Many freelancers will admit it…
It’s generally not hard to earn money and be successful creating content as a freelancer, even without experience, but it’s keeping the costs down that bit by bit, eat away at the bottom line.
For me and Upwork, it’s the cost of membership and cost of “connects” to bid on jobs. With this blog, it’s the cost of owning the domain, paying for hosting, and so much more. As a blogger, specifically and creating content, it’s the cost of Canva.
Yes, I pay for Canva Pro.
And because I don’t generally pay for things that I don’t use or find value in, I’d like to take some time to talk about the differences between free Canva and Canva Pro, and why Pro is worth the expense.
TRY CANVA PRO FREE FOR 30 DAYS
Cost of Canva Pro
Canva Pro costs $12.95 per team member, per month. So, for a team of one, you’re paying $12.95/month, while a team of two is paying $25.90/month, and so on.
The goal of this blog is to prove such worth. What are the main differences between the different Canva options that make it worth at least $12.95?
What Comes with Canva for Work (Canva Pro)
Unlimited storage.
For me, nothing is worse for creativity and inspiration than limitation. Do I really want to spend time deleting photos from my phone because I need the space? No. Do I really want to delete a program off my laptop so I can add this new one? Of course not.
In the same spirit, why would I want storage restrictions with my design program?
While the 1GB that is offered with the free version of Canva sounds like a lot of space to store photos and assets, this is a design program. That available space will easily erode with every design you create. If Canva is something you need to use on a regular basis, you’ll easily blow by 1GB.
Assigned Value: It’s worth $1/month to not have to spend time and frustration cleaning up photos and assets to stay under the 1GB limit. Not to mention the fact that you inevitably end up deleting something you’ll need at some point in the future, or deleting something entirely by accident.
Over 400,000 free photos, illustrations, and templates.
If you’ve made it this far, then you’re undoubtedly familiar with the thousands of great templates and illustrations available to you (even though there isn’t an easy way to outline in Canva).
In fact, one could argue that’s the biggest draw of Canva—to, as a complete design novice be able to plug and play your way to beautiful designs.
So, wouldn’t you want more of a good thing?
With the free version of Canva, you get 8,000 templates—that’s a lot! But, you also have to consider these are 8,000 templates across a number of different project types, from presentations to social media and printed marketing materials, and more.
Perhaps you’re only using Canva to create something specific like an infographic or logo, and thus, the number of available templates that fit your need shrinks smaller and smaller.
From there, you’re not going to want to reuse the same template over and over, so variety provides the flexibility you need to keep your creative brain happy and inspired.
And hey, we are only talking about templates here. Throw in all of the different illustrations and more, and this might be the biggest reason to make the upgrade.
Assigned Value: As mentioned, to me, this is an easy $5/month value given that’s all made available to you right out of the box. A lot of time was put into creating all that’s at our fingertips, so I have no problem with paying for something like that.
Magic resize (Yes, “magic”).
One thing that can easily set anyone over the edge is finally getting the perfect logo for their business created, only to then have to chop up that image to fit all of the different areas they need to fit it. Social media headers, website, advertorials, printed materials…every platform is going to create the need for a different size.
Honesty, it’s enough to turn someone off from exploring these different marketing avenues, or at least makes it a lot harder to go full throttle.
Which leads me to the magic resize option in Canva.
Now, if you’re going to attach the word “magic” to anything, you better well bring the magic. Any consumer on the other end is going to expect greatness.
So, let me know if this does it for ya…because it sure does it for me.
You created the perfect social media image. It’s clever, looks great, and fits your every need. You wish to take this image and apply it to other areas like your blog and email marketing.
The problem is, you poured your heart into making the initial 940×788 design, but now need a 560×313 for the blog, and a 600×200 email header.
Sure, it might only require a canvas resize, and some of the already-created elements to be shifted around, but still, wouldn’t you rather just wave a magic wand?
That’s it! Simply select the design you want to transform your existing creation into, and, voila!
Assigned Value: Again, you’re paying for convenience here. For me, time is so valuable, and thus, I’d assign this at least worth $2/month.
Break out of standard font and color jail and run free with your own.
This one is simple. Are you an organization or small business that pays attention to branding? (If you are in fact a business, and branding isn’t on your radar, now may be the time).
If branding is in fact a focus, you simply can’t go forward with all of these cool Canva designs and not use your own font.
How do you upload a font to Canva? You need to be a pro member; there’s no way around it, and I really don’t have to go into detail here. If you want to use your font in your Canva designs, you need to go for Pro.
Now, what about your company colors? Sure, you can recreate your colors with the free version of Canva, but you can’t save your own brand’s color palette for easy access like you can in Pro. Another plus.
Assigned Value: With the fonts being a must, this feature is easily worth $3/month.
Background removal tool!
I won’t spend a lot of time here, because one, the idea is simple, and two, I just dedicated an entire post on how to remove the background in Canva.
But yes, with the click of a button, you can remove the background from your images. Like, literally, the click of a button. And it works great.
Other valuables not mentioned that I haven’t greatly benefited from, but you might.
Listen, the above features represent the more obvious benefits of upgrading to a Canva Pro membership.
But in addition, here are other capabilities you’ll want to refer to if Canva Pro is on your mind (along with the values I’m assigning to them for the sake of this blog post).
- Team functionalities ($1)
- Unlimited folders for your designs ($1)
- Save templates for you and your team ($1)
- Organize your photos with folders ($1)
- Easily find your designs with search ($1)
- Resize designs into custom dimensions ($2)
- Download Canva designs with transparent background ($2)
- Export designs as animated GIFs ($2)
- Priority support ($2)
What does all of this add up to? The need for Canva Pro.
Some quick math puts my own personal value of Canva Pro at $24/month, or nearly double what it actually costs. Depending on your needs, it might be a little less, and it might be a little more.
Like most things, you’ll never know if you don’t give it a shot—and you can do so for 30 days, for free.
Check it out, and let me know your thoughts!
TRY CANVA PRO FREE FOR 30 DAYS
