Affinity Studio now free

Post by squigz » Thu, Oct 30, 2025, 8:11 PM UTC

derefr wrote: post #342

derefr wrote: post #314

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To push back against this sentiment: “chasing AI money” isn’t necessarily their thought process here; i.e. it’s not the only reason they would “switch to a freemium model trying to get you to subscribe to AI.” Keeping in mind that: 1. “AI” (i.e. large ML model) -driven features are in demand (if not by existing users, then by not-yet-users, serving as a TAM-expansion strategy) 2. Large ML models require a lot of reso…

That being said, my line of argument here would be a bit more compelling if Canva were still charging for the app. The fact that the apps are now free , suggests that they expect the subscriptions to pay not just for the backend-cluster OpEx, but also for all the developers’ salaries and so forth. --- Honestly, I think Canva here are copying Adobe's playbook, but with a more honest approach than Adobe ever had; one r…

Post by blackqueeriroh » Thu, Oct 30, 2025, 8:12 PM UTC

nightski wrote: post #344

jazzyjackson wrote: post #333

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 clou…

I'm guessing they are giving the core away for free to collect training data.

Post by blackqueeriroh » Thu, Oct 30, 2025, 8:15 PM UTC

fidotron wrote: post #307

pentagrama wrote: post #143

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 Pub…

It's definitely a sad end, though I still think that what happened with Xara was the real tragedy. (A friend of mine is still bitter about Freehand too). Someone should investigate why the 2D vector graphics space is such a repeated dumpster fire.

Post by karel-3d » Thu, Oct 30, 2025, 8:18 PM UTC

pmkary wrote: post #239

mns wrote: post #137

Devastated about this. Good for them for making money on the sale to Canva, but still, this is a sad day. Studio is now freemium, in the future probably more and more features (outside of AI) will be added in the subscription, and you will end up with an app full of disabled features and pop-ups encouraging you to subscribe and unlock the new and shiny thing. There is absolutely nothing in the world that anyone can s…

I was so in love with the idea of "purchase and own for life" I thought every now and then I will buy the license and have a piece of mind. What started after SaaS is now at its closing days to have fully ruined software and from now on there will be hell like we have never seen before. Free Software is dead, Indie software as we used to is dead, and great businesses like Serif are down the road of being dead. I'm so…

Post by karel-3d » Thu, Oct 30, 2025, 8:18 PM UTC

Espressosaurus wrote: post #345

renewiltord wrote: post #332

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, what’s the problem? You wanted a pay once use forever and you got that with v2. So keep using v2. No one is going to charge your credit card.

I paid for v1 and v2, and would have happily paid for v3. The reason I’m not using Adobe is to avoid their onerous subscription. If Affinity has moved to a subscription model then why bother not using the incumbent?