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Affinity Studio now free

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Re: Affinity Studio now free

#561

Post by NoteyComplexity »

Inityx wrote: post #44

If you're not paying, you are the product.

“Even if you are paying, you are the premium product.”

I think we need to stop saying that quote since the existence of subscription. Can you stop Google from tracking you or let you define your “algorithm” if you have purchased YouTube Premium and one of the Google Drive plans? I really doubt.

I think it is the value of the company matters. If their intentions is to keep investors happy, the users are always the product no matter paying or not. By contrast, there are quite a lot of free open source software doing the same for free, but the users still remain user.

Re: Affinity Studio now free

#562

Post by [deleted] »

roywiggins wrote: post #523
ezfe wrote: post #402

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, if the subscription is unreasonably priced. Then yes, it will be unreasonable. Final Cut Pro is a $300 piece of software with a $50/yr or $5/mo subscription. It would take you 6 years to reach the same price which shows the subscription cost is reasonable. It's a separate issue when software is unreasonably priced in subscription mode, versus the merits of the subscription model itself.

All of my photos are stored in a big Lightroom database. If I wasn't using an old camera supported by Lightroom 5 (that I bought outright in 2011), and was using modern Lightroom instead, I would have to pay an ongoing cost just to maintain access to my photo database, in perpetuity . This sucks no matter how much the subscription actually is right now. Losing access to all your old work in its original format if you…

[deleted]

Re: Affinity Studio now free

#563

Post by rifty »

I'm not disappointed at how far Affinity has pushed the baseline for graphic design software up until this point for me with V1 and V2. I'll stay tentatively hopeful that we don't see this backslide in V3 even though i'm not expecting the same development velocity for new baseline features outside of the subscription now.

I'm not that hopeful though.. with freemium, everything is subject to be clawed back slowly into a subscription if the subscription offering fails to perform well enough.

Re: Affinity Studio now free

#564

Post by [deleted] »

tracker1 wrote: post #551
BenFranklin100 wrote: post #488

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Once AI blows up in a spectacular unprofitable mess (as it will for 90% of the companies in this space), then what though?

I think it depends on how it's used or integrated. Image generation and editing seems to be the of the more useful things. "Take outt the power lines from this photo." Etc.

[deleted]

Re: Affinity Studio now free

#565

Post by simondotau »

stackedinserter wrote: post #466
InsideOutSanta wrote: post #450

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. It didn't exist a week ago and doesn't require Internet, apart from an initial login.

Why do you need to login into something that doesn't require Internet?

It's functionally identical to the software registration requirement of previous Affinity software releases, except that instead of verifying a registration number, it's now verifying a (currently) free Canva account credential.

Re: Affinity Studio now free

#566

Post by simondotau »

groby_b wrote: post #490
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…

Sigh. It was a great app. Switching to the freemium resource extraction model makes it utterly unattractive. (If I wanted to go with the whole "nice app you got, shame if something happened to it" model, Adobe's got that covered)

To be clear, it's unattractive because we're at step 1 or 2 of a familiar 3-step playbook where "free" looks great today, but not tomorrow. It might not be this year, or next year, but eventually Canva will do something shitty to extract revenue from its users. A mildly crappy outcome if you never paid for it, but a really frustrating one for people who did pay Affinity for a software license.

Re: Affinity Studio now free

#567

Post by comradesmith »

atoav wrote: post #364
peteforde wrote: post #348

I'm feeling some real hurt seeing this announcement. I bought the Affinity v1 apps, buying into the vision for a no-BS forever app. I was surprised to see a v2 app show up a year after I bought into v1 with what I remember was something like a 25% discount. But this was going to be the new forever app, and I understand wanting to get things right on a second pass. Reading about how v2 will no longer get updates just…

Well this puts them on my blacklist. And I am an educator in precisely the artschool they would profit off catering to. I refuse to teach my student tools that change the contract once you bought into them. Adobe is on that list too. The only major non-open source software that isn't is anything by Black Magic or Steam, both companies that have found healthy sustainable business models and jave acted reliable towards…

They didn’t change anything about the software you bought? It still functions like it did the day you bought it.

Re: Affinity Studio now free

#568

Post by carpo »

Gigachad wrote: post #446
stOneskull wrote: post #424

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i wonder if you get some type of compensation if you paid recently.

A one time license never entitles you to ongoing updates.

That's not true. I've paid for a one time license for software before and received updates until the next major release.

Re: Affinity Studio now free

#570

Post by debazel »

norakat wrote: post #527
gotrythis wrote: post #449

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

You have to wonder though - why in the world would they offer it for free? They must have a trick up their sleeve.

Offering it for free is likely to increase their user base significantly, which in turn will increase the number of people who end up paying for the AI features.
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