Canva
Canva promises better UX than Photoshop. Hasn't delivered on that promise for me. AI image gen is making deep editing less necessary anyway.
What I use it for
Pricing
Free tier; Pro at $120/yr.
Where it shines
- Accessible design tool that replaces Photoshop for most common tasks.
- Template library is massive. Good for quick brand assets and social media.
- AI-powered features are catching up — background removal, magic resize, text-to-image.
Where it struggles
- UX is not as intuitive as it should be. The whole pitch is "easier than Photoshop" but the gap is smaller than expected.
- AI image generation keeps improving. The need for deep image editing is declining every six months.
- Complex compositing — extracting elements from multiple images into layers — still exists as a use case, but I do it less and less.
Notes
Was using Canva more regularly for image editing and formatting but ended up back in Photoshop more. The irony: Canva should be the easier tool, but I've always found the UX not very intuitive. When you compare it to Photoshop — which has genuinely outdated UI — the expectation with Canva is reduced capability in exchange for user-friendly design. That trade hasn't landed for me. Meanwhile, AI image gen keeps getting better, reducing the need for deep editing. Six months from now, the editing skills themselves will be even less needed. Not a skill worth investing in when the models are closing the gap.
How to try it
Create a free account and try editing a photo or building a social media post from a template. Compare it to whatever you currently use for design.
Tags
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