Comparison

Design Lab vs Canvas

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Design Lab

Create professional graphics and stunning visuals with a vast library of templates, images, and fonts. Enhance photos with filters and adjustments, and utilize advanced text and layer-based editing tools. Import your own artwork for custom branding and design.

Highlights
  • Customizable templates
  • Photo filters and adjustments
  • Advanced text tools
  • Free stock photography
  • Layer-based editing
  • Blend and erase tools
  • Vector shape creation
Features
Read full description

Create beautiful designs and pro graphics with DesignLab! Choose from millions of images, fonts and templates to produce stunning visuals, perfect for social media. FEATURES: • CUSTOMIZABLE TEMPLATES Search & select from our famous library of thousands of professionally designed templates. Organize them into customizable folders with our favoriting tool. • PHOTO FILTERS & ADJUSTMENTS Choose from our collection of filters to get the look you desire. Finely tune your photos with our suite of photo adjustments, including brightness, contrast, exposure, saturation, blur & more. • ADVANCED TEXT TOOLS Easily add multiple text layers, controlling their size, positioning, opacity, rotation, kerning, leading & color. You can also curve, bend, erase, and apply 3D transformations. • GORGEOUS ARTWORK DesignLab comes jam-packed with hundreds of irresistibly gorgeous illustrations, decorative ornaments, and design elements. • FREE STOCK PHOTOGRAPHY Search from a collection of millions of free stock photos & illustrations. • LAYER-BASED EDITING Tap the layer menu to select one or multiple layers to edit. You can also rearrange their orders by long-tapping and dragging to the desired position. • CUSTOM ARTWORK Import custom artwork or your own logo, and use it in your photos as a fully editable layer. Perfect for the mobile creative, it helps branding efforts everywhere. • BLEND & ERASE TOOLS Erase parts of your artwork, text, or imported photo layers & apply several different blend modes to create unique images. There is also a built in "focus mode" - which allows for great precision when the eraser is active. • SHAPES Create vector shapes and control their properties with ease. • CROP TOOL Choose from a variety of aspect ratios. ...and more! Payment will be charged to your Apple ID account at the time of purchase confirmation. Subscription renews automatically unless it is canceled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Your account will be charged for renewal within 24 hours prior to the end of the current period. You can manage and cancel your subscriptions by going to your account settings on the App Store after purchase. Privacy Policy: https://onelightapps.io/privacy-policy Terms of Use: https://onelightapps.io/terms-of-use

About

Canvas

Easily create professional-looking social media posts, flyers, and collages with a vast library of customizable templates. Choose from over 100 categories, including social media, automotive, beauty, and more, to bring your creative vision to life in just one click.

Highlights
  • One-click template application
  • Over 100 template categories
  • Social media post creation
  • Flyer and collage design
  • Customizable templates
  • Template requests
Features
Read full description

If you have trouble finding an easy design, you can take advantage of the Canvas template design where you can choose according to the category you want. There are many creative designs that you can use with just one click. Faster and more sophisticated magical template design in it. Create stunning social media posts, videos, flyers, photo collages, and video collages from customizable templates without having to be an expert in design. you just choose which design you want, there are various types of Canva templates that you can use such as: 100+ Social Media Post 100+ Automotive 100+ Beauty 100+ Ig Story 100+ Wedding 100+ Sale 100+ Photography 100+ food menu design and many other templates with Aesthetic templates. you can request the template you want so that we can create the template category you want. Privacy Police: https://karangmanggisstudio.site/privacy.html Term of Use: https://karangmanggisstudio.site/termofuse.html

Screenshots

Design Lab4 screens
Canvas4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Design Lab at 75% against Canvas's 11%. Design Lab also leads on rating (4.7 vs 4.0) and ratings volume (6.3K vs 141). Canvas's advantage is device support (4 vs 2). On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Design Lab sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $9.99 per month and Canvas sells 6 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per 7 days. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Design Lab holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Design Lab has 6.3K ratings behind it against 141, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 75% of Design Lab's written reviews are positive against 11% of Canvas's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Design Lab ships an update every 2 months, Canvas monthly. The most recent releases landed on October 26, 2026 and October 25, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Design Lab versus Canvas: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterDesign LabCanvas
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (6.3K ratings) — better4.0 (141 ratings)
Positive reviews75.2% of reviews — better11.1% of reviews
Number of ratings6.3K — better141
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsMonthly — better
AdsYesYes
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — better
Requires iOS16.015.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size169 MB73 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperOnelight Apps CY LtdNoor Siah

Customer experience

Design Lab

All ratings6,347 ratings
Positive93.8%
Neutral2.6%
Negative3.6%
Written reviews1,571 reviews
Positive75.2%
Neutral7.6%
Negative17.1%

Canvas

All ratings138 ratings
Positive72.5%
Neutral4.3%
Negative23.2%
Written reviews18 reviews
Positive11.1%
Neutral5.6%
Negative83.3%

Bugs and requests

Design Lab

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Crashing on launch
  • Saving issues, lost work
  • Glitches with gradient and text features
  • Compatibility issues with newer iOS versions

Requested features

5 requests
  • Ability to save unfinished projects
  • More free templates and graphics
  • Improved stability and performance
  • Landscape mode support for iPad
  • Better text editing and manipulation tools

Canvas

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

3 purchases

Design Lab

Subscriptions2
  • Graphic Design・Content Creator$9.991 Month
  • DesignLab Pro - Annual3 Days trial$39.991 Year
One-time1
  • One-time purchase$79.99
6 purchases

Canvas

Subscriptions5
  • Weekly$3.997 Days
  • Weekly Discount$4.997 Days
  • Weekly Free Trial3 Days trial$9.997 Days
Show 2 more
  • Weekly1 Month trial$9.997 Days
  • Mountly$12.991 Month
One-time1
  • Life Time$59.99

Questions

Is Design Lab free?
Design Lab is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Canvas free?
Canvas is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Design Lab or Canvas?
Design Lab is rated higher. Design Lab averages 4.7 out of 5 from 6.3K ratings, while Canvas averages 4.0 from 141 ratings.
Do Design Lab or Canvas have ads?
Both Design Lab and Canvas show ads.
Which is updated more often, Design Lab or Canvas?
Design Lab ships an update every 2 months, and Canvas monthly. Most recently, Design Lab was updated on October 26, 2026 and Canvas on October 25, 2026.

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