Verithiathe honest score on any app
Updated July 2026 · real, multi-region App Store reviews
User consensusAlternativesIs it worth it?
The verdict on

Canva

70
User verdict / 100 High confidence Loved, with caveats

Canva is widely praised for its ease of use and extensive design capabilities, making it a favorite for both beginners and experienced users, but recent updates have introduced significant technical issues and a perceived increase in paywalled features.

4.9★ lifetime (3,440,726) Free + in-app purchases since 2014 by Canva Pty Ltd updated 0.1 mo ago recent negative 17% 120 reviews across 4 regions
Ease of Use App Performance & Stability Pricing & Paywalls User Interface & Navigation Video Editing Customer Support AI Features
5★593
4★94
3★60
2★39
1★114
recent reviews across 4 regions, vs the 4.9★ lifetime average

Canva is a popular design app offering a vast array of templates and tools for creating various content, from social media posts to presentations. While many users find it intuitive and powerful for creative tasks, recent reviews highlight concerns about app stability, the increasing number of features behind a paywall, and difficulties with customer support.

What users like

  • Easy to use and intuitive for creative tasks, even for beginnersR1R3R5R6
  • Offers a wide range of templates and tools for diverse design needsR4R5R15R16
  • Effective for individual and collaborative workR15

What users complain about

  • Recent updates have caused the app to be unusable, with white screens, loading issues, and crashesR34R73R93R110
  • Many useful features are now paywalled, making the free version very limited and pushing users to subscribeR10R52R53R57
  • Video editing functionality is often slow, glitchy, and frustrating, with issues like unsharable downloads and audio/visual desyncR19R20R117R208
  • Users report difficulty with the app's interface, finding it unintuitive and hard to navigate for more complex tasks or specific toolsR11R52R79R91
  • Issues with subscriptions, including unexpected charges after free trials and difficulty canceling or getting refundsR25R54R72R111
  • Customer support is perceived as unhelpful, often relying on AI bots instead of human assistanceR148R198R203R216
  • Some users experience glitches with image display, ordering, and general performance, especially on mobileR66R121R234R239

Latest update · v4.216.0

What the developer says changed (the verdict above weighs this against what reviewers report):

• NEW Magic Layers: Split any flat design into editable layers. Try it on generated images you've always wanted to edit. • NEW templates: Get inspiration from our new Winnie the Pooh and Devil Wears Prada 2 collections. • Presenter notes improvements: Write with custom AI prompts and track speaking time per slide. • Accessible PDFs: Designs exported as PDF now meet accessibility standards — readable by screen readers and assistive tools. Need help? Visit canva.com/help Happy designing!

Recurring themes

Ease of Use positive
Many users praise Canva for being incredibly easy to learn and use, making design accessible even without graphic design skills. It's described as intuitive and helpful for various creative projects.R1R3R5R6
App Performance & Stability negative
A significant number of recent reviews report critical issues with the app, including it not loading, showing white screens, crashing, or being generally slow and glitchy. This contradicts the developer's notes which do not mention performance fixes.R34R73R93R110
Pricing & Paywalls negative
Many users express frustration over the increasing number of features, templates, and elements that are locked behind a paywall. They feel the free version is too limited and that the app constantly pushes for subscriptions, sometimes with misleading trial offers.R10R25R28R52
Video Editing negative
While Canva is used for video, many reviewers find its video editor to be poor, slow, glitchy, and frustrating. Issues include inability to download, desynchronized audio, and limited functionality compared to other apps.R19R20R117R208
User Interface & Navigation mixed
While many find it easy, a significant portion of users, including those experienced with other design software, describe the interface as unintuitive and difficult to navigate, especially for specific tools or advanced editing.R11R52R79R91
Customer Support negative
Reviewers express dissatisfaction with customer service, citing a reliance on unhelpful AI bots and difficulty reaching human support for critical issues like billing or app malfunctions.R148R198R203R216
AI Features negative
Some users are critical of Canva's AI features, describing them as useless, inaccurate, or feeling 'shoved down their throats.' There's also a desire for options to filter out or disable AI-generated content.R27R102R134R198

Who it's for

Canva is for individuals and small businesses who need an easy-to-use tool for creating a wide variety of visual content, especially those who appreciate a vast library of templates and don't mind paying for premium features R6. It is not for users who require advanced, glitch-free video editing, prefer a fully free experience, or need robust human customer support R20R25R148.

Evidence note: The recent reviews skew significantly negative, primarily due to app stability issues and perceived increase in paywalled features. This contrasts with the very high lifetime rating, suggesting a recent decline in user satisfaction. The developer's notes for the latest update mention new AI features and template collections but do not address the widespread performance and stability issues reported by recent users.

Frequently asked

Is Canva free to use?
Canva offers a free version, but many useful features, templates, and elements are locked behind a paywall, leading some users to feel pressured into purchasing a subscription R10R52.
Why is my Canva app not working?
Many recent users report that the Canva app is not working, experiencing issues like white screens, failure to load, or crashing, especially after recent updates R34R73R216.
Is Canva good for video editing?
While Canva offers video editing, many users find it slow, glitchy, and frustrating, reporting issues with downloads, playback, and audio synchronization R19R20R117R208.

What reviewers actually said

Built only from these 120 real reviews (foreign ones translated). Superscripts jump to the quote here. Apple has no per-review links, so [ref] opens that app's reviews on the App Store.

  1. [R1] 5/5 · US La mejor app: Excelente app la amé🫶🏻
  2. [R3] 5/5 · US MUST READ BEFORE DOWNLOADING: Great app, helps you make and edit things, five star, disagree, then argue with the wall
  3. [R5] 5/5 · US Easy Peasy: Unlimited options!
  4. [R6] 5/5 · US Love this app!: Easy to work and helps me to be creative without needing a a bunch of graphic design skills
  5. [R4] 5/5 · US The amazing wonders of Campa: Amazing. Customer service has hundreds of templates video editing your name. Have a good luck exploring on camera.
  6. [R15] 3/5 · US Good Collage tool, Needs Dark Mode: This is honestly a really great tool for assembling images text videos. Amazing for individual or collaborative work, can really help get a project started. I would use it way more if there was a way to make the white background an off-white, or gray color. As the bright light can be a bit much at night.
  7. [R16] 5/5 · US LOVE 💜: Canva is the perfect app for creating/designing almost anything you can think of! I’m obsessed. 😍
  8. [R34] 3/5 · US The app is not working: Update the apps for iOS version
  9. [R73] 2/5 · US It just stopped working: I was using the app but it just stop working and has been saying it’s been having technical difficulties for a few weeks now
  10. [R93] 1/5 · US No: Will not even let me get into the homepage I find it very stupid. Nothing is helping or working.
  11. [R110] 1/5 · US Arguably the worst mobile app I’ve ever used.: This app hardly works. I’d rather have a team of monkeys edit my work in Microsoft Paint than ever use this app again.
  12. [R10] 2/5 · US Money: Why do you have to pay for everything might as well use something else because this other app this app just lucky I even picked it and then I’m trying to work in these things keep coming up. Can you rate us? Can you rate us like stop. Let’s me work in peace
  13. [R52] 2/5 · US Meh: Very few options on the free version. Paid versions too expensive for a casual user. Not very user friendly on iphone…have to click everywhere and hunt around for tools and options.
  14. [R53] 1/5 · US Ertdfhmgndghgfh: Not good if you don’t have the thing that you pay and you have to pay hard to use horrible
  15. [R57] 1/5 · US bad: It doesn't have complete functions, but it needs money.
  16. [R19] 1/5 · US UnSharable: All of a sudden Im unable to download the video I have created.
  17. [R20] 4/5 · US Almost perfect: My only qualm is their video editor. It’s terrible. i have to use VN editor instead. But overall it is a very good suite for content creation. I like enough to subscribe.
  18. [R117] 3/5 · US Video downloads suck: When i download the video, the result is not what is on my canva, it’s glitchier and messier.
  19. [R208] 3/5 · GB Great for some things, not for everything: Canva is great for short-form social media content but terrible for editing longer videos, it’s honestly the most frustrating video editing app I’ve ever used. It’s ridiculously slow, glitchy and lags constantly even when doing it on a laptop in google chrome. The clips either stop playing completely or stay stuck in the video in playback when they’re not
  20. [R11] 1/5 · US Not intuitive! Very hard for beginners: Canva is very hard to use if you are not an expert! It’s not intuitive. It’s very difficult to navigate. I would not recommend unless you take their courses to understand how to be an expert at using the app.
  21. [R79] 1/5 · US UI: Not at all user friendly, made only for people who edit and not any normal person.
  22. [R91] 1/5 · US Unintuitive: Unintuitive
  23. [R25] 1/5 · US GREEDY THIEVES!: claimed a FREE 14 day trial, got charged full price immediately. at the end of the TRIAL, i was charged full price AGAIN. they refuse to refund because my subscription is through apple and not canva directly. I’ve been supporting this app for YEARS when it was $7/month back in 2020 and the downhill this app has taken is despicable honestly. i will NEVER support this app ever again
  24. [R54] 1/5 · US Force you to pay: They force you to pay first to try the free trail.
  25. [R72] 1/5 · US Misleading Retention Offer: I decided to cancel my subscription, but before canceling I was offered approximately $3 if I avoid canceling the plan, I accepted the offer but when my subscription renewed, I was charged the full monthly price instead. I cancelled my subscription immediately after noticing the charge. This was very disappointing and felt misleading. I hope the company reviews this iss
  26. [R111] 2/5 · US Bummer: I downloaded it because I assumed it was going to be free since there was no indication of a price in the description. But after downloading, there was a “14-day free trial”😳
  27. [R148] 1/5 · US AI non-support: Canva has transitioned toward fully AI-powered customer support. So if you need help with anything, you are only getting bot-support. If you open a ticket and request an email or call, you are STILL talking to a condescending bot. You can continue to escalate the issue, but not without investing significant time and repeating bf yourself over and over and over again. BAD CUSTOMER S
  28. [R198] 1/5 · GB Only thing more useless than their AI feature is their customer service: A total rip off with seriously tight usage limits and zero functionality. Possibly the worst AI model I have encountered.
  29. [R203] 1/5 · GB Absolute garbage: It’s like photoshop and illustrator but instead of having tools that you can learn about as a useful vocational skill you have to give commands to an AI that burns a crate of coal and depletes a town’s water supply to get it wrong every time
  30. [R216] 1/5 · GB Update ruined app: The new update now means the app won’t load at all on my phone. I’ve tried every single thing suggested to try and trouble shoot it but nothing works. Just a blank white screen. Logged in on the website and all my projects are gone. Absolutely no way of contacting Canva, just their AI support which is no help. Literally can’t use it anymore. Terrible service.
  31. [R66] 1/5 · US I like canva and all, but I had a project for a while and everything disappeared I just went on it: dont really like it now
  32. [R121] 2/5 · US Slow af: Great tools, slow asf on iPhone 14 Pro
  33. [R234] 3/5 · GB I love this app, but it’s now becoming unusuable.: Thumbnails of pics in your photo album are now appearing blank on “recent images.” This is annoying when I’m making collages. I have to guess what picture to select. I’ve tried multiple tricks to fix this. Nothing helps.
  34. [R239] 3/5 · GB Glitchy: Can’t handle large capacity of artworks and brush strokes. Also, art tools are very limited. Wish there was a brush and spray effect tools.
  35. [R28] 5/5 · US NEEDS TO BE FREE: NEEDS TO BE FREE
  36. [R27] 2/5 · US Bruh.: I made a show in canva that relied on two features and they removed them. Like what are chances were is the funny,goofy, and creepy iconic AI voice and where the f is duration those were the only reasons I used canva often.
  37. [R102] 2/5 · US I don’t know about this app: The app didn’t really help me at all. It actually made it worse. I did everything right even asked the AI, but it didn’t help me at all. It made me stop a family tradition.
  38. [R134] 3/5 · US AI: All AI generated content should be labeled as such and there should also be an option to filter it out.
  39. [R211] 3/5 · GB Ok when it works and stops glitching and disappearing: Your reliability must improve, especially for paying subscribers like me. What on earth happened this past week? White screens and no functionality.

Synthesized from 120 recent App Store reviews · updated July 2026 · View on the App Store