Canva Down: Social media lights up with memes, jokes online over temp block; try these alternatives

On November 12, Canva experienced an unexpected outage, leaving users around the world unable to access the site. As soon as the service went down, social media lit up with memes and jokes about the situation. Instead of simply posting “Canva Down” updates.

The Canva outage impacted users across India, preventing some from editing images and others from downloading projects. It disrupted workflows, especially for those with urgent design needs.

Netizens used humour to share their reactions, creating a wave of memes that flooded platforms like X (formerly Twitter) as the popular graphic design platform went down.

From witty references to movie scenes to clever nods to politics, users took the opportunity to lighten the moment, poking fun at the inconvenience.

Memes showcasing exaggerated reactions and funny expressions captured many's reliance on Canva for their work and creative projects.

Competitor Picsart joined in the fun conversation on social media. Noticing the “Canva down” trend, Picsart saw an opportunity to promote its own platform, encouraging Canva users to try their app instead.

“It’s us you can use us, we’re working,” it wrote.

Canva responds

Within an hour, Canva’s technical team restored the platform, but the memes continued circulating long after the service was back up. Responding quickly to user concerns, Canva acknowledged the issue on X.

“We’re on it,” Canva posted.

“We’re aware some people are having trouble accessing Canva. We're working as quickly as we can to get things back up and running. For updates, visit http://status.canva.com. We really appreciate your patience!” the company added.

Alternatives to Canva

Picsart: Known for photo editing and design tools, Picsart offers templates, effects and easy-to-use features suitable for social media content.

Crello: A graphic design platform with templates for social media, presentations and marketing materials; offers animation options for dynamic visuals.

Adobe Spark: Part of Adobe’s suite, Spark enables the quick creation of graphics, web pages and videos, ideal for professional-grade projects.

Snappa: A beginner-friendly design tool offering templates, high-quality stock images and graphics, ideal for creating online visuals quickly.

Visme: Great for infographics, presentations and reports; Visme provides customisable templates and data visualisation tools for engaging, professional-looking content.