Canva or Adobe: Which One Is for You?

If you’ve ever tried designing something — a flyer, a social media post, a poster, or a presentation slide — you’ve probably faced this question:

“Should I use Canva or Adobe?”

Both are powerful in their own way, but they’re built for very different types of users.

In this article, we’ll break down the differences between Canva and Adobe, and help you figure out which tool suits you best — especially if you’re an individual, small business owner, freelancer, teacher, professional, or government servant.

Let’s give credit where it’s due. Adobe has been around for decades, and its software is used by professionals all over the world.

Here’s what Adobe offers:

• Photoshop – for detailed photo editing and manipulation
• Illustrator – for creating logos, vector illustrations, and branding assets
• InDesign – for multi-page documents like brochures or magazines
• Premiere Pro – for video editing
• After Effects – for motion graphics and visual effects

These tools are incredibly powerful, but they come with a catch: you need time, skills, and patience to learn them.

Unless you’re a trained designer or someone with hours to spare each week learning new software, you might feel overwhelmed just opening one of them. And that’s perfectly normal.

Now let’s look at Canva.

Canva was built with simplicity in mind. You don’t need any design experience. You don’t need tutorials that run for 10 hours. You don’t even need a powerful laptop.

With Canva, you can:

• Create posters, business cards, resumes, social media content, proposals, and slides — in minutes
• Use ready-made templates that look professional
• Drag and drop text, photos, elements, and animations easily
• Collaborate in real-time with your team
• Schedule and post your designs directly to social media
• Even use AI features like Magic Design, Magic Write, and Magic Edit

It’s like having a mini graphic designer in your pocket — minus the technical jargon and steep learning curve.

Let’s talk numbers. Adobe Creative Cloud (which includes Photoshop, Illustrator, etc.) can cost RM100–300+ a month, depending on the package.

Canva? It’s free to start, and even the Pro version is under RM30/month (billed annually). You get access to premium templates, brand kits, background removers, and a huge content library — without breaking the bank.

For individuals, small teams, educators, and startups, Canva just makes more sense financially.

Here’s where Canva really shines — it was made for non-designers.

You just need to know what you want to create — and Canva helps you do it with ease.

Plus, Canva has its own Design School, full of free lessons and tutorials that anyone can follow.

You can learn how to:

• Make your designs look balanced
• Choose the right colors and fonts
• Create scroll-stopping social media graphics
• Build pitch decks and reports that look professional

At Twenty Four Consulting, we’ve trained hundreds of participants from different backgrounds — government officers, teachers, entrepreneurs, admin staff, and more — many of whom had zero experience in design.

After attending our Canva courses, they were able to confidently create:

• Beautiful posters
• Engaging presentation slides
• Eye-catching social media content
• Reports that actually look good (yes, it’s possible!)

(You can check out our Canva Courses to learn more about the sessions.)

And yes — the course is HRD claimable, so if you’re part of an organization, it’s even easier to get started.

If you’re a full-time designer working with complex files and professional branding, Adobe is still king.

But for 90% of people out there — small business owners, teachers, marketers, freelancers, and government staff — Canva is more than enough.

• It’s user-friendly
• It’s budget-friendly
• It saves you time
• It empowers you to take control of your own designs

And most importantly — you don’t need to hire a designer every time you want to make a simple poster or presentation.

If you’re interested in learning how to use Canva the easy way, we’re here for you. Our Canva training is HRD claimable, beginner-friendly, and designed for people with no design background.

Whether you’re building your brand, improving your classroom materials, or just want to design better — we’ll guide you every step of the way.

We’re also proud to be the first Canva Agency Partner in Malaysia and Southeast Asia, offering not just training, but also licensing, design support, and onboarding for teams and businesses.

Explore our full range of Canva services for non-designers and teams and see how we can help you get started with confidence.

Interested? Let’s chat and see how we can help you or your team!