AI Design Tools Compared — Canva, Adobe Firefly, Figma AI, and Recraft by Use Case
Someone who said "I am bad at design" now produces ten social posts in half a day and gets logo proposals on the side — that is where AI design tools stand in 2026. This article compares the four major tools: Canva (best for mass-producing marketing, social, and slides, free–$15), Adobe Firefly (Photoshop/Illustrator integrated and commercially safe, $9.99+), Figma AI (the standard for UI/UX and product design with teams, $15+/editor), and Recraft (vector logos and icons with 90% text accuracy, $10+). The four are not competitors but a division of roles — narrow to the one that fits your most frequent task. Different from the image-generation AI comparison (Midjourney etc.): this article is about "building deliverables from images," not the image itself. Includes a comparison table, six best-pick scenarios, and three cautions: copyright, brand consistency, and avoiding the "AI look."