Canva vs Keynote

Canva

• People without design training who build slides from templates
• Teams that make presentations, social posts and video in one tool
• Teachers and students: Canva for Education is free for eligible K-12 users

Keynote

• People who work mainly on Mac, iPad and iPhone
• Presenters who want animated decks without paying for software
• Exchanging decks with PowerPoint users through import and export

Canva

• Prices here are in-app purchase amounts from the US App Store listing, which shows several for Canva Pro; prices on Canva's own website may differ.
• Scheduler, Brand Hub, one-click Background Remover and Magic Resize are listed as Canva Pro features, not part of the free account.
• Cloud storage on the free account is 5 GB.
• The download page lists apps for Mac, Windows 10 and later, iOS, Android and Chromebook; no Linux desktop app is listed.

Keynote

• The apps are for Apple devices only; on a Windows PC, Keynote is available just in a browser through iCloud.com.
• Generating slides from an outline, generated presenter notes and slide clean-up need Apple Creator Studio, at $12.99 per month or $129 per year, and are labeled beta.
• Apple's compatibility list marks PowerPoint WordArt, text effects, image effects and OLE objects as not supported on import; SmartArt is imported as a shape.

Canva

Presentation templates

Presentations and slideshows start from professionally designed templates, each of which can be adapted to a brand and style.

Presenter notes

Presenter notes can be written with custom AI prompts and track speaking time for each slide.

Magic design tools

Magic Design builds designs from an uploaded image, Magic Edit swaps or adds objects in a picture, Magic Eraser removes them, and Translate converts a design into more than 100 languages.

AI image and video generation

A text-to-image generator creates pictures from a prompt, and Veo 3 generates video clips with sound from a text description.

Real-time collaboration

Team members can work on the same design at once, share it and collect feedback from wherever they are.

Developer platform

The Canva Developers SDK covers apps that run inside the editor, REST APIs for connecting other platforms, and an MCP server that lets AI assistants create, edit and export designs.

Keynote

Themes and slide layouts

Every presentation begins with an Apple-designed theme, a set of slide layouts whose placeholder text and images are replaced with your own. Layouts and backgrounds can be changed slide by slide.

Animations and Magic Move

Slide transitions, emphasis builds and Magic Move animate objects within and between slides, with a live preview on the canvas while editing.

Presenter tools

A customizable presenter display for rehearsing, remote control from an iPhone, iPad or Apple Watch, multi-presenter slideshows, and a separate window for notes and controls during video calls on a Mac.

Real-time collaboration

Share a presentation publicly or with specific people through iCloud or Box and see a list of their changes as they happen. Collaborators can also join from a browser on a Mac or Windows computer.

PowerPoint import and export

Imports and edits Microsoft PowerPoint files and exports to PowerPoint, PDF, HTML, movies and images. Apple publishes a feature-by-feature list of what carries over from PowerPoint.

Creator Studio slide tools

For Apple Creator Studio subscribers, Keynote can turn an outline into a slide deck with presenter notes and correct layout, typography and alignment issues. Apple labels these features beta.

Canva

• Canva Free$0

  Templates, a free library of images, video and audio, photo and video editing, real-time collaboration and 5 GB of cloud storage.

• Canva Pro$14.99 to $18.00

  per month on the US App Store; $119.99 to $143.99 per year

  Premium templates and stock media, one-click Background Remover, Magic Resize, Brand Hub and post scheduling. The store lists several amounts for this plan.

• Canva Business$25.00

  per month on the US App Store; seat basis not shown

  Canva's site lists Business alongside its Pro and Enterprise plans. The App Store listing gives a monthly price but not what the plan adds over Pro.

Keynote

• Keynote$0

  Create, edit and present on Mac, iPad, iPhone and iCloud.com, with real-time collaboration, Apple-designed themes and PowerPoint import and export.

• Apple Creator Studio$12.99

  per month, or $129 per year

  Adds premium templates and themes, the Content Hub media library and beta tools that generate slides and presenter notes, plus Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro and Pixelmator Pro.

Canva

• Annual discount

  Yearly Canva Pro costs less than paying monthly

  The US App Store lists Canva Pro at $119.99 to $143.99 per year against $14.99 to $18.00 per month, so a year paid up front is cheaper than 12 monthly payments at any of the listed amounts.

• Education

  Canva for Education free for K-12

  Canva's App Store listing describes Canva for Education, a school- and district-managed version, as free for eligible K-12 teachers and students.

Keynote

• Annual discount

  About 17% less on the yearly plan

  Apple Creator Studio is $129 per year or $12.99 per month. Twelve monthly payments come to $155.88, so the yearly plan costs about 17% less.

• Education

  Students and educators: $2.99 a month

  Verified college students and educators pay $2.99 per month or $29.99 per year for Apple Creator Studio. Apple calls it a limited-time offer, and it cannot be shared through Family Sharing.

• Other savings

  3 months free with a new Mac or iPad

  Buyers of an eligible new Mac or iPad can try Apple Creator Studio free for 3 months, claimed within 3 months of activating the device.