Canva trembles because the giant Adobe the creator of Photoshop, has just hit the nail on the head with the launch of its new free Creative Cloud Express design tool.
It is available to anyone, and although it does not do the wonders of a professional designer, sometimes it will get us out of the way. Let’s see the pros and cons of each of the applications because now they are direct competitors.
What will you find here?
Creative Cloud Express is a free, very intuitive and functional web and mobile application. This will allow you to make fairly presentable designs in no time. The key is that it has a lot of templates, a good bank of images and countless effects to add and animate our designs.
It is very thought to facilitate design tasks for social networks , especially in those moments in which you must prepare something fast and fairly decent. As with Canva, in a few clicks it allows you to optimize each image and adapt it to each platform in minutes. We are going to analyze it in detail, because at the moment it has been very cool for us.
This is Creative Cloud Express
Creative Cloud Express is the replacement for Adobe Spark and now it has thrown the house out the window with its new free and simple version for users. It has all kinds of brochures, logos, videos and much more .
It also includes filters, effects, Adobe Fonts, a wide variety of free copyright-free Adobe Stock photos, and up to 2 GB of storage.
But beware! Although the version is free. Let's not fool ourselves, because the paid version always comes after and as an alternative , with many more features. We know very well that these apps are still a business, and that sometimes the free image bank can fall short.
Thus, if we want to prepare something very specific, we do not find the necessary resources. Finally we want something more optimized and that stands out, we will have to checkout.
The paid version, premium and usually hired by professionals, allows perfection of cutouts in designs, graphic groups and up to 100 GB of storage! It also gives access to other functions. As you can see there is a big difference.
Comparison between Creative Cloud Express and Canva
Doing some research on the internet since its appearance just two months ago. We have carried out a comparison with the first evaluations made by some testers about the new Adobe tool and the veteran Canva, which has been on the market for longer.
A General Level
Adobe Creative Cloud Express comes in handy if we have previously contracted the Adobe Services Suite, but as an independent product it falls a bit short compared to other alternatives on the market that offer us much more material such as photos or templates compatible with any platform.
Canva, on the other hand, is an option to get by in moments of immediacy in which we cannot count on the help of a designer because at a given moment he is busy with other tasks, and cannot create a design or a more professional image.
A large selection of templates available on both platforms
Both Creative Cloud Express and Canva have a great list of templates to choose from that can save us a lot of time with designs. However, if we are not very familiar with the tool, can pose more difficulties when designing templates from scratch.
Design Resources
Those of us who have tried it know that Canva is not badly served with templates, images, effects, backgrounds and design resources. However, if we want something more elaborate in tune with a brand, some basic fonts for design are missing. Undoubtedly Creative Cloud Express at this level will surprise you because it is super versatile.
Collaborative Management
Canva makes it easy to share designs , but Adobe’s tool is highly optimized at this level, when it comes to sharing resources and checking the status of group tasks.
Most likely, since it is newer, it is working on new features such as the inclusion of design status changes (approvals) or comments without having to leave the application and having to notify it by sharing the link or by e-mail. .
Download Designs
Canva allows you to download in multiple compatible formats, png, pdf, jpg, svg, even MP4 video or gif.
On the other hand, the Express version sometimes not downloaded correctly from the web. You have to resort to the mobile app, thus making this option a bit difficult because you have to transfer it back to the desktop.
In short, as we can see and although with great similarities, each tool has its pros and cons. But it is true that Canva is no longer alone and will have to learn to live with the new Adobe alternative that is here to stay.
However, despite the fact that both are designed to make life easier for community managers and marketing teams, the hand of designers in any marketing agency will continue to be key to achieving quality design.