Canva is one of the most versatile graphic design platforms that allow anyone to quickly make designs for social media posts, banners, visual content, logos, and much more.
With the templates in place, even beginners can start designing without any tool requirements or previous knowledge.
While this is really good for some, it’s not really good for others. Why? With the use of the same design concepts and templates, if you aren’t very creative, you might end up using the same design that has been overused by many others all over the internet.
If you’re creating a brand, unique logo, or anything specific to your business or a brand, this might not work out well.
While Canva is good, open-source Canva alternatives tend to provide users with even more freedom. Keep on reading to learn more about the open-source alternatives, their benefits, and also the top 11 open sources Canva alternatives I reviewed for this article!
Benefits of Open-Source Canva Alternatives
The biggest benefit of open-source Canva alternatives is often the freedom and adjustability that tends to give more freedom to the creators.
On top of that, open-source Canva alternatives are often free and yet provide a full array of features. If you were in doubt about whether or not Canva Pro will pay off for you, an open-source Canva alternative might be a great solution that will save you some money.
Also, most of these open-source Canva alternatives tend to provide better tools that allow you to create your graphics from scratch instead of relying on the templates.
Therefore, staying unique, having more features to work with, and fully unleashing your creativity into digital art while saving money are just some of the benefits.
Everyone uses Canva for different purposes so this will also depend on the benefits you can expect to get from open-source Canva alternatives.
What to Look Out for in the Open-Source Canva Alternative?
There are a couple of things that people search for in Canva open-source alternatives. If you have no idea what to look out for, here are a couple of aspects:
- Higher quality
- More features or at least better customizability
- Fewer limits on the actions you can take within the tool
- Lower cost
- Easier scaling or creating the designs in bulk
- Lighter tool to run
- Smaller learning curve
Everyone is looking for something different and the reason for this is the purpose of using the Canva tool.
The easiest way to learn what you would like to get from an open-source Canva alternative is to create a list of things that you are missing when using Canva.
These guidelines can help you discover what you could benefit from even if you aren’t fully aware of better ways of designing graphics.
However, if you already know what you need, the chances are high that you’ll find what you’re looking for in at least one of the alternatives you can find below!
Best Open-Source Canva Alternatives in 2021
No matter the reason why you’re switching from Canva to an open-source alternative, I have you covered. Down below, you can find 11 of the best open-source Canva alternatives in 2021 so you won’t have an issue finding the perfect alternative to match your needs.
1. Crello
Crello is the best Canva alternative because it is very similar to Canva, yet it is a completely free web-based designing tool.
You can use it to design anything from social media graphics, posters, banners, to Instagram stories, Pinterest graphics, logos, and much more.
One of the reasons why Crello is a better alternative than Canva is because of the unlimited assets it provides. With Crello, you get free unlimited assets such as photos, vectors, templates, and even videos that you can use to create your designs.
This is combined with powerful features such as background removal, content branding, animations, music & sounds, and more.
Crello is also great at providing a number of tutorials that will get you from a beginner to an expert in only a few days.
Once you learn how to use all of the features available, you’ll be confident enough to create your own designs from scratch.
With features such as:
- Photo frames
- Brand kit
- Background removal
- Speech bubble
- Text integration
- Photo filters
- Resizing ability
- Transparency & layers
you won’t ever have to look elsewhere to get your work done in the easiest way possible.
Check out how the two tools perform when put against each other, Canva versus Crello.
2. Stencil
If you’re looking for a Canva alternative that provides more freedom to your graphic designing skills and yet you’re still looking for a web-based tool, Stencil is a great alternative.
Stencil is very similar to Canva, yet it includes a number of features that improve the way you can work in the tool and design your unique graphics.
What’s so great about Stencil is that it allows you to upload your own fonts, choose between 140 different preset sizes, have access to over three million royalty-free icons, the ability to upload and store your own logos, and even have access to over 100,000 quotes.
On top of that, Stencil provides about five million stock-free photos you can use in combination with over 1,000 templates that will help you get started.
Stencil can also be integrated directly into your WordPress website or you can still use it through any browser.
Speed is another aspect where Stencil excels at. You won’t take longer than a couple of minutes to enhance your image or even to create a new design from scratch.
The Stencil is continuously getting upgrades and improvements and yet it is free to use with an optional Pro paid membership available as an upgrade for only $9/month.
Free membership is pretty decent as it isn’t very limited, yet Pro paid membership plan is really worth the money. However, if you plan on creating images in bulk, the Unlimited pricing plan at $12/month is the best choice.
3. FotoJet
FotoJet is marketed a bit differently than Canva, but it is a great alternative, and here’s why.
This web-based designing tool is focused on creating designs, editing existing photos, but also making collages.
The rich template library will get you started quickly, while powerful features that are easy to use will save you a lot of time. In fact, you don’t even have to register or install FotoJet to give it a try.
FotoJet service was made with the purpose of allowing everyone to make the best out of limited graphic designing skills to still create professional-looking designs for any purpose.
The collage maker feature is good enough to design a whole comic strip while the photo editor will provide all features that you otherwise needed software for. This includes adding text, enhancing photos, resizing and cropping, and much more.
If you plan on using FotoJet for business purposes, you will be able to learn a lot from FotoJet’s tutorials. These tutorials will teach you anything from designing better posters or how to design a flyer to finding graphic design inspiration to create 100% unique graphics.
FotoJet has a 7-day free trial but upgrading after the trial is very convenient because FotoJet costs only $3.33/month (when billed annually).
4. Inkscape
If you are looking for a Canva alternative that will give you more freedom to create digital designs by hand, Inkscape is the perfect alternative for you.
Inkscape is a flexible drawing tool that is not web-based, but it is lightweight enough so you can download and install the tool in only a couple of minutes.
The biggest advantage of Inkscape as a Canva alternative is that it supports flexible drawing.
In combination with flexible drawing, Inkscape comes with pretty powerful designing features such as object creation & manipulation, fill and stroke, operations on paths, rendering, decent text support, and more.
On top of that, Inkscape can work with multiple formats that help fit many industries and needs. Even though it is a completely separate software that’s not web-based, it is easy to find your way around thanks to the minimalistic interface.
You won’t get overwhelmed by the number of settings and options and yet you’ll have all features available at a click away.
However, if you ever feel stuck or you’re just getting into graphic designing, Inkscape offers a learning section on their official website where you can learn more about the tool, interface, and its features.
Inkscape is free but you can feel free to make a donation to contribute to the team.
5. Penpot
Penpot is a great Canva alternative because it is designed to provide full freedom to teams who are collaborating on designs.
It is a web-based design tool that is made for designers and graphic companies who have teams working on larger projects together.
What’s so great about Penpot is that it is lightweight software and yet it has features of advanced designing tools.
Therefore, you will be able to use Penpot to design elements from scratch, quickly connect them with interactive prototypes, and more. But what’s so unique about Penpot is the comments section where teams can stay up to date and efficiently collaborate to create, revise, and publish designs.
The interface is very simple to use and all features you might need are placed in the side menus that improve focus and workflow.
Penpot is continuously getting upgrades and the current version is efficient enough to allow teams to create designs from scratch to final products for commercial purposes.
Even though Penpot is still a fairly new tool, it is free to use and all you have to do is register an account to have unlimited access to all features.
6. Pablo by Buffer
Buffer is known for producing social media tools that improve management, creation, and workflow.
Pablo is the most straightforward graphic designing web-based tool. As soon as you open Pablo, you’ll find yourself directly in the Pablo designing interface.
Even though Pablo might not have as many features as Canva, it is very simple to use and it is the perfect choice for people who never thought that they might end up designing their own graphics.
With Pablo, all you have to do to create professional-looking social media graphics is to choose the size, choose the background image, use filters, add text, or insert a logo to create your own social media design from scratch.
There are also templates you can use to make graphics even quicker. Pablo’s mission is to provide the easiest way for everyone to create simple yet professional-looking social media graphics.
When you’re done, all you have to do is either share your work or download it to your computer to use the design on your social media profiles.
With the limited number of features yet including quick and easy-to-use important features, you won’t have a hard time saving some money on using other tools or paying a designer to create and upload your social media graphics.
Of course, Pablo is a web-based tool and it’s free to use.
7. Xtensio
Xtensio is a great Canva alternative for businesses that are looking to create business content.
While Canva mostly focuses on social media content, Xtensio is on the same mission yet its focus is on the business content.
If you prefer creating visual business content and even have your reports visually presented, Xtensio is a great alternative to consider.
Xtensio is ideal for teams as it allows everyone in the team to create branded documents, communicate in the workspace, and share work (as a folio). This tool can create anything from reports, brand forms, case studies, competitive analysis, proposals, strategy reports, course plans, digital brochures, success plans, and much more.
But what’s so great about Xtensio is that it’s free to get started and you won’t even have to create an account.
Since it can produce all sorts of visual business content, it is suitable for all sorts of digital industries and businesses, and yet it is very easy to use.
However, if you are struggling to get started, you can take advantage of pre-built templates that you can customize for your brand/company and use them to quickly generate visual business content at any time.
Xtensio is only free for one user, but if you’re a larger team, you will have to upgrade to a Team plan that costs $10/team member per month. There are also Personal and Personal Pro plans suitable for solo users.
8. Gravit
If you like Canva and yet the only thing you’re missing is the customizability, Gravit might be the best Canva alternative for your needs.
Gravit is a design app that adjusts to the way you work while it provides very versatile features to match your needs.
With Gravit, you can illustrate vectors, do web and app UI design, and even create images or edit your existing photos.
Gravit’s mission is to provide a simple solution, just like Canva but to make it more powerful and a lot more versatile.
Therefore, you can work on professional projects and have full flexibility over non-destructive object styling. This means that you can create, edit, import, or export the most standard format types without having any issues.
What’s also great about Gravit is that it is compatible with most standard operating systems and platforms and yet you can even use it in your browser. However, I highly recommend downloading the Gravit app for the best user experience.
Gravit is free to use and if you decide to upgrade to the Gravit Pro version, this will cost you only around $55 for the whole year.
9. BeFunky
BeFunky is a very similar alternative to Canva and yet it is a free solution that’s as decent as Canva, if not even better.
This is a great & free option for everyone who wants to either edit existing photos or create designs from scratch.
It’s an all-in-one web-based tool that does its best to combine the most popular features in an easy-to-use interface that helps users to accomplish their goals without spending time learning how to use complex software.
It’s very easy to get started with BeFunky and all you have to do is choose the type of editor you’d like to use. The choices are photo editor, collage creator, and design creator.
From there, you’ll be faced with a simple-to-use editor that has all features you might ever need at the distance of a click. If you ever need any help (which is unlikely), you’ll still be able to learn a lot from BeFunky’s helpful blog full of tutorials and tips.
What I like the most about BeFunky is that you don’t even have to register an account and yet you can start editing or creating designs within seconds.
With included templates, banners, and styles, you can create social media posts, marketing materials for a business, advertisements, collages, cards, and much more!
10. Design Wizard
Design Wizard is a great Canva alternative because it simplifies the process and it actually works on teaching everyone how to become a “design wizard”.
Therefore, this is an alternative ideal for everyone with zero experience, but it’s still not a bad choice for advanced designers.
Whether you’re looking to create marketing designs, social media designs, cards, invitations, product designs, or more, Design Wizard has everything you will ever need.
The way you become a “design wizard” is by choosing a template, and then customizing the pre-built template with elements such as premium stock-free images, videos, fonts, colors, and more.
What’s so great about Design Wizard is that even if you start with a template, you can create a completely new and unique design out of it fairly quickly.
Another great feature that I like a lot is the ability to schedule your design to go live on your social profiles to save yourself time. Of course, you can also download or share the design too so you will never lose it.
It’s free to get started with Design Wizard and if you ever decide to upgrade to a paid plan, you will only pay $9.99/month for the Pro model or $49.99/month for the Business model.
11. Piktochart
Piktochart is a great Canva alternative for everyone who isn’t strictly focused on social media graphics yet wants to create infographics, presentations, reports, and much more.
Whether you’re a solopreneur or a business, Piktochart will help you create professional-looking and engaging visual content in almost any format.
No matter what type of documents you plan on creating, Piktochart allows you to brand your documents so they’re 100% unique. You won’t ever have to worry about using the same template others are using.
What I like the most about Piktochart is that it works with third-party options such as Excel to help you transfer complex data into visually appealing documents.
As long as you have data or ideas, Piktochart has templates that you can customize and use to create unique designs of any format.
I like that Piktochart allows users to create social media graphics just like Canva, yet it includes graphics that will fit more industries and businesses, such as reports, flyers, and promotional types of content.
Piktochart is free to use but it also has paid pricing plans. You can choose between the Pro plan that costs $24.17/month when billed annually or the Team plan that costs $21.67/month when billed annually.
Conclusion
Canva is a great design platform that is easily accessible, offers plenty of limited functions, and is perfect for someone who’s managing social media channels.
However, Canva has its flaws, and these open-source Canva alternatives excel in different features that provide better use or cheaper access to premium features.
Not only are these alternatives a great fit for solopreneurs, but some of these alternatives also make a good fit for smaller and larger businesses.
You won’t go wrong by choosing any of the alternatives reviewed in this post, but I highly recommend you consider the options and choose the one that fits your needs the most.
In most situations, an alternative will enhance the way you design or provide features that Canva doesn’t have.
