So you make websites on Canva now? What Canva websites can and can't do

Yes, Canva can build and host a real website. You design it in the same editor you use for social posts, click Publish, and it goes live on a free Canva address or your own domain. It is great for one-page promos, event pages, portfolios, link-in-bio pages and quick mockups. It is a weaker fit for a business site that needs to rank in search, run a blog, sell products or connect to your CRM. This post covers what Canva websites can do today, where they fall short, how they compare to the usual platforms, and how to move off Canva when you outgrow it.

If you are the person who "knows Canva" at work, there is a good chance someone has asked you to make the website too. That is a fair request for some projects and a risky one for others. Here is how to tell the difference.

How Canva websites work today

You start from a website template or a blank website design in the Canva editor. Everything you already know works here: drag in text, photos, video, shapes, charts and embeds, apply your colors, and arrange the page in sections. When you are done, you click Publish website and pick where it lives.

Domains. Every account can publish to a free Canva address on the my.canva.site domain, and you can edit the last part of the URL (the slug). Canva's help center says free users can have up to five live websites on the free domain. You can also buy a domain through Canva or connect one you already own. Canva lists connecting your own domain as a paid plan feature (Pro, Teams, Business or Education). Canva plans come in free and paid tiers, and the details change, so check the Publish panel before you buy a domain.

Mobile. Canva says its websites are responsive and adjust to the screen size. You can preview the site on desktop and mobile before publishing. Check the mobile view closely, because a layout that looks great on a wide screen can stack in odd ways on a phone.

Navigation and multiple pages. Early Canva sites were single scrolling pages with a menu that jumped to sections. Canva has since added multi-page websites, with a navigation menu that links to separate pages and to sections within a page.

Password protection. You can require a password to view the site. Canva emails the password to you after publishing. This is handy for client previews and private event pages.

Search settings. In the publish settings you can set the page tab title, a site description (Canva suggests 155 to 160 characters), and a favicon. There is also a "hide from search engines" option that adds a noindex tag.

Insights. Canva Website Insights shows visits, top countries, devices, traffic sources and the most clicked links. Canva says it is available on Pro, Business and Education. Because Canva websites do not use cookies or IP tracking, Canva cannot count unique visitors, so one person may be counted more than once.

Forms. Canva launched Canva Forms in late 2025 as a drag-and-drop tool for surveys, RSVPs and data collection that connects to Canva Sheets. Earlier reviews of Canva websites pointed out the lack of built-in forms, so this is a real improvement, but it is not a full lead capture system.

Private sharing. Canva's help center also covers single sign-on for Canva websites, so a company can share a site only with its own team.

AI tools. Canva Code launched in April 2025 as part of Visual Suite 2.0. You describe an interactive idea, like a calculator or a quiz, and Canva builds it. You can publish it as a link or embed it in a website design. In July 2026, Canva released Code 2.0 to every user, free accounts included. It can generate a site from a prompt, lets you click into the result to change text, images, colors and fonts, and can import raw HTML from other AI coding tools and turn it into an editable Canva design. Paid plans get more AI usage.

What Canva websites are great for

Canva shines when the site is small, visual and short-lived, or when speed matters more than search traffic:

• Link-in-bio pages for social profiles.
• Event pages for a workshop, fundraiser, wedding or launch party.
• Portfolios for designers, photographers and artists.
• One-page promos for a single product, offer or campaign.
• Quick landing pages you need live today, not next month.
• Prototypes and mockups that show a client or developer the look and flow before a real build.

If your team already has a Brand Kit in Canva, matching your colors and fonts takes minutes. That alone makes Canva tempting for marketing teams.

Where Canva falls short for a business website

For a site that has to bring in leads for years, the gaps start to matter.

SEO control. You get a title, a description, a slug and a noindex switch. We did not find settings in Canva's help docs for custom URLs on every page, structured data (schema), or managing an XML sitemap. Canva also does not document how its text styles map to HTML heading tags, so you cannot count on a clean H1 and H2 outline. For a local service business that wants to rank, that is a real handicap.

Blogging. There is no built-in blog with posts, categories, tags or scheduling. A content plan of two posts a month gets awkward fast.

Ecommerce. There is no built-in store. You can link out to a checkout on another platform, but you will not get product pages, inventory or a cart.

Integrations and CRM. Canva Forms send responses into Canva. If you need leads to land in HubSpot, Salesforce or your email platform with tracking and automation, you will need a workaround or an embedded third-party form.

Performance. Design-heavy pages with big images, video and animation can load slowly, especially on phones. You have little control over how the page is built under the hood.

Accessibility. Canva lets you add alt text to images and elements, which is good. The bigger risk is how people design in Canva. It is easy to put words inside images or graphics, which screen readers and search engines cannot read as text. Keep real text as text, and check color contrast.

Ownership and portability. Canva hosts the site. You own your content and your domain, but we did not find an option in Canva's help docs to export a published website as files you could run on another host. Treat a future move as a rebuild.

Team editing and scale. Canva has real-time collaboration and comments, which is great for designing together. It is not a content management system with roles, drafts and approval steps. Managing dozens of pages, each one a hand-designed canvas, takes more effort as the site grows.

Canva vs Squarespace vs Wix vs WordPress vs a custom build

Our full WordPress vs Squarespace vs Wix comparison goes deeper on those three, and how to choose a website platform walks through the decision step by step. If you are weighing Canva against other quick builders, see should your business use a one-click website builder.

When to move off Canva

A few signs it is time:

• You want to rank in Google for your services and city.
• You need a blog, a store or more than a handful of pages.
• Leads need to flow straight into your CRM.
• Several people need to update content without touching the design.
• The site is now your main sales tool, not a side project.

How to move off Canva without losing much

1. Pick the new platform first. Match it to the goals above, not to the tool you know best.
2. Rebuild the content. Copy your text into a document, download your original images, and rebuild the pages on the new platform. Use the move to fix headings, write real page titles and replace any text inside images with live text.
3. Keep the domain. If you bought the domain through Canva, find out how to transfer it or point it at your new host. If you connected a domain you already own, you only need to update its DNS records.
4. Set up redirects. If your Canva site had pages that people linked to or that showed up in search, redirect each old URL to its new home with a 301 redirect.
5. Unpublish the Canva site once the new one is live and tested, so you do not have two versions floating around.

Our guide to leaving a one-click website builder covers the move in more detail, and how to redesign a website without losing SEO explains redirects and launch checks.

How designers can use Canva alongside Figma and a real build

Canva does not have to be all or nothing. Many teams use it as one tool in a larger process:

• Canva for speed and marketing assets. Mood boards, quick page concepts, social graphics, campaign landing pages and event microsites.
• Figma for the real design system. Components, auto layout, spacing rules and developer handoff. If you are new to it, read what Figma is and how it works.
• A real build for the main site. WordPress, Webflow or a coded site that a developer builds from the Figma files, with proper SEO, forms and integrations.

A Canva mockup is a fine way to show a developer the look you want. Just know it is a picture of the idea, not a spec. A developer will still need clear fonts, colors, spacing and page structure, which is where Figma helps. Code 2.0's HTML import also works the other way: a developer or AI tool can produce HTML, and a marketer can then polish it in Canva for a quick campaign page.

The short version

Canva websites are a fast, friendly way to get a small, good-looking site online, and features like multi-page sites, password protection, Insights, Forms and Canva Code make them more capable than they were a couple of years ago. For a business site that needs search traffic, a blog, a store or CRM connections, a full platform or a custom build is the safer long-term home. If you are not sure which side of that line your project is on, tell us about it and we will give you a straight answer, even if the answer is "Canva is fine."