Adobe Express vs Canva
Adobe Express scores 8.6 to Canva's 7.8 among the AI graphic design tools we rate, and is the better pick for 3 of the 5 kinds of buyer below.
Adobe Express wins, 8.6 to 7.8
Adobe Express costs $9.99 a month for its cheapest paid plan, and Canva costs $18. Both come with a free plan and allow commercial use of what you make. Express exports to 7 file formats and connects to 13 apps, more than Canva's 4 formats and 6 integrations. Canva trains its AI on your uploads by default unless you opt out, while Express says it does not train on your uploads at all.
Pick Adobe Express if you want the cheaper plan and more app integrations.
Pick Canva if you want desktop apps as well as web and phone.
Best for
Who each one suits, decided on the criteria that matter to that buyer and the checked facts where the two differ.
- Orders printed products: Canva yes, Adobe Express does not say
- File formats it exports: 7 export formats against 4 export formats
- Apps it connects to: 13 integrations against 6 integrations
- Several people edit at once: Adobe Express yes, Canva does not say
- Cheapest paid plan, monthly: $9.99 against $18
- Where it runs: 5 platforms against 3 platforms
- Does not train AI on what you upload: Yes against unless you opt out
How they score
Both are scored the same way, against the other AI graphic design tools we rate, from facts on each vendor's own pages. Adobe Express leads on 3 of 5 criteria.
Where they differ
Every point where the two vendors' published facts disagree, with a link to where each fact was read. "Not published" means the vendor does not say either way.
Published by only one of them
Where they match (15)
Pricing, plan by plan
Every plan each vendor publishes, monthly and yearly where both are offered.
Adobe Express
Canva
Pros and cons
From each tool's full review, written from the same checked facts.
Adobe Express
- The free plan alone includes more than 100,000 templates, over a million Adobe Stock photos, videos and music tracks, and more than 4,000 fonts, at no cost.
- Real-time co-editing and commenting let more than one person work on the same project together.
- Content made with its AI features is designed to be commercially safe, and Adobe does not train its models on your personal content.
- It runs in the browser and on iOS and Android, integrates directly with Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Acrobat and Lightroom, and publishes straight to social platforms and Vimeo.
- Generative AI on the paid Premium plan is capped at 250 credits a month per user.
- There is no node-level vector editing; SVG appears only as an export format.
- Phone and chat support are reserved for paid subscribers, while the free plan gets community support only.
Canva
- The free plan includes over 1,000 design types, more than 1.6 million templates, more than 4.7 million stock photos, videos, graphics and audio clips, and 5GB of storage at no cost.
- Magic Design turns a written prompt into a finished design, extending the same approach to presentations and video.
- The AI Image Generator creates images directly on the page, and Magic Eraser, Magic Edit and Magic Expand let you edit them afterward without leaving Canva.
- Canva runs on web, Windows, Mac, iOS and Android, keeping a project accessible across devices.
- A Brand Kit is included even on the free plan, growing to 5 kits on Pro and 100 kits with approvals on Business.
- Canva Print lets you order physical prints of a design, with a 10% discount on the Business plan.
- The Canva Connect API and an apps marketplace, including Google Drive, Brandfetch and a Figma to Canva export, let Canva plug into other tools.
- Canva holds SOC 2 and SOC 3 reports and ISO 27001 certification, states it supports GDPR, and offers single sign-on for accounts.
- The AI Image Generator's Vector style produces a raster image with a vector look, not an editable vector or SVG file.
- Canva trains its algorithms on uploaded content by default for general accounts, and you must opt out yourself through privacy settings.
- Paid plans are priced per person, so every extra seat on a team costs the full plan price again.
- The free plan's Brand Kit is limited to three colours.
- The AI allowance on paid plans is described only as a multiplier of the free plan's usage, and using more requires the separately priced AI Pass add-on.
- Canva Print is only available where Canva offers print fulfillment, so it is not guaranteed everywhere.
Adobe Express vs Canva: common questions
Which is better, Adobe Express or Canva?
Adobe Express scores 8.6 and Canva 7.8 out of 10 among the AI graphic design tools we rate. Adobe Express is ahead on workflow and output, pricing and privacy and trust. Canva is ahead on what you can make and teams and platforms.
Is Adobe Express or Canva cheaper?
Adobe Express's cheapest paid plan is $9.99/mo (Premium) and Canva's is $18/mo. Compare what each plan includes below before going on price alone.
Do Adobe Express and Canva have a free plan?
Yes, both do.
