Canva is a powerful online graphic design tool that can be used to create almost every type of visual content. With pre-made templates and a user-friendly interface, even a rookie can get the hang of it. But are Canva templates the best options when it comes to social media design?
A simple Google search will reveal that there are quite a few Canva alternatives in the market today.
However, there’s a new player in town that’s giving all the existing social media graphics tools a run for their money – Pixelied.
In this article, we’ll perform in-depth reviews of both Pixelied and Canva templates, and see which one is the better platform when it comes to designing content for social media marketing.
Let’s jump right in.
Table of Contents
A Brief Introduction of Canva & What it Can Do
Out of all online designing tools, Canva is one of the most popular ones.
That’s because this powerful platform allows you to create everything – from business cards, to infographics, and of course, social media design in between.
You can also use it to create visual content for the purpose of email marketing.
And that only scratches the surface.
In addition to the free templates (more on that later), Canva offers the following features:
- Stock Photos – you can select from a vast library of stock images on the Canva editor and use them conveniently in your designs.
- Elements – you can also add eye-catching elements to enhance the look and feel of your visual content through Canva’s drag and drop capabilities.
- Typography – choose from a large list of serif, sans-serif, and cursive fonts.
- Folders – organize your masterpieces in folders for ease of access.
Furthermore, Canva offers videos, a moodboard creator, and the ability to integrate with a number of platforms.
All things considered, it is a solid platform.
However, it’s not exactly the most cost-effective solution.
Enter: Pixelied – A Promising Alternative to Canva for Small Businesses
Pixelied is a new graphic design tool that packs the same level of features as some of the popular options, but in a more cost-friendly package.
In fact, this platform was created specifically for small business owners and individuals.
Whether you’re a social media marketer, blogger, rookie designer, or just someone who needs to whip something up for their personal project – Pixelied is for you.
Like Canva, Pixelied also offers social media templates, and a myriad of other freebie features and capabilities, including:
- Advanced Editor – customize your social media templates to your liking. The editor allows you to resize, remove backgrounds, add typography, borders, shadows, incorporate elements and icons, and much more.
- SVG/Vector Editing – Pixelied also lets you upload SVG/vector files and change their colors. Not a lot of online design platforms are offering this feature.
- Royalty-Free Stock Images – source millions of royalty-free stock images (from Unsplash) right there on the editor. No need to switch tabs.
- Typography Options – choose from over 900 Google fonts (no need to download). There are text manipulation options as well, including the option to change line height and space.
- Mockups – Pixelied allows you to create professional and realistic mockups of your apps, websites and presentations in a few simple clicks.
- Illustrations – Pixelied provides high-quality, 1000+ hand-drawn illustrations. They’re the perfect fit for your landing pages, softwares and applications.
In addition to the above, Pixelied also lets you remove backgrounds from images using state-of-the-art AI program and even organize your work in folders.
With the basic introductions of Canva and Pixelied out of the way, let’s take a detailed view on the templates that they have to offer (specifically for social media design).
An In-Depth Review of Canva Templates
Compared to Pixelied, Canva templates offer more variety if you consider all categories (personal, business, education, marketing designs, etc.).
However, in terms of social media, it’s the other way around.
In any case, Canva’s template designs are quite decent, and most importantly, free.
You can easily find templates for the following social network platforms:
a) Instagram
Instagram is one of the original platforms that were exclusively built for visual content.
With the Canva Instagram templates, you can create professional-looking content for the ‘gram, including:
- Instagram Story – with Canva, you don’t necessarily have to create your Instagram stories from scratch.
- Instagram Post – get highly engaging templates for Instagram posts.
b) Facebook
Out of all social networks, Facebook has the most diverse dimension requirements for different types of content (regular posts, covers, ads, etc.).
You can get ready-made Canva designs for:
- Facebook Post – publish scroll-stopping posts from your Facebook page or profile to captivate your audience.
- Facebook Cover – professional-looking covers that you can tweak to your liking.
Canva doesn’t have a separate category for Facebook ads.
c) Twitter
You can’t use the same image you posted on your Facebook page to your Twitter account (and vice versa).
You’ll risk some of the content being cut off on the timelines of your followers, as the requirements for Twitter header dimensions for both platforms differ.
Using Photoshop to repurpose your posts for Twitter can be time-consuming, however, with Canva, you can do that in a few simple clicks (or use templates for new posts instead of designing them from scratch).
d) Pinterest
Last but not least, Canva also offers ready-to-use and customizable templates for Pinterest pins.
You can create and publish pin-worthy content in a matter of a few minutes.
How to Use Canva Templates to Create Eye-Catching Graphics?
To start using Canva templates, you must first create a Canva account (by signing up).
Once you’ve signed up/logged in through Facebook or Google, simply click on or hover your cursor over “Templates” in the website’s menu bar.
From there, select what you want to create (Instagram story, Facebook post, etc.) under “social media.” This will take you to a new page where you can browse through the entire selection of the available Canva templates for that specific content type.
Click on any template you fancy, and it will take you to the editor, where you can customize it however you like.
Here’s what it looks like:
The example above shows the template for an Instagram story.
You can then change the background images, add elements, text, music, and even place animations (this option is only available for certain template types).
Canva Pricing
As of now, Canva offers the following three plans:
- Free – includes templates, all the basic features listed above (except for the ability to resize templates), option to export files in different formats (including PDF, PNG, and JPEG), team sharing, 1 GB’s worth of storage, and 2 folders.
- Pro – this includes everything the free plan offers, as well as, brand kit (option to upload logos, brand colors, and fonts), more templates, option to download videos, 100 GB’s worth of storage space, and much more. It costs $12.95 per user per month (or $9.95/user/month when billed annually).
- Enterprise – perfect for larger teams and agencies, this plan includes everything the pro plan offers, along with other exciting features, and more storage space, to name a few. This plan should set you back by $30 per user per month (billed annually). However, price may vary according to requirements.
While Canva is an almost complete platform, it isn’t exactly cheap.
What About the Pixelied Templates?
As we mentioned earlier, Pixelied offers more options when it comes to social media template designs.
And the best part? At a glance, they look far better and the editor allows for more flexibility when customizing (but we’ll let you be the judge of that).
As of now, Pixelied offers graphic templates for the following social platforms:
a) Facebook
It’s not easy designing visual content for a Facebook page.
There are posts, stories, and covers to consider, which can make managing content a disaster.
Luckily, Pixelied offers templates for all of the above.
- Facebook Post – you can find templates for FB posts and every type of industry in Pixelied’s vast library.
- Story – get greater engagement and leave a lasting impact with a Facebook story template by Pixelied.
- Cover – Facebook covers can be a little tricky, especially considering that the dimensions for profiles, events, and groups vary. Pixelied offers templates for all three.
Compared to Canva, Pixelied offers more options for Facebook.
b) Instagram
Like Canva, Pixelied also offers captivating templates for Instagram.
To be specific, you can find templates for:
- Instagram Post – give your followers a visual treat with our wide selection of templates for Instagram posts.
- Story – Create compelling stories along with the recommended story dimensions by choosing from a library of thousands of Insta story templates.
- Ad – these have the same dimensions as regular Instagram posts. However, Pixelied has designed them to be effective creative ads and organized them separately for your convenience.
Remember – all of these templates are editable and can be customized however you want them to be.
c) LinkedIn
Over the years, LinkedIn has grown to be an immense platform for professional networking and B2B marketing.
Employees and employers alike can benefit from the possibilities that this social network has to offer, such as connecting with industry peers, getting new leads, and reaching their end-users.
A single LinkedIn post can be a deal breaker. However, they need to meet a certain standard as your brand’s image is on the line.
Keeping that in mind, Pixelied also offers ready-to-use, professional-looking templates for LinkedIn posts and LinkedIn banner designs.
d) YouTube
Being successful on YouTube requires so much more than just uploading good content (even if that’s the main substance).
You need to broadcast the best version of yourself. This also includes how your channel looks like, as well as, the little details in your videos.
The good news is, Pixelied offers a variety of templates for YouTube as well, including:
- YouTube Channel Art – you don’t need to hire a professional graphic designer or illustrator to create visuals for your channel art. Thanks to Pixelied, you can simply use a YouTube banner template.
- End Screen – sign off the right way and make an impression with an end-screen template.
- YouTube Thumbnails – get more people to click on your videos and watch that view-count go up by creating clickable video thumbnails.
Keep in mind that Canva also offers templates for YouTube thumbnails only, but there isn’t much variety.
e) Twitch
With a user-base of nearly 3.8 million, Twitch is rapidly becoming a major online platform.
This live-streaming website for gamers is somewhat similar to YouTube but targets a much narrower demographic.
If you want to create graphics for your Twitch account using Pixelied, you can find templates for:
- Twitch Panels – have something important to mention about your stream? Do it through visually-pleasing panel designs.
- Offline Banners – leave a great impression even when you’re offline by using an awesome template for your offline banner.
In addition to the above, you can also find templates for your Twitch profile banner.
f) Soundcloud
Last but not least, you can also find templates for Soundcloud headers.
Not a lot of graphic design websites offer templates for this particular platform.
But the brains at Pixelied understand just how important it is to leave a lasting impression – especially if you’re a budding artist.
As of now, there aren’t exactly many options to choose from. But it’s a start.
How to Leverage Pixelied to Create Stunning Social Media Posts?
Rocking a highly intuitive UI, Pixelied is one of the easiest-to-use graphic design tools.
With its drag and drop features, you can create top-level masterpieces in no time.
To get started, simply head over to the templates section.
In this page, you’ll be able to access all the formats, and can easily navigate to the social media formats.
In this page, you can view the complete list of templates for the type of content of your choice (see the menu to the left).
Select the template you like and this will take you to the editor.
Here’s a quick overview:
With all of those features at your disposal, go crazy.
Read our in-depth DIY tutorial on how you can use Pixelied for your social media design to learn more.
Pixelied Pricing
Despite having some of the best features on the market, Pixelied is a more affordable option.
Here’s a quick breakdown of the pricing plans:
- Free – use hundreds of amazing templates, access millions of stock images, leverage the awesome editor, use premium icons and other elements, and create up to 2 folders, all for free.
- Pro – for a small price of $7.95 per month, you get everything included in the free plan, along with unlimited downloads, unlimited folders, and priority customer support.
While the free plan is sufficient for personal projects and even professional ones for lean entrepreneurs, there’s so much you can accomplish with the pro plan (and it’s not even that expensive).
Final Thoughts
All things considered, when it comes to social media design, both Canva templates and Pixelied templates can do the magic.
However, in terms of the overall value and variety (templates for more platforms and content types), it’s clear that Pixelied has a slight edge.
Again, we’ll leave it up to you to decide.
