Edit Square vs Canva. Which is better for animated video?

TL;DR

Edit Square is the stronger choice for motion graphics. You get keyframes, expressions and a 2D camera in a real-time editor, then turn any project into a template your team can fill in or your systems can render through our API.

Canva is an all-in-one design suite. It’s a great fit for static designs, presentations and simple animated posts made from its huge template library.

Overview

What is each tool built for?

Edit Square is a motion graphics editor that runs in your browser. You design and animate on a GPU-powered canvas where everything plays back live. When you’re happy, you turn the project into a template, and your team or your own systems make every version after that.

Canva is a design tool for everything from posters to presentations. Video and animation are one part of a much bigger suite, so the animation tools are kept simple.

Side by side

Edit Square vs Canva: feature by feature

Let’s put the two side by side and pick a winner for each row.

Feature	Edit Square	Canva	Winner
Animation control	Keyframes and easing on every property	Preset animations	Edit Square
Timeline	Layers, keyframes and animations you can drag and trim	Scene by scene	Edit Square
Expressions	Yes. Loops, wiggles, maths and linked properties	Not available	Edit Square
2D camera	Yes. Pan, zoom and glide across your scene	Not available	Edit Square
Text animation	By character, word and line, with stackable presets	Preset text animations	Edit Square
Templates for your team	Any project becomes a form with a live preview	Brand templates, edited in the Canva editor	Edit Square
Video through an API	Yes. One request returns an MP4	Fills text and images. Video assets aren’t supported	Edit Square
Versions from a spreadsheet	Through the API	Yes, up to 300 rows	Canva
Template library	Starter templates and motion presets	Huge, for every kind of design	Canva
Stock media	Stock search built in	Large stock library	Canva
Brand kits	Build your brand into your templates	Yes, up to 100 on Business	Canva
Live collaboration	Not available	Yes, edit together in real time	Canva
Other design types	Video only	Presentations, documents, print and more	Canva
Free tier	Free forever, watermarked 720p exports	Free plan	Tie
Starting price	$25 a month	$144 a year	Canva

Create

How does the animation compare?

Edit Square gives you full control over how everything moves. Every property can be keyframed, every keyframe has its own easing, and it all plays back in real time on the GPU.

You don’t need any experience to get started. You can animate any layer in one click with a motion preset, then tune it until the motion feels like yours.

• Motion presets. Animate any layer in one click, then stack presets to build something unique.
• Keyframes. Every transform, effect and control can be animated, with a keyframe one click away.
• Expressions. Link properties together and drive them with a line of code.
• 2D camera. Pan, zoom and glide across your whole scene without moving a single layer.
• Effects. Blur, glow, distort and more, all running on the GPU.

Canva keeps animation simple. You choose a preset for each element or page and adjust its speed. It’s quick, but you can’t control exactly how something moves, so videos made in Canva tend to look alike.

Template

Which tool handles templates better?

Edit Square wins this category for video. You can turn any project into a template in three steps.

1. Create your variables. Link one or more properties to a variable. One colour can drive two layers, one text field can drive the headline.
2. Build your form. Choose which variables become fields. The form is all your team ever needs to see.
3. Anyone can render. Your team picks a template, fills in the form and watches the preview update as they type.

Because your team only sees the form, they can’t move a logo or change a font by accident. Your design stays exactly as you made it.

Canva has brand templates too, and you can lock parts of them. Your team still opens each one in the full editor to make a version. Canva’s template library is far bigger than ours, which is handy if you’d like to start from somebody else’s design.

Automate

Can you automate video with Canva?

Edit Square has a render API built for video. You send the fields, we send back an MP4. It’s one request from your app, CRM or workflow tool, and our cloud servers handle the rendering.

Here’s the data you’d send to our API. You name the template and pass through the values that change.

{
  "name": "Welcome - John Smith",
  "project_id": "proj_jd71dcg41pjy7rax1v2h4pvcmd7gtar9",
  "template_id": "tpl_8f2c1d4e6a7b9c0d1e2f3a4b5c6d7e8f",
  "values": { "customer_name": "John Smith" }
}

And that’s it! To track when your render is completed, you can set up a webhook and we’ll notify you of any changes. Take a look at our API docs for the full details.

Canva has an API that can fill in the text and images of a brand template. It doesn’t accept video assets, and it’s designed around Canva designs, not motion graphics. Canva can also create versions in bulk from a spreadsheet inside the editor, which is useful for a one-off campaign.

Pricing

What are the pricing differences?

Edit Square is free to use for as long as you like. You get the full editor in your browser with no sign-up, and you only pay when you want clean exports, cloud storage or automation.

	Edit Square	Canva
Free	Full editor, free forever. 720p exports with a watermark	Free plan with one brand kit
One person	$25 a month, or $240 a year. Exports up to 4K with 5 GB of cloud storage	$144 a year for Canva Pro
Teams and automation	$60 a seat each month, or $600 a year. Template forms, the render API and 12.5 minutes of cloud rendering a month	$250 a year for each person on Canva Business

Canva costs less, and it covers far more than video. Edit Square is a specialist tool, so you’re paying for deeper animation and for video automation. Take a look at our pricing for the full details.

Note: exporting from the editor is free and unlimited on every plan. You only use cloud render credits for renders that run on our servers.

Beyond video

What about everything else Canva does?

Edit Square is focused on animated video. If you need presentations, documents, print designs or a huge library of ready-made templates, Canva is the tool for that job.

Most teams will want both. Keep Canva for your everyday design work, and use Edit Square when you want your videos to stand out.

Decide

Which tool is right for you?

Switching

Looking for a Canva alternative for video?

If you’ve been making videos in Canva and find that they look like everybody else’s, you can’t get the motion quite right, or you can’t automate them, Edit Square solves all three.

• Videos look like everybody else’s? Design your own motion from scratch.
• Can’t get the motion right? Use keyframes and easing on any property.
• Can’t automate your videos? Call our API and get an MP4 back.

Our verdict

Edit Square is the better choice for animated video

For marketing teams, agencies and developers who want branded motion graphics, Edit Square is the better choice. You’ll have full control over the animation, your team can make their own versions and your systems can render videos without anybody lifting a finger.

Canva is still the right tool for everyday design. If simple animated posts are all you need, stay where you are.

If you’re on the fence, open the editor and animate one of your designs. It’s free, there’s no sign-up and you’ll know within the first project whether it fits how you work.