• More than 100 million images, videos, audios and graphics
• More than half a million templates
• Multiple Brand Kits
• Background Remover
• Magic Resize
• Content Planner
• 100GB of storage

Magic Resize

Magic Resize was a huge draw to me for upgrading to Canva Pro. I was starting to get really tired of the time and effort it took to create a design, only to have to start from scratch if I wanted it in a different size for a different platform.

Whilst this might seem quite frivolous, from a time saving point of view, Magic Resize is a fantastic feature. I simple need to create my design in whichever format I want, click a few buttons and ‘voila!’ It appears in a different format ready for use on a different platform.

If you like creating designs into different sizes for different platforms, then maybe this feature isn’t high on the list of needs for you. But as I feature my blog on Pinterest, Twitter, and Instagram, I like to be able to save as much time as possible when creating my designs.

Background Remover

So this was a feature which I really was not bothered about, as I was convinced that I’d never need it.

Spoiler alert! I used Background Remover on the first day of getting Canva Pro! I was uploading a logo to use on a Twitter design only to find that it had a white background. I was really annoyed at myself for saving it in this way, thinking of the time I’d have to spend recreating the logo.

Then I remembered I had Background Remover as a Canva Pro feature. It took two clicks of a button to remove that pesky white background from my logo and have it looking perfectly integrated on my new design.

It was really easy to use, and I’m excited to use this feature in the future!

Brand Kit

Again, this was another feature that I wasn’t that bothered about. Again, how wrong I was!

I’d already had saved my bran colours in the Brand Kit which comes with the free version of Canva. I thought this would be enough. But what I love about the Brand Kit of Canva Pro is the ability to add more colours! This might sound a little silly, but the colour schemes I use on different social media platforms all have slight variations. For example, my Pinterest graphics tend to have more muted versions of my brand colours than my Twitter posts.

Having all of the hex colours written out in a post on ‘Notes’ on my MacBook had worked for me up until this point. Now, though, I cannot believe the time I am saving by having all of these colours conveniently stored in my Brand Kit on Canva Pro.

I can also store my commonly used fonts in my Brand Kit. Again, I had all this information written out in a post on ‘Notes,’ but now that it’s saved on my Brand Kit, it’s so much quicker.

Not only that, with Canva Pro you can have up to 100 Brand Kits. This might seem a little excessive, but if you manage multiple blogs or websites, or you are toying between branding ideas, this is a great feature.

Content Planner

I’ll admit, the Content Planner was a big pull for me getting Canva Pro.

I already use Tailwind for my Pinterest needs, but wanted something to help me schedule straight to Twitter and Instagram. I’ve used other social media scheduling platforms before, such as Buffer, Hootsuite, and Content Pilot. The problem with all of these is the need to download the graphics created in Canva before uploading to another platform. I didn’t want to clog up my desktop with multiple images and wanted something a bit more direct for my scheduling.

Enter: Content Planner!

Content Planner is not available on the free Canva membership, and only to Canva Pro subscribers. With a few clicks, I can easily schedule my Twitter and Instagram graphics straight away and then forget about them. Personally, I find this a huge saving on time and a relief to know that notifications go out when I want them too.

Simply put, after creating and scheduling a new blog post, I create a graphic for Instagram and Twitter in Canva, and then schedule them for publishing within a few hours of my new blog post going live. This saves me so much time on needing to remember to post when blog posts go live. I don’t need to be led by complicated social media calendars, and I also don’t have to have my life dedicated to being online when I want to post. Another bonus is because I can schedule my graphics straight from Canva, there’s no need for me to download my graphics first, hence saving me more time and memory space.

100GB Storage

The storage factor was another pro (no pun intended!) for me getting Canva Pro. 5GB is a lot, don’t get me wrong. But 100GB is even more!

As I’ve already said, I don’t like downloading stuff unnecessarily to my desktop. I prefer to store as much in the cloud as possible. There’s two reasons for this:

1. My desktop doesn’t get bogged down because the memory is getting full
2. Everything is stored somewhere online, so if my laptop accidentally breaks, I’m not crying because everything is lost on an unreadable hard drive.

Considering how much storage one design can take up, upgrading to 100GB of storage was a no brainer for me.

Folders

I have to admit, I didn’t think this would be a big feature for me to get on board with. When using Canva, I’m quite happy to have all of my designs randomly sitting in my ‘All designs’ folder. However, now that I am able to organise my designs into folders, I’m not going back.

Larger variety of pictures and templates

My only annoyance with Canva’s library (which has been voiced by many others) is its search ability. Beyond typing in a keyword(s) to search for an image, there’s no other way of narrowing your search results by orientation, colours, graphic type etc. Hopefully, this is something which Canva will consider and look into in the future.

My final verdict – Is Canva Pro worth the money?

In conclusion, do I think the upgrade to Canva Pro is worth the money?

100%.

And to put your mind at rest, this is not an affiliate article at all. I’ll earn no money from you clicking on any of the links to Canva. I just really like Canva Pro and wanted to share my thoughts with you.

Canva Pro has some features which I never thought I’d use, but it also has features which are an absolute game-changer for my blog. For those that know me, this doesn’t mean that I’m switching away from Tailwind anytime soon. I’ll still use Tailwind, as it has features that just don’t compete with Canva Pro. But, Tailwind versus Canva Pro isn’t a competition in my mind. They are two very different platforms which serve two different purposes.

To me, the top reasons to switch to Canva Pro are for the following features:

• Content Planner
• Magic Resize
• More storage
• Access to more images and templates

Still sitting on the fence? Canva Pro offers a 30 day free trial where you can try out all of the features before committing to spending any money. If you change your mind and don’t want to upgrade to Canva Pro, just cancel the upgrade before your 30 days are up to avoid being charged! However, I’m pretty convinced that once you trial Pro, you won’t be wanting to go back!