There's a handful of things that almost all creators need to get right. One of them is editing. Being able to make custom social media posts, custom material, and even videos is central to being a creator. While there are some great options like Canva, it isn't the only option great editing platform or tool for creators. PicsArt might even be better than Canva in some ways.
Let's get into a deeper dive or PicsArt and see who should use it and why.
Top-Rated Editing Tool
PicsArt is a photo and video editing app that makes it easy to design. You can find different templates on it to edit your videos or photos. For instance, PicsArt is used by marketers to create flyers, brochures, and business cards. Likewise, creators across social media platforms can use it for things like a YouTube Banner, Twitter Header, LinkedIn Header, YouTube Thumbnail, and so on. You can also, of course, use it for TikTok and Instagram. Even if you're not a creator, you can use it for things like making mother's day cards or invitations for parties or weddings.
Like similar products, PicsArt is focused on designing high-quality collateral that is easy for the average person, especially the average creator.
For Anyone That Wants to Design Well
PicsArt is a good fit for all potential users, creators, and beyond. It doesn't matter if you are a beginner or a professional; you can use the PicsArt to simplify your task. For creators or freelancers trying to use their skills and talents to earn money, PicsArt is a low-cost way to increase the quality of your output quickly.
Fashion bloggers and TikTokers can use PicsArt to enhance their videos or photos, and the platform serves them by making their posts, photos, and videos more attractive and presentable. In reality, the line between an amateur and a professional creator is becoming thinner and thinner.
Creators who get used to and are great at using PicsArt can really gain a ton of value quickly.
Company's Backstory
The founder of PicsArt is Hovhannes Avoyan, a professional businessman, investor, and academic. (He was a visiting lecturer at San Francisco State University.) Before starting PicsArt, Hovhannes worked on building an IT service agency and then created an incubator. Now, outside of making PicsArt, he also does some angel investing.
PicsArt has over 130 million users globally, and its apps have been downloaded by over a billion consumers globally. PicsArt is a set of products from a singular technology firm called PicsArt.
Because of the success the company has seen over the years, they've been able to raise almost $200M. Compared to Canva, which has nearly $600M, they've grown less but potentially have more downloads.
Should You Give PicsArt a Chance?
PicsArt empowers creators to increase the customization and quality of their pictures and videos by giving creators an interactive editing platform. Likewise, the platform offers a vast collection of free, editable images, stickers, photographs, and backdrops. You can use this to remix your photos or create fan art and make them more socializable.
As a creator, if you're using stock photos, you'll come across as less authentic than someone using their custom, self-taken photos. However, if you start with stock photos and edit them to reflect your brand and values, then it's more authentic.
PicsArt Editor is the ideal app if you're searching for a simple photo editing tool that combines two images, adds stickers and stylish frames, and produces artistic effects. It is a very user-friendly app with exciting benefits and tips that will help you take pictures to the next level.
Comparatively, PicsArt is also super simple to use, similar to Canva.
PicsArt's Most Popular Features and Use Cases
Let's dive deep into the specific benefits and features of PicsArt that might be relevant to a casual creator. As an overview, here are some of the features of the PicsArt app. Most of these are common uses features to create specific types of files or designs.
- Remove and change the background of a picture
- Remove objects in a picture
- Add audio to a video
- Crop video clips
- Collage maker
Remove and Change the Background
It is effortless to remove or change the image's background through the PicsArt. When you take your picture, you don't have to get the background, but you can change the unwanted background in the PicsArt and replace it with the one you like.
If you want to take off your picture background, you can also do that in the PicsArt. It makes your editing process much easier by giving you plenty of options.
The only reliable solution for this is Remove.bg, owned by and integrated into Canva. PicsArt is comparable in terms of the product's functionality and use cases.
Background remover feature on PicsArt.
Remove Objects
It is pretty normal to get the unwanted object in the pictures but removing them from the picture is difficult, but not anymore. With the help of the PicsArt, you can remove the thing from the image.
For instance, imagine if you're an Instagram creator with over 1 million followers. You find a brand to promote through Swipehouse; it's a sunscreen brand, and they want you to take a photo at the beach with the product in the shot. However, you unknowingly have your sunglasses in the back of the image but didn't realize it. The brand manager replies to you on the Swipehouse app, asking if you can reshoot without the sunglasses. You can easily photoshop the sunglasses out in a few minutes with PicsArt.
To sum it up: if you want to post a picture on social media, but there are objects in it that you don't wish to use, the PicsArt "Remove the Object" feature is your answer.
Remove objects feature on PicsArt.
Add Audio to Video
You just finished recording a video, but there is no audio in it. You can add any of your audio to the video with the help of PicsArt. All you have to do is upload your video in PicsArt, upload and add your audio, and you will have your video with the audio.
While you can do this using more sophisticated video editing tools, if you want to do it easily and quickly, PicsArt makes it dead simple.
Adding the audio is simple and will make your video more attractive.
Crop Video
Most creators will shoot continuously and worry about editing later. That means that after you've spent a few hours shooting footage, you'll go back and crop the parts that you want to include in your final publisher content.
Most creators, especially heavy-video creators – for instance, YouTubers – are likely using more robust tools than something focused on simplicity like PicsArt. However, not every creator is a full-fledged YouTube creator. Or, maybe you're just getting started. Using a more straightforward, lightweight video editor like PicsArt might be smart in these cases.
The app makes it super simple to crop videos from an original video file.
Collage Maker
One of the most popular features of PicsArt is its collage maker. You can make a collage quickly using one of their famous, stylish templates. As long as you have a few photos you want to stitch together, PicsArt makes it simple to make a collage using a template.
Picture of sample collage templates on PicsArt.
Batch Editor
This review would be incomplete without talking about PicsArt's Batch Editor. While PicsArt and Canva are neck-to-neck competitors offering similar functionality, this is one feature Cavna does not have.
PicsArt allows a user to upload 50 pictures at once and batch edit them. This might be an excellent fit for someone trying to edit many photos for a website or gallery. There aren't many easy-to-use platforms with such powerful functionality as this isn't usually an everyday use case. With creators blurring the line between a casual person and a small business with sophisticated design needs, the batch editor can come in handy for creators.
You upload the pictures and then can apply a set of rules to all the images you've uploaded. This also includes applying a watermark, which might be a relevant use case for creators.
Super Affordable
PicsArt has a free version.
However, you'll have to upgrade if you want some of the more premium features. They offer a seven-day trial before you're charged for the premium subscription, which gives you time to try out the product to see if it's worth paying a few bucks a month for the extra features.
There's only 1 tier for the average creator: PicsArt Gold, which is $11.99 per month or $4.66 if you pay for the year. This gives you 20M high-resolution stock images, thousands of templates, and no watermarks.
While there is a team's product, unless you're a more prominent, more sophisticated creator, the Teams Product might not make as much sense for you. At that point, the Team's development starts costing a seat. With one seat being about $15 and 5 seats being $57 almost, it can start to become pricey.
This is one area where Canva beats out PicsArt. Canva Pro gets a user five seats in one account for $12.99. While it's $1 more than PicsArt's $11.99, you're getting four more licenses to allow your team members to collaborate with you. Compare that to paying $57 for PicsArt to be able to collaborate with 5 team members on one account.
Regarding the Team's product and pricing, Canva is the clear winner.
Yet, for most creators, the Team's product isn't what they need, so PicsArt Gold is likely an excellent fit for most creators. On the annual plan, it's a great solution for most creators and is cheaper than Canva, which still costs $120 when billed annually compared to $60 for PicsArt.
PicsArt pricing page showing differences between free, Gold and Teams tier. Note: pricing shown is if paid annually.
Tons of Competing Products
As you've noticed, we've directly compared PicsArt with Canva across this piece. The two companies are incredibly similar in focusing on making design accessible for the average non-designer.
Even in this category, other companies like Adobe's Creative Cloud exist. Even VistaPrint now has Vista Create. However, Canva and PicsArt differ from VistaPrint's Vista Create and Adobe's Creative Cloud. How? Canva and PicsArt uniquely exist to create a fantastic editing platform for the average non-designer. Meanwhile, Adobe and VistaPrint serve different use cases and are trying to expand into this world. That said, because Canva and PicsArt are solely focused on the average non-designer, they're a better fit for your average creator's needs.
As a side note: why are all these companies creating editing platforms? There are two obvious answers. First, these companies know that serving creators is a fast-growing market and want to enter it. Secondly, for someone like VistaPrint, which has historically made money from manufacturing shirts and merchandise, moving up the experience to helping consumers design assets represents a high-margin opportunity. Whereas shirts cost money, serving another user on your design platform doesn't cost anything!
Extra Reading: How PicsArt Plans to Dethrone Adobe and Why It Might Work
Overall Impression of PicsArt
PicsArt is an affordable, lightweight but powerful editing app for creators. The features and use cases for PicsArt align perfectly with what creators often have to do – removing pictures from backgrounds, cropping videos, making social media posts, etc.
At such a low cost of $60 the year for the annual plan, PicsArt feels like an excellent option for creators, especially micro creators that are just getting started. It's probably worth trying out the free trial if you're looking for a go-to editing app!
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