Canvas Reviews 

Last fall, my business agreed to purchase Instructure's Canvas Career corporate LMS product, an upsell from the academic product originally purchased. At the time it was in 'pre-sale' and not generally available. My reasonable expectation was that it would have functionality commensurate with the product I originally purchased (the #1 LMS in the U.S.) and of LMSs at a similar price point available on the market. It was understood that enhanced, unspecified functionality would be forthcoming in the next year (hence the discounted price). After months of not providing the expected product and avoiding my questions, I was finally shown a product demo in mid-January, 2026. The product lacked the basic functionality expected, even core functions long available in the academic product. I immediately sent a formal demand letter to Instructure requesting resolution. The response was received 15 minutes before the deadline, and conveniently after the formal product launch. Their reply was to state that they never promised specific functionality or a timeline. That assertion implies that I had agreed to pay in excess of $90,000 with no expectations of product functionality and timing....They offered to let me out of my contract for a discount and no product. The core issue is that they engaged in deceptive practices at the time of the sale. Then they tried to cover it up by delaying until they had corrected at least some of the deficiencies (I'm not aware of the current functions of the product). I have requested that Instructure pay for lost business opportunity and time spent because of the deceptive conduct.

False advertising, claims can do background remover for videos, it cant, only images

Please reconsider before you buy from this company. They only show positive reviews, not the complaints.

Canvas is wretched. I spent all morning in class trying to log in to this thing and it would immediately say "took too long to log in" when I took less than four seconds to type the info. Then, when I click "try to log in again" it takes me to a page with the side bar and "page not found" on every single sidebar item. That alone ruined my day due to this infuriating broken system, but no... it's actually worse than that...

You see, it DID log me in, it just lied to me all day and said I wasn't. The only way it acknowledged that I was logged in was to HAND TYPE the URL in the field, and then it went to my actual canvas page.

So to recap :

Go to Canvas with a bookmark, it logs you in and lies to you and says you're not logged in and the pages can't be found anyway.

Do the fake login of lies and then retype the URL by hand to actually see you're logged in. Otherwise, unless you guess this step, it will lie to you and deny you have access (not access denied, mind you, deny that you have access when you do).

This is not a functioning product, it's narcissistic childhood abuse written as an app. Unacceptable.

The fact that this app has over HALF of its usage rating a 1 star is so disappointing, and I can’t help but agree with them. I also hate the fact you have to use this as a MAIN APP in school, where all the teachers do is post it in canvas, and most of our work is on paper. So, we do it on paper, then have to submit digitally. Which also makes no sense, why not just use the paper, but oh well, not canvas’ problem.

What my problem is the new update, apparently. I just got into canvas this afternoon with checkmarks next to the assignments in the “To-Do” section, which is where I find all of my work that’s due. To find out what they did, I pressed a few. Nothing happened, until it did. They disappeared, which isn’t technically the apps fault but could at the least gave a notification or a “How to” when you opened the app. My problem summarized is just the new update. I clicked the check marks to see what they did because no guide was posted, deleted my due work, and cannot find them, nor get them back.

Other than my complaint, I overall dislike the app. Do better, Canvas. This app is no better than all of the others. Google classroom is one of the best apps I used to use, this is just like a copy paste, but worse. Like the knock-off version of google classroom.

The layout can feel confusing. i can still submit and check grades, just wish navigation smoother.

Terrible website would not recommend
it is too controlling, and can get into your files and your personal information. this can and will spread to other devices, causing it to install other installations without permission.

-teacher unknown

As you may know, Canvas is used in collages. But we use it in MIDDLE SCHOOL! This website is also filled with hatred and negativity. It reminds you you have missing work even if it was due LAST QUARTER! It constantly reminds you that you have turned in assignments late, or if they're overdue, no matter the time period.

Instead of ACTUALLY fixing the website's bugs and complexity, they notify you in the "help" section of the website "New updates" that don't even do ANYTHING to fix the site. The makers of canvas would rather make money off of confusing UI rather than fixing the website itself.

Our teachers rely on this site too much, and when we HAVE to do a digital assignment, It's usually ON CANVAS!

2/5 stars, it CAN be improved, but it still isn't good.

Utterly terrible and very frustrating. Kept getting server gateway timeout constantly. Impossible to undertake the course. I logged out and it refused to let me log back in stating it did not recognize my email or password.

I have been a student on and off most of my life to improve my career advancement, most colleges push the use of canvas. I briefly taught in my business setting and find canvas a disgraceful teaching mess. From both a teacher and student point of view canvas is a disgraceful teaching method.

It removes the in-person class room settings and many students need this. In-person minimizes, cheating and you can see more clearly if students are learning or just using ai solvers to complete homework.

Unreal expectations for college students. I recall doing really well in my science and math classes growing up. I swear you study all the information instructors give you and you still end up failing testes. It’s not you, that’s how it’s written. Teachers will tend to use a standard test written by academia and some times it can be no where near the information studied. This unfortunately encourages cheating and canvas’s system is so easily bypass able it’s laughable. I’ve figured out how too, and it’s disgraceful how students are bypassing anti cheat methods which are highly flawed. I got chatgpt to spill the beans on how honor lock works and they use scare tactics to discourage use of another device on a quiz. I highly doubt an extension can “monitor” your whole network. No honorlock is total spy ware and has been sued more than once for 4th amendment rights. Their system is so flawed it’s laughable. Their 1.1k one star reviews only prove me right.

I’m highly disappointed in canvas’s learning system. Students don’t learn. Anyone with a smart phone or laptop separate from their main computer can easily bypass any anit cheat system. No one learns on these things any more and unfortunately the world is pushing canvas. Once I’m done with my 2nd round of education, I’m not continuing it unless my employer wishes to pay me to go back to school.

I’m finding a lot of teachers just republish their courses year to year. They in turn actually do very little teaching. Some professors put together really good online classes while others slap them together last minute. I am so sick of youtube teaching me, I can do that for free in my spare time. Many times my teacher’s lectures are useless and I find my self going to youtube for lessons anyways. I hate to say it but I’ve started joining the cheaters. I put together a “free” canvas “class” to test some scenarios and it’s laughable that everyone is just using ai to pass these classes now. I grew up before computers and ai and can pass classes old school ways. I did that for my first 2 years then ai flagged me and teacher harassed me for a written by hand, went to library and read books then wrote report... and I didn’t feel that was fair. I have honestly joined the cheaters. It’s not that hard to cheat these days. Students just use chat gpt, quizlet, chegg or other sites that post answers. I’ve joined them and you have to be careful when doing so and if teacher says I will be running your report through an ai checker, then you really want to be careful.

What a piece of garbage; significantly more hair-pulling than on Moodle. The makers of Canvas are crooks that embezzle enormous amounts of money from clueless university admins, and the rest of us pay the non-monetary component of the price for it.

Instead of focusing on simplicity, they focus on features that only work on paper. The UI is preposterous. Everything needs more steps than would be required if it were designed properly. Try deleting questions from question banks. There is not enough granularity in the access controls to sufficiently customise for groups of students. The gradebook is not even something you want to consider using.

This monstrosity of a lame excuse for an LMS is not only a poor product, it is harmful. I'm considering a career change based solely on the fact that my university though it wise to replace Moodle with Canvas.

as much as I dont like blackboard I cannot stand canvas. Their AI detection tool for tests is very unreliable and flags the teacher over things such as looking up or itching your face. Also the setup was not the greatest however, all of a sudden the setup changed now i cannot view the side where it says, assignments, attendance, Zoom, etc. I just see the homepage. I hate canvas I hope this company fixes their issues before colleges rely on it!!!

Absolutely terrible company I canceled my membership 4 times and they still charge me $15 monthly. Don't let them have you card information because they will keep stealing your money, I had to change my card which was super inconvenient just to avoid them stealing more

Terrible, unintuitive, complicated, a smorgasbord of drop downs, and links to more links to more links, dozens of sections to get to a simple lesson, bad gateway errors... Lazy teachers love it students hate it.

K12 started using Canvas this yr 25-26. This will be the death of this online learning community. Absolutely the worst online learning environment especially for a kindergarten. The platform we used for 4 years was so simple and easy to find everything, now it's just a mess. Too many ad click ons, of course the 3rd grader hit the to learn more button, redirected out of canvas. Due to canvas we are leaving k12 as soon as their applications are accepted at either of the other schools we applied to. This may work for 7th and on but not for k-5. Whomever chose this program must have money tied into it.

We are on day three of DAOF school using Canvas, and none of my four students have been able to access any live classes, complete a single assignment, and we have spent hours on hold with tech support. It is difficult to navigate, confusing to find work that needs completion, and we get error messages and “This page is temporarily unavailable.”

Feedback on Update and Improvement for the Android Mobile App

It is absolutely vital for users—especially those who create content—to have a smooth and efficient experience. Currently, the Android mobile app feels quite basic and not very user-friendly. Issues like fonts not working properly, templates failing, and having to repeatedly follow the same instructions cause frustration. This disrupts the creative flow and wastes valuable time.

In today’s fast-paced environment, where AI is rapidly improving, having a clunky or primitive app experience makes it hard to keep up and stay productive. This not only causes users to get stuck in their workflow but also discourages them from continuing to invest in or upgrade the product.

Speaking from personal experience, I have lost entire days trying to create just a few simple contacts, despite working on computers my whole life and having it as my profession. This is not where I want to spend my time, and it needs urgent improvement.

Absolutely horrible. The "help" desk refuses to help unless the teacher files an IT ticket due to confidentiality restrictions. The teachers don't have time to submit IT requests so the issues remain problems for years on end -- toggling between different students randomly without the user prompting to change students, loading classes from the prior year only in the drop down, reverting to the prior semester while trying to review the current semester, and disappearing 'grade' in the menu options. These have been issues for 3 years now!!!

There should be negative stars, really, for this kind of dysfunctional product. I have spent more time chatting with equally dysfunctional and useless support than actually getting things done on the platform. I had zero issues with Brightspace and would take it over Canvas any day if given a choice.

why Why WHY would they not put the undo button on the task bar for the text box entry???? I have lost HOURS of work because I've tried to copy/paste what I have written, accidentally deleted it, and do not know where the undo button is. AT ALL. So I leave the page or refresh it to check if I can revert to a previous version. Of course, because of my stupidity, its gone. GONE. WHY IS THE UNDO BUTTON HIDDEN??? WHY DOES CTRL Z NOT WORK??? I wanted to recommend that they make the undo button easier to find/see on their website, but I can't submit an IDEA without logging in and "ranking up". I have been using Canvas for ~5 years now. I wasn't going to rant on there like I am here. They have moderators and probably wouldn't let it through anyways. So why do I need to WAIT 3 DAYS TO SUGGEST AN IDEA??? I don't get it. I can't review them or ask for tech help anywhere else but here, because my institution doesn't have those buttons in their help tab. I don't hate Canvas. Everything else is good or usable. But hiding something as important as an undo button on text entry assignments is beyond me. Please, if anyone sees this, fix it. I don't want to rewrite completed assignments anymore. please.