Pamphlets. Flyers. Brochures. YouTube Thumbnail. Logos. To be successful, almost everyone relies on visual content – be it in the form of a small business to a large business. The more it pleases the eyes of the reader, the better.
It is especially true as most companies nowadays use graphic designing as part of their marketing strategy. It is evident ,even more so, in using their websites and various social media channels in reaching out to their target market.
Online designing platforms are also vital to inviduals that shares video content such as YouTube or even to writers, bloggers and photo editors.
There are many different online designing platforms to choose from. Whether you are part of the Marketing Team or an Influencer, determining the most suitable platform for you will certainly give you an edge.
For beginners, they prefer an online designing platform which offers a user-friendly interface and less complicated icons in the menu section. This can help them plan out their design with ease and get the hang of it in the long run.
For seasoned editors or graphic designers, they might prefer to use an online designing platform which has various choices to choose from that can help them bring out diverse ideas in creating a design.
Choosing the right online design platform also helps several establishments to promote their products. This is definitely true in the field of Sales and Marketing by which creating eye-catching visuals can really help in boosting the sales of a company. Eventually, this can help them establish their brand image to the market. Indeed, online designing platforms are important.
So, what are the best online designing platforms out there? Well, Canva and Adobe Spark are two of the most popular platforms out there. Let’s start by getting to know them more.
CANVA:
Canva is an online design platform which is free of use. It also has an in-app purchases feature if you want to gain more access to premium templates or fonts.
Canva is highly recommended for beginners. You can choose a more applicable design for you with its wide range of visual materials. You can definitely make logos, flyers, pamphlets or even making a thumbnail for your YouTube channel.
Canva gives you a sense of freedom. It lets you convey the design you want using the pre-designed templates under the category it falls into.
When it comes to the interface navigation, Canva is really simple and user-friendly. Everyone can learn how to make simple designs with ease. Icons are labeled with words which makes it accessible even for a newbie. Usage of Canva can be easily implemented to your team members and promote collaboration.
As far as cost is concerned, Canva is free to use which is one of the best things about it. You can save your files in either one of the two free folders that comes with it. If you want to use three or more folders, then, you will just have to upgrade to its Canva Pro version which costs for about $9.95 per month when paid annually or about $12.95 paid monthly.
You can start using Canva by signing in using your Gmail account. It is more versatile than any other online designing platforms out there. There are so many templates to choose from and it also allows you to change the colors in multi-colored icons. It gives you the privilege to customize generic icons which is unique in Canva.
Aside from the templates, the basic font also varies.You can freely choose which style compliments your design well. You can easily “drag” any elements such as texts, images, templates, etc., and “drop” them anywhere in your preview editor page to create beautiful designs in a few minutes. It also allows you to download the design you have made with ease.
Made an error? Afraid that you will have to start from scratch? Fear not! Canva has the ability to resize your logo or design which saves you from starting all over again.
FEATURES:
Depending on what you will need, Canva has different features to offer which are as follows:
(i) Canva Basic:
- Free
- 100+ design types (social media posts, presentations and more)
- 250K+ free templates
- 200K+ free photos & elements
- 1000+ fonts
- 1GB of storage
(ii) Canva Pro:
- 30 day free trial
- $9.95 per month when paid annually or about $12.95 paid monthly
(iii) Canva Basic Feature plus:
- 450K+ premium templates
- 60M+ premium stock images, photos, videos and graphics
- 3000+ fonts or upload your own
- 100GB of storage
- One-click design resize
- Background Remover
- Create your brand’s visual identity with logos, colors and fonts in 1 Brand Kit
- Priority support
ADVANTAGES:
Canva has been raving great reviews as one of the best designing platforms out there. This online designing tool allows you to easily organize your files and save enough time resizing.
With almost a hundred selections of templates, designs and fonts, you can never go wrong with having this tool by your side. Canva also allows you to truly create something unique since it gives you freedom in customization.
Below are some of the things Canva can offer:
- Canva offers great selection of pre-made templates even with the free plan.
- Canva can help social marketers strategize their media schedules and create social media designs suitable for their campaign and posts it on their medium such as Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook among others.
- Canva allows you to create advertisements or marketing materials such as flyers, magazines, certificates, brochures, company profiles, pamphlets, etc.
- Canva also allows you to easily create a thumbnail for your YouTube channel.
- Canva also offers GIF creation.
- In terms of organization, Canva is easy to navigate compared to other similar products which are more complicated and often requires you to have a better comprehension of techniques in designing.
- Canva has a wide range of selection of different templates or designs to use as well as objects and fonts that you can use to create any material that you will need.
- In terms of flexibility, Canva is not only a great designing tool for creating advertisements but also useful for editing photos.
- Canva is fast and does not lag unlike other editing tools available which saves time and efficiency.
- Designs saved in Canva are always private but you can opt to share the designs to your team if needed which makes it easy for collaboration.
- You can download the designs you have made in Canva and save them in JPG, PNG or PDF format.
Without a doubt, Canva is a great designing and editing tool for beginners, designers and non-designers alike. It gives off a professional look despite the simplicity. This can definitely become your go to design platform!
DISADVANTAGES:
Canva is a great tool, that’s for sure. But it also has something to improve because no designing tools are perfect.
You can access the free version for sure but it also comes with a limitation.
Here are some of the things Canva can work on:
- The pre-set images of Canva are sometimes too large for content posting.
- There are some differences in the mobile version of Canva to its desktop version. There are cases when the design you have been working on in the app was lost compared when using the desktop version.
- The resizing feature of Canva is only available in its Pro version.
- Canva has no search feature for templates or themes which takes up some time looking for the appropriate design you like.
- Canva has no bookmark feature which causes you to look for your favorite illustrations or photos in a folder and scroll every single time.
Despite its drawbacks, Canva is still a good designing tool. If you are not bothered with the disadvantages, then, Canva is right for you!
ADOBE SPARK:
Adobe Spark is one of the most popular online designing platform available. You can choose your plan depending on your needs.
Sleek presentations, detailed reports, impressive photo journals, ideal portfolios or video presentations – Adobe Spark can help you make it a reality!
Adobe Spark had made it possible to create stunning visual designs in just a few minutes. It allows you to convey what you want to your target market. It also allows you to convey a story which is compelling and advantageous if used properly.
In terms of costs, Adobe Spark has a lot to offer. If you want a free designing tool, try out Adobe Spark’s Starter Plan. If you are an Influencer, Vlogger or a Social Media Manager, you can try out Adobe Spark’s Individual Plan which is about $9.99 paid monthly. If you are working as part of your company’s Marketing Team or wants to purchase something to improve your company’s design tools, then try out the Team Plan of Adobe Spark which is about $22.94 per month paid annually.
Using Adobe Spark can help elevate your projects by creating a branded content proficiently. Its navigation interface is also simple and easy to use. Although it is not as flexible in terms of customization, you can still handle it well by using the right templates for you which compliments your idea.
In making various marketing materials or create ads for your social media accounts, you can choose from various templates available in Adobe Spark. It is what most Influencers use for creating a rather appealing and high quality content design.
You can start using Adobe Spark by using either your Google Account or Facebook Account. This sign in feature allows you to easily synchronize between the devices you have – from your mobile phone to your laptop. You can easily add photos, video clips, voice clips (or your own voice) and other decorative features to create social graphic designs.
What’s unique with Adobe Spark is that it lets you choose what you will create, be it in the form of graphic posts, web stories or animated video, depending on what you need and for what social media platform is it needed for.
FEATURES:
Adobe Spark has a lot to offer for everyone. Depending on what you need for graphic design creation, you can choose the right plan for you.
Below are the features of Adobe Spark depending on the plan you have chosen.
(i) Starter Plan:
Free
- Thousands of free images and icons for your designs
(ii) Individual Plan:
- Free for the first 2 months
- Thousands of free images and icons for your designs
- Create unique designs from exclusive premium templates
- Create from branded templates and themes made just for you
- Personalize any project with your own logo, colors, and fonts in one tap
- Easily switch between brands while editing your project to boost your productivity
- Create, add to, manage and share your assets with CC Libraries in Spark
- Remove the Adobe Spark watermark from all your projects
- Access the library of Adobe fonts and premium templates
(iii) Team Plan:
Basic Feature:
- Thousands of free images and icons for your designs
- Create unique designs from exclusive premium templates
- Create from branded templates and themes made just for you
- Personalize any project with your own logo, colors, and fonts in one tap
- Easily switch between brands while editing your project to boost your productivity
- Create, add to, manage and share your assets with CC Libraries in Spark
- Remove the Adobe Spark watermark from all your projects
- Access the library of Adobe fonts and premium templates
plus Admin:
- Consolidate ownership and billing for multiple individual licenses
- Reassign licenses at any time
- Access dedicated 24/7 technical phone support, email, chat and forums
ADVANTAGES:
Adobe Spark is a strong contender in terms of design content creation. What keeps it on top of the competition is its feature to create web stories and videos.
You can easily drag and drop elements such as texts, or media files to the preview editor interface. You can also easily view the design you are making which aids in real-time editing.
Here are some of Adobe Spark’s strong points:
- Adobe Spark has hundreds of available pre-set templates that can help you in creating vidual contents.
- With Spark Video, it can give your videos a spectacular finish. It is also beneficial to Influencers and YouTube Content Creators. As it is easy to navigate, you don’t need to have any knowledge of using other video effects sudh as Flash. It can definitely help you create a meaningful video content.
- With Adobe Spark, you can also add music or even voice overs to your videos, letting you create a masterpiece.
- Adobe Spark is easy to use and is one of the few online designing tool which has a user-friendly interface.
- With Spark Page, you can create a magazine-style web stories that can impress anyone. You can turn words and images into a compelling yet stunning content.
- With Spark Post, you can choose a photo, add text, and apply pre-set design filters or animation that stands out when used in any social media campaign.
- Adobe Spark allows you to create and share your content any time which is ideal for use on social media.
- Adobe Spark works best as a way for showcasing catalogs and journals.
- Adobe Spark also has pre-set templates for the various social media platforms, such as Pinterest, Facebook ads, Facebook Cover, LinkedIn and Twitter, embedded within the system and ready to be used.
- With Adobe Spark, you can be consistent with the way you keep your branding which saves time.
Definitely, Adobe Spark allows you to produce quality content be it in the form of web stories, social media posts or animated videos. It helps you tell a story in any form you want and share it anytime. This is definitely a great designing tool to have!
DISADVANTAGES:
Practically speaking, no design platform is perfect. That’s for sure and Adobe Spark is not an exemption to the rule. It still has some things that it can improve and work on.
Below are some of the things Adobe Spark can work still improve:
- Adobe Spark’s editor lags while editing the designs.
- Adobe Spark does not allow you to have an overall control in terms of customization.
- Although it helps you create and edit various designs, it is somehow limited for use in social media platforms.
- In terms of customization for dimensions, you can only choose from the pre-set sizes in Adobe Spark.
- Adobe Spark’s “drag and drop” approach is slower compared to other online design platforms when dragging some elements in the editing interface.
Adobe Spark is still a good platform despite the disadvantages. Knowing on how you turn this into an opportunity can improve it in the long run.
WHICH IS BETTER?
Canva and Adobe Spark has both its special feature that the other does not offer. But then, both hold their own ground when it comes to being a competitive designing platform.
So, which one is better?
In some ways, Adobe Spark comes strong against its competitors with its wide range of pre-designed templates and color themes. However, Canva offers its users more control in designing than Adobe Spark, freely letting them design the way they want in line with the concept they have in mind.
Aside from that, Canva is much more simpler than Adobe Spark when it comes to the interface and user-friendliness. Although both are easy to use, Canva is without a doubt, highly recommended for beginners and non-designers alike.
When it comes to a more stunning templates or themes for design creation, Adobe Spark is undoubtedly in lead. Unfortunately, it is only available in its upgraded version. Canva, on the other hand, has a wide range of beautiful templates available on its free version.
In terms of creating a compelling content for a marketing video, or even for your YouTube channel, Adobe Spark is your go to design platform. It is highly favorable to all individuals aiming for a meaningful video content.
Whether you are a non-designer or a complete beginner in editing and design creation, definitely, Canva is the recommended design platform. But if you are an experienced graphic designer, it may as well be one way or the other as Adobe Spark has something that you will want.
Definitely, what Adobe Spark lacks, Canva can compensate. And what Canva lacks on the other hand, Adobe Sparks excels!
FINAL WORDS:
Creating a video and social media content is powerful nowadays. It allows you to influence, inspire and convey your thoughts with others. It helps you speak your thoughts through words and images.
How many hours do you spend browsing using your Facebook app and Instagram? How many hours do you spend watching videos on YouTube? The online community is just as big as one can imagine. It is a great way to reach out and communicate using words, videos and texts. But then again, it can also make or break the brand image one portrays in the market.
Without a doubt, online designing platforms are important. These tools are beneficial for any influencers, designers, bloggers, YouTubers out there as well as to those from the small business to large business establishments.
The images or videos one create are so vital in communicating online using various channels. It is important finding out what designing platform works for you that will help you get the job done smoothly.
And as for which tool is better for you to use certainly varies depending on what you need and what your preferences are for making a design. Additionally, find a designing tool that can help your work become more efficient and effective. A designing tool that can help you become even more productive all thoughout the day.
Always remember that no designing tool is perfect. What’s more important is that the quality of the content you made is stunning and pleasing to the eyes. Creating appealing visuals using the wide range of templates available really comes in handy. Additionally, you have conveyed what you want with it successfully.
Being unique and creative in designing is the key for staying on the edge and being recognized by many people. The choice now lies within your hands. Enjoy!