Microsoft Designer vs Canva

by Gralio Feb 27, 2025

Microsoft Designer and Canva offer distinct approaches to graphic design. Designer leverages AI and integrates tightly with Microsoft 365, while Canva prioritizes ease of use, a vast template library, and broader design functionalities. Designer is best for Microsoft-centric users seeking AI assistance, while Canva caters to a wider audience with diverse design needs.

At Gralio.ai we help to simplify your decision-making process by offering detailed, side-by-side software comparisons like this one, to help you confidently choose the tool that aligns with your business goals.

This comparison was created by analysing 5117 reviews and 60 websites, saving 1 day, 4 hours, 55 minutes of reading.

Microsoft Designer

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Canva

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About

Microsoft Designer is a graphic design tool powered by artificial intelligence. It allows users to easily create professional-quality visuals for social media, presentations, and marketing materials. Designer's AI assists with design suggestions, making it suitable for users with varying design experience. It aims to streamline the creative process and offers a user-friendly experience for generating unique images, graphics, and layouts.

Canva is a user-friendly design platform that makes it easy to create professional-looking visuals. It offers a wide range of templates and design tools, including a library of stock images, videos, and fonts. Canva can be used to create social media graphics, presentations, marketing materials, and more. Its drag-and-drop interface and intuitive features make it suitable for users of all skill levels, even those without prior design experience. Canva's focus on simplicity and ease of use has made it a popular choice for individuals and businesses alike.

Summary

Main difference

Microsoft Designer is deeply integrated with the Microsoft Office suite, making it ideal for businesses heavily reliant on those tools. Canva stands out with its broader design capabilities, extensive template library, and user-friendly interface, catering to a wider range of design needs.

Relative strengths of Microsoft Designer (compared to Canva)

Seamless integration with Microsoft 365.
AI-powered design suggestions streamline the creative process.
Strong focus on generating unique visuals from text prompts.

Relative weaknesses of Microsoft Designer (compared to Canva)

Limited template selection compared to Canva.
Less intuitive user interface than Canva.
Requires a Microsoft 365 subscription for full functionality.

Who is using Microsoft Designer and Canva?

No data

Sanchit Sarhadi

Network Growth Manager DACH - Networking Consultant - Aurora

Charlie Hills

I use AI to create content that converts

Olesia Krilyshyn

Sales Acceleration Specialist at Reply.io

Lindsay Rosenthal

Founder at Cred.Marketing

Jonathan Parsons

Marketing Director - Clinique UK & Ireland

Who should use Microsoft Designer VS. Canva

Microsoft Designer is an AI-powered design tool ideal for users of all skill levels. It streamlines the creation of visuals for social media, presentations, and marketing. Users praise its user-friendly interface and AI-powered design generation capabilities, while some find the template selection limited. A Microsoft 365 subscription is required.

Canva is a user-friendly design platform praised for its intuitive interface and vast template library. Users appreciate the diverse stock assets and collaboration features, enabling easy creation of professional visuals. However, some find the free version limiting and desire improved mobile app performance.

Ideal for businesses of all sizes seeking AI-powered design solutions.
Suitable for marketing and advertising, social media management, and content creation.

Ideal for small to medium businesses, marketers, educators, and nonprofits.
Suitable for various sectors, including healthcare, finance, e-commerce, education, and more.

Microsoft Designer and Canva features

Supported

Partially supported

Not supported

Type in the name of the feature or in your own words tell us what you need

Data Visualization

Partially supported

Microsoft Designer allows creation of visually appealing but not interactive data representations.

Partially supported

Canva supports interactive data visualization through its Flourish integration.
Social media graphics

Supported

Microsoft Designer creates social media graphics using AI and templates.

Supported

Canva excels in creating social media graphics, offering diverse templates, design tools, platform optimization, and integration options for seamless content creation and publishing.
Drag-and-drop editor

Supported

Microsoft Designer supports drag and drop for logo design.

Supported

Canva supports drag-and-drop functionality for designing logos.
Logo generation

Supported

Microsoft Designer can design and generate logos using its Brand Kit Creator.

Supported

Canva allows users to design and generate logos using provided templates, design elements, and a user-friendly interface. Users can customize these templates, incorporate various design elements, and export their logos in different formats.
Design elements

Supported

Microsoft Designer offers a library of design elements to customize various designs, including logos.

Supported

Canva provides access to a library of design elements specifically for customizing logo templates, as part of its extensive design element library.
Access to a library of pre-designed logo templates.

Not supported

Microsoft Designer does not offer pre-designed logo templates but has a brand kit feature for logo management.

Supported

Canva provides access to a library of pre-designed logo templates.

Qualities

Value and Pricing Transparency

No data

No data
Customer Service

No data

No data
Ease of Use

No data

No data
Reliability and Performance

No data

No data
Ease of Implementation

No data

No data
Scalability

No data

No data

Microsoft Designer and Canva Pricing

No data

We couldn't find a pricing page for Microsoft Designer.

No data

We couldn't find a pricing page for Canva.

Microsoft Designer and Canva review insights

Users love

AI-powered design generation.
User-friendly interface.
Variety of pre-designed templates.
Seamless integration with other Microsoft products.
Time-saving automation of design process.
Creates visually appealing content.
Easy to use for users of all skill levels.
Great for social media posts and presentations.

Easy to use and intuitive interface
Wide variety of templates for every need
Extensive library of stock images, videos, and fonts
Great collaboration features

Users dislike

Limited template selection.
UI needs improvement.
Lacks custom font options.
No third-party plugin support.
Steep learning curve for new users.
Requires a Microsoft 365 subscription.
Limited color combination options.
Ineffective background blur.

The free version is quite limited
Many features are locked behind a paywall
The mobile app is underwhelming and laggy
Limited offline functionality

Microsoft Designer and Canva Ratings

G2

4.6/5

(21)

G2

4.7/5

(2674)
Capterra

4.7/5

(2444)
TrustPilot

2.6/5

(39)
Glassdoor

4.2/5

(732)

Company health

Employee growth

3% increase in the last year

46% increase in the last year

Web traffic

11% decrease in the last quarter

7% increase in the last quarter

Financing

No data

July 2024 - $3B

How does each product's AI assist users with different design skill levels?

Microsoft Designer uses AI to assist users of all skill levels through design suggestions, prompt templates, and image generation, streamlining the design process and making professional-quality visuals accessible even for beginners. Canva, while having a user-friendly drag-and-drop interface and templates suitable for beginners, relies less on AI assistance for design generation and more on pre-built elements and user-driven customization, empowering users with varying design experience to create visuals through a more hands-on approach.

Which product offers better integration with other Microsoft products?

Microsoft Designer offers better integration with other Microsoft products. Its users specifically praise its seamless integration within the Microsoft ecosystem. While Canva is a popular and versatile design tool, the provided information does not mention any specific integrations with Microsoft products.

What are the advantages of Microsoft Designer?

Microsoft Designer's advantages include its AI-powered design assistance, making it easier for users with varying design skills to create professional visuals. Its seamless integration with other Microsoft products streamlines workflows for users already within the Microsoft ecosystem. Furthermore, Designer's focus on generating unique images and graphics from text prompts offers a distinct advantage for quickly creating original content.

What are the disadvantages of Microsoft Designer?

Microsoft Designer has a limited template selection compared to Canva, restricting design choices. Users have reported a steeper learning curve and a need for UI improvements. It lacks custom font options and third-party plugin support, limiting creative flexibility. Furthermore, Designer requires a Microsoft 365 subscription, presenting a cost barrier for some users. Some users have also reported ineffective background blur and limited color combination options.

Alternatives to Microsoft Designer and Canva

Visme

Visme is a design platform that helps non-designers create engaging visual content like presentations, reports, infographics, and social media graphics. It offers templates, stock images, icons, and data visualization tools to simplify the design process. Users can collaborate in teams, manage content libraries, and track engagement with built-in analytics. Visme is suitable for individuals and teams of all sizes who want to improve their visual communication.

Snappa

Snappa is a user-friendly, web-based design software aimed at simplifying visual content creation for non-designers. It provides pre-sized templates, stock photos, and design elements to easily create graphics for social media, ads, and marketing materials. Users can customize templates or design from scratch, with no design experience required. Snappa also allows for quick image resizing and one-click sharing to social media platforms.

Adobe Creative Cloud Express

Adobe Creative Cloud Express (formerly Adobe Spark) is a design software that lets you easily create social media content, short videos, and printed materials. It offers thousands of templates, stock photos, and design assets to help you get started quickly. You can also customize your designs with your own branding. Creative Cloud Express is available as part of a paid Adobe Creative Cloud subscription and offers a limited free plan.

Marq

Marq (formerly Lucidpress) is a cloud-based design and brand templating platform. It helps businesses of all sizes create marketing materials like brochures, flyers, and social media posts, while ensuring brand consistency. The platform offers drag-and-drop templates and collaborative features, making it easy for non-designers to create professional-looking content. Marq also allows businesses to lock down branding elements and automate content creation workflows.

PicMonkey

PicMonkey is an online photo editing and graphic design tool that helps create visuals for brands. It offers templates for social media, ads, logos, and other marketing materials. Users can edit photos, create collages, and access stock images. PicMonkey provides basic and advanced editing tools and emphasizes unique effects and customization options. A business plan adds brand management and collaboration features. It is accessible on desktop and mobile devices.

Printify

Printify is a technology platform that makes selling custom-designed products online easy. It connects online stores to a network of printing companies, allowing them to offer print-on-demand products like clothing and homeware. This means businesses of any size can sell personalized goods without managing inventory or handling printing. Printify focuses on providing a simple and automated service, making it suitable for both new and established online sellers looking to expand their product lines.

Page co-authored by

Michal Kaczor

CEO at Gralio

Michal has worked at startups for many years and writes about topics relating to software selection and IT management. As a former consultant for Bain, a business advisory company, he also knows how to understand needs of any business and find solutions to its problems.

Tymon Terlikiewicz

CTO at Gralio

Tymon is a seasoned CTO who loves finding the perfect tools for any task. He recently headed up the tech department at Batmaid, a well-known Swiss company, where he managed about 60 software purchases, including CX, HR, Payroll, Marketing automation and various developer tools.

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