One of the more useful additions to Canva’s service is no more, as Photos Unlimited hits a limitation of sorts: cancellation.
Well it was a nice addition to the professional toolkit while it lasted, but it seems at least one good thing has come to an end, and without quite as much fanfare as when it came into this world in May last year: Canva’s all-you-can-download Photos Unlimited service appears to have ended, not with a bang, bug a whimper. A very dull, quiet, almost impossibly imperceptible whimper.
You’d only notice the whimper if you tried to download something from the service recently, with the download button on images subscribers were once greeted with replaced by a one that asks you for money for the same thing. A quick glance to your invoices will likely see a partially refunded note, which your bank account should confirm, and just like that, Canva’s Photos Unlimited service was over, one year later.
Originally launched as a bit of a Netflix-style model for people who need images in work, content, and creative space, Canva Photos Unlimited was a great little $12.95 USD monthly service that could help folks out in a world that typically charges a lot more on an image by image basis.
If you were working to get images rolled out into social, for websites, or just needed an image service without Canva’s design tools, Photos Unlimited essentially provided a model that gave people the choice to just have all those images at their disposal, alongside Canva’s acquisition of Pexels.
But it turns out it wasn’t to be, and while Canva has practically erased Photos Unlimited from its website (beyond the terms and conditions), subscribers aren’t left with quite an option from the company to turn to (though they do get their money back, so it’s something).
We’re waiting on confirmation from Canva’s PR to find out quite what has happened, but it looks like Canva will instead be incorporating the service only in its Canva Pro account, which includes Canva’s other design tools alongside the imagery, though built into the design space.
It means the download image option in Canva Photos is now a paid option only if you’re planning to just use the photo outside of Canva’s design tools, with the images free to use for Canva Pro subscribers inside Canva, but not available outside unless at a cost.
One of Australia’s tech unicorns, Canva has made waves for introducing products online that people snap up, but it appears this one might have been one of the successes. Locally, it faces competition from another Australian unicorn, Envato, which offers a similar service in its Envato Elements.
However the loss of Canva Photos Unlimited is still frustrating, and a sad face for this journo, who originally counted himself among the happy few that liked this service for what it was: a stock library service seemingly done right. Less so now, it seems.
Update: Canva’s PR has told Pickr that Canva Pro has effectively replaced Photos Unlimited.
