Xara
Xara is a Berlin-based software design company offering Xara Cloud, a browser-based SaaS editor that lets marketers, sales teams, and real-estate professionals create branded visual content and business documents without design expertise. It complements desktop design suites with AI auto-branding, brand management, and team collaboration.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded1981
- HeadquartersBerlin, Germany
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What Xara does
Xara GmbH is a privately held, Berlin-based software design company founded in 1981 that has evolved from a desktop vector-graphics vendor into a hybrid desktop-plus-SaaS business. The core product, Xara Cloud, is a browser-based drag-and-drop editor for marketers and sales teams to produce branded visual content — social media graphics, presentations, brochures, flyers, and real-estate listings — without design expertise. The platform layers XaraIQ auto-branding AI, BrandSpaces centralized brand-asset management, real-time multi-user collaboration, document transformation (PDF editing, repackaging into presentations), and integrations with Google Drive, Dropbox, Microsoft OneDrive, Word, PowerPoint, and major social networks. A parallel desktop product line (Designer Pro+, Web Designer+, Photo & Graphic Designer+) is sold as perpetual licenses and continues to receive major releases (Version 25 in August 2025).
Xara monetizes through three streams: recurring Xara Cloud subscriptions (monthly and annual tiers, with a 14-day no-credit-card trial and a Teams edition starting at $5.95/user/month), perpetual desktop licenses with optional upgrades, and a 20% recurring affiliate commission program via Refersion. The go-to-market is primarily self-serve product-led growth on cloud.xara.com, augmented by an enterprise direct-sales motion and a real-estate vertical wedge that includes MLS integration, AI Marketing Workers, AI Social Media Manager, and Playbooks automated listing campaigns. Named customers include Keller Williams, IBM Client Innovation Center Europe, FedEx, TeamViewer, Ricoh, Viking Cloud, Strategy of Things, and Cyber Guards. The company employs 11-50 people, is GDPR-compliant, stores data on AWS EMEA SARL in Luxembourg, and has raised a single disclosed funding round of €3 million from BELLEVUE Investments & Co in 2018 to launch Xara Cloud.
Xara firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Xara
- Legal name
- Xara GmbH
- Website
- https://xara.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 1981
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Short description
- Xara is a Berlin-based software design company offering Xara Cloud, a browser-based SaaS editor that lets marketers, sales teams, and real-estate professionals create branded visual content and business documents without design expertise. It complements desktop design suites with AI auto-branding, brand management, and team collaboration.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Xara industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Graphic Design Software
- NAICS
- Software Publishers (5132)
- SIC
- Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Industry-Specific Low-Code Platforms (Vertical App Platforms) (HDAEAKAL)
- akta.pro secondary industry
- Data App Builders (Forms, Portals & Internal Tools) (HDAEAKAK)
Keywords
Where Xara is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Berlin
- HQ country
- Germany
- HQ region
- Europe
Offices2 records
Markets served
Xara business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Technology or R&D, Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure, Operations
Revenue model
- Xara Cloud Subscriptions: Monthly or annual subscription plans for Xara Cloud platform with tiered pricing based on features and user seats. Trial available with no credit card required.
- Desktop Software Sales: Perpetual license purchases for desktop applications including Designer Pro+, Web Designer+, and Photo & Graphic Designer+. One-time purchase model with optional upgrades.
- Affiliate Commissions: 20% recurring commission on new customer subscriptions, up to $70 per sale through the affiliate program.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Subscription | Monthly | Xara Cloud subscription with core features |
| Subscription | Annual | Xara Cloud annual subscription |
| Subscription | Monthly | Xara for Teams edition |
| One time/ perpetual license | Pay-as-you-go | Desktop software perpetual licenses |
| Other | Pay-as-you-go | Affiliate program |
Go-to-market motion1 record
Distribution channels5 records
Marketing channels8 records
Xara product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Xara develops and sells design software for marketers, sales teams, and real estate professionals. Its core offering is Xara Cloud, a browser-based SaaS platform that lets non-designers produce branded marketing and sales content, collaborate in real time, and manage brand assets centrally, complemented by perpetual-license desktop applications (Designer Pro+, Web Designer+, Photo & Graphic Designer+).
Product overview
Xara offers a dual product strategy combining cloud-based SaaS design tools with professional desktop applications. The core cloud platform, Xara Cloud, provides browser-based design capabilities for marketers to create branded content with automatic styling and team collaboration features. The desktop product line includes Designer Pro+ (comprehensive design suite), Web Designer+ (website creation), and Photo & Graphic Designer+ (photo editing). Industry-specific solutions target real estate with AI-powered marketing automation through Playbooks, AI Marketing Workers, and AI Social Media Manager. The Xara for Teams edition adds enterprise collaboration features including brand management via BrandSpaces, digital asset management, and real-time multi-user editing. A developer API enables third-party platform integration, while the Virtual Assistant provides AI-driven content generation services.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- Xara Cloud: Browser-based design and marketing content platform for creating and collaborating on branded content including social media graphics, presentations, and business documents.
- Xara Designer Pro+
- Xara Web Designer+
- Xara Photo & Graphic Designer+
- Xara API
- Xara Virtual Assistant
- BrandSpaces
- XaraIQ
- Xara Elements
Products and services
- Xara Cloud Browser-based SaaS design platform that lets marketers and business users create branded visual content (social graphics, presentations, flyers, brochures) with real-time collaboration, automatic brand styling via XaraIQ, and document transformation capabilities. Targets marketers, sales teams, and real estate professionals.
- Xara Designer Pro+ Desktop application combining desktop publishing, web design, photo editing, and graphic design with vector graphics capabilities and Microsoft compatibility. Sold as a perpetual license for individual designers and creative professionals.
- Xara Web Designer+ Desktop application for designing and launching websites, portfolios, and personal sites without coding requirements. Sold as a perpetual license to individuals and small businesses.
- Xara Photo & Graphic Designer+ Desktop application for image retouching, social media post creation, and graphics editing with integrated photo and illustration tools. Sold as a perpetual license for individual creators and small businesses.
- Xara for Teams Team and business edition of Xara Cloud that adds advanced brand management, multi-user collaboration, team member management, guest contributors, real-time commenting, and device access. Starting at $5.95/user/month with a 30-day free trial.
- BrandSpaces Centralized brand management platform within Xara Cloud that automatically applies corporate logos, color schemes, and fonts to every document via XaraIQ technology, and provides a digital asset management portal for storing brand assets.
- Xara API Developer API enabling third-party platforms to integrate Xara's content creation and management capabilities into their own applications and workflows.
- Xara Virtual Assistant AI-powered content creation and publishing service that automatically generates and distributes branded content for users on a recurring basis.
- Xara Elements Creative asset library offering high-quality templates, vectors, images, and design tools that extend Xara's desktop and cloud products with ready-made professional design assets.
Quantifiable outcome
- 52,469 businesses transformed their brand experience in one year
- +2 more outcomes
Companies that use Xara
Customer profileNamed customers8 records
Segments5 records
Ideal customer profiles4 records
Xara technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- Yes
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration13 records
AI capability7 records
Feature6 records
Xara partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Five partnerships are on record, tiered core.
- MAGIX Software GmbHcoreMAGIX Software GmbH is part of the Xara corporate group, both headquartered in Berlin. The companies share operational infrastructure and resources.
- GooglecoreIntegration partnership allowing users to sign in with Google credentials, store and retrieve documents from Google Drive, and use Google Fonts on Xara websites. Data stored in Amazon Web Services EMEA SARL, Luxembourg.
- DropboxcoreIntegration allowing users to sign in with Dropbox credentials and store/retrieve documents from Dropbox via OAuth authentication.
- MicrosoftcoreIntegration allowing users to sign in with Microsoft credentials and store/retrieve documents from Microsoft OneDrive. Xara also offers Word and PowerPoint integrations.
- Social Media Platforms (Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube)corePublishing integrations allowing users to share and distribute content directly to social media platforms from Xara Cloud.
Scale indicators4 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights6 records
Xara competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Canva: Canva is the dominant consumer/SMB marketing design SaaS platform, offering drag-and-drop creation of social graphics, presentations, and marketing materials. It is Xara's most direct and largest-scale competitor in the marketing content creation space.
- Marq (formerly Lucidpress): Marq is a brand templating and lockable design platform that lets enterprises distribute on-brand marketing collateral to distributed teams. It closely mirrors Xara's BrandSpaces/Xara for Teams value proposition around brand management and team content creation.
- Visme: Visme is a design platform focused on presentations, infographics, and marketing visuals for business users. It targets the same non-designer marketer persona as Xara Cloud with comparable template-driven content creation.
- VistaCreate (formerly Crello): VistaCreate is Vista's SMB-focused online design tool for social media graphics, marketing materials, and documents. It is a close functional peer to Xara Cloud and targets an overlapping SMB/marketer customer base.
- Piktochart: Piktochart provides a drag-and-drop platform for creating infographics, reports, presentations, and marketing visuals. It targets the same non-designer business user as Xara with overlapping use cases.
- Desygner: Desygner is a multi-platform design tool for marketing materials, social media graphics, and documents with a focus on SMBs and distributed teams. It is comparable to Xara in target customer, feature set, and PLG model.
- Stencil: Stencil is a lightweight graphic design tool for marketers, bloggers, and small businesses to quickly create images for marketing and social media. It overlaps with Xara Cloud's SMB persona and template-driven approach.
- Snappa: Snappa is a graphic design SaaS for creating marketing visuals, blog graphics, and social media images without design experience. It serves the same SMB/marketer segment as Xara with a comparable simplicity-first positioning.
Broad incumbents
- Adobe Express: Adobe Express is Adobe's lightweight, template-driven design offering aimed at non-designers creating marketing assets. It competes directly with Xara Cloud while leveraging Adobe's broader Creative Cloud ecosystem, Firefly AI, and enterprise distribution.
- Microsoft Designer: Microsoft Designer is Microsoft's AI-powered design tool integrated with Microsoft 365, targeting business users for marketing graphics and social media content. As a free bundled offering, it represents a structural pricing threat to Xara Cloud.
Market position
Strengths4 records
Weaknesses4 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks5 records
Key highlights6 records
Customer concentration
Xara social profiles
Digital presenceXara compliance and trust
Trust signalCompliance1 record
Xara financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Xara leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles3 records
Xara funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds1 record
Investors1 record
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Xara M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Xara
What does Xara do?
Xara develops and sells design software for marketers, sales teams, and real estate professionals. Its core offering is Xara Cloud, a browser-based SaaS platform that lets non-designers produce branded marketing and sales content, collaborate in real time, and manage brand assets centrally, complemented by perpetual-license desktop applications (Designer Pro+, Web Designer+, Photo & Graphic Designer+).
Is Xara a public or private company?
Xara is a private company. It is classified as venture growth investor backed and is currently operating.
When was Xara founded?
Xara was founded in 1981. It employs 11 to 50 people.
Where is Xara based?
Xara is headquartered in Berlin, Germany, in the Europe region.
How does Xara make money?
Three revenue lines are on record. Xara Cloud Subscriptions are the primary driver. The others are desktop Software Sales and affiliate Commissions.
Who are Xara's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Canva, Marq (formerly Lucidpress), Visme, VistaCreate (formerly Crello), Piktochart, Desygner, Stencil and Snappa. Broad incumbents are Adobe Express and Microsoft Designer.
Does Xara have an API?
Yes. Xara offers an API that allows developers to power up their platform's content. The Xara API enables integration with the Xara Cloud platform for content creation and management. Developer documentation is at www.xara.com/xara-api.
What industry is Xara in?
Xara's product category is Graphic Design Software. Its primary akta.pro industry code is HDAEAKAL, Industry-Specific Low-Code Platforms (Vertical App Platforms), with a secondary code of HDAEAKAK, Data App Builders (Forms, Portals & Internal Tools). Its NAICS code is 5132 and its SIC code is 7372.