Great news! The famous Affinity is now completely free! I spent over a hundred bucks on a legitimate license just a few years ago. If you're a designer, you've probably seen this bombshell news all over social media these days—the well-known professional creative software Affinity has been acquired by the design platform Canva, and they officially launched a brand new version a few days ago that's completely free. This is pretty much a direct challenge to Adobe's subscription model.
About Affinity Software
Affinity is professional software that can rival Photoshop, developed by the British company Serif. It includes three professional tools: Affinity Photo (photo editing), Affinity Designer (vector design), and Affinity Publisher (layout design), widely recognized as Adobe Creative Cloud's most powerful competitor.
All three apps used to be sold with a one-time purchase model. After being acquired by Canva last year, they've spent a year developing the new version officially released a few days ago, now simply called Affinity. It combines all three apps into one—photo editing, vector design, and layout—and you can download and use it for free!
Features of the New Affinity:
- Highly Integrated Workspace: As mentioned above, the new Affinity deeply integrates vector design, photo editing, and page layout into a single application. You only need to install one program—no more constant switching between different software.
- Professional-Grade Features: Affinity isn't a simplified version of PS. If you've used Affinity Photo before, you know it supports non-destructive editing, advanced layer controls, complex path handling, RAW photo processing, and other professional features. Whether it's photo retouching, UI design, or print production, it can handle it all and completely replace PS.
- Better Performance: The Affinity series has always been known for being lightweight and fast. Compared to Adobe software, it launches faster, runs more smoothly, and uses fewer system resources. I've already installed it on my computer, and in actual use, it's more than twice as fast as PS for both startup and image processing.
- Powerful AI Features: Affinity integrates Canva AI Studio's AI features, including generative fill, background removal, image expansion, and other smart tools that can greatly improve design efficiency. Note: AI features are only supported in the PRO version—not much to say about that here.
I Strongly Recommend Ditching PS for Affinity
I started using PhotoShop in high school and I'm familiar with most of its features. I didn't even specifically learn Affinity—the interface is very user-friendly, many shortcuts are the same as PS, some features are arranged in different places but easy to find, and most functions can be used directly without any learning curve. The key is the software runs super fast.
If you didn't pay for your PS, there's really no reason to keep it. Just switch to Affinity directly—I've already uninstalled mine.
Choosing the Right Installer
For Windows, I recommend downloading the MSIX format installer. This is Microsoft's next-generation Windows app packaging format that combines the benefits of MSI, AppX, and UWP. The installation process is safer and uninstallation is cleaner. However, there might be compatibility issues on older systems, in which case you can choose the traditional .EXE installer.
Also, if you know your computer runs an ARM system, choose the ARM version; otherwise, just download the x64 installer.
Affinity by Canva Pros & Cons
Advantages: Really fast speed; excellent cross-platform consistency; covers 95% of most design needs.
Disadvantages: Weaker ecosystem than Adobe; fewer plugin options; incomplete template compatibility with some printing vendors.
Affinity by Canva FAQ
- Is there an Android version? The official statement is that iPad is the focus; there are currently no plans for Android.
- Can Canva online templates be directly imported? Some can be imported, but complex layouts are not fully compatible.
- Can it be used offline? Yes, Affinity is not cloud-dependent software.
- Can it be activated on two devices? The purchased version supports multiple devices, but large-scale commercial deployment with the same account is not possible.
- Can the old version of Affinity be updated? It can still be used, but the official focus is now on the Canva version.
How to Use It Legally for Free
The new three-in-one Affinity software can be downloaded and used completely free. Except for the built-in Canva AI features that require a paid subscription, all software tools and features are completely free. It seems after Canva acquired Affinity's parent company, they had a "bigger vision"—on one hand, they want to expand Affinity's user base and convert users from Adobe; I think Canva sees AI as the future. Once we get familiar with Affinity, we might actually pay for those time-saving AI features.
In short, the earlier you use it, the sooner you benefit. Having such a professional and useful productivity software available for free is really sweet.