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As an experienced agency in eCommerce web-to-print development, we have been asked this question hundreds of times. The interest in similar applications soars, merchants find them a perfect platform to begin their investments. If you are one of these, here's a guide to help you out on how to make a website like Canva. Creating a website similar to Canva is simple as long as you have the right tools in hand.
Many clients have asked us about developing a website similar to Canva
Canva is a graphic design program for anybody. The great thing about this tool is that you don't even have to be a graphic designer or really even have an eye for design or design elements to use Canva. The program gives you access to thousands of templates. It's pretty much up to your imagination, you can design just about anything for your business, invitations, business cards, Instagram posts, and more. A drag and drop interface makes customizing thousands of templates simple and easy.
Canva is easy to sign up for, using either an email, Google account, or Facebook login. Once you create a free account you'll have access to 8,000+ free templates including social media posts and templates for presentations. You will also get access to a stock photo library with hundreds of thousands of photos.
Thanks to its easy-to-use design tool, convenience, and practicality, Canva.com now has millions of monthly active users across 190 countries, who have collectively made billions of designs to date. Because of its popularity, many merchants want to invest in a similar website concept.
We have helped some of our clients build a website similar to Canva so far. One of them is Doographics. This graphic design platform is brand new and it is considered as “India Canva''. The team behind this software is so inspiring, they are working hard without proper infrastructure. The tool is easy to use, the features on this tool are amazing compared to the available tools in the market.
Case Study: Doographics – India’s Canva
Background: The Vision Behind Doographics
Doographics was born from a simple yet ambitious goal: to provide an easy-to-use, affordable, and powerful graphic design tool tailored to Indian users.
While global tools like Canva were already popular, many Indian small business owners, content creators, and marketers found them expensive and not fully localized for their needs. Doographics aimed to solve this problem by:
Market Research & Opportunity Analysis
Before launching, Doographics conducted a market study and found:
With this data, the team decided to build a localized design tool that would be India’s answer to Canva.
Challenges Faced by Doographics
The Doographics team had a strong vision, but they faced several challenges:
1. Lack of Infrastructure – They were operating with limited resources and needed an efficient, cost-effective development solution.
2. Feature-Rich Requirements – They wanted advanced design functionalities similar to Canva but within a more affordable framework.
3. Customization Needs – Existing design plugins didn’t fully meet their requirements, so they needed custom development.
4. Scalability – They wanted a solution that could handle increasing users as the platform grew.
How We Helped Build Doographics
The Doographics team discovered NBDesigner, our online design plugin, which offered many core features needed for their platform. However, to create a more powerful and customized solution, we worked closely with them to:
1. Customize the NBDesigner Plugin
We modified the NBDesigner plugin to align with Doographics’ vision, adding features that were either missing or needed improvement.
Key Enhancements:
2. Optimizing the User Experience
One of the primary goals was to ensure that the platform was as intuitive and user-friendly as Canva. We focused on:
3. Adding Unique Features for Indian Users
Doographics needed to stand out from Canva by offering India-specific features:
4. Developing a Seamless Payment and Monetization Model
To generate revenue, Doographics implemented a freemium model, where users could access basic templates for free but had to pay for premium templates and additional features.
We developed a freemium model with flexible pricing:
Added Payment Gateways:
Result: 65% of users who tried the free plan upgraded to paid features within 30 days!
5. Ensuring Scalability and Performance Optimization
Since Doographics aimed to attract thousands of users, we worked on:
The Outcome: A Successful Indian Alternative to Canva
Following several months of development, Doographics was successfully launched and rapidly gained popularity among Indian designers, small business proprietors, and social media marketers.
Key Accomplishments:
- Surpassed 100,000 active users within the inaugural year.
- Earned the title of “India’s Canva” due to its comprehensive features and user-friendly interface.
- Experienced ongoing growth with an expanding library of templates and updates to premium features.
Insights Gained from This Initiative
Building a Custom Design Platform with NBDesigner
Doographics offers a wide range of templates for quick and easy design creation. Users can design Facebook posts, Facebook ads, Instagram posts, flyers, Pinterest graphics, YouTube thumbnails, and many other categories.
You can choose custom dimensions according to your need, Cropping images, Remove background any image, Adding elements, Text, and you will get tons of fonts that are offered in this software.
After we finished this project, there were also many customers who asked us to help them build a website similar to Doographics.
The Doographic team found us through our online designer plugin called NBdesigner. They needed a design tool to build a platform similar to Canva and were attracted by our NBdesigner.
NBdesigner workflow is very similar to the Canva design tool.
There are +200 templates for the admin to set up in store. The admin could create their own templates one by one, or convert from PSD files.
The admin also could add more fonts, images, or clipart or even let the visitors upload their own images from their devices, social networks,...
Although it supports all the basic features same as the Canva design page, the plugin itself could not fit perfectly with all of the client requests by that time. So we came up with an agreement to adjust the plugin and develop additional features to make it work better as our client demands. An online design tool that works similar to Canva could be created by custom development anyway. Because Canva is a functional website with sophisticated features that are not easy to develop.
Develop custom features for a development process of a website similar to Canva
Based on the status of your website and business’s needs, you could send us detailed requests for the features you want to add. Or even if you do not know what is needed for your website, contact our consultant for the advice!
You could consider some Canva-like features here for your reference. All those features are developed by our developer team based on the core features of our NBDesigner plugin. They are customized as per the customer’s request. There are many highlight features on Canva.com. You could ask to develop anyone that you like.
Pro Template
We were asked to develop the function to show PRO and FREE templates. So when the admin creates a design he can mark if the template will be a free or a pro template. It works similarly to Canva. Only paid accounts could use the pro templates.
Upload video and export file in MP4
About this function, the admin will have the choice to upload videos as templates like Canva. Those video templates are shown in a separate video tab on the left sidebar. Now, users can make a new video and download it in MP4 as easily as cake.
Users also can upload a video to design (shorter videos will have shorter upload time).
Background Tab
Develop background tab for a Design tool, there are 4 tabs in the background functions:
Color: Users can pick a color to be background or they can use the color picker to choose a color.
Texture: Users can pick an image that is defined by the admin to be the background.
Upload background: User can upload their own image to be the background.
Pay for download
With this function, users will not be able to share or export designs before making payments anymore. You must pay to download the design using the PRO TEMPLATE you has created. No possibility of downloading the design that uses the pro template before payment.
In the back-end, the admin could set up to enable this function or not, or choose to apply this function in completed orders only. The admin could also set up the allowed file type to download.
The design fee is charged each time download
With this function, the admin could set the price for the download design. Example $1/ each downloaded design.
After payment, users can download the design in all available formats (SVG, PNG, JPG, PDF)
With the design are already paid to download, it will be kept in customer's account and you can redownload them in all available formats (SVG, PNG, JPG, PDF). They can redownload those designs free for a lifetime.
Users can use a design already paid for and modify it without extra payment.
If a customer started a design and didn't finish it, he can save it and come back later to finalize it (save for later feature).
Multiple fonts, color, sizes, bold, italics, in the same text box
For some special designs, you might want to use a different color for each letter in one text box to make it fit with the theme of your design. Or sometimes you feel bored with solid colors and want to make them bright and fresh by using multiple colors at the same time. Not every design tool allows you to do this.
After our developer added this feature into the NBDesigner plugin, your website users could add a text box into the design zone, and then edit it in any way they like even if they want to use several colors, text fonts, or text format. All in one text box only. So, you do not have to create several text boxes with different colors or fonts and then put them in the right position. It helps to save a lot of time for your users. Now, the users could make colorful designs without a hassle.
Image upload fix connected to the user account
Another issue that might cause your website users to stress is that if they upload the images on the editor page from one device, the next time they log in on other devices, the uploaded images will be lost. After having a meeting with our client, we agreed to do customization to connect all the uploaded images with user accounts. So, once they upload any image on the editor page, they would always be saved on the image upload tab.
Even if the users log in with different devices, or close the browser after uploading the images, those images would never be lost.
After we add this feature, the admin could see which users add the corresponding images in the backend dashboard. Admin also could see the preview of the uploaded images.
Add And Delete Page Button
On Canva, users could add/remove pages on the front-end, while our NBdesigner plugin only allows the admin to set up the number of pages in the back-end.
Therefore, we were asked to develop those buttons on the front-end in order to make it convenient for users to design multiple-page products. Now, your website users can easily add or remove pages on the front-end. There is no limit in the number of pages that they could create and design.
Moreover, users could copy designs and paste them on another blank page. It also helps users to save a lot of time when they want to design pages that have a similar design as the previous one.
Some words from CMSMART team
Creative apps like Canva are loved by people who own a business or a professional such as a social media marketer, graphic designer, who can use various features of this fantastic app to their advantage.
Are you looking to develop such an outstanding platform? The right website development company will help you create the most successful and unique app like Canva! How about being a partner with CMSMART to grow your business?
In CMSMART, we not only provide amazing solutions for merchants wanting to start a Print on demand website but also offer all the eCommerce-related services in one place for varying sizes of businesses, from startups to enterprise-grade businesses.
We are very happy that there are more and more customers who believe and choose CMSMART as a partner for their eCommerce project. Each customer’s success story also means one story about the success of our dedicated team.
Contact our consultant - Mr. Vincent Ray through his email address vincent@cmsmart.net, WhatsApp +84 868 901 261, or Skype live:vincent_4281 today to get advice on your eCommerce project!
Rose Helen
With years of experience, Rose Helen possesses an in-depth understanding of e-commerce platforms, technologies, and best practices. She works closely with clients to analyze their needs, develop tailored strategies, and execute effective project plans that drive growth and success.
As an Ecommerce Project Consultant, Rose Helen excels at overseeing project lifecycles, from inception to completion. She ensures projects are delivered on time, within budget, and with the highest level of quality. Her exceptional project management skills enable her to effectively communicate with stakeholders, manage resources, and mitigate risks throughout the project journey.
Rose Helen is a strategic thinker who leverages her extensive knowledge to identify opportunities for improvement and innovation. She provides valuable insights and recommendations to optimize e-commerce processes, enhance user experiences, and increase online sales.
With her strong communication and collaboration skills, Rose Helen builds strong relationships with clients and key stakeholders. She fosters a collaborative environment, working closely with cross-functional teams to ensure seamless project execution and alignment with business objectives.
Beyond her technical expertise, Rose Helen is dedicated to delivering exceptional client service. She goes above and beyond to understand her clients' unique requirements and provide them with personalized solutions that drive tangible results. Her commitment to client success is evident in her approach and the long-term relationships she builds.
Rose Helen's passion for e-commerce, coupled with her extensive experience and project management skills, makes her a valuable asset for organizations looking to thrive in the digital landscape. With her guidance, businesses can navigate the complexities of e-commerce projects and achieve their objectives with confidence and success.