Canva vs Zoho Show

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

Zoho Show

• Individuals who want a free slide tool without ads
• Teams already paying for Zoho WorkDrive or Zoho Workplace
• Presenting from a phone to an Apple TV or Android TV

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.

Zoho Show

• There is no standalone paid Show plan; teams get it through a Zoho WorkDrive or Zoho Workplace subscription.
• WorkDrive plans start at 3 users; buying 1 or 2 seats means contacting Zoho's sales team.
• Desktop apps cover macOS and Windows only; on Linux, Zoho Office offers just Writer and PDF Editor.
• Organizations without a Zoho One, Workplace or WorkDrive subscription pay $10 per device for the desktop apps; the page does not show a billing period.

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.

Zoho Show

Zia AI

Zia turns a short idea into a complete presentation and helps write, design and improve slides, whether starting from scratch or refining existing content.

Templates and libraries

More than 100 templates for pitch decks, sales presentations and proposals, plus template, slide and font libraries that act as a central repository for a team.

Real-time collaboration

Teammates edit slides together with contextual comments and @mention notifications. Slides can be locked, and files checked in and out.

PowerPoint compatibility

Imports PPTX, PPT, ODP, PPSX and PPS files and exports to PPTX, PPSX, HTML, ODP and PDF. Zoho publishes a list of which PowerPoint features are supported.

Broadcast and TV apps

Presentations can be broadcast to remote viewers or shown on a smart TV through the Apple TV and Android TV apps, with a phone or smartwatch as the remote.

Add-ons

An add-on store brings YouTube videos, X feeds, Giphy GIFs and icon sets into slides, along with live data from Zoho Analytics, Zoho Sprints and Zoho Survey.

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.

Zoho Show

• Free$0

  For individuals: 100+ templates, unlimited cloud storage, 500 MB uploads, real-time collaboration, offline mode and broadcasting.

• WorkDrive Starter$2.50

  per user / month, billed annually ($3 monthly); min. 3 users

  Zoho WorkDrive with the Zoho Office Suite, including Show, and 1 TB of team storage for 3 to 10 users.

• Workplace Standard$3

  per user / month, billed annually ($4 billed monthly)

  Zoho Workplace: Show, Writer and Sheet alongside Mail with 30 GB per user, WorkDrive, Cliq and Meeting.

• WorkDrive Team$4.50

  per user / month, billed annually ($6 monthly); min. 3 users

  3 TB of team storage for 3 to 10 users, a 50 GB upload limit per file and data recovery for up to 120 days.

• Workplace Professional$6

  per user / month, billed annually ($7 billed monthly)

  100 GB of mail storage per user and 1 TB of shared team file storage for 3 to 10 users.

• WorkDrive Business$9

  per user / month, billed annually ($11 monthly); min. 3 users

  5 TB of team storage for 3 to 10 users, custom workflows, data loss prevention policies and an admin audit trail.

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.

Zoho Show

• Annual discount

  Lower WorkDrive rates with annual billing

  WorkDrive Starter is $2.50 per user a month billed annually against $3 billed monthly. Team is $4.50 against $6 and Business $9 against $11.

• Annual discount

  Lower Workplace rates with annual billing

  Workplace Standard is $3 per user a month billed annually against $4 billed monthly, and Workplace Professional is $6 against $7.