Design software includes features like design templates, photo editing, collaboration, and cloud storage. In today’s digital world, small businesses without a technology-enabled approach to graphic and social media design are falling behind.

This article will discuss the differences between two of the largest players in this space: Canva and PicMonkey. We’ll discuss the notable strengths and weaknesses of each tool, and provide recommendations for who each tool will suit best.

All of our recommendations are based on research, product demos with the software companies, and dozens of hours spent hand-testing design tools. More details regarding our research process can be found on our design category page.

Canva & PicMonkey Comparison Summary

We researched and extensively tested both Canva and PicMonkey. Canva received a SoftwarePundit Analyst Rating of 93 while PicMonkey received a rating of 86.

Here’s a breakdown of our review criteria and how Canva and PicMonkey performed in each category:

In terms of pricing, Canva begins at $12.99 per month per user. PicMonkey’s pricing starts at $7.99 per month per user.

Both solutions offer the standard features found across document management tools. These include design types, tool kits, collaboration features, cloud storage, and exporting options. Canva is overall much more powerful than PicMonkey. Canva’s strongest features are its user-friendly presentation, photo and video creation, and content planner.

Overall, Canva is the best option for businesses looking to create high quality graphics and videos as easily as possible. Although PicMonkey is easy to use and affordable, each feature it offers is respectively more robust in Canva.

Here’s a quick breakdown of who will prefer each option:

Table of Contents

• Canva & PicMonkey Comparison Summary
• Canva & PicMonkey Price Comparison
  • Canva Pricing
  • PicMonkey Pricing
• Canva & PicMonkey Top Feature Comparison
  • Designs
  • Tool Kit
  • Collaboration
  • Cloud Storage
  • Exporting
• Canva & PicMonkey Integrations
• Bottom Line

Canva & PicMonkey Price Comparison

Overall, Canva is more affordable than PicMonkey. Both solutions offer more features and storage with their more expensive plans.

Canva Pricing Details

Canva pricing starts at $12.99 per month for up to 5 users. Monthly prices increase with more users. It is one of the most affordable solutions on the market today. Canva also provides a free plan with 5 GB of cloud storage.

Here are Canva’s pricing options for its Pro plan based on how many users you have:

PicMonkey Pricing Details

PicMonkey pricing starts at $7.99 per month. It is one of the most affordable solutions on the market today. PicMonkey does not provide a free plan like Canva and Visme. PicMonkey does not offer collaboration features in its two more affordable plans.

Here are PicMonkey’s three main pricing options:

Canva & PicMonkey Feature Comparison

Overall, Canva has a more powerful breadth of features than PicMonkey. Canva has a more robust tool kit as well as real-time collaboration.

For a full analysis of each solution’s features, read our Canva review and PicMonkey review.

Designs

Both Canva and PicMonkey offer various design types to create. However, Canva comes with more templates. Canva also features more design types.

Both solutions come with a number of templates to create designs from. Canva comes with far more templates than PicMonkey. Examples are seen below.

Templates for both solutions help you create the following:

Tool Kit

PicMonkey’s tool kit is weaker than Canva’s. It generally comes with less elements than Canva and there is a lack of curation as well. You also cannot create graphs. Canva’s tool kit is the best option for beginners with simple design needs.

You can access the following tools when editing content in PicMonkey:

Canva’s tool kit includes selectable and premade elements and graphics you can quickly plug into your designs. Furthermore, Canva automatically recommends graphics similar to the template style you’ve selected. This additional feature further streamlines your workflow.

You can access the following tools when editing content in Canva:

PicMonkey’s photo editing capabilities are stronger than Canva’s, but still weaker than Adobe Photoshop’s.

PicMonkey comes with a number of fairly advanced adjustments to your images. This includes:

You can also add advanced color effects to individual image layers such as gradients. These effects are simultaneously high quality and accessible.

Collaboration

Collaboration in Canva and PicMonkey is similar. However, PicMonkey’s collaboration features are only available with its most expensive plan. This means that teams that frequently collaborate will find Canva more suitable for their needs.

Projects in Canva and PicMonkey can be edited by team members at any time. Collaboration in these solutions is very similar to document management software solutions such as Google Workspace and Microsoft 365.

Cloud Storage

Cloud storage in both applications is simple to set up and effective. PicMonkey can be fully cloud-based like Canva. You have the option to keep files fully in the cloud or save local files for personal use. This means that you do not need to save your own projects before uploading them to the cloud which takes up space on your hard drive.

Unfortunately, version control is not included in PicMonkey. This is ultimately why we recommend Canva’s cloud storage capabilities over PicMonkey’s.

Exporting

PicMonkey’s exporting and sharing options are limited when compared to Canva. We especially recommend Canva if you’re a marketer looking to automate your posts to social media. Canva comes with a number of exporting and sharing features that are very helpful for marketers and bloggers.

You can export your file as the following in PicMonkey’s free plan:

Canva, unlike PicMonkey, comes with a content planner which is ideal for marketers. This planner integrates with a number of social media platforms to schedule posts on specific days. This is an invaluable tool for bloggers and small businesses who run both content creation and marketing strategies.

Here are the social media platforms you can automate posts on with Canva:

Integrations

Canva and PicMonkey both offer a number of popular integrations found in standard design software. Here are some of the most popular native integrations both solutions offer:

Bottom Line

Overall, Canva is the best option for businesses looking to create high quality graphics and videos as easily as possible. Although PicMonkey is easy to use and affordable, each feature it offers is respectively more robust in Canva.

If you’re interested, visit Canva or PicMonkey today to get started.