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Canva Relaunches Affinity as Free All-in-One Design App

o9p0 said:
I look at it differently.

There is no long term... the time is now. Users have long expected workflow enhancements in their Affinity Suite (those that AI provides). Those features are now here, but you have to pay for them on a subscription basis. It doesn't matter that it's only $10/month. It's still a subscription, and subscriptions are still the EXACT reason why Affinity was able to emerge and gain a loyal customer base in the first place.

I have been using Affinity 1.0 for four years, which has been mostly sufficient. Four years times 12 months is 48 months. I paid $214 for the suite. At roughly $4.40 per month, that is 44% the cost of the current subscription, making the "new features" twice the cost.

For me, they are doubling the cost while adding the most hated, angst-inducing aspect of software "ownership" in the modern software-for-hire business model: Subscriptions. I'd gladly pay TWICE the price of what I did to NOT have that feeling, which ironically, would make my outlay close to their subscription rate.

Any way you look at it, it's what they said they wouldn't do.
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All the features you had before are now free. The features that require them to use a server to create for you costs money. This make complete sense and is there any company you can point to that is giving you free online AI generated image as well as generative AI functionality? I am guessing the answer will be no because it costs money to run servers and it costs a lot more money to run servers for millions of people. I think Canva is banking on their entire eco system which is how you can justify giving this software away. You can continue to use the 3 apps now in one for free. Seems like a pretty good deal to me. Not sure where you get they are doubling the cost as there is zero cost for the features plus new ones you did not have before, making it not just a reformation on how the software works but new and improved features. You CAN if you want to pay for AI features and only AI features. There is no other non AI features locked behind this paywall.

Canva Affinity promised to have perpetual licenses at an affordable price. You have a perpetual license at the price of FREE.

Not sure I have seen this much complaining about free stuff since Steve Jobs gave everyone a U2 album for free!
 
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splifingate said:
"What if I prefer to use the Affinity V2 suite? Will it get updates?
That’s totally fine. Your Affinity V2 license (via Serif) remains valid and Serif will continue to keep activation servers online. But please note that these apps won’t receive future updates.
For the best experience, we recommend using the new Affinity by Canva app."

affinity.serif.com

Affinity Support & Learning | Help for Existing Users

Need help with your Affinity apps? Access guides, tutorials, and updates for Photo, Designer, and Publisher—all the support you need in one place.
affinity.serif.com affinity.serif.com
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Regarding activation servers I have heard direct from Affinity staff that if the online activation servers were going to be taken offline they would release a method to let you continuing using the old app without needing to contact the activation server.
 
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lostPod said:
I asked Affinity support a while ago if they were ever going to add AI to the app. The support tech stated that they weren’t interested in AI. Looks like their idea has changed.
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yeah crazy how things change. Pretty sure I remember Steve Jobs not being very pro stylus aka Apple Pencil.

  1. At an iOS 4 event in 2010, when discussing tablet design, he stated: "If you see a stylus, they blew it". This was in the context of the iPad, where he felt the device's interface should be intuitive enough to not require an extra pointing device for basic navigation.
theerimatheia said:
Generative content is not included in Affinity. I had to use Photoshop 2026.
I am really trying.
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You would need to use Canva servers, that costs money just as it does with Photoshop
 
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wonderings said:
Regarding activation servers I have heard direct from Affinity staff that if the online activation servers were going to be taken offline they would release a method to let you continuing using the old app without needing to contact the activation server.
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I certainly hope so.

2.6.5 is not a hill I would choose to die-upon, but (warts-and-all) it certainly does many excellent tricks....
 
JMalone said:
I’m always up for affordable software but Affinity and their dodgy campaigns and toxic fan boys are a big turn off, it is bad enough their UI is worse than catching an STD. STDs spread for free too.
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Exactly. I will keep Affinity here (for tests) - backup app.
The toxic hype is strange for me.

I am GenX and this kind of marketing shows some kind of strangeness.
I don't simply follow trends.
 
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theerimatheia said:
Exactly. I will keep Affinity here (for tests) - backup app.
The toxic hype is strange for me.

I am GenX and this kind of marketing shows some kind of strangeness.
I don't simply follow trends.
Click to expand...
I guess these types of apps are not ones you make your living with. Those "icky" feelings go quickly out the window when you actually make money from the apps. Use what is best for your needs. It is really that simple.
 
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theerimatheia said:
Exactly. I will keep Affinity here (for tests) - backup app.
The toxic hype is strange for me.

I am GenX and this kind of marketing shows some kind of strangeness.
I don't simply follow trends.
Click to expand...
I use Adobe professionally and there honestly isn't a replacement. I use Affinity as a hobby and can see myself using it professionally if I was more into graphics design or print rather than photography.
I have nothing nice to say about Affinity, but merely mentioning I prefer LR/PS...they kind of don't know how to address it. Mostly because hobbyist don't know how pros use products.
 
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beermode said:
I use Adobe professionally and there honestly isn't a replacement. I use Affinity as a hobby and can see myself using it professionally if I was more into graphics design or print rather than photography.
I have nothing nice to say about Affinity, but merely mentioning I prefer LR/PS...they kind of don't know how to address it. Mostly because hobbyist don't know how pros use products.
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I use Adobe professionally as well and like you would not replace Adobe with Affinity.... yet. They are on the right path and will give Adobe something to think about for sure. In the print world I can see this becoming disruptive considering how many non profits do creative work and at the same time are always looking to save money. This is free software that is almost as good as Adobe right now and for simply design this will work just as good for them as Adobe would. It's the back end stuff pros need and use that is not needed for most. The more people using Affinity will force pro users to have Affinity as well as Adobe. And in time if Adobe does not navigate to address what Canva is doing we could see a massive shift just as we have seen in the past when Quark or Corel got knocked of their thrones when they dominated their respective markets.
 
wonderings said:
I use Adobe professionally as well and like you would not replace Adobe with Affinity.... yet. They are on the right path and will give Adobe something to think about for sure. In the print world I can see this becoming disruptive considering how many non profits do creative work and at the same time are always looking to save money. This is free software that is almost as good as Adobe right now and for simply design this will work just as good for them as Adobe would. It's the back end stuff pros need and use that is not needed for most. The more people using Affinity will force pro users to have Affinity as well as Adobe. And in time if Adobe does not navigate to address what Canva is doing we could see a massive shift just as we have seen in the past when Quark or Corel got knocked of their thrones when they dominated their respective markets.
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What will force pros to use Affinity? What backend stuff is useless to most people that somehow still forces pros to switch to Affinity? That really seems critically unaware but at the same time forcing a square peg in a round hole.
There is nothing noteworthy on the front end to make people switch. I am not going to switch from Adobe to Affinity at the costs of workflow and asset management for maybe a couple of front end features. Without a workflow solution, very few productive pros will switch.
 
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AMR.png


...for those who appreciate the design of the new Affinity logo, you can easily "extract" the font called "Affinity Serif Variable" from the HTML pages of the official website. Just for fun, here it is...
 

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theerimatheia said:
Exactly. I will keep Affinity here (for tests) - backup app.
The toxic hype is strange for me.

I am GenX and this kind of marketing shows some kind of strangeness.
I don't simply follow trends.
Click to expand...

It’s as old as time. In the 90s when Paint Shop Pro came out it was the $50 competitor to Photoshop. It was a good app and I learned it before Photoshop, but it was not going to compete with Photoshop. It had very enthusiastic fan boys though.

Corel Photo had its enthusiasts. GIMP has always had its toxic fan boys who believe it can replace Photoshop.

Affinity and its fan boys are just repeating this same cyclical behaviour. It’s super hard to displace Photoshop. You can’t do it by reinventing the wheel because Photoshop IS the wheel and it is always far ahead of its competition.

The Knoll brothers were creative professionals and they knew exactly what a photo editor should look like and feel like when they created Photoshop. That look and feel has MOSTLY remained unchanged for years because there was no need for rejigging it around.
 
TheColtr said:
As someone who actually does graphic design as part of my job, I have both V2 of Affinity Suite and Creative Cloud Pro. I'm primarily in Illustrator/InDesign from Adobe and Designer/Publisher from Affinity. As a long time Mac user I like Affinity more, it just seems to run better on Apple Silicon. Both have their upsides and downsides.

The AI stuff is a good step, Adobe has some really interesting AI tools, but for me what would make me a full time Affinity user is if they integrated Canva's asset library into Affinity. My company already pays for Canva premium, and canva is making it more and more difficult to export just a single asset. Let me search for, and add, canva assets to my designs.
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What can you do on publisher
 
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