Canva: Design, Art & AI Editor Ratings and Reviews

I’m a long time Canva user and absolutely loved this app. I use it all the time for all my blog graphics. However, Canva recently updated the software for iPad and now I hate it.
What was once an easy to use app, is now cumbersome, has less functionality, less ease of use, less user friendly, less everything except the amount of time it takes to create a new graphic. It has got to be about 200% slower.
It works very similarly to the iPhone app - which I hate. If I can’t use the old interface, I’m gonna be forced to switch apps. Please don’t make me switch. Don’t make the iPad app function as poorly as the iPhone app. I need speed, ease of use and lots of functionality that works well on my iPad. Not my iPhone, but my iPad.
I also can’t edit any of my saved files in Canva as I receive a compatibility error message. PLEASE FIX THIS!! PLEASE AT LEAST GIVE US THE OPTION OF USING THE OLDER VERSION. I HATE THE UPDATED IPAD VERSION. SERIOUSLY. HATE IT! I CAN’T EVEN USE IT, BECAUSE IT JUST SITS THERE FOREVER SPINNING, TRYING TO LOAD AND CAN’T. PLEASE, PLEASE GIVE US BACK THE OLD VERSION. PLEASE.
How about if you do away with the iPhone version and just use the old iPad app? That’s a great idea! Or make the iPhone a limited functionality (which, it essentially is). Please give me back the Canva I loved! I am extremely busy, carry my iPad with me everywhere I go and use Canva all the time. Please do something about this!

We hear you and we'd love to make things better for you, Lenny Pam. Our team is still in the works to improve the functionality of our app. The goal is to give everyone the best design experience, that is why you can be assured that we're continuously working on improving our services both on mobile and web, as we move forward. We truly appreciate your patience and understanding. ^QS

I love canva to create my own wallpapers, create simple animations, and design sophisticated school projects. I created an invitation for a birthday party on canva also and it came out so well. I have two problems with this app. There aren’t as many options for images to add if you don’t have canva pro. The pro images and free images are mixed together so you have to scroll down to find one that you like that isn’t something you have to pay for. They have a section for only pro images, but you have to scroll forever to find a good free image. They tend to put the bad free images at the top so I’ll be more likely to buy pro I guess? It’s annoying though. Understandable however, as they are trying to make money. I just wish there was an option to only search for free images. It might make the app less money but it would save me time and effort. Another big thing is video editing. I got this app for video editing, and don’t. It’s trash for video editing. It’s super pixelated and there’s lag. Soemtimes it does weird things like not matching up audio and video and I’ll have to restart the app for it to act normally. It’s so annoying having to constantly restart the app. It crashes all the time too. Canva just can’t handle big attachments like that. I know other reviewers were complaining about the lagging and crashing problem as well, and it needs to be fixed overall in canva, but especially in the video editing section.

Hello there, thanks for reaching out to us. We're sorry for the inconveniences you are encountering with the app while editing your video plus it crashes and lagging. We would like to help you resolve this, kindly update the app and if the errors persist, send us a complete detail of the issues encountered through canva.me/ios. Many thanks for your patience. - Jane

Im a beginner in video editing and creating content for social media and Canva has been very simple to use and my content always looks great! I’m very impressed with how many things are available, sometimes you don’t even know what to pick (mind you I have the pro account).
However, the only con I see is that Canva is very glitchy. For example, if I’m editing a video, the video will buffer and sometimes won’t run smoothly if I’ve been working on the video for awhile. I also have the app on my phone and it’s difficult to complete projects if im toggling between apps on my mac book and phone not sure if Canva is intended for this kind of use but if I’m working from home on the app on my Mac and then I want to complete the project on my phone (vice-versa) the video will not open properly and I cannot continue editing because the video won’t play/run as it should. Sometimes I need to reload the app and then it still doesn’t work properly. There’s been a few times that I’ve had to delete whatever I’m working on and restart a new and complete right then and there because I know if I’m come back to it will be hard to complete. Another note that sometimes it’s difficult to upload media on the app (Mac book) iPhone seems to work pretty well.

Overall, I highly recommend Canva. I hope that someone from Canva team reads this review and and provides some assistance or on the next update fixes these glitches.

Hi there, we are delighted to have you as part of the Canva family. Thank you for sharing your kind words with us. It means the world to our entire team. This is not the experience we want you to have. We understand that you're having troubles synchronizing your saved designs between your phone and your computer. When you create a design on the web and the saved changes do not appear when you access the same design on the Canva iOS app, just tap the cloud icon on the thumbnail for the app to sync on the web. Also we have released an updated version of the app with better functionality . Give it a go and let us know how it goes through at canva.me/ios. Many thanks for your patience. - Cynch

Canva is absolutely amazing. Even the free version is great. Although things I purchased or had while I had the pro has the watermarks all over it now which is totally ridiculous. THAT NEEDS TL BE FIXED cause it’s messed up. Also there are so many glitches with how smooth the app runs especially on the my ipad but the iPhone too. It can be very frustrating cause the app is great and there’s so many ways I can be creative and bring that into my class but all the glitches seriously makes me want to delete and I don’t wanna. Also I would love if Canva had a reduced price pro version for educators that are self employed, do homeschool etc. We are living in a new era and let’s be real educators are screwed most of the times so to see recognition of all types of educators would be phenomenal. Many of us left the school system during the the pandemic and working solo and everything comes out of our own pockets. I would totally purchase a discounted version for online teachers who are self employed. Please please look into this. I’m sure it’ll bring more collaborations and interest.

Edit:
PLEEEEASE ADD A FEATURE WHERE THE USER CAN SELECT FROM FREE AND PAID CONTENT. A lot of time is spent scrolling non stop to find the perfect free icon. Thanks!

Hi there, we're sorry to know your app crashed. This could happen if multiple apps are running on your phone. Please close apps that are not being used, restart the app and update your app and see how it goes. Also the app is free to install but when you use premium elements in your design, you will be asked to pay. To know whether an element is premium, check for the coins icon on the image thumbnail. We add more free elements in every update. With regards to educators accessing Canva, we have Canva for education application. For more info kindly visit this link: https://bit.ly/3JD8EQg. If the issue recurs, send your more details at canva.me/ios. Regards - Sheryl

Are you the kind of artist that needs strokes, layers, and erasers that erase a teeny, tiny mistake without ruining your art intirely? Well then*Canva* is not….for you…BECAUSE
1) For all artists like me, I understand they do art differently, but I would like to request the eraser to be normal. This app is great for brochures, slideshows, and designs, but the eraser is a OBJECT eraser. If you don’t know what that means, that means it erases all the strokes, hard work, and detail you put with your art. I suggest object erasing can be a option for the next update, but please make another option for the eraser like, a normal eraser where you just erase small things without having to destroy your work.
2) The limit of strokes, items, and things, aren’t for me. Making art is needed to have unlimited strokes, features, ideas, decor, and making a limit isn’t helping. We artists need more!
3) LAG. How we all hate it. Out of all the drawing games I’ve played, the lag didn’t do so hard…and told me to get rid of strokes. All of the problems above connect, because first, erasing destroys the art, second the limits of strokes, items, sticky notes, etc, cause the lag.
4) Please, add layers. I do not like how all the tools just over lap. The highlighter helps to color, but it go’s over my outline of art. So, if your a artist with detail, consider before downloading!!!! Thank u ☺️🥹💖

Hi there, thanks for reaching out to Canva. We'll let our team know about your suggestion because your input is truly valuable as we aim to give you the best design experience. Sorry to hear that the app loads slower than expected. Please check this link to help resolve your concern: bit.ly/3Orwn9L. For the layers, you may visit canva.com/help/layer-group-align/ for more info. If these links don't help, send us a report to canva.me/ios. Kindly keep your app updated for new features and improvements. Regards. - Abby

Canva has potential to be a 5 Star app. If this review were based on just on the creative process alone and ease of use, this is an easy 5 Star platform However, when it comes to the APP, both iPad and iPhone are buggy experiences. Colors of graphical elements used in creations do not display right most of the time but look fine on the browser version.. (ex. I choose a graphic of a hammer and color it all black. The app in some instances will show it as a totally different color... say green. Then trying to correct it on the app doesn't work because the app shows that the "color selected" for the hammer is black. Going back to the browser it is definitely still colored black).. Sometimes text and graphics look misaligned after downloading but look fine on the browser version as well the app. This makes it hard to share creations with clients because the finished product I create will sometimes be "off", looking as if I rushed through a creation and not because of user error. This is very frustrating. Anyone considering using this platform should stick with the browser version until the dev team can crush a few more bugs within the app because, while it in itself is not perfect, it has far less bugs and glitches. Other than that as I stated above, Canva is very intuitive and extremely easy to use.

Hi there, thank you for the feedback. We're continuously working to make the app much better. Don't forget to check for updates as we regularly add new free elements, release new features and improvements. For concerns, visit canva.me/ios. - Lou

EDIT: Well, something was fixed. Still having weird rebounds when trying to crop, but the “Pro” logo is back on things that aren’t free (which there also seem to be more of again), so I no longer have to hover over everything to check. Congrats, you guys get a star back.

This used to be an amazing app and for the longest time I had rated it at 5 stars. Now, however, it’s become such a headache to use. It used to show which images were free to use as soon as a gallery loaded. Now I have to hover my finger over EVERY SINGLE ONE, only to find that 99% are now “Pro” and cost money to use. There’s no way to filter your search for only free images either. I’ve resorted to searching Google for free-use stock photos most of the time. I’m not using this app to make presentations or anything to make money off of, I just like making my social media posts prettier. Also, when I’m cropping a photo, the app will suddenly bounce backwards out of that function and I’ll have to click AGAIN on the crop button and start over. Seriously disappointed and if I find another photo editing app that I like better, you can be sure I’ll be deleting this one in a heartbeat.

Hi there, we're sorry for the inconvenience. Here in Canva, we want to make sure that you are properly assisted with the issue you encountered. Please provide us more details through here: canva.me/ios. Don't forget to check for updates to get all the functionality of the app. - Lou

Upgrading to the Pro version was definitely a great decision on my part, and for the most part I’m enjoying the App. I do find myself having to import elements from outside sources very frequently however. I’d really like to see Canva up their game in the quality and quantity, and the variety of elements offered.

My biggest issue with Canva is a major one! The App constantly crashes on me while I’m working on a project. Everything else on my update iPad works perfectly fine, it’s only the Canva App that has these issue. My only solution is to do a complete shutdown of my tablet and reboot it. I even lost the progress on my work in one project, as it failed to save my work, before it crashed. Obviously I had no idea, or I would’ve saved it myself!!! Considering I’m paying money for this App, I do expect a higher standard. This issue happens frequently. I somehow would have a very hard time believing that I’m the only one with this same issue, which would mean that they haven’t taken the time to fix it? If this continues, I will have no choice but to find another App that offers me the roughly services at around the same price, but that works properly!

Hi Puzzledn'Perplexed, thanks for the feedback. We're sorry to hear that you experienced crashing issues with your app. This isn't what we want you to experience. Please force close the app and then restart it. You may also close apps that are not being used at the moment to free some space in your device storage. Also, we recently released a version of the app with better functionality. We recommend that you have it updated to get its full features. If error persists, send us a report at canva.me/ios. Kind regards. - Cynch

I use Canva all the time. This isn't about the functionality of Canva itself. I use Canva pretty much literally daily. This is about how the Canva app for iPhone is still lagging way behind in terms of its functionality.

I don't know if it's a limitation with the phone itself because I do not have this problem necessarily using the Isse iOS app on my iPad. Neither are as good as the desktop version on computer but at least on iPad Canva is kind of usable whereas I still find the iPhone really isn't.

Right now (as I'm typing this) all I wanted to do was use a graphic that I've already made and switch out the photograph in the background and I couldn't easily do it on my iPhone. I am logging onto my computer right now so I can just do it on my computer. This isn't to say that it could not have been done on iPhone but it is to say that the iPhone app is adequately not intuitive and even the most simple tasks become needlessly difficult and/or cumbersome. And usually if I'm jumping on my phone to do something it's because I want to make it right quick so you can USE the graphic and I can never do that and that's frustrating.

Hello TDRock, thanks for the feedback and for reaching out to us. We apologize for the inconveniences you have while using the app. We understand that you prefer to use our web version and that you have troubles editing your design. You can edit your designs easier by grouping and layering your elements. Please refer to this link for more info: https://bit.ly/3KByF1V. We also suggest that you update the app and if you still have concerns, let us know at canva.me/ios. We'll be happy to assist you. Many thanks. - Cynch

Fortunately I was still in the free trial mode before deciding whether I wanted to pay for the pro-mode of the app. The only reason I was considering paying for it was for the “background removal tool” when editing photos. Every time I attempted to use this tool, immediately after using it the app would crash and everything in that document would be gone - even though I saved periodically and it appeared to save successfully. I tried playing around with the tool to see if it was user error, but no matter what template I used or what image I used it on, the app immediately crashed and deleted everything in that template. It was extremely frustrating to repeat the process multiple times and to be left with a blank template at the end. Scrolling through anything on the app is cumbersome as well (it makes it feel like my touchscreen isn’t registering me touching the screen, even though it works everywhere else). Lastly, converting to other template sizes is not seamless and shouldn’t be used as a selling feature for the pro version. Also, I am using an updated 2021 iPad Pro, so it should not be equipment failure. I’m glad I used the free trial, because it gave me the clarity to avoid paying the pricey monthly charge for this buggy app.

TLDR: Background Removal Tool causes app crashes, unsaved work. Cannot easily scroll through images/graphics/etc. due to bugginess.

Don’t pay for this app.

Hi there, we're sorry to hear that you experienced crashing issues with your app. This isn't what we want you to experience. Please force close the app and then restart it. You may also close apps that are not being used at the moment to free some space in your device storage. Also, we recently released a version of the app with better functionality and user friendly interface. We recommend that you have it updated to get its full features. If error persists, send us a report at canva.me/ios. Kind regards. - Cynch