Graphic designers or the others who create images often seem confused while choosing between Picmonkey and Canva. Yet, both of them provide stunning results with their distinctive features. There are also many creators who use both Picmonkey and Canva simultaneously.
If you are one of those who are searching for Picmonkey VS Canva, this article is for all of you.
This article is a comparative analysis of Picmonkey and Canva that includes:
- Usability
- Interface and Editor
- Trademarks
- Amazing Templates
- Apps & Integrations
- Cost
I hope this guide will help you out deciding whether you should use Picmonkey or Canva or both.
Let me highlight the key differences between PicMonkey and Canva before going into the details.
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Table of Contents
PicMonkey VS Canva: Key Differences
PicMonkey is particularly useful for photo editing. So, if you are a photo editor, PicMonkey is the best photo editing tool for you. But the fact is it is not free.
On the other side, here is Canva, another designing tool. Canva offers you approximately 420,000+ ready-made templates. Moreover, it has more features and integrations than PicMonkey. Canva also offers a free plan to its users.
Canva and PicMonkey both have different users. It’s almost like comparing Mac VS PC.
While choosing between PicMonkey and Canva, you should keep in mind what your project is. With Picmonkey and Canva, you can either start photo editing or create fabulous graphic designs without any graphic designing skills!
You can consider PicMonkey as an alternative to online Photoshop. Canva, on the other hand, is a graphic designing platform with 420000+ free templates helpful for beginners who are still yet to develop graphic designing skills.
Both Picmonkey and Canva leave you with stunning results. However, what you need to understand is the difference so that you can make the right choice to make your project successful.
Let’s dive into the details, starting with the usability- Picmonkey VS Canva.
Usability: Picmonkey VS Canva
Most beginners use online tools for designing and editing as they do not have professional training. These online tools help beginners and also professionals to bring the best out of using their creativity.
Using such tools also reduces the cost of hiring a graphic designer.
Both Picmonkey and Canva are user-friendly tools. But let me show you how they perform regarding their usability.
Canva
Canva is a graphic designing tool, not for photo editing. It features 420000+ templates, as I have mentioned before. You can customize those pre-designed high-quality templates as per your need.
You will find almost all categories for your customization.
Many experienced professional designers don’t need pre-designed templates. If you have experience, you can utilize your creativity by using the clean interface of Canva.
However, the thousands of customizable free templates of Canva allow the users to apply their unique ideas and create more stunning graphic designs.
PicMonkey
Picmonkey is also easy to use, but there are some basic concepts that you need to learn.
As Picmonkey is Photoshop alike, you may need to face a learning curve that may include overlays, effects, exposure, colors, dodge, erase, brush tool, touch-up tools, etc.
I think Canva is easier to use than PicMonkey as Canva doesn’t feature such learning curves. Thousands of ready-made and customizable designs ease the usability of Canva.
Interface and Editor
A vast distinction that differentiates Canva and PicMonkey is their interface and visual editor. Let’s start with Canva.
Editor & Interface of Canva
With a drag and drop visual editor featuring a clean interface, Canva allows you to play with its multiple functionalities.
Due to its drag and drop editor, users find Canva easy to create incredible graphic designs with a live preview.
On the left side of the Canva, you will find the visual editor, from where you can choose the ready-made templates. You can also create a design from scratch, upload photos from your computer, add photos offered by Canva, add or change font text, music, videos, or folders, apps, integrations, and more.
On the right side, there is the live preview. You can see your design from the top bar, download it, share and resize your designs.
Editor & Interface of PicMonkey
PicMonkey also features a drag and drop visual editor and has a clean interface. However, it is a photo editing tool in particular. So its visual editor has tons of photo editing features, and one may struggle a bit to get used to it, especially if the user is a beginner.
In comparison, the Canva editor is faster as it features thousands of pre-designed templates. So, I think it’s better to use Canva if you are a graphics designer.
Trademarks
While selecting one tool among multiple ones, you need to analyze and compare the features of those tools.
Both Canva and PicMonkey share similar features to create remarkable designs, but some differences pull them apart.
Similarity
Let’s have a look at the similarity of Canva and PicMonkey:
| Features | Canva | PicMonkey |
| Background Remover | ✓ | ✓ |
| Magic/Smart Resize | ✓ | ✓ |
| Brand Kit | ✓ | ✓ |
| Upload Own Fonts | ✓ | ✓ |
| Invite Others | ✓ | ✓ |
| Premium Fonts | ✓ | ✓ |
| Unlimited Folders | ✓ | ✓ |
| Commenting | ✓ | ✓ |
Source: https://www.ecomsay.com/picmonkey-vs-canva/
Dissimilarity
Features that Do not Match:
| Features | Canva | PicMonkey |
| Set Download Quality | ✓ | ✕ |
| Content Planner | ✓ | ✕ |
| Animator | ✓ | ✕ |
| Canva Print | ✓ | ✕ |
| Video Editor | ✓ | ✓ |
Source: https://www.ecomsay.com/picmonkey-vs-canva/
Templates
Let’s drive to know which platform has more professional looking templates:
Canva Templates
There are two things for which Canva has millions of users:
- Usability
- Professional Pre-designed Templates
There is rarely any platform that can match the clean and modern interface and templates of Canva. Its rich templates allow the users to re-create multiple items from the neatly organized categories according to the need.
PicMonkey Templates
PicMonkey also has well-designed templates, but they are not as professional as Canva templates are. The reason behind it is that PicMonkey is a photo editing tool, and you cannot use PicMonkey for graphic designing.
When you compare the two, you get PicMonkey doesn’t offer tons of categories as Canva does. And its templates lack proper organization.
So, Canva also wins here while selecting templates and categories.
Let’s jump on to the next section.
Apps and Integrations
Canva
Canva comes with many third-party integrations and apps. It helps the users to add powerful features to their designs. See its integrations:
Embeds – Copy and paste a web link into your designs. For example, you can embed a YouTube video, Twitter post, or anything else to your creative designs via a link.
Pexels & Pixabay – You can add millions of stock photos and videos to your stunning designs for free directly from Canva.
Cloud Storage – The Cloud storage services such as Google Drive and Dropbox facilitate the export or import of your designs straight from Canva.
Social Media Platforms – You can publish or share your creativity straight to social media platforms from Canva directly.
Mailchimp – You can save your works straight to your Mailchimp account to use them for your next campaign.
Editing Extensions (PhotoMosh) – Canva is integrated with PhotoMosh to boost its editing quality. It strengthens image quality with cool effects like a glitch, pixelate, slice, and tons of other features.
HubSpot – Canva employs its editing experience right into the HubSpot platform. Users can design stunning graphics and publish to their favorite marketing channels directly from HubSpot or import files from HubSpot right into their Canva designs.
PicMonkey
PicMonkey, unlike Canva, does not support tons of third-party integrations and apps. However, it is integrated with:
Social Media Platforms – PicMonkey gets integrated with social media platforms like YouTube, Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, and Tumblr.
Google Drive/Photos – Integrated with Google Drive & Google Photos to store designs.
Buffer – Schedule your PicMonkey creative designs via Buffer.
Pricing
Canva
Canva offers two pricing plans:
- Pro
- Enterprise
Canva Pro plan cost is $12.95 per month or $9.95 per month. The annual bill is one payment of $119.40 for up to 5 persons.
The Enterprise plan cost is $30 per user a month.
Canva Pro Plan Provide:
- Brand Kit
- Magic Resize
- 75 million+ Photo & Graphics
- Animator
- Content Planner
- Set-Download Quality
- Upload Own Fonts
- Unlimited Folders
- Background Remover
- 100GB Storage
- 420,000 Templates
- Canva Print
- Premium Animations
- 3000+ Premium Fonts
- Save designs as templates for further use
On the other hand, Canva Enterprise plan provides everything Pro plan has, plus:
- It can control team uploads into Canva
- You can set which elements your team can edit and stay on-brand with template locking
- You can control your team access to graphics, apps, logos, colors, and fonts with brand controls
- You can easily communicate with in-editor comments and design approval workflow.
- Single-sign & two-factor authentication
- 24/7 Enterprise-level support.
- Unlimited storage
Pricing of PicMonkey
PicMonkey offers three pricing plans:
- Basic
- Pro
- Team
The Basic PicMonkey plan costs $7.99 per month or $72 billed annually.
The PicMonkey Pro plan costs $12.99 per month or $120 annually.
The Team PicMonkey plan cost is $33.99 billed monthly at $11.33 per user or $300 annually.
PicMonkey Basic plan:
- It allows the users to download (JPG or PNG) or shares their designs
- Add and trim videos
- 1GB storage
- Top-tier fonts
- Primo effects, touch up tools, and templates
- Real-time collaboration, commenting and shared folders
PicMonkey Pro plan includes all of that Basic plan has, plus:
- Allow the users to download images in JPG, PNG, or PDF format.
- Unlimited Storage
- Smart Resize
- Background Remover
- Brand Kit
- Upload your own fonts
- Stock photos from iStock by Getty images
- Priority email support
PicMonkey Team plan includes all of that Pro plan has, plus:
- Team seat and permission management
- Discount for three or more users
Conclusions
According to the discussions, you can understand that both PicMonkey and Canva have strengths and weaknesses. However, I hope you also will agree with me for prioritizing Canva over PicMonkey.
In every section, Canva performs better than PicMonkey. If it comes to graphic designing, nothing can be more stunning than the production of Canva.