I was just chatting with a friend about Canva designs when she asked me, “Is Canva Pro worth it?” It’s a great question, and with Canva’s recent changes, it’s more relevant than ever.
If you’ve been on the fence about upgrading to Canva Pro, here’s something important to know: Canva now requires a Pro or Teams subscription to share templates. This is a big shift, especially for those selling Canva templates. If you’ve been running your shop using the free version, you’ll need to upgrade to continue sharing new templates.
Good news! I just checked with a Canva free account, and the template links created before this update still work. Hopefully, it stays this way! Free users can still use and edit designs via template links, but they can’t share them. So if you’ve shared templates in the past, your customers can still access them. However, moving forward, a Canva Pro or Teams plan is necessary for new template links.
With this in mind, I want to share why I believe Canva Pro is worth the investment and how it can benefit your business.
My Experience With Canva Pro After Two Years
I’ve been using Canva Pro for two years, and I confidently say it’s been a game-changer for my business and personal projects.
Whether I’m designing for my PLR business, digital shop, blog, or personal use, the extra features have saved me time and made my work look more polished.
Here are the Canva Pro features I rely on the most:
1. AI-Powered Features: Magic Studio & Magic Media
Canva has introduced a suite of AI-powered tools that take design to the next level.
Including:
- Magic Media (available in Canva Free, but better in Pro) allows you to
generate images with AI (check my video here) - Magic Write helps with quick content creation (available with limitations in Canva Free).
- AI-powered text-to-image tools make it easy to create unique visuals for your
designs. (check my video here) - Magic Studio – Powerful image edition tools.
Canva Free users get up to 50 uses of Magic Media’s Text to Image feature.
Canva Pro, Canva Teams, Canva for Nonprofits, and Canva for Education users receive 500 monthly uses of Magic Media’s Text to Image tool.
Video generation is available but requires more Canva credits, so Pro and team users have fewer video generation allowances compared to image generation.
This means that you can still use Magic Media with a free Canva account, but with a limited number of uses.
Magic Studio, however, is not available for Canva Free users
One of the most valuable Canva Pro features for me included in Magic Studio is Magic
Resize. If you create digital products, printables, or social media content, you know how time-consuming it can be to adjust designs for different formats. With just one click, I can resize a design into multiple formats—US Letter, A4, A5, Instagram posts, Pinterest graphics, and more. This is essential for my business, where I often need the same template in different sizes for various platforms.
The Background Remover is one of my absolute favorite features. With one click, I can remove backgrounds from images—perfect for creating stickers, transparent graphics, and professional product images.
Magic Eraser and Magic Edit are also fantastic for quick touch-ups. If I need to erase part of a design or make small modifications, these tools save me so much time.
With these tools, you could easily create:
- Activity templates (holiday writing activities, coloring pages, handprint
crafts) - Kids’ activity packs and printable games
- PLR templates and social media graphics
These AI features save time and bring more creativity into my work.
2) A Vast Library of Elements, Fonts, and Mockups
Canva Pro gives you access to millions of premium elements, stock photos, videos, and fonts. If you’ve ever struggled to find the perfect graphic or font in the free version, you know how limiting it can be. For my digital shop, the extra mockups are incredibly useful. I can create realistic product previews without needing Photoshop or external tools. High-quality mockups make my listings stand out, which directly helps with sales!
3) Brand Kit: Consistency Across Designs
If you’re running a business, the Brand Kit feature is a must. It allows you to save brand colors, fonts, and logos in one place. This ensures consistency across all your designs without having to
manually enter HEX codes every time. I use this to maintain a cohesive look for my PLR shop,social media posts, and marketing materials.
4) Content Planner & Social Media Scheduler
Canva Pro includes a content planner and social media scheduler, which lets you design and schedule posts directly from Canva. If you manage multiple accounts or want to batch-create content in advance, this feature is incredibly helpful.
5) Folders & 1TB Storage
The free version of Canva offers limited storage, but Canva Pro gives you 1TB of cloud storage and allows you to organize designs into folders. This makes it easier to find past projects and keep everything organized.
5. The Big Update: Canva Templates Now Require Canva Pro or Canva Teams (both are paid versions)
If you sell Canva templates, this recent update is something you must be aware of.
What changed?
- To share new Canva templates, you must have a Canva Pro or Canva Teams account.
- If you previously shared templates using a free account, those links should still work—at least for now. I recommend checking a few of them to be sure.This means that if you’re making money selling Canva templates, you’ll need to upgrade to Canva Pro to continue creating and selling them.
Hopefully other great features, like adding hyperlinks (check my blog post here) are still available in the Free Version.
I’ll do my best to keep this post updated! Canva has made several changes recently, including adjustments to the Teams pricing. If you have any new updates, I’d love to hear from you—feel free to send me an email at hello@cloudtifulbiz.com. 😊
