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Affinity Studio now free

(www.affinity.studio)
1200 points dagmx | 15 comments | 30 Oct 25 15:54 UTC | HN request time: 1.267s | source | bottom
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pentagrama ◴[30 Oct 25 17:21 UTC] No.45762521[source]▶
I used Affinity for several years, so to add some background here:

Serif is the company that originally built this software.

--------

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.

-------

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!

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alt227 ◴[30 Oct 25 18:19 UTC] No.45763276[source]▶
This is such a shame IMO. The Serif suite was great, and I used to try to get every designer I could to dump adobe and switch to serif.

Now that it has switched to a freemium model trying to get you to subscribe to AI, I wont be using this or telling other people about it any more. Their priorities have changed. No longer are they trying to to beat adobe at their own game, they are just chasing AI money like everyone else.

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jazzyjackson ◴[30 Oct 25 19:20 UTC] No.45764127[source]▶
I think it's really cool they can get AI money from the people who want to pay that, to give away the core for free. I can empathize with feeling their focus will be elsewhere (whatever increases revenue) but I figure AI isn't magic, they need to have the rest of the creative suite work well to, yaknow, synergize

Edit: I'll add that I much prefer purchasing perpetual licenses for software that can work without a cloud component. Opus, Sublime, Mathematica, totally agree that paying for software aligns incentives. But if it is online, it's a SaaS, and they can't very well offer you cloud services forever at a one time cost. (Rsync.net has a deal to prepay ~4 years worth upfront and they'll let you use it for life but it's capped at 1TB)

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1. nightski ◴[30 Oct 25 19:30 UTC] No.45764259[source]▶
I'm guessing they are giving the core away for free to collect training data.
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2. blackqueeriroh ◴[30 Oct 25 20:12 UTC] No.45764774[source]▶
You can opt out of the telemetry sharing
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3. zarmin ◴[30 Oct 25 20:12 UTC] No.45764783[source]▶
They claim not to, but I am extremely suspicious.

>No, your content in Affinity is not used to train AI-powered features, or to help AI features learn and improve in other ways, such as model evaluation or quality assurance. In Affinity, your content is stored locally on your device and we don’t have access to it. If you choose to upload or export content to Canva, you remain in control of whether it can be used to train AI features — you can review and update your privacy preferences any time in your Canva settings.

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4. blackqueeriroh ◴[30 Oct 25 20:36 UTC] No.45765012[source]▶
I mean, be suspicious, that’s always good. But have proof before being certain of something you don’t have facts to back up.
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5. zarmin ◴[30 Oct 25 20:45 UTC] No.45765108{3}[source]▶
That is why I said I'm suspicious, and did not make a claim that they are doing it. Thanks for your input.
6. WD-42 ◴[30 Oct 25 22:50 UTC] No.45766320{3}[source]▶
That’s what suspicion means.
7. coldtea ◴[30 Oct 25 23:41 UTC] No.45766762{3}[source]▶
>But have proof before being certain of something you don’t have facts to back up

When it comes to such things, it's better to assume bad intent.

Assuming corporate benevolence as the default is foolish.

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8. zarmin ◴[30 Oct 25 23:43 UTC] No.45766781{4}[source]▶
This is a better point than the one I made
9. nsriv ◴[31 Oct 25 02:11 UTC] No.45767623[source]▶
I think they're giving it away to take mindshare away from Adobe among younger creators. The rise of Capcut and similar mobile first software eventually leads to Adobe, Final Cut for video, and Davinci Resolve. This provides a ladder from Canva to Affinity under one banner at low to no cost.
10. usefulcat ◴[31 Oct 25 04:19 UTC] No.45768394[source]▶
So they say, for now, for some definition of "telemetry" and "sharing", caveat caveat caveat..
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11. sethaurus ◴[31 Oct 25 09:19 UTC] No.45769943[source]▶
I think it's simpler than that. Canva's primary competitor is Adobe, and Adobe's remaining advantage is with creative professionals. That's Adobe's core market and their core revenue stream.

It's a classic "commoditize your complements" play. Canva remains profitable without charging for Affinity, but Adobe can't stay profitable if they stop charging for Photoshop/Illustrator.

The business justification works without imputing any more sinister motives than that.

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12. ToucanLoucan ◴[31 Oct 25 13:54 UTC] No.45772008[source]▶
I mean, 9/10ths of the dark-pattern distrustworthy bullshit businesses pull is not required to attain or maintain "profitability," it's just squeezing every dime of revenue from their customers.

I would frankly rather pay for software then be left wondering if I can trust free commercial software.

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13. ToucanLoucan ◴[31 Oct 25 13:54 UTC] No.45772013{3}[source]▶
Asterisks and super-text numbers, the foundation of any trusting business relationship thumbs up
14. ◴[31 Oct 25 14:23 UTC] No.45772307{3}[source]▶
15. sally_glance ◴[31 Oct 25 19:54 UTC] No.45776025{3}[source]▶
Would be really nice if we had more of the "just pay" options. As it is the "just pay" options mostly also can't be trusted any more than the free(-mium) options, and both will try their best to "squeeze every dime of revenue".