Affinity Studio now free

Post by bebna » Thu, Oct 30, 2025, 5:37 PM UTC

dannyw wrote: post #122

codeptualize wrote: post #43

It's a smart approach imo. They had to get a subscription somehow to support AI features which they need to compete (just usage cost wise you can't do that on a one time fee license). But since they promised not to go subscription when they got acquired by Canva, making it free with AI as the subscription is a clever solution to not break their promise while still introducing a subscription model. I think their bet i…

Thank you (long-time Affinity user and fan, and Canva employee here :) Re. on-device AI features: these still have significant training costs; and Canva as a whole has paid hundreds of millions to date in royalties to creatives, including for AI training. Affinity is free, forever; but not open source; if that makes sense.

Post by gspencley » Thu, Oct 30, 2025, 5:38 PM UTC

t-writescode wrote: post #159

gspencley wrote: post #134

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 "Affin…

What client-side features do you use that you think will get ripped out and paywalled from an old version?

Post by radiator » Thu, Oct 30, 2025, 5:39 PM UTC

brookst wrote: post #94

duiker101 wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How long before that's no longer the case?

Only way to be sure it will never change is to build it yourself and make it free for everyone forever!

Post by Kye » Thu, Oct 30, 2025, 5:40 PM UTC

crowcroft wrote: post #108

MerrimanInd wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I understand where y'all are coming from and this is not a judgement against Canva specifically. But you can't be surprised that people are concerned after so many years of anti-consumer anti-patterns in software that start exactly like this . This has nothing to do with Canva or Serif but the industry as a whole has squandered goodwill for so many years that actions like this no longer get the benefit of the doubt.…

You lay out an impossible challenge for Canva, there is no way they can prove that they will never add a subscription service or different charges in the future. What exactly do you expect from them? Would you prefer they just kept charging you for the product? That still isn't a guarantee that they wouldn't move towards more paid features and subscriptions in the future.

Post by 65 » Thu, Oct 30, 2025, 5:41 PM UTC

dannyw wrote: post #89

glimshe wrote: post #54

Nooooooo! I'm a loyal Serif customer and paid for their software. I LOVE Affinity. And I HATE "free" commercial products because they need to extract revenue from subscription services, ads, data selling etc. This is the first step toward making Affinity become another rental application like Photoshop. Escaping Adobe's predatory business model is exactly why I became a Serif customer in the first place.

I’m also a loyal Serif customer, love Affinity, and I work at Canva. This is not the first step in that. It’s not anywhere close to our plan. We want to make Affinity, and professional design, the default tool. And a huge part of that is free, forever. AI features; like generative fill, have COGS and incremental inference costs. Hence that’s an _optional_ subscription. I understand why you feel that way. Having being…