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Canva's Enterprise Shift: A Price Hike Risks Alienating SMBs

Workflow Management

Canva, digital marketing, enterprise solutions

Business Honor
25 September, 2024

As Canva ramps up its focus on enterprise solutions, small businesses face steep price increases.

Canva is trying to spur significant growth to even out with Adobe in the enterprise market; however, this change has sent shockwaves through its loyal customer base of small business owners who now feel the pains of a recent price increase.

Canva has announced a price increase for its team subscriptions starting at the beginning of September 2024. The new annual cost for Canva Teams will be $100 per user, up from $119 for up to five users. This increase, which applies to existing customers as well, is a significant jump for SMBs that rely on the platform for design and collaboration. For instance, Hornstein Digital, a digital marketing agency, saw its subscription fees jump by nearly 300%, which was a challenge to its workflow and business operations.

While her executive creative director maintains that small teams are the priority, undeniably, these enterprise-focused product enhancements are drawing much attention in. Canva's AI-powered Magic Studio and video editing tools are part of the company's effort to make a stronger case to bigger organizations. With these changes, the hope is that this platform will now be able to provide more value to justify those higher prices-especially as Canva expands enterprise services with things like the Visual Suite and new Work Kits.

Despite all these innovations, Rachel Hornstein and many other SMB users find themselves in a tough spot. The price jumps are putting pressure on their budgets and making them rethink their workflow tools altogether. For some users, switch to competitors like Adobe is a less than appealing option as it imposes a steep learning curve and significantly increased costs.

This pricing shift marks a pivotal moment for Canva, which has long been praised for its affordable and user-friendly platform. As the company seeks to position itself as a serious competitor in the enterprise space, it risks alienating the small teams and individual users who helped it rise to prominence.