Canva vs PicMonkey – How to Choose Your Graphic Design Software
As an online business owner, you can’t get away from the need for graphics. And I’m guessing if you are reading this, then you aren’t at the point of paying someone to do it for you. That means you need a graphic design software option.
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Two of the big names are Canva and PicMonkey. There are others from Photoshop through to Stencil. But let’s keep it simple and look at Canva vs PicMonkey to help you choose the right option.
What to expect from a graphic design software
Before we dive in, here’s a few things to consider. If someone came to me today and said they had a new graphic design app to use, these would be the questions I’d ask and want to know what was included before I signed up:
- Does it have preset sizes for all the main social media and blogging needs?
- Can you resize designs?
- Does it come with templates to get me started?
- Are there plenty of fonts and can you import your own?
- Do you have stock images inside the app?
Some people might also want to know if there’s a mobile version but I’m a very desktop-focused person so that’s less of an issue for me.
Finally, I’d want to know about downloading the images. Can I make videos and download as a video file? Can I choose between PNG and JPEG depending on what I’m doing?
So now we know what to look for in the basics of graphic design software, let’s look into the two in question a little more.
What you get from Canva
Canva offers a desktop and mobile app that allows you to make a huge range of graphic designs for your online business. There is a Forever Free plan and a Canva Pro or Canva for Work plan that costs $12.95 a month. More on pricing in a bit.
Canva has pre-sized templates for all the main social media platforms as well as tons of other things such as A4 letter size, logo sizes and infographics. For all of these pre-set sizes, there are templates – LOTS of templates!
There’s also plenty of fonts within the app. Now not all of them are available on the free plan but there are plenty that are and tons more on the paid version. You can also upload a number of your own fonts to use in the Pro version.
The software is super easy to use and ideal for non-designers. It saves your work as you go so there’s no worry about forgetting this and losing everything. You can make any kind of still image and also video and GIF files.
Finally, there’s tons of stock photos inside. Again, there’s more available for Pro users (I think it is something like 60 million at last count) and it automatically connected with top stock photo sites like Pixabay. So you don’t need to leave the app to grab a quality photo. Plus you can easily upload your own.
What you get from PicMonkey
PicMonkey has a desktop and mobile app that makes it easy to design anywhere and the interface is much easier to master than something like Photoshop. It doesn’t have a free plan but there is a 7-day free trial to test the software. Then there are two plans – $7.99 a month for Basic and $12.99 a month for Pro. It is a little cheaper if you pay for a year at a time.
There are plenty of pre-sized templates ready to use within the app and it also has some impressive photo editing features including a draw and eraser tool that lets you edit pixel by pixel.
You can use the fonts on your computer so there’s no limit to the number of fonts you have. It also operates more like Photoshop in that you work on layers and there are things like text masks to use.
Making things like overlays with transparent backgrounds and simple logos are very easy. Stretching and resizing elements within a design is also more Photoshop style, something that can be trickier with Canva.
Canva vs PicMonkey
One of the best ways to help you decide on which side of the Canva vs PicMonley debate you fall is to give some ideas about which app is best for what job. Here’s a few of the common blogging tasks examined.
Photo editing
Winner: PicMonkey
There’s no doubt that PicMonkey is the better photo editor and that’s by design. While Canva has features to adjust and alter photos such as the background remover and some filters, it is a design tool, not a photo editor.
Ease of designing a social media post
Winner: Canva
The main reason I think Canva is easier to something simple like make a social media post is because it uses a drag and drop interface rather than a layers system. If you have worked with something like Photoshop before, you’ll probably think differently. But for the rest of us, the Canva interface is quicker and easier to work with.
Storing brand options
Winner: Canva
This was an easy one because Canva has the Branding Kit area and PicMonkey doesn’t have anything comparative. This is a place to keep brand colours, fonts and even logos. And it doesn’t have to be just one set of colours – I have one for each of my blogs and even for a few of my customer’s businesses too.
Stock photos inside the app
Winner: Canva
Canva has added literally millions of stock photos to the app in recent times and more seem to appear all the time! But most importantly, they are high-quality photos that are easy to work with. PicMonkey does have a lot of images in the app but nowhere near as many as Canva.
Storing designs
Winner: tie
There’s pros and cons with both apps in this area. For PicMonkey, there’s the Hub where you can store all of your designs but this is only available on the higher plan. Otherwise, you need to download everything as you go.
With Canva, the desktop version has a great folder organisation system to easily store everything. But this doesn’t translate to the mobile app so it can be a little bit of a pain switching from one device to another.
Adding textures
Winner: PicMonkey
Because it is more Photoshop-esque, there’s no surprise that you can add textures with PicMonkey in a more advanced way than with Canva. There are things like glitter, marble, foil and watercolour effects you can add. However, there are both elements and photos in these textures in Canva so there are ways to work around this.
Making a collage image
Winner: Canva
Making a collage can be done with both tools but with Canva there’s more options. PicMonkey has the classic types of collage such as ducks in a row or square deal. But with Canva, there’s grids and lots of them. Plus you can move the grids around and add multiple to create some very complex collages if you want.
Access to third party templates
Winner: Canva
Both apps have lots of templates in them but one thing that makes Canva stand out is the number of third party templates you can get. From Pinterest pin templates to printable templates and much more, there’s a lot more people making templates for Canva so it is the clear winner.
Support and education
Winner: tie
Both companies offer a similar system when it comes to support with an email ticket system but no phone numbers. There’s also a lot of helpful information inside the app to help you find your own answers. Both also offer educational resources to help you get the hang of the software.
Overall score: Canva 5, PicMonkey 2, tied 2
My favourite option
For me, I’m a Canva fan. I’d never done any real graphic design before I started in online business and I immediately tried (and hated) Photoshop. When I learned about Canva, it was a huge relief and I’ve learned a lot since using it.
I have tried PicMonkey and I thought it was a great app with some really excellent features. I know other bloggers who are fanatical about it and won’t change. It is equally easy to use but I feel there aren’t as many features that bloggers need within it.
So for me, Canva is the winner. But I’d love to hear what you think!
