Canva alternatives

Free Canva Alternatives for Animated Charts and Embeddable Infographics

What this is: A comparison of free tools for creating animated charts and embeddable infographics, with honest assessments of each.
Who uses it: Bloggers, educators, journalists, and content marketers who need charts or infographics for their websites and want to evaluate alternatives to Canva.
Best for embed-and-forget: Scrollchart. One line of HTML, no design tool, no export, no watermark. Animated and scroll-triggered.
URL: scrollchart.com/canva-alternatives

Canva is the go-to for designed graphic assets: social media cards, slide decks, posters. But for animated charts and embeddable web infographics, it is not the only option, and often not the best fit. This comparison covers seven tools, each with a distinct strength.

Scrollchart

Best for: animated web embeds

Scrollchart provides a catalog of over 100 animated, scroll-triggered infographics and charts that embed in any website with two lines of HTML. There is no design tool, no canvas, and no export step. You browse the catalog or describe your data to the AI generator, copy the embed snippet, and paste it into your CMS. The chart paints itself in as readers scroll to it.

The key differentiator from every other tool on this list: the embed is not an iframe containing a hosted design. It is inline SVG rendered directly into your page DOM. That means chart labels are crawlable by Google, the chart respects your site's light/dark theme, and it lazy-loads without affecting Core Web Vitals. No other free tool on this list offers all three properties simultaneously.

Strengths

Scroll-triggered animation out of the box, no configuration required
Inline SVG (not iframe): fully crawlable, theme-aware, Core Web Vitals safe
No signup, no watermark, no export step
Embed works in WordPress, Webflow, Ghost, Substack, static HTML

Limitations

Catalog-based: you pick from existing diagram types, not a blank canvas
Not suited for designed branded assets like social media graphics or presentation slides

Best for: bloggers, educators, and journalists who want a single animated chart in an article and want zero design overhead.

Datawrapper

Best for: data journalists and newsrooms

Datawrapper is the chart tool of record for European data journalism. It produces clean, publication-quality interactive charts (bar, line, scatter, maps, tables) that embed as responsive iframes. The interface is a four-step wizard: upload data, pick chart type, refine design, embed. The free tier includes unlimited charts with Datawrapper branding in the footer.

Strengths

Excellent chart quality, widely trusted in newsroom contexts
Uploads CSV or connects to Google Sheets directly
Responsive iframes that work everywhere

Limitations

Free tier adds "Powered by Datawrapper" to chart footer
Iframe embeds: chart text is not indexed in the host page's DOM

Best for: data journalists and researchers who need to chart their own CSV data with minimal design work.

Flourish

Best for: scrollytelling stories

Flourish (owned by Canva since 2022) is the strongest tool on this list for building multi-slide scrollytelling stories. Its template library includes animated bar chart races, map stories, network diagrams, and sankey charts. The free tier is publicly accessible; private stories require a paid plan.

Strengths

Pioneered the bar chart race format, which remains the best implementation
Full story-building tool: sequence multiple charts in a scrollable narrative
Large template library including many chart types not available elsewhere

Limitations

Free stories are publicly listed on flourish.studio
Embeds are iframes, not inline SVG, so chart text is not in the host page DOM

Best for: data journalists building multi-chart story pages and anyone wanting a bar chart race.

Infogram

Best for: templated infographic reports

Infogram sits between Canva and Datawrapper. It offers a canvas-style editor with chart widgets, icon libraries, and layout templates. The output is closer to a designed infographic report than a standalone chart. Free tier allows 10 projects with Infogram branding.

Strengths

Combines charts with designed layout elements in one canvas
Good template library for report-style infographics
Exports to PNG or PDF as well as embed code

Limitations

Free tier limited to 10 projects; Infogram branding on all free embeds
Canvas-based: requires design decisions that pure chart tools avoid

Best for: teams that need a designed report or data story rather than a single embeddable chart.

Visme

Best for: branded presentation-style infographics

Visme is a close competitor to Canva for designed branded content: presentations, infographics, social assets. It has stronger data visualization tools than Canva, including a chart editor that accepts custom data. The free tier is limited to five projects and includes Visme branding on exports.

Strengths

Better built-in data chart tools than Canva's free tier
Good for branded content that needs to match a corporate design system
Slides, infographics, and charts in one tool

Limitations

Free tier: 5 projects, Visme watermark on downloads
No animated scroll-trigger embeds; outputs are static or simple animated GIFs

Best for: marketing teams that need branded infographics for social media, presentations, and PDFs.

Piktochart

Best for: simple visual reports and posters

Piktochart was one of the first infographic builders and remains a solid option for simple visual reports, flyers, and posters. It has a smaller template library than Canva or Visme but a cleaner interface. Free tier exports with Piktochart watermark; there is no embeddable chart output on the free plan.

Strengths

Clean, simple interface with a low learning curve
Good for non-designers who need a readable visual quickly

Limitations

Watermark on all free exports; no free embed option
No animated or scroll-triggered output

Best for: educators and non-designers who need a printable infographic or simple poster.

Genially

Best for: interactive presentation embeds

Genially focuses on interactive presentations that embed in websites or LMS platforms. Think Canva-meets-interactive-slide-deck. It supports click-through hotspots, animation layers, and video embeds. Free tier allows unlimited creations with Genially branding.

Strengths

Good for interactive educational content with clickable elements
Embeds cleanly in most LMS platforms (Canvas, Moodle)
Unlimited free creations

Limitations

Not a data chart tool; weak for quantitative data visualization
Genially branding on all free embeds

Best for: educators building interactive lesson materials and click-through explainers.

Quick comparison table

Tool	Animated embeds	Inline SVG (crawlable)	Free watermark-free	No signup required
Scrollchart	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Datawrapper	Partial	No (iframe)	No (branded footer)	Account required
Flourish	Yes	No (iframe)	Public only	Account required
Infogram	Limited	No (iframe)	No (branded)	Account required
Visme	No	No	No (watermark)	Account required
Piktochart	No	No	No (watermark)	Account required
Genially	Partial	No (iframe)	No (branded)	Account required

Frequently asked

What is the best free Canva alternative for embedded infographics?

For animated, embeddable infographics that you paste into a website with one line of HTML, Scrollchart is the strongest free option. It requires no design work and no export step. For static branded graphics that users download as files, Canva's own free tier is still unmatched.

Is there a free Canva alternative with no watermark?

Scrollchart, Datawrapper, and Flourish all produce embeds or exports without watermarks on their free tiers. Datawrapper and Flourish are for interactive data charts. Scrollchart is for animated, scroll-triggered diagrams and infographics.

Which Canva alternative is best for WordPress?

Scrollchart has a dedicated WordPress plugin (launching 2026) and a universal HTML embed that works in any Custom HTML block today. Datawrapper also produces WordPress-compatible iframe embeds. For drag-and-drop design, Canva itself remains the most WordPress-integrated option via its official plugin.

Can I use Datawrapper for free without a subscription?

Yes. Datawrapper's free tier allows unlimited charts with Datawrapper branding on the chart footer. The paid tier removes branding and adds custom theming. Charts are embeddable as responsive iframes.

What is the difference between Canva and Flourish?

Canva is a general-purpose design tool for creating any visual asset, from social media posts to presentations. Flourish is a data visualization platform specifically for interactive charts and scrollytelling stories. They serve different use cases. Scrollchart is closer to Flourish than to Canva, but focuses on single-diagram embeds rather than full story pages.

Do these Canva alternatives support non-English content?

Scrollchart does. The AI generator and the 100+ template catalogue both work in every major language — English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Portuguese, Mandarin, Hindi, Arabic, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Turkish, Polish, Dutch, and dozens more. Diagram labels, axis titles, and source line render in the language of the prompt. Many of the other alternatives covered here are English-only or require manual translation.

Browse the Scrollchart free catalog

Over 100 animated, embeddable infographics across statistics, science, finance, and more. One line of HTML. No signup.

Browse the free catalog →

Try the option we ranked #1.

DESCRIBE IT

Free AI chart generator

Paste your data, a finding, or a URL. The generator picks the right chart type and produces an animated, embeddable diagram in seconds.

Open the generator →

BROWSE IT

100+ animated diagrams

Hand-built across 17 subjects: science, finance, fitness, law, engineering, and more. Filter by topic, copy one line of HTML, done.

Browse the catalogue →

Now available in every major language: prompt in English, French, Spanish, German, Mandarin, Hindi, Arabic, Japanese, Portuguese, and more — the diagram labels render in the language you ask for.