Adobe Illustrator vs Canva

Adobe Photoshop

CorelDRAW

Adobe Express

PicMonkey

Affinity Designer

VistaCreate

Compare Adobe Illustrator and Canva based on features, pricing, verified reviews, integrations & more on GetApp. Find out which software is best for your business in 2026.

CoreIDRAW is a graphic design software which enables users to create professional designs with vector illustration, layout, photo editing, typography, template tools, and more. CoreIDRAW allows users to create, access and store artwork, web graphics and prints in the cloud, via the web app.

Affinity Designer is a graphic design software, which helps creative professionals manage documents, create vector designs with gradients, blend modes, adjustments and effects, edit images, build artboards, and more using various built-in tools.

Adobe Photoshop is an image editing and graphic designing software that helps businesses streamline photo editing and compositing processes and create digital paintings and animations. The artificial-intelligence (AI)-enabled platform lets designers invite external stakeholders to edit documents and share projects via live streaming functionality.

Adobe Illustrator CC is a industry-standard software in vector drawing tools and applications for digital graphics in print, web, apps, and video animations

Activity Tracking

Application Management

CAD Tools

Collaboration Tools

Content Library

Content Management

Data Import/Export

Design Management

Design Templates

Document Imaging

Drag & Drop

Fashion Illustrations

File Management

For Vector Illustrations

Image Editing

Image Library

Preview Functionality

Project Management

Search/Filter

Synchronous Editing

Third-Party Integrations

Website Publishing Options

Adobe Illustrator

Android

Web-based

Windows

iPad

iPhone

Self Employed Rancer

The thing I like the most is the ease of use of software and the amount of awesome features that is included with the software.

Marketing Specialist

The pros of this product is that it is extremely great for creating projects, especially when using a MAC. I highly recommend Apple products as it works best for designing.

Media and Communication Director

You are able to make beautiful and stunning illustrations for your social media posts or any posters. You can edit any symbol, picture etc with it.

Owner

There is endless posibilities of creative creating of scaleable vector graphics. Perfect for logos and helps me save money by using it to collaborating with graphic teams.

Director of Marketing

Many designers work with Adobe products and there is a reason, they are responsive and great at what they do. Illustrator will allow your designer to create amazing designs that can scale so easily.

Tech Support

Everything about it worked like a charm. The entire Adobe package is great and is constantly being updated.

Proprietor

I  Love the art i have made an enjoy every second of illustrating with this software and the ease of moving to other products in the adobe suite to perform other graphic functions.

Freelance Graphic Designer

What I like most about Illustrator are the capabilities and advanced tools that are integrated with technology to achieve unique and creative techniques.

Graphic Designer

The bummer about Adobe is that you can no longer purchase the software as a one-off. Now it’s a subscription that you have to pay monthly or yearly and the fees are quite hefty.

L&D Manager

From logos to infographics, Ai has been the best tool for the job. I create assets for my websites that I manage and can export my design projects in the best formats for the job.

Marketing and Design Directot

Illustrator helps me mainly to create logos and graphics for my work. I love the way the software works in general, interface is great and easy to use in my opinion.

Creative Director

A.I. is popular with the artist and graphic design community, so we are pleased that its functions are user-friendly, which allows us to distribute content after modifications if they are necessary.

Design & Brand Manager

Great ease of use once you are familiar with the program. Works well and integrates with the full Creative Suite.

HR specialist

I think most of the frustration comes with user error and not doing enough research on the current subject.

Photographer

Over it really is a great program with a lot to offer, the cost isn’t too high and getting the creative suits will save you more in the end hopping from one adobe program to the next.

Editor in Chief

On rare occasions, the app will stall or close down altogether. This could be a flaw with either the application itself or the system I'm using it on.

Email Marketing Specialist 

The support is very bad for Adobe. I suggest not updating your app until a few weeks after the update comes out unless it stops working.

Fullstack Developer

There is a great community around this software which is actually the main point to focus when you are looking for a new tool.

Adobe Illustrator screenshot: With Illustrator CC, the touch type tool allows users to take individual letters and transform them, as well as change the text itself

Adobe Illustrator screenshot: Illustrator CC users have the possibility to free transform elements in a more intuitive way

Adobe Illustrator screenshot: Use images in brushes (pattern brush tool) and choose the way the image runs around corners with Illustrator CC

Adobe Illustrator screenshot: The export CSS feature in Illustrator CC allows users to copy elements from the illustrator document and transfer them into CSS directly

Adobe Illustrator screenshot: Search fonts quicker with Illustrator CC's font search window that enables the choice between searching entire font names or first words only

Adobe Illustrator screenshot: Import multiple images and place them on the page with the integrated place gun tool that allows users to drag and place images exactly where they want them with Illustrator CC

Adobe Illustrator screenshot: Illustrator CC's live corners tool lets users intuitively shape corners with on-art controls or specific values

Freelancers

Large Enterprises

Mid Size Business

Non Profit

Public Administrations

Small Business

Operations Manager

Adobe Illustrator vs Canva: Why I switched from Canva to Adobe Illustrator

Jeannie V.:                                            Hi, my name is Jeannie. I'm a sales operations specialist. I was using Canva and I switched over to Adobe Illustrator. For more reviews, just click on the link below.
			                                                       So we started using Canva for promotional materials, marketing, and newsletters for our business. We used it for about a year, year and a half. All of our sales team really gravitated towards it because it was a really easy software to use, but we recently switched over to Adobe Illustrator because we found that the quality that we would get from the work that we did in Illustrator was much, much better than what we can get in Canva. Now, Canva is a free program and it's a great starter program, but when you're going into the more technical aspects of marketing, using Illustrator really just bumps up the work.
			                                                       So for us, Adobe Illustrator has been really wonderful for just editing different photos and adding a lot of layers and creating graphics from the bottom up. So for example, like we redesigning our logo, you're not able to do that in other programs the way you're able to do it in Illustrator. You can add a lot of different layers, you can play with the coloring. You can do everything fairly simply in Adobe Illustrator once you learn the key commands. And we really love that about the program.
			                                                       So I personally really love Canva. I started using it to build resumes for myself and then other team members that needed small things like newsletters and quick flyers and stuff like that. So I trained my team in Canva and we got everybody in our company up to the skill of being a basic graphic designer with Canva. And again, we didn't leave the software because we didn't like it. We just graduated to the next level, but we still use Canva on and off for very quick things. So if you need to do just a really quick edit, you want to put together a quick newsletter and little things like that, you can just jump on the Canva website and within 15 minutes you have a product that looks fairly professional on there.
			                                                       So when we started using Canva, it's very, very simple. You can easily just login on the web. You don't have to download a program, which makes it really nice. And there's a lot of free features on there. There's backgrounds, there's stock images, there's a bunch of different fonts, templates as well. So it's just a very easy program to get your feet wet if you're starting to learn about graphic design or just want to do basic layouts. Now, if you're going to do Illustrator, you do have to sign up for a monthly program with Adobe, monthly membership, and you have to download it onto your computer. So you need to make sure that you have enough room.
			                                                       And it just takes a little longer with Illustrator because there are a lot of things that you need to learn. I suggest you really learn the key commands and taking a tutorial before you get started with Illustrator because it can get very frustrating if you don't know how to use all the tools. But once you have a really clear understanding of what each of those tools does, you can really just fly with the program.
			                                                       So when considering a software like Canva or Illustrator, for us it's really important that the software that we're using be known by other people because compatibility wise, we work within the State of California, but then we also have a region. We work with people in all across the US. And so these programs that are more well-known are more likely for other people in our team to be able to know how to use them. So that's really number one. We've tried other softwares that weren't as popular and weren't as well-known and it just became difficult for people and for us to train people in using them because not everybody was familiar. At this point, I believe most people have heard of both Canva and Adobe Illustrator. So yeah, the name and the popularity for us is important.
			                                                       The other thing that's really important for us is being able to... Like with Adobe Illustrator, it's very easy for us to just purchase the monthly membership and for other people to use the software, and Canva, which is a free software, same thing. It's just very easy for somebody to open it up and use it and for us to train them and it's just well-known. It's well-known and people like using it. I really have to say the people on our team that are much more technical really enjoy using Illustrator and the people on the sales team really love using Canva because it's much more basic. So both of these softwares do the same thing, but it's almost like different levels of what the intricacies that are involved in actually using the software and putting together these promotional materials.

Adobe Express is the quick and easy app that empowers every team to self-serve on-brand content, amplify audience engagement, and get to market faster — all integrated with the world’s leading creative and marketing solutions.

Elevate your visual presence everywhere you tell your story with eye-catching images made in PicMonkey. Photo editing and design tools go from simple, one-click magic to sophisticated high-end capabilities that let you create unique looks that stand out from the crowd.

VistaCreate (ex-Crello) is a graphic design platform that allows anyone to create striking visual content in various formats. Easily create projects to promote your business. Share your ready designs online or order prints directly from VistaCreate and get them delivered to your doorstep.

Graphic design and video editing tool for creating and publishing marketing material, presentations, social media content, and a range of printed products, using a drag-and-drop editor and a library of customizable templates.

Access Controls/Permissions

Animation

Approval Process Control

Artwork Management

Asset Categorization

Asset Library

Asset Sharing

Audio File Management

Autosave

Brainstorming

Brand Guidelines

Change Management

CMS Integration

Content Import/Export

Content Sharing

Custom Fonts

Customizable Branding

Customizable Templates

Customization

Data Visualization

Digital Asset Management

Digital Signage

Email Distribution

Employee Photos

File Sharing

Media Library

Media Management

Mind Maps

Mobile App

Multi-Channel Marketing

Offline Editing

Offline Presenting

Org Chart Creation

Pattern, Color & Art Storage

Pre-built Templates

Presentation Tools

Print Management

Printing Services Integration

Publishing/Sharing

Real Time Editing

Smart Chart Legend

Social Media Integration

Step-by-Step Wizard

Template Management

Templates

Text Editing

Version Control

Video Editing

Video Support

Visual Discovery

Watermarking

Workflow Management

Canva

marketing specialist

There is a problem with Arabic text when exporting the photo. It makes the design has a bad look and there is a problem with the pixels.

Technology/STEAM Teacher

And, best of all if you are an educator you can apply for an education license giving you all the benefits of a pro version of Canva. Finally, Canva has amazing customer support.

Owner, Freelance Writer

Sometimes it will crash or slow down without warning while I am working on a more graphically-intense project, such as an animated image.

Self

I hate the fact that we have to pay for certain fonts... thats very annoying and having to pay in general.

Super easy to use and learn, and the pro version adds a lot of extra features. Background remover is easily the best feature and worth the price if you do your own product photos.

Chiropractor/Owner

You are able to change the text, colors, and layouts. It has been such a wonderful experience that I highly recommend this to anyone who owns a business and needs help with social media posts.

Honours Student

But styling is so important to make a good impression and engage your viewer, so it's great that CANVA does the work for you and you can focus on content.

Assistant Director of Auxiliary Programs

I love this program and how easy it is to make professional looking graphics. I love all the options you can use, the functionality and ease of putting together flyers, booklets, etc.

Business Manager

I absolutely love everything about Canva. It is so easy to use and there are thousands of templates for creating great advertising and marketing material.

Director 

This is an amazing software that enables you to create and design off an already amazing template. I highly recommend this to anyone.

Programme Content Producer 

The software is super easy to use and helps anyone to create beautifully designed posters, leaflets etc. without any graphic design knowledge.

Owner, Expressly Written

I'm not particularly talented with computers and design apps so I was thrilled with how easy it was to learn and use. The quality of the product is amazing and it's free.

Beauty Advisor

I love Canva for making graphics and now they have added animation on there. They keep improving and I might try the paid version since the free version is so good.

Clinical research coordinator 

There is nothing that I can say bad about this product. I have yet to have a problem with anything as of yet.

Teacher

Fonts are pretty good as well. Definitely worth the price if you are creating ads for Facebook, Instagram or any kind of desktop publishing.

Groomer/Owner

Very happy with everything. The price is affordable the software works well in the customer service is great.

Chief Financial Officer 

I love this software because it integrates well a lot of the software we use at our firm. Very easy to use and actually fun to compose.

Associate Manager, Instructional Development

Canva is a great "swiss army knife" tool for designers and can help rapidly develop beautiful designs.

Canva screenshot: Get access to more than hundreds of professional templates via iPad and tweak them to suit any need

Canva screenshot

Canva screenshot: Share directly to social media channels including Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and Google+

Innovation Lab Specialist (grades 3-5)

Great upgrade from trying to design in Microsoft products 

Karee S.:                                              Hi, my name is Karee and I'm a teacher that also writes curriculum and I first used it Adobe Illustrator, but now switched over to Canva. For more information, click the link below.
			                                                       Both of these products solved a problem for us by allowing us to easily make different professional looking documents for our curriculum, for classroom materials and posters and other promotional items for our organizations.
			                                                       Canva's best for a free application and even if you do upgrade, it has a really lot of great features, but it's best for if you want images embedded already into the software. They have images that are ready. They have templates that are ready. They have ideas and inspiration in it already, that you can choose from and that you can modify. I would also say it's also a more user-friendly and easier to pick up and learn then Illustrator is, in my opinion.
			                                                       Adobe Illustrator, I'd say, is more of a professional software. It has a lot more in-depth capabilities, and there are a lot of things that you can't necessarily do within Canva, such as like creating your own images and adding in tables and being able to edit in a lot more detail, especially if you're creating journals or booklets or really large scale projects.
			                                                       Getting started with Adobe for me was honestly really overwhelming, but I came to love it once I got used to it but I was just more used to Microsoft products and it was very different. The shortcuts were very different. The tools, the icons, the keyboard shortcuts, all of those things were very new to me and I had to do a lot of research and little trainings and YouTube videos. Once I learned from my coworkers, I was able to pick it up but it took a lot longer to get started to use it.
			                                                       Then I use canvas second, but overall that one was a lot easier for me to pick up and learn and you can still create things that are really professional looking through it. It just might not have as many capabilities, but I was able to pick up Canva almost right away. There were a few things that I had to figure out, but overall it was much easier for, I think the average person, to be able to pick up and learn.
			                                                       I think the top considerations for looking for this kind of software is just the ability to make things look really professional and neat and organized and so any tools that are able to allow you to do that. So whether that's an easy way to put in high quality images, or to add in graphics and tables and texts and being able to maneuver. So just a product that I would look for like this, is something that's easy to manipulate and maneuver and play around with, until you get the product that you desire.

Adobe Illustrator vs Canva Comparison (2026)

Adobe Illustrator

Canva

Overview

User verdicts

Video & Screenshots

Pricing

User reviews

Key features

Integrations

Alternatives