Speaking of online design tool, Canva is the first name to come in mind, but everyone is not enough with a single choice. Meet one of the Canva competitors, Piktochart.

Comparing Canva and Piktochart is basically not too good idea since they have different focuses. It’s the same as comparing Hootsuite and Buffer which basically have different focuses. Canva is a complex online design tool whereby you can create nearly everything. From marketing tools, event invitations, infographics and much more, while Piktochart tends to has limited capability. Piktochart focuses on providing tool to create infographics and presentations although you can also use it to create marketing tools like flyers and posters which is grouped in the Printable menu. Canva is arguably an online alternative to tools like Adobe Indesign and Microsoft Publisher.

Due to the big gap in design capability, this article won’t be comparing the design capability they can handle of. Instead, I will only compare what they have in common.

User interface

Both Canva and Piktochart come with interface designs that are easy to use. The essence of online design tools like both tools are to help you creating design in a simpler way and the two have completed the mission. Each template design, be it on Canva or Piktochart, comes with default contents. All you need to do is just replace the default contents with your own contents to tailor your needs. Both Canva and Piktochart also come with a handy text formatting tools which appear as the toolbar right above the working canvas.

The interface layout of Canva and Piktochart tend to the same where the working window is divided into three parts: main menu at the left-most sidebar, selector right next to it and the canvas to work on your design. The interface of Piktochart is a bit better if you work with a smaller computer screen since it allows you to hide the selector to gain extra space for the canvas. At the top menu of the interface, be it on Canva or Piktochart, you will see some buttons like Download, Share and so on. In general, the interface of Canva and Piktochart is easy enough to use and there is no significant difference between them except a button on Piktochart that allows you to hide the selector to gain extra space for the canvas.

Winner: draw

Template collections

Both Canva and Piktochart offer free templates as well as premium templates. In this part, Canva is superior since you can find hundreds of templates be it free or premium, while the templates offered by Piktochart tend to limited. For instance if you want to create an infographic using your free account, you will only be able to choose 8 free templates, compared to hundreds offered by Canva.

The premium templates offered by Piktochart is also not as many as Canva. Due to its abundant template collections, Canva is a better choice to create unique designs. I can’t find an online design tool that offers more templates than Canva does. Canva is unbeatable in terms of template collections since it allows other parties to create ones.

Winner: Canva

Design elements

Not all design templates of Canva and Piktochart come with the elements you expect. For instance, if you want to create a flyer to promote your community event, you may want to add an image background of your community members or the events you and your community have held before. Sure, you have to use your own image in such case. Both Canva and Piktochart allow you to upload images from your computer. Both Canva and Piktochart also come with an image library although not all of images are free to use.

To fulfill your imagery need, Canva is taking advantage of free image libraries from Unsplash. In addition, Canva also opens an opportunity for photographers to gain extra money by selling their photos to its service. Those two ideas are the reasons why Canva is capable of providing abundant image collections. Piktochart also has rich image libraries, but the collection is not too significant, at least if you compare with Canva’s.

In addition to image, both Canva and Piktochart also allow you to add other elements such as lines, shapes, icons and so on. In general, the type of design elements offered by Canva and Piktochart are not much different. The only different, as I described above, is that Canva has much more image collections than Piktochart. If image is not too matter to you, then there is no winner here. Conversely, if you often use different images on the visual contents you created, Canva is the better.

Winner: Canva

Things you can do with free account

Canva and Piktochart use a freemium business model, meaning that you can use them for free as long as you want. Once you done with your design, Canva and Piktochart allow you to download the file in the medium quality (with the width of 800px). There is a significant difference here.

In Canva, you are allowed to download the design file you have created without watermark. Piktochart, on the other hand, requires you to retain the watermark every time you want to download the design file you have created unless you upgrade your account.

Every time you uploaded an image to both Canva and Piktochart, the image will be saved to their servers. Just because you are allowed to upload your images, it doesn’t mean that you are allowed to upload images in the unlimited number. In Piktochart, you have only 40MB of storage capacity (the specification page tells 100MB), while Canva gives you a 1GB of storage capacity. Both Canva and Piktochart also comes with a nice file manager. You are allowed to create folders to make your works be more organized. Unfortunately, you need to upgrade your account to do so. Free users of Canva are allowed to create folders, but limited to two.

Winner: Canva

Collaboration capability

Today, most online tools come with a collaboration capability. Both Canva and Piktochart also offer this sort of feature. However, the feature is not available in the free version of Piktochart. On the other hand, free users of Canva are allowed to create a team with the number of team up to 10 persons. Premium users are allowed to add up to 30 members. So again, we have to say that Canva is better in this part.

Winner: Canva

Conclusion

Both Canva and Piktochart are great solutions to create visual contents. You can use them to create beautiful designs without an advanced skill in design. Piktochart is great, but the features offered for free users I think are too basic. Too many restrictions even for basic things. For instance, free users are not allowed to create folder at all, which is crucial enough to manage your design. Canva, on the other hand, allows free users to do so although limited to two folders. Crello even allows free users to create unlimited folders in order to enable them manage their works.

Canva also offers more templates than Piktochart. However, it is probably not too matters for some people since selecting the right template can takes longer, which can waste your time. But, I can say that overall, Canva is still the better when it comes to online design tool.

Overall winner: Canva