Is Canva Websites a WordPress killer?

[@jamiewp]

Here's another crazy Canva stat - Canva now has a valuation of $40 Billion and 75 million monthly active users - it's a behemoth that's just entered the website building space!

[@scottrowe533]

I agree with James; the fine folks behind the wheel at WP should do a full-press analysis of the Canva site building suite of tools and build the same (or an even more expansive) set of features into the Gutenberg editor. As Bob Dylan once famously wrote, "He not busy being born is busy dying." Gotta stay ahead of the curve! Thank you, James.

[@MarkConstable]

Agree with everything you said and, please, can we have that canvaberg plugin sooner than later! Actually, it's not that much different to elementor/brizy in functionality. What Gutenberg needs is a truly seemless WYSIWYG editing experience without the modal preview crap... and half that could be achieved by simply making the left and right panels floating and moveable, so the central editing area remained full screen.

[@hufflepuffchris]

Thank you for summarizing this! I am certain to have clients asking me about this, now I can give them a quick bit of info!

[@daveloodts8961]

For every market there's an audience, this can be the one-page market master. I do like the modern css and fluent font-sizes (clamp css) that they use; it's responsiveness by nature. This is -very sadly- not yet in WordPress core. A user don't have to be bothered by setting pixels and break-points; just big-medium-small; and it fluently resizes for every device.

[@jamiewp]

100% agree with you Dave

[@wd1534]

Canva is very rich and improve itself one thousand time faster than WP....

[@MaryPetersonCook]

I so agree! I was making a new page yesterday and was just so frustrated that it wasn’t as easy a drag and drop experience as Canva! Not even elementor

[@jdccool]

Whoa, Jamie! Your headline terrified me! I started thinking, OMG (!) After dropping Elementor and going full bore on Gutenberg & FSE, am I switching again to Canva for the obviously much easier approach? Whew! You granted me a reprieve. But seriously, Canva doesn't seem to be quite ready for prime time...yet. Clearly though, it's a player. Also, I'd be willing to bet most WP users agree with you on WP using a "drop & drag" approach. Gutenberg FSE is frustrating. But your videos keep me uh...pressing forward. Thanks

[@jeannekyle]

I agree Canva will not be a WordPress killer since you can't flesh out your corporate branding or include a merch page. But it will definitely be a go-to for entrepreneurs and contractors who just want to promote their art. Thanks for this great walk-through!

[@KathyZant]

I'll be curious to play with this and see how well Canva performs on accessibility and page speed/core web vital stats! I do agree that it will be more of a threat to Squarespace and Wix, as there just isn't the ability to do much dynamic content, commerce, or anything that really makes WP powerful with Canva. That being said, really hoping that this pushes the envelope of wp-admin design experience beyond where we're at now. Thanks for the video and the deep rambling thoughts!

[@jamiewp]

Thanks Kathy - i ran a quick test and the page speed was really good - i guess they know how to optimize servers 🤔 Great point about accessibility! And I also agree that this will hopefully light a fire under Gutenberg because easier to use for complete beginners (especially fse)

[@wd1534]

@@jamiewp The CTO of Canva is the creator of Gmail or Google maps I think... so yes they know how to optimize servers 😉

[@focalgain]

You are an excellent presenter and teacher. Very well articulated and you display information in a pace that is viewer friendly ( in my humble opinion) Keep up the great content and may success come to you

[@jamiewp]

Thank you 🙏

[@lisaliv2585]

I think without the function of ads it would t be a big threat to WordPress. Great video! 👍

[@StretchFletcher]

Hey Jamie, only recently discovered your channel. So, I'm a bit behind. Reason for this ramble, I wanted to thank you for pointing me to a plugin developer, Jordy Meow. What a gem. (I think I know why you promoted him!). Regarding your content, it is a breath of fresh air. Appreciate it. Your comment regarding a "simple" Gutenberg starter site is something I have thought about often.

[@jamiewp]

thank you so much - it's great to have you here :)

[@stuartmorley6338]

Very interesting indeed. The problem with Guternberg is too many cooks and not enough direction or by the wrong people. Even the latest reviews scores tell you all you need to know.

[@DTPIIXART]

Another great video. No no no, this won't replace Wordpress, or Gutenburg in my opinion. I could never see myself using this canva websites thing for any serious project.

[@jamiewp]

I thought the same last week - but my advice is have a quick play with it

[@tim78723]

Hey Jamie I really do like that idea of somebody building the Gutenberg Simplicity plug in that sounds like a great project for you. I always enjoy your content thanks for putting it out

[@jamiewp]

Cool, thanks

[@antonichristian5845]

Good for basic mockups only and basic one-page websites, that is all. They need a privacy policy though as it's required by law... those 2 million sites are in-fact breaking GDPR.

[@jamiewp]

Yup agree with - but it will improve - the GDPR pint is interesting - im sure Canva have some great lawyers so it would be good to find out. I guess the basic sites aren't collecting any information?

[@aznativeboyful]

I have created a blank Canva website and want to apply the zip file to a WordPress dashboard.

[@poppingjaz]

Pretty cool. At first I thought oh this isn't a Wordpress killer it's more of a Squarespace or Wix competitor but until Canva creates their own app market, Wix and Squarespace won't sweat that much because they have business integration software baked in that is incredibly useful. Everything from bookeeping, email marketing, appointment scheduling, analytics etc is within those ecosystems. Canva does allow you to integrate with Calendly, Typeform etc I believe. In a nutshell this is great for Landing pages, especially if you already have a pro account, if and (when) they integrate with other 3rd party apps then look out Wix, Squarespace etc.

[@jamiewp]

That’s a great summary 👍

[@andrewferguson7859]

I wonder what the reality of putting together a flexible layout with multiple pages, and a navigation menu would look like. This is neat, and looks appealing, but I felt the same way when I was trying out different page builders. Also, I wonder how much lock-in there is. That was a killer for me with some of the tools I tried. A plugin incorporating the features of canva would be interesting to see, as long as the results we editable without the plugin at a later date.

[@jamiewp]

Hi Andrew, great points. Yes atm you can't add multiple pages - every site is a one page site. But this is version 1 and also yes there is 100% lock in 😱 But if they add multiple pages and a few more things then i can see it being really disruptive. They have 75 million active monthly users, who will be able to use the same UI that they already know to now build websites.

[@michieltieleman9462]

I remember once upon a time, a long time ago when quark express was still the go-to DTP package, when InDesign was about to come out with a new version that could also export to the web. Same arguments: create for the web with tools you already know how to use. That never caught on. I'm not holding my breath for this yet...

[@jamiewp]

@@michieltieleman9462 i think the difference this time is that the DNA of Canva is online - and they already have the infrastructure, scale and market reach - 75 million active monthly users who already know how to use the tool to build documents, presentation etc - and now they can build websites (albeit with limitations)

[@jamiewp]

@@michieltieleman9462 these stats blew my mind when researching Current Canva valuation $40 Billion Current Automattic valuation $7.5 Billion Current Wix valuation $3.25 Billion

[@kertuhaitembu4675]

Can you have ads on canvas?

[@MrThune]

If this is what people want then they should use Canva. I prefer Wordpress and more control, more ownership, more flexibility, more functionality, more options and more freedom. That's what the clients wants too. Let them know it! Explain it. Support it. Wordpress is Web3, decentralised and limitless. We have to embrace it. It's more important than ever....A bit more responsive options in the block editor would be nice though 🙂

[@jamiewp]

Great points - I’m planning a video about this

[@wd1534]

The problem is when a graphic designer wants a website, the freelancers/agencies sell it for $2000. This time is over. The graphic designers will use Canva to make their portfolio website in 5 minutes...

[@meloniemottice845]

Agreed, as a plugin this would be a game changer!

[@DeborahChapin]

Yeah I don’t think it’s going to hurt wordpress that much because those are all really big limitations for people in business and the majority of people using Word Press are using it for small businesses. I take it also doesn’t have categories so you can’t have more than one type of page or one type of topic. And no one is one dimensional not even a blog so it’s not really anything compared to a regular website is calling itself a website but it’s not a website builder. It’s a page builder and also if you have to have it on their server that’s another big drawback because I’m on a VPS and some people are in dedicated servers and using the WordPress. so WordPress is much more flexible in many applications. Also if you can’t move your website after you build it you don’t own the database that’s another one.

[@jamiewp]

Yup agree with all that - but...i think they will grab a share of the market that doesn't care about servers, and content lock in

[@VijaiVirSinghNair]

Well done Canva. Thanks for the insight sir

[@trippytphealth7110]

Man 1.st of all thank you for this video. I was here having a mini heart attack on what to do. Canva or Wordpress. But thank you for this insight.

[@markshnitel3354]

Does websites created by canva SEO friendly?

[@michaell.3681]

great video i have one issue: when i search on google for my website/company it showed like that (Untitled For full functionality of this site it is necessary to enable JavaScript. Here are the instructions how to enable JavaScript in your web browser.) is not showing title or description but when i click it brings me normaly to my webpage, someone knows how to fix that?

[@visualmodo]

Very good work!

[@jamess5542]

Hey mate, what do you think of Ghost web builder?

[@jamiewp]

sorry i haven't used Ghost

[@badcatdesign]

That would be a Catastrophe - Everybody loves CATS >^. .^

[@tabearts]

Many thanks for your video, it was very enlightening! I have one question though: Canva seems to have the option for building a commercial website (so, to sell items or services), but how do you add sections such as "Privacy policy" or "Terms and Conditions" to a Canva-Website if it is just a one-page-thing? I would like to give it a chance since I've been having trouble with WP since day 1, but still can't figure out how to solve that problem. Thank you in advance!

[@personalbrandcreativedirector]

Did you get an answer to this? You just create a new T&C's website page that links from the home page and when you publish the T&C page, you connect it to the URL you are using and add the subpath name for your T&C page and publish - then VOILA! You have a multi-page website!

[@tabeagraser]

@@personalbrandcreativedirector Thank you so much for responding! 🙏🏽 I will have a look at this option. Still don't know how to connect it to the URL (I'm very new to this...) but I will learn and find out 😊

[@comtecosta4344]

I bought 2 domains on canvas now I regret it when I found out that it doesn't have plugins... easy but not for me.

[@DrChoci]

Is anyone experiences in integrating the Canva design into wordpress? How does SEO work there?

[@jamiewp]

At the moment you would need to manually recreate them in WordPress, so SEO would work in the normal way

[@igorgebien8775]

By the 5:49 mark I knew Canvas was garbage lmao XD Anyways, nice gentlemen, you get a subscriber. Thanks for getting to the point with the content!

[@jamiewp]

Thanks Igor - btw why do you think personally why Canva is garbage?

[@cyber4joy]

it is not in the same leag as wp

[@LnUtube2711]

Well Canva does not have any App, Feature, website template, app to add HTML code and it is IMPOSSIBLE to add a Cookie consent banner. So Canva websites are illegal because they are not GDPR compliant, HUGE inconvenient.

[@theboredone_alt]

canva websites will be great, when they let us upload more external websites domains , because it is limited up to 5 now. If you are a freelancer with customers who own their domains you can not use them.

[@StartThenProfitINC]

DIY people are not our clients anyway... there will always be people who would rather pay someone to do it for them.

[@jamiewp]

Yup 👍

[@JoeGator23]

All the while Gutenberg piddles around, slow to improve anything and ignoring the needs of designers... it won't be long before they are old news and obsolete. If Canva does not get WP off of their asses, nothing will. This company is coming for their market and has plenty of skills and money to invest.

[@MarioGZito]

Amazing vídeo

[@jamiewp]

Thanks

[@nardog10]

I think Automattic should aquire Canva

[@jamiewp]

There’s no way they could afford them now 😱

[@nardog10]

@@jamiewp haha, I agree but I think its a smart move. The problem is people love ease of use platforms and Wordpress still has a way to go but is making steps. Platforms such as Wix are gaining market share because of this ease of use. I think Automattic best use of Canva would be the creative element and find a way to marry that within gutenberg would be a awesome play on their behalf.

[@jamiewp]

@@nardog10 100% agree

[@Lilione111]

What about security? I'm guessing Canva websites are an easy target for hackers.

[@jamiewp]

Why do you think that ?

[@bySterling]

Oh hell noooo it wont even affect

[@jamiewp]

New video on this coming soon :)

[@amineunshakable1295]

Did you said “Canva buy Shopify” one day ….. are you serious 🧐? Well if that will happen then we have reached the end point of what can be possible

[@jamiewp]

I might be wrong but I think canva now has a higher valuation than shopjfy

[@jamiewp]

looks like Canva valuation is $40 billion and Shopify valuation is $33 billion

[@thegrowshow]

@@jamiewp Canva going up, Shopify going down.

[@JamesWelbes]

Is this supposed to be a serious question?

[@jamiewp]

Yup

[@FirebrandVOCALS]

Canva Gimmicks

[@dinorossi6611]

No it aint

[@advanced-developers]

Doesn't work, 😁

[@jamiewp]

interesting - what isn't working?