Affinity Studio now free • Hacker News Board

Re: Affinity Studio now free

#31

Post by delfinom » Thu, Oct 30, 2025, 4:13 PM UTC

skwee357 wrote: post #22

Kind of a bummer. I paid for Affinity tools some time ago, but I guess my license is now worth trash, and if I want to use the new Affinity tools, I need to have "Canva account". I mean, free tools are good. But I smell a road to enshittification (for example, by offering Affinity for free so you create Canva account, then they push Canva AI or whatever BS to you little by little, and in the end deprecate affinity so…

Absolutely. "free" tier is just to grow a userbase with mandatory accounts.

Give it some time and suddenly that free tier shrinks or requires a subscription to continue.

Re: Affinity Studio now free

#32

Post by tym0 » Thu, Oct 30, 2025, 4:13 PM UTC

Right so people who said they were going to merge the products together and release it free where right on the money.

It being free means it'll eventually get enshittified though.

Oh well, I just bought V2. What worries me however is that it already used an account instead of a license key like V1...

Re: Affinity Studio now free

#33

Post by mythz » Thu, Oct 30, 2025, 4:13 PM UTC

Awesome, expected Canva were going to jack up the prices or turn it into a subscription after acquisition. A freemium version is very welcome for the rare times I need to use it. No plans to ever be a paying customer myself (sorry Canva), but nice to know it's still being actively developed.

Just noticed the AI feature integrations are locked behind a premium sub, makes sense to go for a wide funnel with a premium free product then up-sell to people who want the AI integration, should turn out to be commercially successful.

Really hoping a Linux version is in the works. Hopefully the exodus from Windows picks up so we can accelerate the timeline for Linux support. (Currently using the amazing https://photopea.com for most image edits on Linux)

Re: Affinity Studio now free

#34

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Oct 30, 2025, 4:15 PM UTC

add-sub-mul-div wrote: post #9

If I have to "sign up" then I don't really consider it free. Maybe still a good deal for some who need it, but I won't casually try this out like I would if I could just do it anonymously.

[deleted]

Re: Affinity Studio now free

#35

Post by tym0 » Thu, Oct 30, 2025, 4:15 PM UTC

pavlov wrote: post #25

nocoiner wrote: post #2

This seems … way better than what I expected following the acquisition? What am I missing? And I assume this is a supplement to (and not a replacement of) the existing Affinity applications?

It is a replacement, the old Affinity apps are discontinued: "Your Affinity V2 license (via Serif) remains valid and Serif will continue to keep activation servers online. But please note that these apps won’t receive future updates. "For the best experience, we recommend using the new Affinity by Canva app."

As someone who just bought V2 I am worried that V2 uses an activation server at all unlike V1 with its license key.

When this free/premium with AI thing crash and burn in a few years I can kiss that license goodbye.

Re: Affinity Studio now free

#36

Post by achow » Thu, Oct 30, 2025, 4:16 PM UTC

aquir wrote: post #6

I'm confused...this is not the same as Affinity Studio from Serif? Or it is? Their website shows something new: https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/

This site seems to be the old one - they don't mention their acquistion by Canva in 'About Us' section.

https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/about/

Also there is no link anywhere for downloading their products.

The current site seems to what OP has posted: affinity.studio

Strange choice to keep the old site up and running, and to complicate things the old site is the top result when searched.

Re: Affinity Studio now free

#37

Post by microflash » Thu, Oct 30, 2025, 4:17 PM UTC

tldr;

It is all apps combined in one. It is free. Requires Canva account. AI features require Canva Premium subscription. No iPad app (yet). Still missing RTL support.

Re: Affinity Studio now free

#38

Post by moi2388 » Thu, Oct 30, 2025, 4:17 PM UTC

That is fantastic. Paid for the affinity products when they first came out.

Absolutely great product, I hate Adobe with a passion you wouldn’t believe.

The only problem is in time it will probably become paid, as most things do. Oh well, then I’ll just uninstall.

Re: Affinity Studio now free

#39

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Oct 30, 2025, 4:17 PM UTC

vorpalhex wrote: post #18

sergiotapia wrote: post #3

[flagged]

Canva bought Affinity https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/why-canvas-affinity-takeover...

[deleted]

Re: Affinity Studio now free

#40

Post by noduerme » Thu, Oct 30, 2025, 4:17 PM UTC

Sooo, the main reason we looked at Affinity as an alternative to the Adobe suite was the fact that it was a one-time purchase without forced updates or all the extra garbage Adobe obsessively adds that slows down each new version. Affinity was nice but just not quite there, in my opinion, as a daily driver for print design and pre-press.

Once they were bought by Canva, whose software I find atrocious, I gave up on it.

My problem with this is that it seems like a gateway to being forced to pay monthly, Adobe-style. Or else what they're really selling are the AI tools. Just sell me a solid piece of software I can keep using forever offline. I can still do all my design work in Illustrator CS6 if I want to haul out a 15 year old laptop. Sell me a version of that for Apple Silicon and I'll happily pay for it.