Canva has two developer products, and most teams pick the wrong one because the names do not say which direction the integration runs. This page explains what each one does, what neither one does, and where Polotno fits when neither is the right shape. Everything about Canva below is checked against Canva's own developer documentation and linked so you can verify it.
The short answer
Two Canva products, two different directions. The Connect API lets your system talk to Canva: upload assets, create designs from brand templates, export finished files back, while users still design inside Canva. The Apps SDK runs your app inside Canva's editor as a side panel in an iframe, next to Canva's own tools. Neither puts a design canvas inside your product's UI, under your branding, for users without Canva accounts.
Both official routes point the same way: toward Canva. That is a deliberate product decision. If your requirement is "our users design inside our app", the Canva API is not the tool, and no combination of its endpoints becomes one.
What Polotno does instead
This is Polotno's own site, so here is the direct version instead of a hedge: Polotno SDK is a JavaScript SDK built around one JSON schema with three parts, an embeddable editor that renders in your DOM, a programmatic API to create and modify designs from code, and a headless renderer for images and video. All three read and write the same document, so an editor session, an automated job, and a final render share the same data.
It runs self-hosted on your infrastructure by default, with an optional Cloud Render API for scale. The editor is fully white-label: your brand, your domain, no Canva-style third-party account or iframe boundary.
Someli built the invisible, backend version of this: an automated pipeline where AI selects layouts and a designer reviews, with no editor UI ever shown to their own clients.
What the Connect API actually does
The Canva Connect APIs are a REST API with OAuth, covering twelve groups:
Designs
Autofill
Brand templates
Exports
Assets
Design imports
Folders
Comments
Merges and resizes
Analytics
Webhooks
Users and auth
That is a capable workflow API. If your product manages marketing assets and your users already live in Canva, it does real work: sync an asset library, generate a thousand localised variants from one brand template, pull exports back into your CMS, and get a webhook when someone comments.
What it does not do
No embeddable editor
No white labelling
Users need Canva accounts
The data model is Canva's
Distribution is gated
The last one surprises people late in a project. Building an integration your customers will use means shipping a public app through Canva's review process, on Canva's timeline.
The Apps SDK runs the other way
The Canva Apps SDK is often suggested when the Connect API turns out not to embed an editor. It inverts the direction instead.
An app built with the Apps SDK is a JavaScript bundle that runs inside an iframe in the Canva editor's object panel. Your interface appears as a side panel next to Canva's own tools, and it can drive the canvas programmatically. Distribution is either the Canva Apps Marketplace or a private team workspace.
So the Apps SDK puts your product inside Canva. The Connect API pipes data between your product and Canva. Neither puts Canva inside your product, which is the thing most teams searching for "Canva API" are actually trying to do.
When Canva's API is the right choice
Genuinely often, and it's worth saying plainly since the rest of this page argues for the alternative. The Connect API is the right tool whenever the relationship stays asset-to-asset instead of becoming an embedded surface. Use it when:
In those cases an editor SDK is the wrong answer and would cost you more work for a worse result. Start at canva.dev and check the current plan requirements on Canva's own pages, since those change.
When you need an editor instead of an API
The moment your own users need to touch a canvas, not just send and receive files, the requirement changes shape entirely. Use an editor SDK when any of these is true:
That is a design editor SDK, which is a different category of product from a workflow API.
Try the editor
The editor below runs live on this page, not a screenshot:
The honest trade: you do not get Canva's stock library, its template catalogue, or its brand recognition, and you take on integration work that a hosted API does not ask of you. If Canva's ecosystem is the point, the Connect API is the better tool.
Brand Ninja weighed the same decision before building on Polotno:
Common questions
Where to go next
- Building an automation on Canva's platform: Canva Connect API docs
- Building an app that lives inside Canva: Canva Apps SDK docs
- Comparing hosted design tools you'd use yourself: Canva alternatives
- Choosing between editor SDKs: how to choose a design editor SDK
- Putting an editor in your own product: Polotno SDK features and the documentation
