Have you ever wished to create a stunning design with just a second or a few clicks? Well, that’s where Canva comes in.

In today’s digital marketing, visually appealing and well-crafted apps make all the difference in attracting and training customers. The Canva app has enabled businesses to leverage the power of visual content creation efficiently and easily.  Additionally, investing in Canva app development gives businesses a competitive edge by strengthening their online presence.

According to a study, there are around 130 million active users in the Canva community right now. Its user base has grown to an astounding 130 million as of 2024, compared to 60 million in 2022. Hence, this data depicts how it can be a lucrative business opportunity for entrepreneurs who want to capitalize on this trend.

So, if you want to build an app like Canva, you have come to the right place. This blog will provide you with all the information you need to develop a successful Canva app and take your business to the next level.

Quick Summary: Learn how to build an app like Canva, its key features, cost, and the right tech stack for Canva app development. Apart from this, also know why you must invest in such an app development and how to earn extra revenue with the Canva app for Android or iOS.

Introduction of the Canva App

Canva is a graphic designing platform that allows users to create customized graphics that they can use in social media graphics, posters, brand logos, Instagram posts, presentations, posters, and documents. An app like Canva provides a blank template to the users that they can use accordingly.

It was founded in 2013 in Australia by Melanie Perkins with his boyfriend Cliff Obrecht and co-founder Cameron Adams (a former Google employee). These trios created the history that no one expected earlier but rapidly gained the popularity of the Canva application, which opened many tech giants’ eyes.

Within the first year of its launch, Canva earned 750,000 users. In April 2014, another fantastic person joined the trio as the fourth pillar, and the name is Guy Kawasaki as the chief evangelist.

 

What Makes Canva Stand Out Of The Crowd?

There are several graphics designing mobile and web apps similar to Canva available on the internet that you can use via browser and mobile. But there is something special available with Canva that you can’t find anywhere else. One of its specialties is that a user can do many things with its free version that is not available with other apps like Canva.

Although image editing is the prime functionality of Canva, a user can design images, logos, and banner posters for events, fests, personal work, professional work, social media promotion, and many more.

On this fantastic graphic design site, readymade templates are available for wedding invitations, birthday celebrations, resume creation, event invitations, and many more. Canva is the source of inspiration for other sites like Canva.

 

Market Analysis of Canva

Creative Software – Worldwide

• By 2024, the global market for creative software is expected to generate US$9.39 billion in revenue.
• This shows that the market category has a large potential for expansion.
• The market is anticipated to develop at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 1.77% from 2024 to 2029, reaching a US$10.25 billion market volume.
• Compared to other nations, the US is anticipated to lead the world in revenue generation for the Creative Software industry.
• Assuming a revenue of US$4,927.00 million in 2024, the United States is expected to maintain its prominent position in the global market.

 

Top 5 Canva Apps

Well, you have made a wise financial decision by investing in Canva app development as it’s one of the options for your business. But, before you start to create a Canva app, you must have a deep knowledge of the relevant landscape. If you find this right, the following Canva alternatives can help you to deeply understand what they offer and what you can offer, differential yourself:

1. Snappa

It’s one of the popular Canva apps, known for its ease of use and simplicity. It’s used to create social media graphics, enabling users to attain what they want. To build graphic design software like Snappa, you need to offer different temples and design elements so that it becomes easy to make professional-looking visuals quickly.

 

2. Crello

It’s another Canva application that is well-suited for users who want to create graphics for blogs, social media, and presentations. If you want to build an app like this, ensure your app provides a vast library of templates along with a user-friendly interface.

 

3. Stencil

This Canva app is suitable for those looking for a tool specifically designed for social media graphics. As Stencil has gained huge popularity, most businesses have started to invest in this. If you also want to create a graphic design platform like stencil, ensure your platform offers a variety of design elements and templates.

 

4. PicMonkey

Among the many Canva applications, PicMonkey is a versatile tool for graphic design and photo editing. This platform offers several features, including text tools, a photo filter, and effects.

 

5. Adobe Express

Adobe Express has emerged as a powerful tool for creating videos and graphs as part of the Adobe Creative Cloud suite. So, if you find it profitable and want to build an app like Adobe Express, ensure that you install all of its features in your app and integrate it with other Adobe products.

 

How Do Canva Apps Work?

It’s good you are going to build an app like Canva. However, do you know how Canva works or the specific phases for using it? If not, no need to worry! Here are some phases to help you to understand how a Canva app works:

 

 

1. Find the Right App

First, users must search for the specific app, as Canva has a range of applications for specific tasks. Users can find different apps for different things, from adding animation to making beautiful effects. Hence, users need to browse around and see what they find better.

 

2. Add the App to the Design

As per the art and design app development company, after finding the right one for the Canva app users are searching for, it’s easy to add the app to the user’s design. They just need to drag and drop the app onto their Canvas, and it will appear as a new element.

 

3. Configure and Customize

Most Canva applications have settings and options that enable users to customize how the app work. Users can change size colors and add their images or text as they wish. Users likely play with a toy that can do whatever they want.

 

4. Integrate with Design

What makes Canva the best is that it works seamlessly with designs. Users can combine them with elements like shapes, photos, and text to make eye-catching and unique visuals.

 

5. Save and Share

When users feel satisfied with their design, they can save it and share with others they like. Users can also download it as a PDF or high-quality image, ensuring users can attain it wherever they want.

 

5 Benefits of Developing the Canva Apps

As you know, Canva is one of the popular graphic design platforms. Hence, investment in Canva app development offers a unique business opportunity for entrepreneurs looking to extend their reach and engage with customers in innovative ways. If you want to know how Canva app development unlocks unmatched benefits for you, consider the following points:

 

 

1. Enhanced Customer Engagement

With the Canva app, you can interact with your customers through a direct channel. By offering tailored designs and resources, you can easily make a more engaging and personalized experience that fosters brand loyalty and increases customer satisfaction.

 

2. Increased Brand Visibility

Millions of Canva users can discover and share Canva. This exposure boosts brand awareness significantly and allows the brand to reach a new audience. Moreover, entrepreneurs can encourage users to promote the app and content using Canva’s social sharing feature.

 

3. Improved Sales and Conversions

Businesses use the Canva app to streamline their sales process and increase conversion. For instance, entrepreneurs can create templates for marketing material, social media posts, and product catalogs that customers can easily customize and purchase.

 

4. Cost-effective Marketing

Canva is one of the most cost-effective marketing tools compared to traditional advertising methods. The graphic designing services can offer a great return on investment (ROI) by generating organic reach and driving customer engagement.

 

5. Differentiation and Competitive Advantage

In today’s competitive market, Canva app development can help businesses stand out. By offering functionalities and features that other brands cannot, businesses can attract new customers while retaining the old ones.

 

7 Key Steps to Build an App Like Canva

Leys’ jump to the section you are searching for on how to build an app like Canva. The Canava app development process is quite complex as it requires having technological knowledge and experience in the field. Hence, that’s where the mobile application development company can help you. Howowver, if you have your own development team, ensure to follow the below guide to building a design app like Canva:

 

 

1. Conduct Market Research

Let’s start developing the Canva app! However, first, you must conduct market research as a foundation for your app’s success. The market research aims to understand the target audience for whom you will develop the Canava app. Additionally, by studying the competitors, you can identify the market gaps. Hence, this will help you develop a designing app like Canva that stands out and appeals to your targeted users.

 

2. Choose the Best Tech Stack

Now, you are responsible for choosing the right technology, as the app’s success depends on what tech stack you will use in its development. As Canva uses a mix of back-end and front-end technologies, you must choose the stack accordingly. If you cannot figure it out, then consult an iOS or Android app development company for the right selection. Furthermore, also decides whether you want to build a mobile app, web-based platform, or both to attain desired outcomes.

 

3. Craft an Intuitive UI/UX

Remember that user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) are the most critical elements that can make or break your Canva app.  You can hire graphic designer to design a well-crafted Canva app. The app’s success comes mainly from its simplicity, so focus on making an easy-to-navigate and clean interface that enables users to create customizable designs with minimum effort.

 

4.  Develop the App

After having the app’s design and suitable tech choices, you can develop your Canva app. Here, virtual interior design app development company breaks the bile application into modules and creates each part, such as editing tools, template creation, and sharing features. Moreover, it also ensures everything runs smoothly and functions as expected. You are supposed to integrate all the significant features like magic edit, design tools, brand management, etc. for a seamless user experience.

 

5. Testing and Quality Assurance

Before you deploy your app on different app stores, ensure it’s ready to launch and has no bugs, errors, or glitches. To build a website similar to Canva, various tests must be conducted for speed, usability, and compatibility across devices. Here, the quality assurance team or IT consulting firm processes all features in the app to perform seamlessly and ensure that the platform provides a smooth experience. If you skip testing, even the best-crafted app will fail because of unforeseen glitches. Hence, perform this step carefully.

 

 

6. Launching and Marketing

After testing your Canva app, you can introduce it to the market. You are advised to promote the app so that more people can learn about it. For this purpose, SEO, social media, and partnerships should be used to attract users. With a successful launch, you can generate interest and drive early adoption. Additionally, with a pre-launch campaign, you can make predictions and excitement among potential users to experience your app.

 

7.  Provide Continuous Support and Upgrades

Do not expect your app’s journey to end with its deployment. Still, you are responsible for working on your app to be relevant in today’s competitive market. For this, monitor its performance and resolve any issues. Additionally, listen to user feedback and ask the mobile app design company to make improvements accordingly. By staying responsive to user needs, you can foster loyalty and enhance user satisfaction.

 

10 Must-have Features Build an App Like Canva

Now that you have learned what the Canva app is and how it can be developed. However, do you know what makes an app successful? The features! So, let’s have a look at the significant feature that help you build a graphic design tool like adobe express:

 

 

1. PDF Editor

Create an app like Canva that allows editing the PDFs online for free. It helps to break down the PDF segments that you can edit accordingly.

 

2. Canva Live

The fantastic feature that must be included in apps like Canva. You can run live sessions where the audience will find it much more interesting to join, and they can share their views, and feedback, send reactions, and participate in the conversation.

 

3. Text Animations

Most apps like Canva provide this feature by taking reference from the original concept. Lots of things can be expressed via words, which is possible with Canva text animations where a user can choose any font style they like.

 

4. Curved Text

Either there is a need for logo development or print-ready quotes curved text features of apps like Canva. Not only for the text can you also use this feature for data visualization.

 

5. Transparent Images

Transparent images have their own importance. There are lots of use for these, so instead of fiddling with complex tools, it is very easy to use apps like Canva.

 

 

6. Textures

The flat color image can’t attract more compared to the image that has awesome texture. If you develop an app like Canva, you can add textures to the images, and you can add several photo filters to the images.

 

7. Image Cropper

Integrate a cropping tool into your graphic design software that helps the user trim the image fantastically, and the Canva cropping feature is more powerful than any other graphic design platform.

 

8. Speech Bubble

The speech bubble, captions boxes, and bold sound effects convey the expressions of the messages. For storytelling in the short articles and news, these all work great, and it is one of the reasons that makes apps like Canva popular among content creators.

 

9. Add Text

Most social media platforms experience a huge volume of image sharing, memes, and many images. If you also want to add some hilarious text to the images, you never want to miss the Add Text feature.

 

10. Photo Effects

With Canva, there are several photo effects available to make the captured and uploaded photo fantastic. Whether it is apps like Canva for iPhone or an Android device to access the Canva website, it is such a great design platform to use.

 

Cost Analysis to Build an App Like Canva

No doubt, developing a Canva can be a game changer for your business. However, you must also know about its development cost. Well, on average, a Canva app costs between $8500 and $30000, depending on some factors. The cost to build a mobile app can be impacted by different factors such as the app’s features, development team, design, and many more. Additionally, based on your project’s complexity level, the cost to build an app like Canva can be fluctuated as mentioned below:

 

Canva App Development	Estimated Cost	Time Frame
Simple Canva App Development	$8500 – $14000	3 to 6 Months
Medium-Complex Canva App Development	$14000 – $22000	6 to 9 Months
High-Complex Canva App Development	$27000+	10+ Months

 

How To Earn From Apps Like Canva?

If you want to build an app like Canva, it is a must to know how to earn from graphic designing apps. So, the following are monetization models that you can implement for revenue generation:

 

 

1. Freemium Version

To make the target audience familiar with your apps like Canva, it would be best to launch the freemium version where you can offer all features for a limited time period free. After the trial period, you can limit the features and ask the users to purchase the premium version. It will be advantageous for app promotion and also increase the user base.

 

2. Enterprise Version

This version will be helpful for businesses that are totally indulged in graphic mobile app design services and have multiple teams of graphic designers. If you build an app like Canva, you can offer this version to them so they can use it on a vast level. You can set a different price for the enterprise version. Almost all enterprise apps remain pricey, so it can be a good option for you to generate revenue.

 

3. Premium Version

This version will come up with all the features that a graphic designer needs. After registration, the user has to pay the fee to access a fully functional mobile app. Suppose you also want to build an app like Canva, then it will be perfect to hire dedicated developers and help launch premium web apps like Canva.

 

Tech Stack for Canva App Development

To build an app like Canva, you need a robust tech stack. This ensures that the platform works well, handles different design tools, and offers a smooth user experience. So, if you are also searching for the best tech stack suited to your business app development the table below will help you:

 

 

Component	Technologies
Frontend	React Native, Flutter, Swift, Kotlin
Backend	Node.js,  Java (Spring Boot) Python (Django/Flask),
API Integration	GraphQL, RESTful APIs, SOAP
Database	SQLite, PostgreSQL,MySQL, MongoDB, Firebase
Analytics	Google Analytics, Firebase Analytics
Authentication	OAuth, JWT
Push Notifications	Apple Push Notification Service, Firebase Cloud Messaging
Version Control	Git, GitHub, Bitbucket
Deployment	Apple App Store, Google Play Store, TestFlight, Firebase App Distribution

 

Wrapping Up!

This blog has concluded that investment in Canva like app development is a strategic business investment for those looking to unlock their digital marketing strategy. With many beginning options and user-friendly interfaces, Canva applications help businesses differentiate themselves in today’s competitive market. If you are an entrepreneur, it’s a good time to invest in Canva app development. By incorporating Canva apps into your marketing efforts, you can make visually completing content, capturing the user’s attention.

So, if you are searching for the same, just go for it. However, it would be better for you to consult an on demand app development company like Dev Technosys. We have a team of skilled designers and developers who  can bring your dream to life.

 

Frequently Asked Questions

1. How Much Does it Cost to Develop App Like Canva?

Based on the project’s complexity, the mobile app development cost is mentioned below:

• Simple Canva App Development – $8500 – $14000
• Medium-Complex Canva App Development – $14000 – $22000
• High-Complex Canva App Development – $23000+

 

2. Which Programming Language is the Best to Make an App Like Canva?

Due to its adaptability and platform compatibility, professionals often suggest using JavaScript and HTML5 when developing apps like Canva. The sophisticated UI interactions and rendering may be handled by JavaScript frameworks like React or Angular, which streamlines development.

 

3. How Much Time Does It Take to Build an App Like Canva?

The time required develop a designing app like Canva depends on various factors. Generally, developing a feature-rich app like Canva can take 4-8 months or more, considering the design, development, testing, and deployment phases. However, it would be better to consult with an experienced and reputed app development company to know the exact time estimation.

 

4. What AI is Similar to Canva?

Adobe Spark is a Canva-like AI-powered platform. With such AI photography app development, businesses can provide a selection of design tools and pre-made templates for making social media graphics, websites, films, and other things.