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Affinity Studio now free

(www.affinity.studio)
1203 points dagmx | 3 comments | 30 Oct 25 15:54 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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gspencley ◴[30 Oct 25 17:19 UTC] No.45762493[source]▶
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.

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t-writescode ◴[30 Oct 25 17:29 UTC] No.45762632[source]▶
What client-side features do you use that you think will get ripped out and paywalled from an old version?
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1. gspencley ◴[30 Oct 25 17:38 UTC] No.45762750[source]▶
Thyat's a fair question and the honest answer is I don't know and I'd have to sift through the feature comparison chart to see if there's anything I actively use today with my paid license that is moving to a Canva Premium subscription.

My real point is that Affinity had two selling points that "converted me:"

- Artist word of mouth. Photo & Design were becoming popular as an alternative to Photoshop & Illustrator so when artists started recommending it as an alternative I listened and checked them out.

- Perpetual license / no subscription model. That was THE NUMBER ONE SELLING POINT that got me on board as a customer. The second I even need to login to an account to be able to use the thing I paid a one time fee for, it's going to rub me the wrong way. It feels like a bait and switch.

replies(1): >>45762988 #
2. t-writescode ◴[30 Oct 25 17:58 UTC] No.45762988[source]▶
Do you find CD-Keys that round-trip one time, ever to be a violation of a perpetual license? That’s effectively what “login to an account” means - especially if it works offline forever, afterward. (I haven’t checked if it does, in this case)
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3. gspencley ◴[30 Oct 25 20:37 UTC] No.45765017[source]▶
If it's a one-time license validation, no. That's fine. If it's "login every time to be able to use the app" then that is something that, while is not necessarily a deal breaker in all cases, really annoys me.