- Affinity is now free for everyone
- An application for Photo, Designer and Publisher
- Canva premium subscribers also benefit from AI tools in Affinity
Affinity is now free. You read that right. No catch, no fees: Three of my favorite professional apps for graphic design, photo editing, and desktop publishing are now completely free for everyone.
In addition to removing the perpetual license (in a sea of subscriptions, which was always refreshing), Affinity also consolidated Photo, Designer, and Publisher into one app.
According to the company, it brings together “professional vector, photo, and layout tools in one powerful space, including everything you need to design, edit, and publish without switching apps or interrupting the flow.”
Or pay money, for that matter.
Free – but at what cost?
Since its acquisition by Canva in 2024, there have been concerns that the software would follow in its owner’s footsteps and introduce subscriptions for users and businesses.
In fairness, Affinity was quick to refute these rumors. At the time, he remained committed to the perpetual license model, promising unequivocally that subscriptions were not on the agenda. No way, no how.
After that there was little news. Until, out of the blue, the Affinity website went dark. Users could no longer purchase the software and were greeted only by a banner promising “Creative Freedom is Coming.”
Then, earlier this month, Affinity made all three existing apps free for iPhone and iPad users (I covered the news here).
It turns out that the focus was not on creativebut on freeDom.
And it’s also the complete Affinity experience. It’s not a lite version, but all the tools, all the features, everything that made Affinity great is in place. With a few extras.
Users with a Canva premium account will now have access to the platform’s AI tools in Affinity with the new Canva AI Studio. This means the introduction of tools like generative fill, expanding and editing, and background removal, putting Affinity more on par with its tacit rival Adobe.
This is what I find particularly interesting about this move. Affinity already offered some of the best alternatives to Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign. With the professional-grade software, the lure of a one-time fee versus Adobe’s incessant subscriptions was significant.
Now, with all costs removed, I’ll be interested to see how this shakes up the authoring software landscape and whether Adobe users will switch (I suspect Affinity wants to see if that happens as well).
You can get the new Affinity suite from its new website by clicking here.
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