Creating content for your social media platforms is crucial to promoting your brand or business. In today’s digital age, there’s a lot of free graphic design software to choose from. But using the most appropriate one for your business can be tricky, so we’re here to help! With this guide, we compare Canva to Adobe Spark and suggest an alternative you can look into as well.
Tools for Graphic Design: Canva vs Adobe Spark
Related: Canva vs Crello: What’s Better For You This 2023?
Comparison Point 1: Features
Both Canva and Adobe Spark have plenty of features, but let’s take a look at the standout features of each tool.
Canva:
- Has a content planner feature where you can schedule social media content for seven platforms.
- Can do real-time editing and commenting with team members.
- Can download designs as vectors (SVG), no matter the size or resolution. Setting the download quality (whether high, medium or low resolution) is possible too.
Adobe Spark:
- Has a separate editor for creating web pages.
- Lets you record audio while editing videos.
Canva vs Adobe Spark: Common Features
- Canva provides more than 420,000 ready-to-use templates, while Adobe Spark only has around 41,000.
- Saving your work in the free plan of Adobe Spark has a watermark, while Canva doesn’t.
- Both offer video editing, but Adobe Spark doesn’t have free stock videos available.
- Canva and Adobe Spark both offer many stock images to use. You can also upload your own photos.
- Both have a background remover tool.
- Both offer Brand Kits that you can apply across all your designs.
Canva and Adobe Spark have notable features as design tools for marketing, but if you’re looking for software that has more to offer, use Simplified. Simplified has all the features of Canva and Adobe Spark, plus a no-code design editor and an AI writer.
Comparison Point 2: User-Friendliness
It’s important that the tools for graphic design are relatively easy-to-use. Especially if you’re just starting your small business, being able to create aesthetically pleasing content is essential! Here’s a comparison of the ease of use in both Canva and Adobe Spark.
Canva:
- Is easy-to-use and is reported to have less lag in performance.
- Has a simple interface that’s great for beginners.
Adobe Spark:
- Has a longer loading time as compared to Canva, some users say.
Canva vs Adobe Spark: For Beginners
- Canva and Adobe Spark are relatively simple and easy to use.
- Both tools have the drag-and-drop feature, so moving elements is simple.
It’s no doubt that both these two tools are user-friendly, but Simplified makes creating and collaborating even easier by having only one workspace for everything you need. You won’t need to switch tabs to do all your work.
Comparison Point 3: Mobile App
Not everyone has 24/7 access to their laptops or desktops and mobile apps make creating content for your social media platforms much more convenient.
Canva:
- The app is similar to its desktop app but has fewer features. Creating graphics or video editing is easy within the app.
Adobe Spark:
- Just like the desktop app, Adobe Spark has three apps with different functionalities depending on what you need. To create graphics, download Adobe Creative Cloud Express. To create mobile websites, use the Spark Page app, and Spark Video for video editing.
Comparison Point 4: Integration & Compatibility
When talking about graphic design software, integration with other useful apps and compatibility across devices is necessary.
Canva:
- Just like Simplified, Canva also has a ton of third-party apps and services available. However, what’s great about Simplified is the wider choices of integrated apps you can use (like Facebook Publishing).
Adobe Spark:
- Only has app integrations with Google Drive, Dropbox, and Google Photos. But you can share your designs on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Google Classroom, and Microsoft Teams.
Canva vs Adobe Spark: Compatibility
- Both graphic design tools work across different devices. They’re also compatible with Mac and Windows.
Comparison Point 5: Pricing
For pricing, both Canva and Adobe Spark have free plans. But to utilize all its premium features, a paid plan is the way to go.
Canva:
- Offers three plans: Free, Pro, and Enterprise billed either monthly or yearly.
- Canva Pro starts at $12.99/month for the first user, then plus $6.99/month for each additional user.
- Canva Enterprise requires a minimum of 25 users starting at $30/month.
- Plans can be customized according to the number of members on your team. You can choose up to 50 members for both Pro and Enterprise plans.
Adobe Spark:
- Only has two plans: Free and Premium billed monthly or annually.
- Adobe Spark Premium costs $9.99/month or $99.99/year.
Related: 10 Adobe Express Alternatives to Elevate Your Visual Content
So, What’s the Best Graphic Design Software?
Deciding on which graphic design tool to use is critical in successfully promoting your brand. So, considering all the points above, it’s safe to say that both Canva and Adobe Spark have their own pros and cons. Eventually, the best graphic design software depends on you and your business’ needs. If you’re just starting and want to experiment with your branding, try using Canva for the ready-made templates and ease of use. But if your needs are more on animation and video editing, Adobe Spark is for you.
However, if you’re looking for a graphic design tool that has the features of Canva AND Adobe Spark combined, use Simplified! All the content-creation tools you’ll ever need are there — and more! If you’re an influencer, entrepreneur, or a huge marketing enterprise, Simplified can help with designing, scaling, collaborating, and even auto-publishing your content for you. More than that, you can work on all your designs without switching to multiple tabs or apps, as Simplified only uses one workspace for everything. Talk about functional AND convenient! Sign up for Simplified today and start creating.