Canva is where you design, Buffer is where you schedule, and neither is built to approve a finished post for a team. Canva's sharing and comment permissions control a design. The approval you usually need is on the post: the caption, the platform, the time and the file, all together. Mydrop covers all three jobs in one flow, and Canva stays your design tool.
TLDR: One person, one or two channels: Canva Pro plus Buffer is the cheaper, simpler choice. Several brands, clients or approvers: use a tool with a proper approval workflow and a calendar, and connect Canva to it. Compare how each tool bills, because per-channel and per-user pricing grows with your team and flat pricing doesn't.
Mydrop pricing check, September 2026: the entry paid plans of the eight tools most often compared with Mydrop run from $6 per channel (Buffer) and $25 a month (Later) to $99 per user (Hootsuite) and $79 per seat (Sprout Social), read on each vendor's pricing page. Mydrop is free to start, then $19 a month flat, not per seat. Full table on Mydrop's compare pages.
The three jobs, and who does each
Most "Canva vs Buffer" confusion comes from treating design, approval and publishing as one job. They're three. Check the current plan pages before you buy, because features move between tiers.
| Job | Canva Pro | Buffer | Mydrop |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design the asset | Yes, this is its core job | No | Pulls designs in from Canva |
| Schedule across channels | Basic planner | Yes, its core job | Yes, across 14 networks |
| Approve the final post | Comments and sharing on the design | Check which plan includes approvals | Approval workflow and a no-login client portal |
| Several brands or clients | Brand kits | Priced per channel | Workspaces and a multi-brand calendar |
| Roles and comments | Design-level sharing | Team roles by plan | Roles and comments on the post |
Answering the question: approvals in Canva
Searching for whether you can assign approval workflows and permissions in Canva? Here's the short answer. Canva can limit who views and edits a design, and reviewers can comment on it. That's useful while the design is being made.
But Canva doesn't know which channel the design is going to, what the caption says or when it goes live. A reviewer who approves a design hasn't approved the post. The caption can still hide a typo, and the post can still go out at the wrong hour. A post approval has to live where the post lives.
When Canva Pro plus Buffer is the right call
Stick with the lighter setup if all of these are true:
- One person or a very small team owns the content.
- You post to one or two channels.
- Nobody outside the team needs to sign off.
In that case, an approval layer costs more time than it saves. Be honest with yourself: simple is a feature.
When it stops working
Watch for these signs. Spot two or more and it's time to move.
- A client or manager asks to "see it first" and you end up sending screenshots.
- You post for three or more brands and keep mixing up which files belong to which.
- Posts go out at the wrong local hour in some markets. In Mydrop's data, posts published between midnight and 6am local time got 17% less engagement than the account's median across platforms.
- Your monthly bill goes up every time you add a channel or a person.
How the Mydrop flow works with Canva
You carry on designing in Canva. Mydrop connects to Canva, so you pull the finished design straight into the composer. The caption, the platform preview and the schedule all sit on the same post. Then the post goes through the approval workflow, and clients can sign it off without creating an account.
For a direct side-by-side with the scheduler, see the Mydrop vs Buffer comparison. For a wider list of tools that connect to Canva, read our roundup of Canva-integrated publishing tools.
Push one real Canva design through each option
Run one real post through each option:
- Design it in Canva.
- Send it to a reviewer who isn't on your team.
- Get a written yes.
- Schedule it for a market in another time zone.
Count the places where you had to copy, paste or re-upload. The tool with the fewest handoffs wins, not the one with the longest feature list.
Next step: do the 20-minute test with your most complicated client or brand. If you need approvals, start free with Mydrop and connect Canva.
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