The New Canva 🎨

A flurry of new features add up to its biggest update in a decade

You can now use Canva to make a website, brainstorm on a digital whiteboard, or collaborate on documents. The world’s most popular free design tool this week relaunched itself as a one-stop shop for anything you make online. Read on for a summary of the most useful new features and some limitations.

Canva Websites

Canva has long been a simple, free alternative to Photoshop for millions of people who don’t need complex, expensive software to make quick visuals for social media. Now it aims to provide a similar alternative to those who don’t want to mess with Squarespace, Wix or other site builders.

To explore the new site builder, I adapted this simple pet store demo website from a template.

• Easy. If you’re already used to Canva’s interface, it’s easy to create a free site. Integrate any previous Canva designs and/or other images, videos, or graphics.

• Domains. When you create a free Canva site the default domain is yoursitename.my.site, but you can also buy a new domain through Canva.

• Password-protected. You can make your site password-protected and you can hide it from Google search.

• Responsive. Canva sites are responsive, so they’ll adapt automatically to whatever device someone is using to view them.

Limitations and alternatives

• One-size-fits-all design drawer. The design elements most readily available within Canva’s side drawers aren’t necessarily the ones most useful for building a site. Because Canva’s design drawers are consistent no matter what you’re creating, they don’t always serve the particular needs of the moment.

• Benefits of specialization. Services focused exclusively on helping people design sites, like Tilda.cc, one of the Web’s best-kept secrets, have specialty elements Canva so far lacks. These include slick navigation menus, product description boxes, image galleries and elements that make a site stand out.

• Quick builder alternatives. I wrote recently about several services, like linktr.ee, for making 10-minute landing pages.

• Bottom line. If you’re putting together a quick site and you want something easy, fast and free, Canva is a nice option. Otherwise, stick w/ a full site builder.

Canva Whiteboard