Affinity Studio now free

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!

I am a daily user of Affinity Publisher and regular user of Affinity Photo. I bought version 1 when it came out, upgraded to version 2, and upgraded this morning to the new, free version.

This is NOT FREEMIUM as I understand the model, as it is not limited in any way. This is everything they were charging for and more, now free, with free upgrades.

I'm personally thrilled to get so much value for free.

Literally on the landing page they have two columns comparing:

  Affinity vs Affinity + Canva premium plans

And the FAQs under it are trying, repetitively, to upsell the Canva AI plans:

  Are AI features available?
  Yes. With a Canva premium plan you can unlock Canva AI features in Affinity.

  Can I access AI tools without a Canva Pro or other premium plan?
  No, these are only available to those with Canva premium accounts.

Up to 10 or 12 times, I think I've seen it just in that FAQ.

So, unless you want to use AI, which wasn't available in the previous products, you are not missing out on anything?