At a glance
| Figma | Canva | Recraft |
|---|
| Price to start (paid) | Professional Full seat $16/mo billed annually ($20 monthly) | Pro $144/yr or $18/mo | Basic $10/mo billed annually ($120/yr) or $12 monthly |
|---|
| Free plan | Starter: 3 Design/Sites, 3 FigJam and 3 Slides files outside drafts | Free: 1.6M+ templates, 4.7M+ stock assets, 5GB, 1 brand kit (3 colors) | Free: 30 credits a day, public images owned by Recraft, no commercial use |
|---|
| Best for | Reusable brand systems and templates | Fast social graphics, thumbnails and decks | On-brand AI illustration and vectors |
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| Main limit | No CMYK export; steeper learning curve; no stock library | Transparent PNG, Magic Resize, background removal and CMYK are Pro-only | Credit model; free images can't be used commercially |
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| Rating | 8.7 / 10 | Not scored (paid relationship; see disclosure) | 8.0 / 10 |
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Prices are USD list prices. Canva's prices are as shown to a US visitor and exclude tax. Recraft's prices exclude VAT.
Start with the job you repeat every week.
- You post several times a week and want speed. Canva. Templates, stock and a built-in Content Planner that schedules to Facebook, Instagram, X, LinkedIn and Pinterest. YouTube and TikTok are not on Canva's scheduling list.
- You redesign the same five assets every week. Figma. Styles, variables and components hold your colors, type and logo lockups, and on paid plans team libraries push updates to every file. Figma Buzz (in beta) adds brand templates with locked elements and bulk creation from a .csv or .xlsx file.
- You want illustrated thumbnails, icons or backgrounds that match. Recraft. Its pitch is saving a style once and reusing it, so a carousel, newsletter header and course slide share one look. It also has a Figma integration.
- You present on stage or in webinars. Figma Slides imports and exports PowerPoint and supports offline presenting. Canva presentations export to PPTX, though Canva warns fonts, animations and video may not carry over perfectly.
- You sell printed merch. Canva Pro adds CMYK export. Figma has no CMYK output, so you finish print files elsewhere.
For a deeper two-way breakdown, read Figma vs Canva.
Example: one creator, 12 months. Assumptions: list prices as published on the check dates in the sources table, no taxes, promotions or add-ons, one person.
| Plan | Billed annually | Billed monthly for 12 months |
|---|
| Canva Pro | $144 | $216 ($18 x 12) |
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| Figma Professional, Full seat | $192 ($16 x 12) | $240 ($20 x 12) |
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| Recraft Basic (1,000 credits/mo) | $120 | $144 ($12 x 12) |
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| Recraft Pro (2,000 credits/mo) | $192 | $240 ($20 x 12) |
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Common pairings, billed annually: Canva Pro plus Recraft Basic is $264 a year. Figma Full plus Recraft Basic is $312. Figma Full plus Canva Pro (build masters in Figma, produce weekly volume in Canva) is $336.
Example: a creator plus one assistant. Canva Pro is for one person only, so two people need Business: $500 a year ($250 x 2). On Figma, a Full seat plus a Collab seat for someone who reviews, comments and works in FigJam, Slides and Buzz is $228 a year ($192 + $36). On Recraft Teams, two seats at $18 a month billed annually is $432 a year.
AI allowances are not comparable across vendors. Figma's Professional Full seat lists 3,000 AI credits a month. Canva estimates Pro at up to 200 Premium or 20 Ultra AI uses a month and calls its limits operational controls it may change. Recraft Basic includes 1,000 credits a month that reset each billing cycle and do not roll over; top-up credits never expire. Treat each number as a budget inside that tool, not a cross-tool measure.
Is the free plan enough?
- Canva Free is the most usable free plan here: templates, stock, PNG, JPG and PDF export, offline editing and up to 20 Standard or Premium AI uses a month.
- Figma Starter is enough to learn Figma and keep one brand file in drafts. It leaves out team libraries, AI image editing and Sites publishing.
- Recraft Free is a trial. Its images are public, owned by Recraft and not licensed for commercial use, so don't publish or sell anything made on it.
Ownership and licensing: what creators should check
None of the three gives you an open, portable source file. You export outputs (PNG, JPG, SVG, PDF and similar), not your working system, so keep master logos and brand files in a format you control.
- Canva: Pro content is licensed per design. Canva library content can't be part of a logo or trademark, and a Canva element can't be the standalone subject of a print-on-demand product.
- Recraft: on paid plans you own the assets you create, per Recraft's terms updated August 11, 2026, and images made while subscribed stay yours after you cancel. Recraft may train on your inputs and outputs by default on every tier; you can opt out in your profile settings.
- Figma: files live in Figma's cloud; exports are PNG, JPG, SVG and PDF in sRGB or Display P3.
When to pick something else
- Print layout, CMYK and logos you plan to trademark: Affinity by Canva, which is free and handles CMYK, spot colors and bleed.
- You want to own the source files: Penpot, an open-source design tool.
- Striking one-off AI images over brand consistency: Midjourney, which has stronger default aesthetics but weaker brand consistency and no vector output.
- A creator website: Framer is a dedicated option; Figma Sites is still in beta.
Methodology note
Editorially reviewed. This roundup is an editorial evaluation of each vendor's official pricing pages, help centers, license documents and terms, checked between October 7 and October 19, 2026. This update involved no product testing. Cost figures are labeled examples computed from published list prices under the stated assumptions. AI allowances are vendor figures that vendors say can change. How we review · Disclosure
