Canva and InDesign are two great design apps. For a regular designer, either is fine, but for those savvy people, using the right program can help tremendously.
So here is an article covering Canva vs. InDesign to help you choose the best tool.
What are both
Canva is a freemium web-based visual designing application offering to create visuals, posters, infographics, presentations, and more.
InDesign is an advanced visual designing desktop application. The software is used to plan, produce, publish, and print digital and physical print media designs.
Interface
The interface of Canva is straightforward and user-friendly. If you build the first design of your life, you can quickly build it using Canva.
Even if you find any difficulties working on the software, you can watch some on-site tutorials, and you are good to go.
On the other hand, the user interface of Adobe InDesign can be a little bit confusing for first-time users.
The workspace on InDesign is packed with options to edit your design, and you can’t know about their functions without using them at least once.
Platforms
Canva is available on major desktop browsers, and you can install an app on Android and iOS to create and sync designs on mobile phones.
Adobe InDesign, in comparison, is available on various platforms like Windows, Linux, Android, iPhone/iPad, macOS, and web-based platforms.
Related: Canva vs. Photoshop
Templates
Canva offers various templates for various designs like posters, social media posts, visiting cards, resumes, and so on. The templates are straightforward to edit and customize according to your needs.
You can either use the same template to make some edits here and there or build your design from scratch.
Adobe InDesign offers various templates as well. It also allows you to download additional third-party templates, but Adobe InDesign is mainly grounded.
It encourages graphic designers to build their designs on a clean slate.
Unique features
Canva
Collaborate on design projects with Canva Teams, irrespective of your location and your teammates.
Add stellar effects to your photo with effects.
Design and express your thoughts better through content with thousands of free elements, including shapes and objects.
It has thousands of free images. videos, elements, and backgrounds.
The app offers design grids to make your design crisp and appealing.
You can add stickers to your images and add a quirky touch to them.
You can animate image elements and text into a video.
Adobe InDesign
Readjust the size of elements in your design with a single click as you change the size of your design.
See the images highlighted to see them in focus through its machine-learning Adobe Sensei.
Add frequently used texts and paragraphs like descriptions and taglines of your business to the libraries with the text management feature of Adobe Creative Cloud.
Add footnotes in the tables or import them from your Word files.
Preview the font styles without activating them in your designs.
Auto activates the required fonts from Adobe Fonts.
Send designs to others for review.
Font packages
Both are great in terms of Fonts. As Canva is free and paid, we get some free fonts and some in the premium plans. The app has around 6000 (free and premium).
Adobe InDesign comes with the Adobe font collection. We can expect thousands of fonts.
Furthermore, you can use the downloaded or purchased fonts in the app. Canva supports custom fonts but only in its premium plans.
Access to stock content
The next section of Canva vs. InDesign is looking at the stock images. Both apps offer stock photos directly added to your design.
Canva free comes with thousands of free photos, videos, audio, backgrounds, and elements to add to designs. The Pro plan extends this feature and brings millions of files to use.
Adobe InDesign contrarily uses Adobe Stock. Some content on Adobe Stock is free, but most items are paid.
The app is also expensive, but you can expect to find more images on Adobe Stock than on Canva.
Related: Affinity Publisher vs. Adobe InDesign
Pricing
Besides the free plan, Canva offers two paid plans: Pro and Teams. The Pro version is for individuals costing $12.99 per month or $119 per year.
The Team plan allows for adding more users. You can add up to 5 users for $14.99 per month or $149.9 per year. Adding more users costs more money.
Both Pro and Teams have almost the same options, except for some team options in the Team plan. Here is what you get:
- 1 TB cloud storage
- Image size change option
- Image background remover
- Premium templates
- Post scheduling
- Thousands of files
- Access to file edit history
- Transparent background
- More export formats
- Custom fonts upload option
- Access to premium fonts
- Magic image resize
- Add more users (Teams)
The app is also a part of the Adobe Creative Cloud collection. The package comes with over 20 apps, costing $54.99 per month on the yearly contract.
You can also subscribe to the yearly plan and pay $599.88 beforehand. Students and teachers can save up to 70% discount.
Which one is for you?
Canva is easy to use, and it’s great for quick and simple designs because we get free elements, images, videos, etc., but it’s limited when it comes to high-end designing.
Adobe InDesign is complicated and challenging, and you must find content to use, but it’s more advanced and can produce better results.
If your requirements are creating simple designs quickly, Canva is the ideal choice.
If you want something more and don’t hesitate to spend some money, go with Adobe InDesign.
Canva vs. InDesign: Links
The bottom line
For beginners, I can quickly write that Canva is the way to go in Canva vs. Adobe InDesign because of several factors such as pricing, user interface, ease of use, time requirements, etc.
Adobe InDesign is more suited for professionals with a long way to go as graphic designers.
What is your opinion? If you have any comments or suggestions, please share them with me using the comments feature below.
My name is Madhsudhan Khemchandani. I have a bachelor’s degree in Software Engineering (Honours). I have been writing articles on apps and software for over five years. I have also made over 200 videos on YouTube. Read more about me on the About page.
Sean Kevin Riley
Tuesday 25th of July 2023
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