The gap between the possible output of professional graphic designers and those with little design experience is closer than ever. With browser-based design platforms like the titan Canva and the newer, often-compared Kittl, anyone can quickly create a professional-looking design, regardless of skill level. Even a graphic professional such as myself who is used to “complex” graphic software like Adobe Photoshop has grown to appreciate the simplicity of such tools in my workflow and the advantages they can give to small businesses and hobbyists.
Canva v. Kittl
Canva and Kittl are, without a doubt, currently the two best options for anyone looking to create professional-looking designs without needing expensive and complicated tools like Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator. Here is a little background on each.
What is Canva?
Canva began as a humble drag-and-drop tool used to design yearbooks in Australia but has grown to be, inarguably, the most popular browser-based design platform since it officially launched in January 2013. Canva is now an all-in-one design platform that is used globally by individuals, small companies, and almost all of Fortune 500.
What is Kittl?
Launched in 2021, Kittl quickly grew to be one of the largest browser-based design platforms, its flourishing popularity based on the platform’s powerful typographic tools and attractive templates that played on vintage styling under their original name, “Heritage Designer.” Another claim to fame is Kittl’s AI-X1, the first text-to-graphic generative AI model on platforms of this type.
Comparing Capabilities & Offerings
Canva and Kittl are both robust graphic design tools with similar, very user-friendly interfaces that cater to various needs, regardless of skill level. They also offer a wide range of templates, fonts, and design elements that users can easily customize as they see fit. However, they differ significantly in the content they focus on.
Canva’s Core Graphics Capabilities
Canva is recognized for being one of the earliest platforms of this type, growing to offer a vast library of design elements, making it an ideal home for limitless creative possibilities.
Asset Library. Canva boasts over 127 million fonts, images, and other graphic assets.
Video. It is the only platform of this type to integrate tools that can edit and create videos with audio and animation in an extremely user-friendly interface.
OpenAI. Thanks to their collaboration with OpenAI, Canva is backed by the full strength of the incredibly popular ChatGPT and DALL·E AI models.
Kittl’s Core Graphics Capabilities
Kittl is the newer player in the game, so while their library is technically not as vast, it is still quite immense and a suitable collection for any designer to suit their needs.
Font-focus. Their parent brand—Heritage Type Co.—has ingrained its DNA as an independent typeface foundry and graphic supplier with high-quality text-based templates, intricate logo designs, and robust typographic offerings.
Typography. Kittl offers granular control for its tools, particularly in the areas of typography, allowing users to fine-tune aspects like shape, shading, texture, and much more.
Better-looking stock photos. While Kittl seems to only call from Unsplash as a singular repository of stock photography, it looks impressive. Unlike Canva’s jumbled blend from various sources like Getty, pixabay, Pexels, and more, Kittl treats you to a more curated experience that often avoids an obviously generic stock photo look.
The AI Features of Canva and Kittl
As AI design trends continue to rise, both Canva and Kittl have incorporated AI technology into their platforms to assist users in utilizing this feature. Canva and Kittl depend on AI tools and offer a range of features to create designs from scratch.
When comparing the AI capabilities of Kittl and Canva, both platforms offer features that enhance the design process, but they cater to slightly different needs and use cases.
Canva’s “Magic Studio” AI
Canva has integrated AI-driven tools that they’ve dubbed “Magic Studio” across various aspects of its platform to streamline design creation and improve user experience. Magic Studio’s features are powered by OpenAI, meaning that under the hood, the platform generates results based on ChatGPT and DALL·E:
- Magic Write. Crafts copy with ease whether you’re starting from scratch or need to expand upon existing text. Users are even able to rewrite or summarize existing text in a design completely.
- Magic Design. This tool reviews your work and suggests various design elements, templates, or layouts that could improve your project, helping users who may not have a strong design background or professionals looking for inspiration.
- Magic Switch. Automatically resizes designs to fit different dimensions and formats, saving time when creating multiple versions of the same content for various platforms.
- Background remover. An AI-powered tool that efficiently removes backgrounds from images with just one click, making it easy to isolate subjects.
- Text-to-image. Canva allows users to generate images based on text prompts, using an integrated DALL·E app to create visual elements that align with their descriptions.
Kittl’s “AI-X1”
Kittl, while newer and more specialized, was the first to incorporate AI features to assist designers, particularly in the realm of typography and intricate design work. Some notable AI-driven tools in Kittl include:
- AI Backgrounds. Kittl not only allows users to remove backgrounds to isolate elements in an image, but it is also capable of generating backgrounds and placing existing elements on very realistic scenery. This capability could prove incredibly useful to those wanting product photos without the hefty cost of photoshoots.
- Image Upscaler. Easily increase the size and resolution of an image without compromising its quality. A boon for anyone wanting to create the highest quality images into print.
- Text-to-image. Kittl’s AI can translate text prompts not only into full images but also clipart, vector artwork, and full logos. Their service also features a community feed where users can share their creations with each other with tags and the text prompt they used intact.
- AI-Quote Generator. Kittl can generate a quote with an AI-assisted wizard that takes topics and “moods” a user chooses in a menu and a selected length from 2-16 words. While niche, it can come in handy in providing taglines or headings when copywriting.
Print on Demand on Canva and Kittl
Kittl and Canva offer not only robust design tools but also a print-on-demand service to turn users’ custom designs into physical products ready to be sold and used.
Canva Print
Robust catalog. Canva boasts an impressive catalog of over 60 different products to print, including business cards, yard signs, coasters, and stickers.
Shipping options. Free standard shipping on all orders, with express delivery and in-store pickup at a FedEx Office or Staples (in the United States and Canada).
One Print, One Tree. For the ecologically minded, it’s worth mentioning that they plant one tree with every order made by their service as part of a sustainability initiative with accredited reforestation schemes around the world.
Kittl Print
Nuanced product selection. While Kittl only offers 15 types of products in their print-on-demand catalog, they do seem to have more nuanced choices available to order. For example, they offer both a unisex jersey and a woman’s relaxed fit options for t-shirts compared to Canva’s single generic fit. Another example is their extensive options for mugs; you can order simple glossy ceramic mugs, travel mugs, enamel mugs, and mugs with color accents—all of which have multiple sizes available.
Lower price per item. Their items are overall cheaper than Canva when compared with similar products, with a discount pushing the price even lower if you have a premium account.
Limited shipping options. While they do keep their items cheaper, this seems to be offset by their minimal shipping options compared to Canva.
As with anything involved with print, it’s best to test the services yourself to judge the quality of work done by their affiliated printers and the actual products they put your designs on.
Other Alternatives to Canva and Kittl
While Canva and Kittl are popular choices in the online design tool market, several other competitors offer unique features that cater to different needs.
Adobe Express. Formerly known as Adobe Spark and then Creative Cloud Express, Adobe Express is Adobe’s attempt to compete in the emerging space of easy-to-use, browser-based graphics tools.
Adobe, of course, is a giant industry veteran well known for its extensive professional suite of creative tools. Adobe hopes to position Adobe Express as a more accessible, user-friendly design tool aimed at a broader audience that integrates with the Adobe ecosystem. It is this potential for integration with the existing Adobe Creative Cloud that makes Adobe Express potentially attractive for those already familiar with and committed to Adobe’s products.
Snappa. If Canva or Kittl feels a bit too complex or unintuitive, Snappa aims to simplify the design experience even further while still offering a solid set of tools perfect for those with little technical skill.
Visme. An ambitious graphic design platform that offers a spectrum of templates, design elements, and customization. Visme‘s users highly praise its data visualization features as being ideal for making excellent presentations and infographics.
VistaCreate. Formerly Crello, VistaCreate is VistaPrint’s attempt to create a full-service design suite using their time-tested experience providing services to small businesses around the world.
Pricing for Canva and Kittl
One of the major factors in the popularity of Canva and Kittl is that you can start playing with their tools without dropping a dime under their “freemium” model.
Canva’s Free Plan
Canva’s free plan is very generous, offering access to over 3.2 million assets (graphics, fonts, audio, and video), over 2.1 million design templates, and their range of tools—which includes AI, print-on-demand, and a whopping 5GB of storage.
However, the free plan limits AI usage for specific tools, the most notable of which are Magic Write (AI-assisted copywriting) and Magic Media (text-to-image generator), which both have 50 usage credits that do not refill.
Kittl’s Free Plan
Kittl’s free plan is also generous, offering full access to their library of assets (images, illustrations, textures, and fonts) and their suite of tools—which also includes AI (20 credits total, which does not refill) and print-on-demand.
Unfortunately, Kittl limits free users to only 20 total projects and a scant 500MB of storage. It is also important to point out that Kittl’s free plan has a limited commercial license, which requires attribution on all creations.
Premium Plans
Kittl and Canva’s premium plans are comparably priced, with each platform offering two paid tiers and personalized plans for businesses that provide a greater amount of additional assets and features and regenerating AI credits.
For specific details on these plans, visit their pricing pages:
Closing Thoughts
Canva and Kittl are solid contenders in the graphic design space, each catering to different user needs. Canva’s extensive asset library and user-friendly interface make it ideal for those who value convenience and versatility, while Kittl’s more niche, typographic focus and curated user experience appeals to users with a little bit more design knowledge or want to create something that can look different from something made in Canva.
We use both tools here at Digital Agility Media to tackle the needs of our clients, depending on their specific requirements. If you are looking to take your digital marketing to the next level, we would welcome the opportunity to talk about your goals.
