Canvas Reviews & Pricing

by INSTRUCTURE | Founded 2008, Salt Lake City, UT

REQUEST WITH NO OBLIGATION$ Request Pricing Get Free Demo

Request Pricing Request Demo

Overview Pricing Benefits Reviews Features

Categories:

What is Canvas?

Industry Specialties: Serves all industries.

Canvas helps you create and deliver engaging courses to your students and track their progress in real time. It allows you to post course materials, assignments, quizzes and grades. Students can access these resources, submit their work and communicate with other team members.

You can host discussions through discussion boards and chat rooms, provide personalized feedback using SpeedGrader and track student progress with built-in analytics. Canvas integrates with third-party apps like Zoom, Webex and GoToMeeting, and offers three mobile apps, one each for teachers, students and parents.

User reviews about Canvas praise its smooth interface, real-time collaboration tools and course creation capabilities. Since pricing details aren't mentioned online, you can contact the vendor directly for more information.

PRICE

COMPANY SIZE

DEPLOYMENT

PLATFORM

Try Before You Buy.

Request a Free Demo Today!

Request Demo

It's completely free!

User Sentiment

Based on 5849 reviews:

Add your rating:

Product Screenshots and Videos

Canvas Pricing

Based on our most recent analysis, Canvas pricing starts at $0 (Open-Source).

Get Price Quote

Price: $
$
$
$
$

i
Starting From: $0
Pricing Model: Open-Source
Free Trial: Yes, Request for Free

Training Resources

Canvas is supported with the following types of training:

Documentation
In Person
Live Online
Videos
Webinars

Support

The following support services are available for Canvas:

Email
Phone
Chat
FAQ
Forum
Help Desk
Knowledge Base
Tickets
Training
24/7 Live Support

Canvas Benefits and Insights

Why use Canvas?

Key differentiators & advantages of Canvas

Ensures Continuous Learning: Experience minimal disruptions with a 99.9% uptime. Say goodbye to unexpected crashes and keep your educational ecosystem reliable and accessible at all times.
Enriches Learning with Unlimited File Size: Upload as much audio, visuals and video content as you need to courses. File size is not limited, so you can provide comprehensive and engaging materials without worrying about storage constraints.
Strengthens Collaboration: If you’re looking to create collaborative learning experiences for your team, Canvas is the perfect LMS for you. Based on our analysis, it provides a variety of collaboration tools fully out of the box, such as discussion boards, content sharing, group chat, two-way messaging, and notes and annotations.
Ensures Consistency in Evaluations: Create centralized repositories of questions at account levels. For instance, you can create sub-account question banks to store assessments like basic grammar rules across various courses. This ensures consistency in evaluations across different classes, making it easier to access and administer assessments.
Offers a Flexible Pedagogy: Enable instructors to design classes around their preferred learning methods. That could mean standards-based grading, traditional grading, flipped learning, project-based learning and more.
Streamlines Corporate Training: Use Bridge LMS, Canvas’ corporate training solution, to meet your employee training needs. Create and track training programs, use built-in performance tools, integrate with HR systems and more.
Award-Winning LMS: Canvas ranks among our top 10 LMS software, alongside LMS giants like LearnUpon, Absorb LMS and Moodle. In the SelectHub Awards 2024 for the LMS category, it won best-in-class honors for assessments, collaboration, compliance, user management, gamification, and integrations and extensibility.

Industry Expertise

Canvas’ LMS caters primarily to K-12 schools, colleges, universities and corporate organizations.

Canvas Reviews

Average customer reviews & user sentiment summary for Canvas:

5849 reviews

91%

of users would recommend this product

Synopsis of User Ratings and Reviews

Based on an aggregate of Canvas reviews taken from the sources above, the following pros & cons have been curated by a SelectHub Market Analyst.

Pros

User-Friendly Interface: According to 60% of users who mentioned this pro, Canvas offers an intuitive and navigable interface, and is easy to use for both instructors and students.
Mobile Accessibility: The Canvas mobile app, praised by 72% of users, offers a responsive design and on-the-go access on various devices.
Best-In-Class Integration Capabilities: 55% of users said Canvas integrates well with a wide range of third-party tools and services, and helps create a customized learning environment.
Effective Communication and Collaboration Features: 45% of users appreciate Canvas’ communication tools, specifically discussion boards, announcements and email.
Personalized Course Design: Canvas offers flexible course designs, allowing instructors to create personalized learning experiences for their students, said 40% of users.

Cons

Technical Glitches and Bugs: Nearly 40% of users report experiencing technical issues, such as system crashes, data loss and bugs.
Steep Learning Curve for Complex Features: According to 30% of users, while the overall interface is user-friendly, more advanced features have a steep learning curve.
Rigid Due Date Policies: Some users mentioned that Canvas's rigid due date rules can be challenging for students who submit work late due to technical issues or other reasons.

Researcher's Summary:

Canvas is an eLearning solution used for online, in-person and hybrid learning in a variety of educational settings. Users praise its smooth interface, mobile accessibility and integration capabilities, while also highlighting some technical and usability challenges that may require attention.

Users found the system easy to use and navigate, and were happy with its vast suite of features, especially the grading, assignments and assessment tools. Most reported that it’s budget-friendly and had positive experiences with customer service.

On the downside, users said they encountered bugs and glitches in the program. They requested a more flexible due date policy and more ease of use in advanced features.

All things considered, Canvas is a versatile LMS that provides a modern platform and industry-specific features to make learning more engaging and personalized. It may require some initial investment in training and customization, but it delivers a positive overall experience for both instructors and students.

Key Features

Course Creation: Create new courses using built-in interactive tools. Add specific details like name, course code, due date, language, grading scheme, modules and sections, description and more.
- Announcements: Share key course information with everyone. Remind students of dates and tasks, point them to valuable resources, celebrate achievements and highlight events. You can include text, multimedia and files.
- Grades: Show grades as points, percentages and complete/incomplete. Filter and arrange Gradebook entries, automatically apply grades for missing/late work, and hide grades until you're ready to release them.
- People: Depending on permissions, add students, teachers, assistants and observers. Create student groups for group assignments, discussions and file sharing.
- Pages: Create interactive content like weekly updates, collaborative wikis or resource lists. Include text, multimedia and links, and allow students to contribute to specific pages.
- Files: Easily insert files into modules, assignments, discussions or pages. Share files with students or lock them until ready for download.
- Quizzes: Use the New Quizzes engine for diverse question types. If unavailable, use Classic Quizzes to achieve your objectives.
- Modules: Organize content by weeks and units. Add files, discussions, assignments, quizzes and more. Set prerequisites or lock modules until specific dates.
- New Analytics: Use the New Analytics tool to monitor who has viewed content and participated in assignments and identify students needing extra support.
Dashboard: View published/unpublished courses, access the calendar and upcoming events, start new courses, view grades, enable notifications and more.
Assignments: Include quizzes, graded discussions and various online submissions (files, images, text, URLs media). Assign to everyone or set different due dates for specific groups. Organize assignments into groups, weigh them by percentage, and enable Peer Review for student feedback.
Gradebook: Easily input and distribute grades using various methods, such as points, percentages, pass/fail, GPA scale and letter grades.
- Use SpeedGrader to assign grades and provide feedback efficiently.
- Automatically create columns in the Gradebook for assignments, discussions, quizzes, surveys and attendance tracking.
- View grades by grading periods, sort by due dates or student names, and apply specific filters for streamlined management.
- Download and grade assignments offline and calculate totals.
- Monitor grades across all courses, notify students of graded assignments and manage grade history.
- Customize grading curves, message students based on assignment status, leave private comments and excuse assignments when necessary.
Rubrics: Set custom or outcome-based assessment criteria to communicate quality expectations. Use rubrics to align learning outcomes, assess submissions in SpeedGrader and support non-scoring assessments for comprehensive grading.
Canvas Catalog: Integrate with Canvas Catalog to streamline course offerings.
- Easily bundle multiple courses into programs and enable registration for community education and professional development.
- Create branded sub-catalog listings for specific departments or organizations.
- Customize page templates for FAQs, contact info and individual course landing pages.
- Set up personalized certificates and automate their distribution.
- Allow students to track their progress with customized dashboards.
- Generate reports on course progress, registrations, revenue and enrollment trends.
- Offer hassle-free self-registration and self-paced courses with automated enrollment, payments and certificate distribution.
- Build, manage and customize courses and programs.
SpeedGrader: Quickly grade student submissions in one place with SpeedGrader. Use a simple point scale or detailed rubrics to assign grades, and accept various document formats and URLs to mark up assignments directly for feedback. Sort submissions by student, hide names for anonymous grading and track your progress. Easily view submission details, handle resubmissions and manage moderated assignments.
Intelligent Insights: Enhance teaching and learning effectiveness with Intelligent Insights, a premium analytics solution tailored for admins.
- Use AI and analytics to gather actionable data.
- Leverage conversational AI for quick ad hoc data requests and pre-built analytics for tracking goals such as course effectiveness and student success.
- Customize insights to pinpoint best practices, optimize LTI usage and address learning needs.
- Build custom dashboards and automate SQL queries to streamline data management and improve learner support.
- Identify courses that need improvement, notify instructors promptly and foster continuous improvement across teams.
Roll Call Attendance: Manage attendance in courses using the Attendance (Roll Call) tool, an external LTI app suitable for both online and face-to-face classes. Enabled at the account level, users can access it across all courses within your Canvas account.
Discussions: Communicate about course topics anytime. Create graded or casual discussions for idea exchange and problem-solving. Use threaded discussions for detailed topics and focused discussions for short exchanges.
Assessments: Administer assessments in the form of assignments, quizzes and discussions.
Assignments
- Allow students to submit assignments online through text entry, file uploads, media recordings, external tools, URLs or Canvas pages.
- Assign to individual students, groups or sections.
- Include a due date for Not Graded assignments, without providing points or grades.
Discussions
- Grade student responses to discussion topics.
- Assign to individual students, groups or sections.
Quizzes
- Conduct surveys or assess student comprehension of course content through quizzes.
- Assign to individual students or sections, but not to groups.
Collaboration: Teachers can communicate with individual students, groups or the entire class through messaging, audio notes, video and more. Students can work together via chat groups, video and other messaging tools.
Mobile App: Provide equal access to curriculum and instruction with native mobile apps for students, teachers and parents on iOS and Android devices.
Canvas Student: Enables students to access courses anytime, anywhere. They can:
- View grades and course content.
- Submit assignments.
- Keep track of coursework with a to-do list and calendar.
- Send and receive messages.
- Post to discussions, take quizzes and watch videos.
- Receive notifications for new grades and course updates.
Canvas Teacher: Helps teachers manage their courses anywhere, both in and out of the classroom. This app offers quick access to three main tasks:
- Browse submissions and give feedback to students with the enhanced mobile SpeedGrader.
- Send announcements and messages (like "Message Students Who..."), and join course discussions quickly.
- Change due dates, publish assignments and correct misspellings directly from your phone.
Canvas Parent: Allows parents to see their child's educational details easily at a glance. They can:
- View assignment descriptions and due dates
- Set reminders for assignments
- View assignment and course grades
- View course announcements
Outcomes: Set and track learning goals. Focus on skills and activities, not just grades. Assess progress using the Learning Mastery Gradebook. Import existing outcomes and align them with course rubrics.
SIS Imports: Upload and integrate data from SIS using CSV files or through the Canvas API. Manage users, accounts, courses, enrollments, logins and more. Use IMS Enterprise Specification XML zip files or Banner Grade Exchange Results XML for automated imports.
Canvas Studio: Create, deliver and organize video content in various formats within your media library using Canvas Studio.
- Upload videos directly from devices or integrate them from YouTube into courses.
- Monitor student engagement by tracking views, duration and interactions.
- Connect with platforms like Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Hangouts.
- Engage students with interactive video quizzes, real-time feedback and integrated Gradebook.
- Provide personalized feedback using SpeedGrader and customize learning paths with MasteryPaths.
- Encourage student participation through video creation and peer feedback.
- Integrate instruction, assessment and additional learning opportunities directly into the video experience.
Conferences: Integrate with BigBlueButton to host lectures, office hours and group meetings. Broadcast audio/video, share slides, and demonstrate applications and resources.
ePortfolios: Create ePortfolios to display and discuss your students’ submissions and experiences. Allow them to collect and document educational projects, assignments and more. Keep ePortfolios private or share them with peers, instructors and future employers.
Video Assessments: Create engaging video quizzes where students answer questions as they watch. Give instant feedback and automatically submit grades to the Gradebook. Review videos and provide comments. Use SpeedGrader to apply rubrics and offer quick, personalized feedback.

Approach to Common Challenges

Improving Student Outcomes: Canvas’ Learn Platform helps you manage edtech tools efficiently. It organizes your tech inventory and streamlines processes like contract management and purchases while ensuring data privacy compliance.
Centralizing the Learning Experience: The Canvas API integrates with tools such as Google Classroom, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Adobe and many other third-party apps. This centralizes learning resources, and helps team members collaborate and access multiple platforms from one place.
Creating and Editing Content Smoothly: You can use the Rich Content Editor to create and edit courses in various Canvas features, such as announcements, assignments, discussions, new quizzes, pages and quizzes.
Making Learning Accessible: Canvas uses the latest HTML and CSS standards to make it easy to use for people with disabilities. It follows guidelines from the W3C's Web Accessibility Initiative and is tested with different screen readers like JAWS, NVDA, VoiceOver and Talkback. It also includes helpful tools, like keyboard shortcuts for more straightforward navigation and an Accessibility Checker in the Rich Content Editor to help create accessible content.

Cost of Ownership

Frequently asked questions regarding Canvas pricing include:

Q. Is Canvas free to use

A. Yes, Canvas LMS offers a free plan called Canvas Free-for-Teacher that provides teachers and students with access to the essential features and functionality of Canvas at no cost.

Q. What features are included in the free Canvas plan

A. The free Canvas Free-for-Teacher plan includes the ability to use content creation tools for assignments, quizzes and discussions, access to the Canvas mobile app and third-party integrations. It provides core LMS functionality at no cost.

Q. Are there any limitations to the free Canvas plan

A. The free Canvas Free-for-Teacher plan doesn’t have any user or course limits. However, it is intended for individual teachers and doesn’t include administrative control, support or integration features that are available in the paid Canvas LMS plans for institutions.

Q. How much does a paid Canvas plan cost

A. Canvas’ pricing isn’t publicly disclosed. To get pricing details, you can contact their sales team or request a demo.

Q. Does Canvas offer volume discounts for larger organizations

A. Yes, Canvas offers volume discounts for larger organizations with more users. The pricing is based on factors like the number of students, faculty and administrators. However, the exact discounts aren’t publicly disclosed.

Q. Are there any additional costs beyond the Canvas subscription

A. Yes, using Canvas may incur additional costs for custom integrations, training and support, especially if you don't have in-house technical resources.

Q. Does Canvas offer a free trial or demo

A. Yes, you can try Canvas for free or request a demo.

Q. Are there any hidden costs or fees associated with Canvas

A. There are no reported hidden costs or fees associated with Canvas LMS. The main costs are related to setup, customization, and ongoing management, and they can vary depending on your organization's technical capabilities and requirements.

Q. Can I self-host Canvas to reduce costs

A. Yes, Canvas LMS is an open-source platform, so you can choose to self-host the software on your own servers to reduce costs. However, you must have the necessary technical expertise and resources to manage the platform in-house.

Limitations

Doesn’t Offer AI Capabilities: One drawback of Canvas is that it lacks AI-driven features such as content translation, course recommendation, natural language processing (NLP), and AI-based reporting and tagging. In contrast, alternatives like Docebo and Cornerstone offer these advanced features. If AI-powered learning is essential for your needs, Canvas may not be the best option.
Doesn’t Support Workflow Automation Tools: Canvas doesn’t allow you to configure workflows to automate key learner events, such as passing and failing courses.

FAQs

Frequently asked questions regarding Canvas include:

Q. How do I log into Canvas

A. To log into Canvas, you can either access it through your institution's website or by going directly to your institution's Canvas URL. If you have an account, you can log in using your username and password. If you don't have an account, you'll need to create one by contacting your institution's Canvas administrator.

Q. How do I reset my Canvas password

A. Go to the login page, click Forgot Password and enter the login information associated with your Canvas account. You'll receive an email to reset your password.

Q. How do I access Canvas as a parent

A. Parents can sign up as " observers" in Canvas. To create an account, you'll need the Canvas URL associated with your child's institution. Once you have an account, you can link it to your child's account to see their assignment due dates, announcements and other course content.

Q. Where can I find free Canvas training courses

A. The Canvas Network offers open online courses from experts and institutions worldwide. If you need training on using Canvas, you can find free Canvas training courses on the Canvas Network website.

Q. How do I enroll in a Canvas Network course

A. To enroll in a Canvas Network course, go to the Canvas Network website (canvas.net) and browse the course catalog. When you find a course you're interested in, click the course title to view more information and click the "enroll" button to start the enrollment process.

Q. How do I drop a Canvas Network course

A. Most users can drop a Canvas Network course or unenroll themselves after the course begins. If you don't see the Drop this Course button, you can contact the Canvas Network support team to request to be unenrolled from the course.

Q. How do I view my courses in the Canvas Dashboard

A. You should be able to see two tabs in your Canvas Dashboard: one for current/active courses and one for concluded/past courses. However, individual course settings may affect the visibility of some courses, as instructors can choose to "hide" a course after it has ended.

Q. How do I submit an assignment in Canvas

A. To submit an assignment in Canvas, go to the Assignments page, find the assignment you need to submit and click on it. From there, you can upload files, submit text or complete the assignment as required by the instructor.

Q. How do I view my grades in Canvas

A. To view your grades in Canvas, go to the Grades page. Here, you'll be able to see your current grades for all of your courses, as well as any feedback or comments provided by your instructors.

Q. How do I communicate with my instructor in Canvas

A. Canvas provides several ways to communicate with your instructor, including sending messages, participating in discussions and using the Announcements feature. You can access these communication tools from the relevant course pages in Canvas.

Q. How do I find my institution's Canvas URL

A. You can get to Canvas by: