Adobe Creative Cloud Express (formerly Adobe Spark) is a task-based, web and mobile product used to create and share rich multimedia content – from social media posts and stories to invitations to marketing materials like logos, flyers and banners.
$0
PicMonkey
Score 8.4 out of 10
N/A
PicMonkey, from the company of the same name in Seattle, is an application designed to help users create standout visuals for Insta posts, Facebook covers, YouTube thumbnails, web pages, holiday cards, posters or anything with a visual, offering graphics and templates, unlimited stock photos and features to support illustrative presentations.
$7.99
per month
Pricing
Adobe Express
PicMonkey
Editions & Modules
Free
$0.00
Premium
$9.99 / $99.99
per month
Teams
$9.99
per month per user
Basic
$7.99
per month
Pro
$12.99
per month
Team
$33.99
per month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Adobe Express
PicMonkey
Free Trial
Yes
No
Free/Freemium Version
Yes
No
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
No
No
Entry-level Setup Fee
No setup fee
No setup fee
Additional Details
Contact Adobe directly for Enterprise pricing plan details.
I needed to create quarterly safety training posters. In the past, I have used Canva. But in Canva's free version, your options are limited. So off to AE I went. I was able to find four templates to help me create my four posters. I found templates that looked like a movie poster, and the results were so professional looking. It was easy to add my own pictures from my computer to further personalize the posters. I loved them so much I made them into movie poster size printouts, sprayed some liquid glue on a styroboard, and hung them up around our offices. Our employees loved them too, and it drummed up more people to attend my sessions.
It's great for a small- or medium-scale social media manager or graphic designer. I'm not sure if I'd recommend it for larger-scale projects or editing images with detail as I think it is missing some capabilities that something like Photoshop or Adobe Illustrator may possess, but it is a great tool to create professional-looking graphics with ease.
Canva has a better interface, in my opinion... I like that this one is friendly to Adobe users, but I would likely recommend Canva to someone who's never used design software for a complete beginner.
Removing the background from images doesn't always work well. I almost always need to switch to Photoshop for this.
The touch screen interface could be better; graphics on mobile apps are tough in general but specifically, the iPad interface could use some improvement.
I think that PicMonkey could have more opportunities for raving fans (like me!) to act as affiliates for their products and services.
I think that PicMonkey could make it more apparent on how to save themes. The Hub is great, but I think it is easy to allow that area to become messy and disorganized.
I use it daily for almost all my marketing needs. So far it is the program that has the most and best to offer for what I need and is the easiest to use
The overall usability of the software was strong. The application, especially relative to other Adobe services like Photoshop that can demand a lot of knowledge and skill, was highly easy to use. At the same time, that also speaks to the somewhat limited amount of customization opportunities that allow content designers to truly create content that is dynamic, engaging, and different than the standard stuff that floods our vision every day.
PicMonkey's usability is outstanding! I was able to learn how to edit my photos and create graphics in a short period of time. Between the tutorials and the amazing user interface, I felt like a pro! PicMonkey is very detailed but not so overwhelming that you miss out on great features.
Because adobe is so widespread the community support is amazing. I have never actually used adobe support short of their website, but I go to youtube a lot to get my questions answered. You can google any problem you have and not have any issues finding an answer. In my opinion, community support is much more meaningful and helpful than support directly from the company
To be fair, I have not had to use customer support, but I have found the website materials/instructions at PicMonkey.com to be easy to understand and the website (mostly) simple to navigate. As someone who is not the MOST tech-savvy in any room, I find it accessible and not intimidating; it gives me confidence to create the images that I know will be most effective for our purposes.
For users already in the Adobe ecosystem, Adobe Express is a great tool to consider for it's modern, professional templates, impressive stock image library and the easy drag-and-drop tools. I mostly do most of my work on desktop, but I know Canva is generally better for mobile usability and its got more third-party integrations that may be important to some users.
PicMonkey better suited my needs than Canva because it was easier to complete multiple items within one editing template. As a busy professional, I have to find time in between clients to push content out on Social Media or to email graphics to potential clients and PicMonkey has allowed me to create what I need very quickly without losing quality.
It has allowed us to complete more demos and projects in less time by being so flexible.
It has positively impacted our efficiency in delivering creatives such as YouTube thumbnails, event poster designs, Instagram story posts, etc to clients in a timely manner no matter where work takes us.
I would say the ROI has been seeing more projects completed and invoiced per month. I would estimate overall a 20% increase in volume on deliverables.
