3 Free Online Image Creation and Editing Tools for Digital Marketers in 2024
In digital marketing, images play a crucial role. They are required for blog posts, social media updates, advertisements, video thumbnails, presentations, and more. There are a lot of online tools available to create images for free. Now, AI has also come to help in creating images from ideas. In this article, I am going to talk about three online image creation and editing tools that I use as an SEO professional.
1. Canva
Canva is an online graphic design platform that is used to create social media graphics and presentations. The company has announced it intends to compete with Google and Microsoft in the office software category with website and whiteboard products
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| User-Friendly Interface | Canva provides an intuitive and easy-to-use interface, making it accessible for users with varying levels of design experience. |
| Templates and Designs | Offers a vast library of templates and designs for various purposes, including social media posts, presentations, and posters. |
| Customization Options | Allows users to customize templates with a range of elements such as text, images, icons, and backgrounds. |
| Collaboration Features | Provides collaboration tools, enabling multiple users to work on the same design in real-time and share feedback. |
| Export and Download | Permits users to export their designs in various formats and resolutions, making it easy to share or print the final creations. |
| Brand Kit | Offers a Brand Kit feature for consistent branding, allowing users to save and apply brand colors, fonts, and logos efficiently. |
| Stock Media Library | Includes a vast library of stock photos, illustrations, icons, and videos that users can incorporate into their designs. |
| Mobile Accessibility | Canva is available as a mobile app, allowing users to create and edit designs on the go using smartphones and tablets. |
| Integration Options | Integrates with other platforms and tools, facilitating seamless workflows for users who want to incorporate Canva into their processes. |
| Free and Paid Plans | Offers both free and paid subscription plans, catering to a wide range of users with different budget constraints and feature needs. |
2. Adobe Express (Old Adobe Spark)
Adobe Express, formerly known as Adobe Spark, is a graphic design tool developed by Adobe Inc. Adobe Express was primarily designed for schools and nonprofits. As of September 2023, it allowed users to create branded content, such as flyers and logos, post social media content, and edit PDF documents with the help of artificial intelligence (AI) technology.
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| User-Friendly Interface | Adobe Spark Post offers an intuitive and user-friendly interface, making it accessible for users with varying design skills. |
| Templates and Designs | Provides a diverse range of professionally designed templates for social media posts, banners, flyers, and other graphics. |
| Customization Options | Allows users to customize templates with ease, offering options for adjusting text, colors, images, and various design elements. |
| Typography Tools | Includes a variety of typography tools and fonts to enhance text in designs, enabling users to create visually appealing content. |
| Image and Icon Library | Access to a library of high-quality stock photos, icons, and illustrations to enhance and complement the visual aspects of designs. |
| Branding Features | Offers basic branding features, allowing users to add their logo, apply brand colors, and maintain consistency across designs. |
| Animation Capabilities | Supports basic animation features, enabling users to add movement and dynamism to their designs, particularly for social media posts. |
| Collaboration Features | Provides collaboration tools for team projects, allowing multiple users to contribute to and edit designs in real-time. |
| Integration with Adobe Apps | Seamlessly integrates with other Adobe Creative Cloud applications, facilitating smooth workflows for users within the Adobe ecosystem. |
| Free and Premium Versions | Offers both a free version with basic features and a premium version with additional functionalities for users with diverse needs. |
3. VistaCreate
VistaCreate (formerly Crello) is an online graphic design platform for non-designers, launched in 2016. As of 2022, it has more than 10 million users in 192 countries.
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| User-Friendly Interface | VistaCreate offers an intuitive and user-friendly interface, making it accessible for users with varying design skills. |
| Templates and Designs | Provides a wide range of professionally designed templates for social media posts, presentations, marketing materials, and more. |
| Customization Options | Allows users to customize templates with ease, offering options for adjusting text, colors, images, and various design elements. |
| Design Elements Library | Access to a vast library of design elements, including icons, illustrations, and stock photos to enhance the visual appeal of creations. |
| Collaboration Features | Supports collaboration on design projects, enabling multiple users to work on the same project simultaneously and share feedback. |
| Brand Kit | Offers a Brand Kit feature for consistent branding, allowing users to save and apply brand colors, fonts, and logos efficiently. |
| Social Media Scheduling | Integrates with social media platforms and provides scheduling features, streamlining the process of sharing designs on social networks. |
| Team Collaboration | Provides features for team collaboration, facilitating seamless workflows for design projects involving multiple team members. |
| Export and Download Options | Allows users to export designs in various formats and resolutions, making it easy to share or print the final creations. |
| Free and Premium Versions | Offers both a free version with basic features and a premium version with additional functionalities for users with diverse needs. |
| Educational Resources | Provides tutorials, articles, and other educational resources to help users improve their design skills and make the most of the platform. |
Canva vs Adobe Express vs VistaCreate (Comparison)
| Feature | Canva | Adobe Express | VistaCreate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ease of use | Drag-and-drop interface, beginner-friendly | Similar to Canva, with more advanced features | Easiest interface of the three, great for social media graphics |
| Templates and elements | Huge library of free and premium templates for various purposes | Smaller library than Canva, but high-quality templates | Good selection of free templates, limited premium options |
| Collaboration features | Real-time collaboration with multiple users | Real-time collaboration with multiple users | Real-time collaboration with multiple users |
| Mobile app | Yes, full-featured app | Yes, full-featured app | Yes, full-featured app |
| Free plan | Yes, limited features and templates | Yes, limited features and templates | Yes, unlimited features and templates (with watermark) |
| Paid plans | Pro and Teams plans with more features and storage | Individual and Team plans with more features and storage | Pro and Business plans with more features and storage |
| Users | Over 85 million active users | Over 20 million active users | Over 10 million active users |
Meet the author
Syam K.S. is a digital marketing professional and trainer in Kerala. With over 18 years of experience, he is an SEO expert in Kerala. Syam serves as the lead trainer for our Digital Marketing course and online SEO course.
