Does the free Canva version have limitations?

If you're looking to use Canva for professional work or for a potentially longer period of time perhaps you've wondered if there's any difference or limitations between the free tier and the monthly subscription tier of Canva.

Yes, there are limitations between the free and paid tier but using canva is free, at least with the most tools. Of course their long term goal is to convince you to buy a subscription so gradually they will continue to limit features and templates. But even as is we belive the free version of the software has enough features so that it makes it worthwhile to use it for your projects. 

So what are the differences between the free and the paid Canva Plans?

Here's a quick rundown of the biggest differences:

1. The free version of the Canva app has limited templates you can use for your projects.
2. Canva Pro lets you access millions more photos, vector illustrations, icons and other useful tools such as background removers and other effects you can add on top of your layers to make your designs look more polished.
3. Saving your designs will only have limited options and Canva is pretty much going to force you to only download low resolution sizes at a lower quality. You also won't be able to save as certain file extensions.  
4. On the free plan you won't be able to use features such as brand kits, collaborations and other cool features the premium plan has to offer.

TLDR: The main differences between the free and the paid plan is basically limited templates, limited images, limited illustrations and limited features you can use to polish your work and export it.

Is there a size limit to free Canva?

Unfortunately yes, free canva users can only upload media up to a total of 5gb. Although I think this limitation is not that bad, since you can easily minify your images and content so you can end up with hundreds of different templates on a single account it's still a limitation you need to be aware of. 

Is Canva Pro worth it?

If you're going to use Canva for more than a few times every week then the extra features and templates are probably worth the monthly expense. On the other hand if you're going to be using canva occasionally or less than 2-3 times per month I would say you stick to the free version and try to find workarounds and tricks to get the design you want. There's plenty of free tools you can use on the internet and then reimport the content back to Canva. It just takes more time but the end result is the same. 

So, if you value time we recommend Canva Pro, if you have time to spare then our opinion is you can still use Canva Free because it offers a lot of features that are useable and accessible to pretty much everyone.