Summary (TLDR):
Review Summary: Canva is the ubiquitous tool for simple design, but it does not have native flowcharting features. As a result, we do not recommend this tool for making flowcharts.
Has Flowchart Symbols: No
Ease of Use: 4/5
Collaboration: Yes
Overall Score: 3/5
Introduction
Canva is one of the most popular and useful cloud based graphic design tools for millions of content creators worldwide. That said, where does it stand as a flowchart maker?
This Canva flowchart maker - product review will answer by pointing out the features, strengths, and weaknesses of this diagram tool.
Main Features
Canva flowchart software offers many key features to help users make flow diagrams easily and fast.
- Templates: There are a lot of diagram types in the built-in library, depending on the purpose and topic. Its hundreds of templates come in various beautiful color palettes, giving the diagram an aesthetic value that not all flowchart tools can offer.
- Elements: One of the best things about Canva is that users can add design elements to make their diagrams more vivid and easier to follow. Design elements are sorted by topics, including lines and shapes, flowchart symbols, graphics, stickers, stock images, etc. Using the search bar is another way to find elements instantly.
- Uploads: If users want to add attractive images, videos, or audio to their flowcharts, which can be useful for presentation purposes, they can browse and upload items from their devices. They can otherwise add social media content by connecting with their Facebook or Instagram accounts. There is also an image cropper if users want to cut out part of a photo.
- Text: When creating process flow diagrams, users can headings, subheadings, and body text and format them in custom fonts, size, alignment, etc.
- Comment: When it comes to real-time collaboration for the process flow diagrams, the comment feature lets contributors leave feedback and ideas directly.
- Notes: This feature comes in handy when users need to present a diagram. They can make notes for each page visible to them only during a presentation.
- Present: The platform provides users with four presentation modes, including standard, autoplay, presenter view, and present and record.
- Other features: These include duplicating an existing page, adding a new blank page to expand their flowchart, downloading the flowchart in different formats, and saving a complete diagram to Google Drive.
Advantages
- Beautiful templates: A huge competitive advantage Canva has over other diagram tools is its wide variety of templates. These are customizable templates featuring beautiful, diverse, trending color schemes aimed to create eye-catching work in this diagram generator.
- Ease of use and convenience: Canva is web-based, so users do not have to download or install anything to enjoy its capabilities. Plus, as long as users can log into their accounts, they can use the tool on any desktop device available.
- Various sources of design elements: The platform is compatible with many sources of social media graphics, allowing for easy addition of items to process flow diagrams. It helps users generate stunning custom designs.
- Suitable for beginners: Thanks to the ease of use and convenience, Canva is a simple design platform for beginners, complete with a user-friendly interface. Even a business owner who does not have design experience can start with simple flowcharts here.
- Support teamwork: Collaboration with team members on team plans is easy with collaboration features. It is possible to invite others to view, comment, or even edit flow charts directly.
- Customization: While using pre-made templates on Canva, users can still modify their organizational charts per their preferences.
Disadvantages
- Limited advanced features in the free account: Several templates and thousands of photos on Canva have a crown symbol, indicating they can only be unlocked in Pro accounts.
- Generic appearance: With millions of users and a limited library of templates, at some point, a user's flowchart will become similar to another's. Consequently, flow charts made on Canva might not be unique.
- Different colors after export: The platform utilizes RGB color mode instead of the CMYK color mode of printers. As a result, a flowchart's colors will look different from what appears on the screen, making it far from suitable for printing or saving on the computer.
- Occasional crashes or slowdown: Canva sometimes lags, slows down, or even crashes, which is always a risk coming with an online tool.
Pricing Plans
- Free: This basic plan is completely free of charge. Users just have to create an account to make sure their work is saved.
- Canva Pro: The fee is lower when paid annually than the monthly payment, both of which vary among different numbers of people sharing an account. The fee starts from $12.99 per user per month.
There is a box to fill in the exact number of users, and the web will show pricing details in yearly and monthly payment modes.
- Canva Enterprise: This business plan is only available for groups of 25 users or more. It offers the same features as the Pro account but adds features supporting businesses like Brand Kits, inbuilt workflows, and access control. Canva Enterprise costs $30 per user per month.
