Canvas vs Avada: an Avada alternative built on blocks
Avada has sold more than a million licences on ThemeForest and draws pages in an editor of its own. Canvas ships 258 blocks for the editor that comes with WordPress. Every Avada figure below was read from Avada's own pages on 4 September 2026 and is linked at the foot of this page.
Is Canvas an Avada Theme alternative? Who each one is for
Both build complete websites without code. They disagree about where the page lives once you have built it, and that is the decision you are actually making.
Choose Canvas if you want to stay in the WordPress editor
Your pages are saved as ordinary block markup, so the block editor and the Site Editor read them without a translation layer. You get 80 complete demo websites, header and footer builders that run in the editor, AI credits in every plan, and a written contract for what happens when the licence lapses.
Choose Avada if you want one payment and the largest library
One purchase covers one live website with lifetime updates and six months of support, and it bundles five premium plugins along with 113 prebuilt websites and 639 Avada Studio items. If you are happy working inside Avada's builder, that is a great deal of design for a single $69 payment.
Canvas and Avada, point by point
Where Avada does not publish something, the cell says so. Where Avada's own pages disagree with each other, both figures are shown.
| Comparison | Canvas | Avada |
|---|---|---|
| Blocks | 258 blocks in 10 families, 179 of them free tier and 202 in the inserter, plus 183 patterns. | 183 elements claimed on the elements page, which lists 163 across five categories; other Avada pages say 120+ and 150+. |
| Demo and starter websites | 80 complete websites in 16 categories, each with a published page count, real menus and 42 demo content types across the set. | 113 prebuilt websites in 15 categories, plus 639 prebuilt content items in Avada Studio across 54 categories. |
| Builder approach | The block editor and Site Editor that come with WordPress. Your content saves as standard block markup, not as a builder format. | The Live Visual Builder, an editor of its own, plus nine more named builders and wizards. |
| Header and footer builder | Headers, footers, top bars, mega menus, side panels and page titles are records built from 14 header blocks in the block editor, with 92 header options behind them. | Header Builder, Footer Builder, Mega Menu Builder and Off-Canvas Builder, all inside Avada. |
| WooCommerce | 22 store blocks, 18 store templates, attribute swatches and an AJAX cart, used by 19 of the demo websites. | A WooCommerce Builder and 38 WooCommerce elements; 29 of the prebuilt websites are shop designs. |
| AI | Included in every plan, in two monthly pools: 200 text and 30 image generations on Starter, up to 2,500 and 500 on Agency. | Not published on avada.com. |
| Price and websites covered | $39 a year for 3 websites, $89 for 10, $199 for 100 plus a whole multisite network. Renewal at the price you first paid. | $69 once on ThemeForest for one live site and one staging site. The extended licence is $2,950. |
| Refund window | 7 days on a first purchase, with no support ticket to open first. Renewals and upgrades are excluded. | No policy of its own. The terms say refunds for Avada are subject to Envato's refund policy. |
| Updates and support | One year of updates and support from SemiColonWeb, with a 14-day offline grace period on licence checks. | Lifetime updates and six months of support, extendable once less than six months remain. |
| Editor lock-in | At expiry the site keeps rendering every premium block. Updates, demo imports and AI pause, and so does premium editing. Your text and images stay in the post as block markup. | Pages are drawn by the Live Visual Builder, so the layout goes when the theme goes. |
Canvas figures are counted from the shipped theme and plugin. The detail behind them sits on the block library and the pricing page.
Where Canvas is stronger
Four differences that come from staying inside the editor WordPress ships.
Blocks that save as block markup
Canvas ships 258 blocks that save as standard block markup, so a page written today opens in tomorrow's WordPress editor. Avada elements are drawn by the Live Visual Builder, and the count depends on which Avada page you read: 183 on the elements page, 150+ on the features page, 120+ on the home page.
The header builder is in the editor
Headers, footers, top bars, mega menus and page titles are records you compose from 14 header blocks in the block editor, backed by 92 options. Avada gives each of those its own builder inside Avada, which is genuinely capable and is also four more interfaces to learn.
AI arrives with the licence
Every Canvas plan includes monthly text and image credits in two separate pools, generated in the editor and saved straight to your media library. Avada publishes no AI feature on its website, so an Avada site needs a separate subscription for the same work.
A refund and an expiry contract in our own voice
Canvas gives 7 days on a first purchase with no support ticket first, and says on the pricing page exactly what expiry costs you. Avada publishes no refund policy of its own: the terms hand refunds to Envato, and the terms and the home page disagree about whether updates last for life.
Where Avada is stronger
A comparison that only flatters the author is worth nothing. Four places where Avada beats us today.
One payment, no renewal
$69 once on ThemeForest, with free lifetime updates, is the simplest offer in this comparison. Canvas is a yearly licence from $39. If you want to pay once and never think about it again, Avada answers that and we do not.
Proof at a scale we have not earned
The ThemeForest listing shows 1,070,519 sales and a 4.78 rating from 26.6K ratings, verifiable on a marketplace we do not control, behind a Power Elite author badge. Canvas is new as a WordPress theme, so judge it on inventory you can count and demos you can preview.
A bigger design library
113 prebuilt websites and 639 Avada Studio content items against 80 Canvas demo websites. Avada also publishes more than 700 help articles and 300 tutorial videos, against 382 Canvas articles with 313 screenshots.
Premium plugins in the box
The licence bundles Slider Revolution, LayerSlider, ACF Pro, Convert Plus and FileBird Pro. Canvas ships its own sliders, forms and content types, with no third-party licences in the box. That is a different trade and not automatically a better one.
Moving a website from Avada to Canvas
Content moves with you. Layouts drawn inside a builder do not, so plan the rebuild page by page and start with the templates that repeat.
What carries over
- Posts, pages, media, categories, tags, users and menus, exactly as WordPress stores them.
- Your WooCommerce store: products, variations, orders, customers and the plugins around them.
- Plugins you installed yourself, with their settings and their data.
- Your domain, your host and your URLs, so nothing needs redirecting.
- Any page you wrote in the block editor, not in the Live Visual Builder.
What you rebuild
- Pages laid out in the Live Visual Builder. Rebuild them with Canvas blocks or one of the 183 patterns.
- Header, footer, mega menu and off-canvas layouts, which become records in the Canvas header builder.
- Avada forms, which become Canvas form blocks with their own submissions table.
- Avada theme options, and any slider built with the plugins bundled with the Avada licence, since those licences stay with Avada.
- Avada Studio sections you imported, which have Canvas equivalents in the pattern library.
Quicker, on a small site: import the closest of the 80 demo websites, then move your words and pictures across.
Canvas and Avada, asked plainly
The five that come up most often. Licensing, demos, updates and support are in the full FAQ.
Is Canvas cheaper than Avada?
Canvas is not cheaper if you count one website over several years. Avada is $69 once on ThemeForest for one live site, with lifetime updates and six months of support. Canvas Starter is $39 a year for 3 websites and buys a year of updates, support, demo imports and AI credits, then renews at the same price. If you build one site and never touch it again, Avada costs less. If you build several, or you want support and AI next year, the yearly licence is the cheaper shape.
Will my website keep working if I stop paying for Canvas?
Yes: Canvas renders but freezes. Every premium block keeps rendering exactly as it does today and visitors see no difference. What pauses is the service: updates, new demo imports, AI generation and editing of premium blocks. It is written on the pricing page, in plain words.
Can I keep my Avada pages when I switch?
Your content comes with you to Canvas: posts, media, menus, users, WooCommerce data and anything written in the WordPress editor. Pages laid out in the Live Visual Builder do not, because that layout is Avada's own markup. Plan to rebuild those pages with Canvas blocks or one of the 183 patterns, and to rebuild header, footer and mega menu layouts as Canvas records.
Does Avada include AI writing or images?
Canvas includes AI text and image generation in every plan, metered in two monthly pools, while Avada publishes no AI product on its website as of 4 September 2026. The Canvas balance is shown in the editor. Read what Canvas AI does and does not do on the AI page.
Which one has more ready-made designs?
Avada has more than Canvas on count. It publishes 113 prebuilt websites and 639 Avada Studio content items. Canvas publishes 80 demo websites in 16 categories and competes on completeness instead: each one is a whole site with inner pages, menus, forms, real content types and a page count printed on its card, and you can preview every one of them live before you buy.
Is Canvas an Avada Theme alternative?
Yes, Canvas is an Avada alternative for a website you want to keep in the WordPress editor. Avada draws pages in a builder of its own; Canvas saves pages as ordinary block markup that the block editor and the Site Editor read without a translation layer. You give up Avada's bundled premium plugins and the lifetime updates on its one-site licence, and the section on Avada's strengths above lists the rest, so judge the swap on those facts.
Where the Avada figures came from
Read on 4 September 2026. Avada publishes no pricing page of its own, so the price, the site limit and the licence terms come from its ThemeForest listing.
- Avada on ThemeForest, the point of salethemeforest.net/item/avada-responsive-multipurpose-theme/2833226
- Avada Elementsavada.com/elements/
- Avada prebuilt websitesavada.com/prebuilt-websites/
- Avada Studioavada.studio/
- Avada features and buildersavada.com/features/
- Avada terms and conditions, including refundsavada.com/terms-and-conditions/
- Avada support policyavada.com/support-policy/
Keep comparing
Avada, Divi and Elementor are the three products that build in an editor of their own. If you are weighing them against each other, these two go next.
Count what ships, then decide
Every demo website has a live preview, the block library lists what ships, and the licence terms are published in full.