Affinity Studio now free
This is a deletion.
- they're completely stopping all updates to v2; even image trace won't be coming to it. You might have paid for perpetual access to it 2 months ago, but it has completely stopped. As the world moves on (new chips, new OS features, just general software movement) this will increasingly feel like a second-class experience.
- the new "free" software is a sales funnel into the paid subscription, and will also increasingly have that "second-class" feeling as new pro-only things are added to it. it is also practically guaranteed to feed your work into AI unless you buy pro sometime in the next 5 years
In short, something secure, top class, the "best the company offers" product doesn't exist anymore. What was once there isn't.
Devastated about this. Good for them for making money on the sale to Canva, but still, this is a sad day. Studio is now freemium, in the future probably more and more features (outside of AI) will be added in the subscription, and you will end up with an app full of disabled features and pop-ups encouraging you to subscribe and unlock the new and shiny thing.
There is absolutely nothing in the world that anyone can say to convince me that this is not the end for Affinity. Every single product that went through this ended up being an ad data gathering subscription pushing unusable app for anything useful.
I have both a V1 and V2 license. V2 is probably now useless considering that it will never get any updates. This marks the death of one of the last popular pay once and use forever apps (in the sense that a V3 with new features will never exist).
What a fascinating thread. I bought Affinity Photo and Designer V1 as one-time purchases a few years ago. I didn't upgrade to V2 when those came out. I have continued to occasionally use the V1 apps - I was just in Photo the other day.
To me this is exactly why you would want to buy software licenses as one-time purchases - the company can't rug pull you for what you already bought. If I want, I can keep using the Affinity apps on this machine indefinitely.
It seems a lot of people are really frustrated that they purchased software and now the company is doing something else. Isn't the whole point of purchasing a license for standalone software that you are protected in case the company goes under, or gets bought, or decides to do something else?
Do people think the apps they bought are going away? Or did they expect to get free updates forever for their one-time purchase? Or am I missing something in this announcement?
It's a smart approach imo. They had to get a subscription somehow to support AI features which they need to compete (just usage cost wise you can't do that on a one time fee license).
But since they promised not to go subscription when they got acquired by Canva, making it free with AI as the subscription is a clever solution to not break their promise while still introducing a subscription model.
I think their bet is enough people will want the AI, which I think is correct.
As a long time Affinity user, first reaction was: "see, there is the subscription", but on second thought, fair enough, well played. I'll probably get the AI subscription as well.
I do wonder if over time more features will go into that premium plan, but we'll see.
Edit: It seems like some of the AI stuff runs on device, they are not very clear about what does or doesn't. That makes me change my opinion a bit, as that's just straight up a freemium subscription model.
I feel like everyone is very negative about something that hasn't happened yet. This gives a desktop environment to Canva users, where the revenue actually is. It's both a trojan horse and a usable product. Will everyone's worse fears come true? Maybe, maybe not. Mean time you have an excellent app, for free, and very few software products, free, open source, closed source, perpetual, subscription.... last "forever". They are often obsoleted by some new product, new workflow or just a new OS. Take it for what it is right now.
Awesome, expected Canva were going to jack up the prices or turn it into a subscription after acquisition. A freemium version is very welcome for the rare times I need to use it. No plans to ever be a paying customer myself (sorry Canva), but nice to know it's still being actively developed.
Just noticed the AI feature integrations are locked behind a premium sub, makes sense to go for a wide funnel with a premium free product then up-sell to people who want the AI integration, should turn out to be commercially successful.
Really hoping a Linux version is in the works. Hopefully the exodus from Windows picks up so we can accelerate the timeline for Linux support. (Currently using the amazing https://photopea.com for most image edits on Linux)
After the V2 suite was released a few years ago, I realised I would never get the "old" Affinity product experience back -- the same experience and price-point that made me a great and productive self-taught illustrator / designer.
C'est la vie, all good things must come to an end. I'm glad the original team made it out with a financial reward (from Canva sale)...
Time for someone else to pick up the mantle! [and for everyone else to stop moaning]
Love to see this the day Adobe emailed to say it’s hiking my Photoshop/Lightroom subscription by 50% ($10/mo -> $15/mo)
Many comments here that this "makes sense." Free does not make sense! If I'm not paying for it I'm not the customer anymore.
I was very surprised by this move, because the whole lingo while they were teasing it was giving me much worse vibes than what this ended up being about.
I paid for V1, paid again after they released V2 even though I was on Linux which they didn't support. I did it mostly out of support, and also because the community was making strides to get a decent wine setup working, so I would eventually get back to using it if I ever felt like it.
More diversity in creative software is always nice to have, and it's good to keep challenging the idea that "Adobe is dominant because it's the best solution". Tho I don't feel like Canva is quite the player I'd be rooting for either.
Fortunately, they seem to be handling the existing lifetime licenses a lot better than Autograph did when it got acquired by Maxon.
Overall I think I'm rooting for them. Good luck Affinity!
I looove the fact that we can now seamlessly switch between the Photo, Designer, and Publisher modalities within a single program.
One of the great things about using the Affinity suite for the last few years has been the consistency of design conventions and key commands across all three programs, so of course it makes sense to merge them all!
Whereas Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign all have inherited different commands and conventions from their independent developments and are incongruent.
I'm so impressed by the workflow now. This feels like a tremendous win from a workflow standpoint.
I must say this is a welcome relief from the overpriced Adobe monopoly which I, as a solo dev, simply can no longer justify.
The last suite with this name had a terrible UI. Canva also owns Leonardo which is pretty great so perhaps this will have a decent UI now that they've bought and revamped it.
For those of you puzzled as to how three separate apps (Photo, Designer and Publsher) have become one (Studio), as a long-time user it was always clear that under the hood this was always the case. Indeed such interoperability has clearly been built into the Affinity suite from the ground up.
This is 100 miles away from the interoperability of Adobe's Dynamic Link whereby apps such as Premier and After Effects are 'united' in a manner that feels clunky and forced. Almost all Adobe apps were acquisitions, and most of them are now horrendously long in the tooth. Uniting them seamlessly would be impossible.
I adore Affinity photo for its top to bottom support for high dynamic range images. Editing RAW images is a buttery smooth dream, compared to Photoshop, which feels like I am banging my head against the software.
For context: I own licenses for both Affinity Designer, and the full Affinity 2 suite.
Just tried the new affinity application for a couple hours and it's pretty great. Personas are now studios and as far as I can tell features from all apps are now integrated into one.
Giving this away for free is insane value and I am very glad to have this as a photoshop alternative.
Thoughts on opensource alternatives?
- Inkscape is an obvious one --- there's also https://cenon.info/, perhaps Gravit Designer? Any word on Graphite.rs 's stand-alone desktop version?
- GIMP, Paint.net, Darktable and Krita
- Scribus or LaTeX or Typst
I'm done with this. Open source only from here on out. You can't trust anyone in this day and age to turn not their products into AI pushing garbage.
I haven't seen it mentioned anywhere, but the application bundle on macOS hints at a pretty robust scripting API using Javascript. The functionality doesn't seem to be exposed from what I can see in the app.
/Applications/Affinity.app/Contents/Resources/JSLib
├── application.js
├── artboardinterface.js
├── artboardproperties.js
├── baseboxinterface.js
├── brushfillinterface.js
├── buffer.js
├── collection.js
├── colours.js
...
├── units.js
├── vectorbrush.js
└── visibilityinterface.jsIt seems that the Affinity apps are removed from the Mac App Store? That would be a shame, because they are sandboxed. I don't want yet another app with unfettered access. Of course, I can still download them from my purchases, but I think there will be no updates anymore?
The software I paid money for better not update to this crap.
So did they buy Affinity and all their tools and gave it for free?
Been curious what the Oct 10 announcement would be. It seemed most likely an acquisition since they wanted enough time of not selling existing products to avoid dealing with a month of refunds. Appears Canva bought with it now being a single app that is "free" but paid for premium features. While many may rejoice at a solid free options it's certainly an unfortunate day for those who rely on it. As Canva makes money on people using the paid version so attention will be at making that version more enticing over time and free less. If people all just used the free and not the premium for AI, then they would either start charging for the "free" version or take away features from the free version to make the "choice" easier to upgrade. All in all good for Canva, and good for more casual users who can jump ship any time to free options but would be quite worrisome for those who have looked towards Affinity as the alternative to Adobe.
I’m just happy good design tools are free again, feels like a win for everyone.
This is a simple business decision by Canva. They see the future of creative work is to lean heavily on AI. So all the basic editing functionality is now table stakes. Giving it away for free is a powerful play against Adobe.
Mixed feelings about this. The apps were great and it's always uncomfortable when the future becomes uncertain due to a big acquisition. So far, it seems it could've gone worse. Their business model makes sense. I like that everything got integrated now, because Photo, Designer and Publisher being separate with so much overlap didn't feel natural. Hate the new logo, though... Some elegance was definitely lost.
Despite the mixed feelings I have about this direction, Canva's AI deal seems to be legit. Usually, AI does a fairly limited job when it comes to vector graphics, but this is what I've got with Affinity Studio:
> Generate a playful logo for product named "Serenity" using the style of Robin Hood forest and freedom themes
The result for such a simple prompt is pretty impressive: https://imgur.com/a/xLZlfQM, the produced artifact is already in vector format with tweakable curves, lines, and colors.
Well played, Canva. Maybe Affinity Studio is a smart move in the long run. I think I will be among Pro subscribers.
Wish they would properly support linux - the Affinity products are PAINFUL if not near impossible to get working in wine.
Nothing is free. I think we've all learned that by now. AI issues aside, think about the data you're locking forever when switching to Affinity. As much as we all hate Adobe, their formats are at least reverse-engineered and their specs published. With Canva's new free toy, you don't get that luxury. All of your work and data are basically locked forever in their proprietary format that no open-source software can read. So it's really up to Canva to decide for how long you get to play for free and under what rules.
Using this free desktop app requires Canva sign-in, ok fine, I can stomach that, it's free after all.
Signing in launches a browser to complete the sign-in process, but on macOS it launches Safari, not my OS default browser – this takes extra work to do over just using the `openUrl` call on macOS. Safari is blocked.
Thankfully something on my system redirects the URL opening to pass it to my orgs enforced browser, I sign-in, and then nothing happens. The page says it has launched Affinity, but Affinity is sitting there doing nothing waiting for me to log in.
I realise I'm on a somewhat non-standard setup, but an OAuth login flow is not hard to get right. I've built dozens of these flows in my career and messing it up this much is hard.
Edit:
> To report a bug within the application, click the "?" button in the top-right corner of the workspace. From the panel, select "Report a Bug".
This menu is not accessible until you have signed in. No other method of bug reporting is provided.
This seems … way better than what I expected following the acquisition? What am I missing?
And I assume this is a supplement to (and not a replacement of) the existing Affinity applications?
If you're not paying, you are the product.
I'm disappointed to see so many negative responses to such a good thing to do. I understand where it's coming from, the distrust on progressively de-empowering freemium apps. But if there was a product to gain some trust (or at least the benefit of the doubt) on doing the right thing, and having a fair and balanced approach to monetization, it is Affinity. Same thing they've been doing for years.
I for one, think this is a really nice thing, and that it gives access to really well-made and actual professional-level design tools to a huge swath of people who didn't have it before, be it for personal use or for work. No previously included feature is now part of the subscription, and they've made sure to say they'll be free forever. I see this as a huge win.
Let's aquire software that people love using... and then kill what they love about it!!
I'm confused...this is not the same as Affinity Studio from Serif? Or it is? Their website shows something new: https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/
I hope the older versions (V2) will be maintained for a while… I can't help but worry about the upcoming ensh*ttification — I think it's inevitable that some day some exec at this now large company will come up with innovative ideas for "monetizing those free users" and things will go down the drain as usual.
I would be perfectly fine with paying for continued maintenance of V2.
We see that people people love you Affinity software! Lets buy it and stop doing what people love about it!
IF the new app truly has all the features of V1 and V2 of the affinity apps. And IF it's truly free. Would it would damn sure be nice of them remove the license requirement from the V1 and V2 versions which I both bought and loved. And let users continue to enjoy these pieces of software for years to come without having to sign up for this new program which I don't trust at all. I've used and loved it for close to 10 years now. And it's fantastic software. But I just can't trust software without a proper non-subscription business model. I'm not going back to fucking Adobe and it's ilk.
This is bad news... I liked the Publisher/Designer/Photo apps on my Mac. The presentation of this new 'Canva' acquired product feels like a circus, and roadmap is very unclear also. This feels like it will be the end of a none adobe solution.
Also I paid every upgrade for NOTHING.
Not happy. I recently purchased the whole suite and now not only is it now free (didn't need to purchase it), but it's no longer even what I want. And it doesn't work on iPad until they finish whatever rewrite, when cross-platform + apple pencil niceness was a huge draw.
Sure, it's free -- but it's no longer the same product with the same priorities.
I don't understand this thread at all. I think this is the first time I have seen a thread that talks about something requiring a new account be created at some company, and a nonsensical major change to a product (merging the products into one, optional subscriptions) where the majority of people seem to be saying "thats ok and good luck" to the company. Worse, people who are upset this has happened to software they liked are getting downvoted. These three pieces of software are not the same tool and them all being shoehorned into one UI is just idiotic.
It feels like the thread is being astroturfed.
They removed our software that we paid for from the Mac Store, and everyone is just like "thats fine, good move canva". Serif did a great job of keeping their software working through macOS major version updates. It's another reason many of us paid for their software. That's gone, and people are just cheering them on. It's very confusing.
You can link your V2 store purchases by signing into the app, clicking the dropdown with your name in the top left of the popup window, and clicking on the "Advanced" dropdown
I don't like the new UI. It feels dumbed down.
so basically there's no more incentive to maintain or improve the affinity suite..
I'm surprised people aren't really talking about how this affects Adobe going into the future. Adobe frankly has been hostile to it's users for the past while, this should really shake up the game. Creatives now have access to a pro-level tool for free with the option to pay extra for AI features. This is a clear shot across Adobe's bow and positions Canva to control the creative vertical from professionals to the average person.
Wow, completely free? I wonder how the team plans look like, seems like you need to contact them even for single digit seat counts.
An UI design tab next please, some more players in that space would be nice.
I'm feeling some real hurt seeing this announcement.
I bought the Affinity v1 apps, buying into the vision for a no-BS forever app.
I was surprised to see a v2 app show up a year after I bought into v1 with what I remember was something like a 25% discount. But this was going to be the new forever app, and I understand wanting to get things right on a second pass.
Reading about how v2 will no longer get updates just makes me see red.
Well, that's annoying as I bought a licence about 6 months ago.
They've missed a trick so far not making a Linux version. People have been crying out for ages that Adobe never made a Linux version of Photoshop, and with the whole Windows 11 debacle now and people shifting over it would make perfect sense.
Yet after decades, Gimp still can't compete even with programs built from scratch :D
kind of fun that their fonts are Affinity Serif and Canva Sans
Kind of a bummer. I paid for Affinity tools some time ago, but I guess my license is now worth trash, and if I want to use the new Affinity tools, I need to have "Canva account".
I mean, free tools are good. But I smell a road to enshittification (for example, by offering Affinity for free so you create Canva account, then they push Canva AI or whatever BS to you little by little, and in the end deprecate affinity so you would move to Canva web Pro Ultra Version with 90% off for the first 3 months). Could be wrong, will see I guess.
[Edit] Just to clarify something. It's not like I expect to pay for a license and get updates forever, but from what it seems like from other comments, the original apps are being removed from the App Store, meaning that the "free Affinity" is "Canva Flavored" Affinity, rather than the original tools.
Linux version when
Arf, and me who was hitting that "update later button", now I wish I had updated to the latest version before the removal from the store.
That said, I'll try this when it will become necessary. Affinity tools were great. I downloaded the new Canva version, and although I'm not a fan of the new icons and general look and feel it seems okay. It feels a bit less responsive than the v2, that might be fixed with some "bug fixes & small improvements" releases. I might be just jaded and resigned.
Edit: Actually it is still possible to update.
This sucks. But it also means the door is open for yet another person to come along and make one-time purchase Vector/Pixel/Layout apps.
Won't this end up how Draftsight did? (Free for years but required user details, and then Dassault decided to disable each and every free installation and require a subscription)
Oh this is so sad. I was literally trying to buy a license for Photo the other day and confused as to why. I don’t want a Canva license I don’t want a bloody subscription
Not devastated by this because faith was not put in any product whatsoever. Just time building up on things. Greed eating out some dreams.
This is well timed as my wife has lost her educator status, and we've canceled Adobe Creative Cloud this month as we can't stomach the jump from £400 to £800/yr.
If a product is free, the user is the product.
Why the account tie? Will it phone home to train yet another AI model on my image editing workflows? Will it work air-gapped?
As an Affinity user, I'm interested to try this out (just downloaded). I'm surprised they tried to put it all in one app. Affinity Publisher is quite different from Affinity Photo for example.
Edit: Just checked out the app. They essentially put Affinity Designer, Affinity Photo and Affinity Publisher together in one app, switchable from a tab. Honestly, it's executed well. I hope it stays free—these apps are legitimately useful replacements for their Adobe equivalents.
Reminds me of DBAN/EBAN.
Was the case we had 2 really good options in enterprise data destruction. EBAN with a yearly license scheme, and BLANCCO with a per hard drive wiped license scheme.
BLANCCO buys EBAN, kills the product, but permits DBAN the open source variant to be available permanently, with no modern EBAN features, and no updates.
Of course they did make one change to DBAN, it leaves a small image on wiped hard drives advertising BLANCCO.
And ofc, there was nothing really preventing Blanccos per hard drive license from increasing.
I use both Affinity V2 and Canva. I used Affinity for finicky stuff, and Canva for pointy clicky template based construction when I need something simple, fast.
I detest Canva, despite using it. Everything is advertising for the premium version. And I expect Affinity to go the same way, Canvas elements will (if not already) be integrated, and those elements will in most cases advertise themselves as being paid assets. Eventually it will go the way of DBAN and just be an advertisement for Canva.
I will ride out V2 for as long as it continues to function. Then I will find something else.
This is a tremendous loss.
on macOS or Windows.
This is a sad day, but it was obvious something horrible would happen, since they had pulled the products with zero communication, such a user hostile move to remove products for a month.
And since it will be a freemium model or ad-supported, here comes one more example why we should use and support free software.
I own Affinity products and I used to be able to login to Serif's site to download them. Now that download link seems to have gone. I wish I had archived those images. Not sure if they would keep working though.
I was just looking yesterday for a simple vector editor, will give it a try. Sorry, Inkscape is a total mess to use.
I expressly bought this software (Designer, Photo, Publisher) out of principle, against Adobe's enshittification and monopolisation, and because it was premised on "pay once; own it forever".
This is obviously the 'tech circle of life' in action, but... how depressing...
I've always been guilty of preaching market diversification but sticking with the big(ger) players, but this sort of thing illustrates the need for multiple, viable players that all have good market share, so that – whenever one gets cannibalised and debased into some VC-money-addled marketing funnel – there are others to which people can flock in support/protest
I can't find the "Pricing" button on the webpage anywhere.
I don't want "Free", I want a situation where I can buy and own a perpetual license for the software.
Nooooooo!
I'm a loyal Serif customer and paid for their software. I LOVE Affinity. And I HATE "free" commercial products because they need to extract revenue from subscription services, ads, data selling etc.
This is the first step toward making Affinity become another rental application like Photoshop. Escaping Adobe's predatory business model is exactly why I became a Serif customer in the first place.
When somethings free, I’m suspicious.
I too would really like a linux version of this
On first impression it feels wonky. I have v2 installed for Photo, Design and Publisher and they all feel much better to work with. I guess I can count my blessings and at least be grateful that it's not yet another Electron clusterfuck a la New Outlook
Uhhuh. I think anyone in the tech field can immediately tell where this is going, and I'm not at all excited for it.
1. They silently make it online only. Currently you need to make an account and be online on activation, so they're already one step closer to getting there.
2. They silently ditch the concept of buying and owning Affinity software, but that's okay because it's ~totally free~!
3. As soon as they lock in enough users from how nice and friendly they are, pull the rug. At some point they'll suddenly start locking features behind the pro subscription.
It's textbook at this point.
Unlisted video sent by e-mail to those who subscribed on that mysterious page: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UP_TBaKODlw
AI has now devoured humanity, and not even with entertainment if it was in a proper dystopian way. It's just engorging all the software products we love, accelerating enshitiffication. We just get another fucking subscription. Why can't we have killer robots to fight instead?
I'm daily user of the old 3-piece suite, should I be worried they will be taken away from me in the near future?
Interesting move by this company to expand into the creative suite space...
BUT I'm curious how they'll handle interoperability with existing workflows... Are there import/export paths for PSD, Sketch, Figma... Without that it's just another silo...
ALSO for freelancers and small teams licensing models matter... a subscription tied to an account can be a hurdle if you need to collaborate with clients outside the ecosystem...
Would love to see more clarity on offline use, local file formats and plugin APIs... those details make or break a creative suite...
Really wish they'd do a Linux version... Even an app image or flatpak bundled with working wine would be nice to see.
Is this built with JS / something like Fabric JS? There are some things that feel very similar to a web app that I worked on before. Wondering if there's plans to have a plugin API at some point if it is.
Well. It can now be considered as pure trash. Goodbye, Affinity.
This is a step 1 in the process of enshittification. When the AI bubble bursts, Canva will stop being so generous and they have all cards in place in case they have to stop being nice.
Why did they force the use of Safari to sign into the app? What's the disrespect with the user's browser of choice (and one that already has the valid token)?
Freeium mostly sucks. Escape before they squeeze every drop of blood out of you. There is a cost to everything that is how the reality get's in.
Does anyone know what will happen with Affinity for iOS?
The current apps are all released by Serif but have been made fully free recentyly.
So discontinued or what? Would be a real tragedy if it is...
Well, time to donate more money to Krita, Inkscape, etc.
> "Sign up to download"
No, thank you.
Any app that requires an account just to run a totally-local app, is also a company that can unilaterally deny your ability to run said software on your own computer for whatever reason they want.
Thanks, but no thanks.
If I install it, it should be mine to do whatever the hell I want to do with it, online OR OFFLINE.
Are there any alternatives out there that are still subscription-free and AI-free?
I'm not sure that's good news actually.
If you're not the customer - you're the product.
Oh great, I just finished my year long move from Photoshop to Affinity Photo…
Now I have to start over again? Ugghhh…
So basically "Canva Desktop"?
so this means that the linux-wine version will not stop working after some random update i assume?
I just want to buy a product and not have it constantly upsell me. Like what Affinity was before. Please.
…and they still don't have proper Devanagari support.
If possible, please make a Linux version.
Just in case any Canva engineer is reading this.
Still doesn't work on Linux :(
Adobe shitting their pants r n
On Mac, the app size when installed is 3.5GB!?? How can we get such a size?
Seems much better than was feared, though I haven't yet downloaded and tried the new version and there's still plenty of room for things to decay in the future.
It requiring an account (and thus, internet connectivity) to use is offputting, though. That is a prime enabler of enshittification, since it allows Canva to force updates that users may not necessarily desire. Hopefully it's easy to reverse engineer so old versions can be preserved and remain functional.
I'm not disappointed at how far Affinity has pushed the baseline for graphic design software up until this point for me with V1 and V2. I'll stay tentatively hopeful that we don't see this backslide in V3 even though i'm not expecting the same development velocity for new baseline features outside of the subscription now.
I'm not that hopeful though.. with freemium, everything is subject to be clawed back slowly into a subscription if the subscription offering fails to perform well enough.
Can't figure out if any new non-AI features were added?
I switched to Affinity as part an ongoing effort to "de-Adobe-ize." I had no idea that they were owned by Canva.
This could be good news, but as someone who paid for a perpetual license, I'm worried that some of the features I paid a one-time license for will eventually move to a Canva subscription model :(
The reason that worries me is that when I look at the feature chart, you've got "Affinity" compared with "Affinity + Canva Premium Plans."
Subscriptions make sense for certain services. I'm not opposed to a subscription model in general. But for creative tools, I LOATHE subscriptions. It means that my creative work is now held hostage by rent-seekers who require me to pay them monthly fees to be able to access my art work. NO!
So if I ever need a Canva Premium plan in the future to be able to use certain Affinity features that I've PAID FOR then fuck them, I'm abandoning them as fast I abandoned Adobe after being an Adobe user/customer for 30+ years.
I bought all the Affinity programs after ditching Adobe, which I'd used for 20 years or so. I'm a professional designer, and even though most of my work is in Figma these days, it's nice having dedicated bitmap editing and document design applications.
I bought (two different versions of) these apps specifically because they weren't a SaaS suite with a predatory monthly subscription model, and a constant barrage of cross-promotion and integration with their other products.
Now that Figma is public, it's rapidly become another fully enshittified SaaS suite whose only selling point is that there's nothing better out there for now. Affinity is now pivoting in the same direction. What a time to be a designer!
The entire Affinity Suite is now reduced to bait on a hook for an AI subscription service. This is enshittification. This arrangement will also undermine Affinity's credibility as a serious tool for work (and play!).
I just want to pay for nice software made by thoughtful people like a normal human.
Sooo, the main reason we looked at Affinity as an alternative to the Adobe suite was the fact that it was a one-time purchase without forced updates or all the extra garbage Adobe obsessively adds that slows down each new version. Affinity was nice but just not quite there, in my opinion, as a daily driver for print design and pre-press.
Once they were bought by Canva, whose software I find atrocious, I gave up on it.
My problem with this is that it seems like a gateway to being forced to pay monthly, Adobe-style. Or else what they're really selling are the AI tools. Just sell me a solid piece of software I can keep using forever offline. I can still do all my design work in Illustrator CS6 if I want to haul out a 15 year old laptop. Sell me a version of that for Apple Silicon and I'll happily pay for it.
Right so people who said they were going to merge the products together and release it free where right on the money.
It being free means it'll eventually get enshittified though.
Oh well, I just bought V2. What worries me however is that it already used an account instead of a license key like V1...
wow, if they add Good Enough™ video editing I can probably cancel my Adobe CC subscription
Bought the Affinity Studio license less than a year ago and I'm feeling incredibly ripped off right now. So much so that I'm going to cancel my Canva subscription. When you do things like this, Canva, you are sending a loud and clear signal to me that even though I paid a lot of money for your product, I am STILL just a product to you and not a customer, and thus can no longer trust any of your offerings.
I'm so sick of sellouts.
Awesome—I even used to pay for it.
If I have to "sign up" then I don't really consider it free. Maybe still a good deal for some who need it, but I won't casually try this out like I would if I could just do it anonymously.
I've been a long-time Affinity Suite user - starting with the 1.x versions and later migrating to 2.x. I recently tried the new Affinity Studio (Affinity 3.x), and one change immediately kills productivity: the artboard background color is now pitch black.
Here's why that matters. The artboard background isn't part of a design - it’s a neutral filler color meant to visually separate artboards, much like the wall color in an art gallery. When the background is pure black, darker designs blend into it, making it almost impossible to distinguish artboard boundaries. The result? A confusing, visually fatiguing workspace.
Previous Affinity versions got this right: they used a neutral grey, a tried-and-true choice that rarely clashed with any design content.
Sadly, this feels like yet another case of form over function. I can easily imagine someone in-house thinking the black background "looked cool", but that aesthetic decision severely compromises usability - and says a lot about where priorities lie.
Canva's acquisition of Affinity gives off the same uneasy vibe as Broadcom buying VMware. Great tools, potentially questionable stewardship.
Side/relevant (?) note, earlier this month, serif had made affinity free (at least for iPad if not for others as well). Many had speculated a v3 or something coming up… but I suppose “everything is free” is pretty nice too?
(Idk why everyone’s disappointed, it seems clear that canvas hopes the AI is good enough to get people to fork over their money. That’s… alright, as of now?)
I would have rather paid for this product as is and kept paying.
Isn't everyone using Rive these days?
More TelemetryWare? No thanks!
Ran it for the first time, already made 16 network requests. [1] Not too bad at all.
They seem to have removed Affinity from the Mac App Store.
For those who want a lifetime license instead of freemium, Amandine* is similar to Affinity ($30 on Mac Store).
(I have no connection to either app).
* Edit: It's Amadine, not Amandine (my typo)
The entire popularity of Affinity was licenses you could buy once and use forever and not have subscriptions or anything over you.
Now it's "free" with an account and an optional subscription. Basically the opposite of why everyone supported them. Good luck, folks.
seems like Canva want to take adobe market share
Another one bites the dust.
https://downloads.affinity.studio/Affinity.dmg
thank me later.
>Affinity Studio now free
I'd love to have an actually free alternative to the offerings from those rapacious thugs over at Adobe.
/RANT
But this isn't actually free. Rather than paying with currency, you pay with your PII and, presumably, your attention as you're relentlessly marketed to by Canva and by whomever they decide to sell your PII.
This is all too common and folks seem to be okay with it for some unknown reason. If you walked into an art supply store, grabbed the stuff you wanted/needed and headed to the cashier with cash and they refused to sell you anything unless you provided them with your name, phone number, email address, etc., etc., etc. you'd likely walk out without purchasing anything. [N.B.: Yes, Radio Shack always asked for that info, but didn't require it for purchases.]
Yet it seems that selling your personal details and attention is perfectly fine online.
What's more, since you must have a valid "account" with Canva to use their "free" offering, you are also subject (generally without recourse) to changes in the licensing/subscription models and they can take it away whenever they feel like it. What could go wrong? It's not like that's ever been an issue, right?
I'd love to use Affinity Studio. But I won't. Because the price is too high for me.
I'd note that these sorts of shenanigans aren't limited to Canva -- far from it. It's just one more vendor contributing to the further enshittification of the tech sphere. And more's the pity.
/RANT
Why is/isn't it too "expensive" for you? (Note, this is a real question, not a poke at anyone.)
Edit: Fixed prose. Added to rant.
I got the email just now about this. I was happy to pay real money for good software as I had done for Affinity V1 and would have upgraded to V3… but now it’s free because we are the business now.
With a big dollop of AI slop on top.
Every single time some acquisition happens, this happens.
I am more than happy to pay good money for quality software to support a business so it doesn’t need to resort to this. Even a monthly subscription would have been preferable.
That is fantastic. Paid for the affinity products when they first came out.
Absolutely great product, I hate Adobe with a passion you wouldn’t believe.
The only problem is in time it will probably become paid, as most things do. Oh well, then I’ll just uninstall.
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tldr;
It is all apps combined in one. It is free. Requires Canva account. AI features require Canva Premium subscription. No iPad app (yet). Still missing RTL support.
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what people actually want: to pay the ridiculously cheap $20/mo or whatever it is for Photoshop, but to use whichever backend they want for generative AI, not the other way around.
can't believe this. once paid $50 - but still a steal at that price.
now glad people can unleash their creativity.
>Sign up to download
Into the trash it goes.
I opened an SVG file, copy-pasted a shape, exported the file and the new shape was wrapped in a transform tag, which was absolutely unnecessary. Won't be using this.
Once there was a great app, Gravit Designer. It produced the cleanest SVG markup. Too bad Corel murdered it.
Well, I downloaded the Mac app, and here's what I don't like:
- Goodness gracious, that icon. And 3.5GB?????
- Requires a login (so I suppose no disconnected operation)
- Seems to jumble together the vector, bitmap and publishing apps (which I very much prefer to have as separate things)
Mostly everything I've been able to try in 30 minutes seems to work, but a 3.5GB app is a sad sign of the times.
Will most likely keep using the old versions until they die on me, especially on the iPad.
I used Affinity for several years, so to add some background here:
Serif is the company that originally built this software.
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2014–2024
Serif developed the Affinity suite, a collection of three independent desktop apps sold with a one-time payment model:
- Affinity Designer: vector graphic design (Adobe Illustrator equivalent)
- Affinity Photo: digital image editing (Adobe Photoshop equivalent)
- Affinity Publisher: print and layout design (Adobe InDesign equivalent)
They were solid, professional tools without subscriptions like Adobe, a big reason why many designers loved them.
-------
2024
Canva acquired Serif.
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2025 (today)
The product has been relaunched. The three apps are now merged into a single app, simply called Affinity, and it follows a freemium model.
From what I’ve tested, you need a Canva account to download and open the app (you can opt out of some telemetry during setup).
The new app has four tabs:
- Vector: formerly Affinity Designer
- Pixel: formerly Affinity Photo
- Layout: formerly Affinity Publisher
- Canva AI: a new, paid AI-powered section
Screenshot https://imgur.com/a/h1S6fcK
Hope can help!