Congratulations to our App Adoption Award winners from February. The following apps will be receiving rewards from our $50 million Innovation Fund :
Hi meredith
Will the App Adoption Award be extended to next year?
Will the App Adoption Award be extended to next year?
I also think it’s worth extending. It’s incredibly motivating for app developers like me! 
Will the App Adoption Award be extended to next year?
hi all! we’re looking into evolving the program to match many of our changes we’ve experienced in our last 2 years. we now have over 500 apps 
in our marketplace which is amazing. to continue to fuel innovation and challenge you all to reach new milestones, we will likely make changes to program.
if you have any thoughts on what would incentive you to continue to innovate, we would love to hear!
Hi @meredith, here are some thoughts:
Take a share of the revenue from Canva Pro and put it on a pool, just as it happens in other social media, like YouTube and TikTok. Canva could even have 2 pools, one for 100% free apps and another one for freemium and paid apps. Canva perhaps could think that would be losing money, but not necessarily. More amazing apps = more amazing Canva = greater LTV. Not only that, but apps themselves may bring new users to Canva (if they are earning money, they would make more social posts and perhaps even paid ads). Furthermore, it also means less developers to hire to add new features to Canva (the apps are the new features). The pool is updated monthly according to the revenue of the month.
Define a new metric, the recurring unique users per month. It is the same as the unique users per month, but with one difference: the first time ever the user uses the app doesn’t count. An user might use the app just because it appeared somewhere, got curious and perhaps didn’t have anything else to do and tried it out. The app should only be rewarded if it’s actually useful.
Monthly payout share = monthly pool size * (my app’s monthly recurring unique users / total monthly recurring unique users of all apps)
The current tiers aren’t very good. It’s very hard to earn something. If Canva still wants tiers, it could be like that: every user counts as revenue, but the revenue isn’t uniform. For example, the first 1000 users are worth X points. The 1000-5000 users are worth Y points and so on. Then, the monthly payout share = monthly pool size * (my app’s monthly points / total monthly points of all apps).
Canva could and should put a minimum payout (an app should accumulate $50 or $100 to receive the money).
Make the developers affiliates. If they bring new users, pay something ($0.20-$1, for example). If these users become Pro, pay even more ($5, for example; even if they only stay Pro for 1 month, Canva still profits). Developers will be more engaged to bring more users to Canva.
One of our apps started to have some organic traffic in social media. The official Canva Instagram account even replied to some of the reels in Instagram in which people spoke about the app. One of the Instagram accounts have more than 70k followers. Canva could repost reels/posts from social media of people using our apps. Our apps weren’t featured so far, even this one.
Another completely different idea from everything above: “hire” some of the developers who already made apps for Canva to develop other apps. It could be as contractors (contracts of 6 months, for example). Canva would pay a fix amount per month independently of how many users used the apps. The developers should make a new app every N month(s).
In summary, make the app developers Canva partners.
Cheers,
Pioneiro Digital
Amazing thoughtful ideas, I find them genuinely constructive. From my perspective as developing Canva Apps since 2023, the challenge isn’t about lacking direction or tools, but about how developers are positioned within Canva’s broader ecosystem.
If the past two years had exceeded expectations, I’m confident the team’s creativity would’ve led to even stronger incentives and initiatives. Some assumptions still need validation, and it’s understandable that new measures carry uncertainty — especially with AI evolving so quickly. The Premium App revenue model is still not yet taking shape, and it’s an important piece of the puzzle.
That said, Canva is different from Figma — considering users’ level of profession and willingness to pay, it might require a unique approach. I’m hopeful that with smart leadership decisions, the ecosystem can mature in a more sustainable way that benefits everyone. As developers, we’re also learning to diversify where to build and think resilient strategies — which is a healthy step forward.