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Introducing: Glorify, the Canva alternative

When I type “Canva alternative” in the Google search bar many online design tools such as Trello, Snappa, Stencil are suggested as Canva alternatives. One design tool is conspicuously absent in the Google SERPs! Where oh where is my favorite – Glorify?

If you are not familiar with Glorify (or even if you are), read on.

Glorify is a new kid on the block. Launched in late 2019, they renewed the user interface in November 2020. Glorify is entirely e-commerce focused and helps people create engaging product images. It’s the perfect design tool for shop owners like Shopify, Etsy, or Woocommerce. In contrast, Canva covers a broader spectrum as a design tool, creating ebooks, t-shirts, invitation cards, etc. With Canva, you can also make some animation GIFs or short videos. Canva is a mature product.

Full disclosure: I’m a Glorify affiliate, and I use Glorify for all my designs on my webpages for more than a year now. I bought the early adopter lifetime deal in October 2019. For a few weeks, I signed up with Canva too, giving me a chance to really study Glorify as a Canva alternative. In this blog, I want to show you while Glorify is a great Canva alternative.

Cost and free trial

Both Glorify and Canva offer a Pro plan costing $120/year. Canva has a free plan, while Glorify only offers a 14-day free trial. The Canva Pro has a free 30-day trial. You can start the Glorify trial just by creating an account. They do not ask for credit card details, which is somehow very reassuring for a user. Also, I think 14 days is more than enough to decide if Glorify is a good Canva alternative for you. While the free edition of Canva is adequate for basic designs of flyers, occasion cards etc., I personally found it pretty limiting. 

Let’s start with a comparison table, where I compare the Pro plan option for Glorify, the Canva alternative, and Canva itself. I’ll then proceed to highlight some unique features of Glorify and explain why I think it is a perfect Canva alternative for your needs.

What exactly is a brand kit?

A personal brand kit comprises of your logo, fonts for heading, subheading, and paragraph. Also, you can create one or more color palettes for each brand account. The Glorify Pro plan has ten brand kits; Canva Pro has a meager one!

How do brand kits work?

In Glorify,  you first select which brand kit you want to work with. All created designs are stored in the brand kit. It is possible to copy a design to another brand kit. Both Canva and the Canva alternative, Glorify, suggest the color palettes when an object is selected using the colors available for your brand kit. Of course, you are also free to choose any other color. Besides, Glorify has a “brand it” button which serves to rapidly change the color of your image using your chosen brand colors. Press the button repeatedly to see which color combination works best with your design

Canva only has one account, and therefore, designs and brand kits are not stored together. But basically, it works the same way as Glorify. Canva offers a folder concept like a file system to organize your designs. Glorify on the other hand, lets you tag a design or use multiple tags.

Once you understand how brand kits work, I think the Glorify way is an excellent one to organize your images with all your brands. It is one of the features where Glorify scores over Canva. If you need more than one brand kit, Glorify is a great Canva alternative.

Background remover

Glorify has a fantastic background remover tool—another feature where it shines as a real Canva alternative. Canva has recently added this tool but I think Glorify’s tool is much superior and just this one tool makes the price tag well worth it.

I uploaded a picture of myself, removed the background so that only the person is visible, then saved the image. You can use the newly-created picture with any other background image or colored background.

Glorify has over 14,000 niche-specific templates. Choose a product template, upload your image – removing the background if necessary – replace the product image, and add your text. Within minutes even a non-designer can create a stunning product design!

Effects – annotation, drop shadow, reflection.

Every element in Glorify has effect settings, transparency, contrast or brightness, use gradients, and a lot more. The functions are straightforward to understand.  

Clicking on an object displays all the available properties on the right side. Drop shadow and reflection are two features not yet offered by Canva. Spice up your object or image with a shadow. I love the ground shadow, which creates a realistic effect under the element. Perfect for making your product look special. 

The reflection tool (I haven’t needed to use it so far) has two controls: position and blur. Use it cautiously; it isn’t suitable for many elements. However, the shadow or drop shadow tool is something I have used often. As Glorify says, “Make your product pop with natural shadows and reflections!”

Canva lacks these features. But with some workarounds, you could create a similar effect. You would need to duplicate an object and then send the duplication to the back and move it around until you are satisfied. Definitely a lot more work than doing the same thing in Glorify.

Handy is the layer function, to quickly disable an object or change the order of the objects. Glorify and Canva both offer this feature; each object has its own layer. It is easy enough to lock an item too, thereby avoiding any accidental deletions or edits. Glorify’s layer technique is the better one, with a layer toolbar, where you can see all your layers. The toolbar makes it a lot more comfortable to find and select the correct layer, which is particularly important for overlapping objects. Canva has no such layer toolbar, making it more complicated to choose the item you want to edit.

Templates and stock photos

Canva has been a market player for way longer, so it is but natural that they have a huge stock of both templates and stock photos. What I like about the Canva alternative Glorify, is its integration with Icon8 which you get as part of the Pro plan. There are tons of ready-to-use icons in the collection. With Glorify, you can modify the icon color or even add effects. 

Working in teams

Glorify has a Business Plan for 3 users with unlimited brand kits account and background remover credits. Additional user costs $5/month.
In this aspect, Canva scores better, their Pro plan already includes 5 users, which is excellent for the price. The Enterprise plan includes more brand kits (Canva doesn’t specify how many) and access control for team members.

Why I use Glorify, and you should too!

I first found out about Glorify as a Canva alternative from Adam Preiser (Youtube influencer) more than a year ago. Since I trust Adam’s recommendations blindly, I decided to buy Glorify without even trying it. I was certainly not disappointed. Glorify is the right design tool if you want a tool to “quickly” spruce up your product images. Glorify claims, “Create high converting product images in a few clicks” on their website and this really is a fact. A few clicks are truly all you need to make your product stand out from those of others when you use a Glorify template

If you are in the e-commerce business or a shop owner then you should get Glorify. Glorify has the right feature set for your specific needs which Canva lacks. Glorify is the premium Canva alternative for product images.

Contrary Canva tries to cover a broader market. It has all kinds of elements like videos, music, ready-made animation, or fancy stickers. It’s certainly a good design tool.