As others mentioned, Affinity apps are great and affordable!
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yea, it's not just companies. i'm an art director/designer and have been using adobe for the last 20 years. mostly ps, ai and id, but some others at times. every alternative that was presented as the adobe killer or replacer doesn't hold up on many levels. this is my subjective opinion of course, but hey)
and i completely agree with you on the subscription model — it completely sucks!
Acrobat. If Affinity did an Acrobat clone, it'd be curtains for Adobe as they get so much revenue from their subscription model of Acrobat.
In that case you haven't had to do much then. Within a few hours it is easy to see why Adobe is still the best in that product sector.
Affinity App's can't do some of the most basic things, even after promising them 4 years ago. Integration between the apps is also a joke. Each App has different Keyboar shortcuts for the most basic common things. THey are no intuitive either. They have at least 5 ways of creating a gradient - none of them joined up or make sense.
They are good, but not good enough to replace CC just yet.
I cut out all my other subscriptions, except this. I use at work, and at home, as I have a Circut, and make graphics, signs, and shirts for personalized gifts for family and friends. I have affinity too, but just can't get used to the difference in how all the tools work to switch at this point.
Every company would love to have a guaranteed revenue stream. Just think if you had to pay a fee to drive your car everyday, or a fee to own anything, and you are always paying, and not saving a dime because everyone needs their slice of the pie all the time. This is the world I see in the future, not the world as I know it, and I fear for those who are going to live life not owning anything, but life itself is a subscription.
Every company would love to have a guaranteed revenue stream. Just think if you had to pay a fee to drive your car everyday, or a fee to own anything, and you are always paying, and not saving a dime because everyone needs their slice of the pie all the time. This is the world I see in the future, not the world as I know it, and I fear for those who are going to live life not owning anything, but life itself is a subscription.
When I stopped paying for the Adobe garbage, I did find it difficult to get to grips with Affinity but after a few hours I found the Affinity Suite of apps so much better than Adobe, the only way I would use Adobe again would be if I was forced to at gunpoint and if I downloaded it from a torrent site so I don’t have to give a single penny to Adobe.
Affinity has done EVERYTHING I used to do in Photoshop, 100x better and I haven’t found myself missing it at all
Perhaps if more people bought Affinity stuff then they would have the resources to make them just as good or better than Adobe stuff. I agree, I’m not a using Affinity stuff in a professional manner but surely if people like yourself got in touch with them and said something like “Come on, put X and Y into Affinity Photo and X, Y and Z into Affinity Designer and I would move to your programs then I think they would if enough people said it.
As long as you have to exchange files with other design professionals, Adobe is the de facto standard. The same way Microsoft Office is unavoidable for most corporations.
There are cases where individual artists can get away with using other programs. But if you need to collaborate with others, you eventually have to all use the same software. This is coming from the guy who was a fierce FreeHand supporter forced to switch to Illustrator.
Lol Adobe. Who likes to get ripped off? *raises hand* 
To anyone using these overpriced half baked bloatware from a company with zero human centered support:
-For prototyping: Figma > * > XD
-For video editing: Final Cut + Hitfilm or Motion, etc > After
-Illustration & Photo editing: Affinity Designer & Photo (it has some quirks but it's as powerful and their support is stellar)
Do your pocket and Mac a favor and run away from Adobe.
To anyone using these overpriced half baked bloatware from a company with zero human centered support:
-For prototyping: Figma > * > XD
-For video editing: Final Cut + Hitfilm or Motion, etc > After
-Illustration & Photo editing: Affinity Designer & Photo (it has some quirks but it's as powerful and their support is stellar)
Do your pocket and Mac a favor and run away from Adobe.
Tell you what, use Figma's collaboration for free, then go back to Adobe's.
Since XD they couldn't even get cloud collaboration right.
The only reason I have stayed with Adobe is this is what I have used since high school and collage. I have used the Adobe Suite since 2007 and its just 2nd hand nature to me, I know where everything is at and how it all work. Creative Cloud is a nice as I can save my work on my Mac and pick it up on Windows. I have tried Affinity Design and photo but I just cant get used to the lay out and tool names, I know if I gave it a chance I could figure it out but im just so adjusted to Adobe.
Sadly, they basically now appear to ignore customer feedback. People have been trying for years to get things simplfied and cohesive.
They used to publish a road map for updates and future features, that magically disappeared around 18 months ago. There are still features that were promised in 1.6 (Vector Text Manipulation in Designer) almost 5 years on and still no sign.
I like the apps and they do show promise, hopefully things do continue to improve, it would be nice for the industry to have a true rival to Adobe.
Sadly, me and others in my situation. The fact that I have clients that occasionally need native Adobe files, and years in the PSD/ID/AI cockpit keeps me from seriously considering other alternatives. Glad I can factor it into my billing.
To be fair Photoshop's content aware fill tool is still kinda unmatched. Also Adobe Fonts integration is pretty neat too. But yeah, Affinity software has its strengths too, and it's way more affordable.
I'm not against subscriptions per se, but Adobe have always purposefully priced their packages as a choice between one program or all of the programs. So most people who need 2 or 3 have to pay a fortune every month for software they don't want and will never use.
I actually switched to final cut pro and still go back to Premiere for many things. There are many nice features in Premiere that are lacking in Final Cut like simple audio fixes and maybe I am just not experienced enough but the tracks in Premiere Pro can be maddening at times when I am doing transitions.