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Affinity Studio now free

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Re: Affinity Studio now free

#571

Post by donmcronald »

cromka wrote: post #506
npilk wrote: post #502

What a fascinating thread. I bought Affinity Photo and Designer V1 as one-time purchases a few years ago. I didn't upgrade to V2 when those came out. I have continued to occasionally use the V1 apps - I was just in Photo the other day. To me this is exactly why you would want to buy software licenses as one-time purchases - the company can't rug pull you for what you already bought. If I want, I can keep using the Af…

They expected to be able to upgrade it in the future to most recent version with a one-time payment fee, like they used to so far.

What? Lots of us bought v1, then v2, and would have bought v3 too.

Re: Affinity Studio now free

#572

Post by tracerbulletx »

mythz wrote: post #33

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 fr…

I doubt this is good, I'd expect minimal investment in the free version and ever increasing subscriptions. I WANT to pay for my software.

Re: Affinity Studio now free

#573

Post by bryanhogan »

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.

This really hurts to see, everything for the whole month has shattered trust in a way that is hard to believe. Any chances we can see some reversals?

Re: Affinity Studio now free

#574

Post by turnsout »

dangus wrote: post #499
turnsout wrote: post #375

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's more complicated than that. Sometimes after 15 years, the founders want to move on and do something else. Or they want to build a dream house. Or their cofounder wants to get out. Or they hear the long-term vision of the acquiring company, and want to be a part of it. Although it's an uphill battle, not every acquisition ends with the product being destroyed. Just look at what Apple did with NeXT and PA Semi…

You can have controlling stake in a company without working there day to day. Apple literally destroyed those companies. After Apple acquired NeXT there was one less operating system on the market. PA Semi now doesn’t have a product that is sold to the open market.

lmao ok

Re: Affinity Studio now free

#575

Post by wildzzz »

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.

Canva has a lot of premium features. The free version is good enough for most people but Canva makes their money on the companies paying for enterprise licenses. Canva is now looking to sell Affinity to those same enterprise users as well. Adobe gained massive market share due to how easy it was to pirate their suite. Canva is looking to try things a different way. Offering it for free will gain a lot more users than only those willing to pirate it. Once Affinity is common on every creative's resume, it becomes that much easier of a sell to enterprise that they need Affinity in their shop as well.

Simply put, they want to be Adobe but want a cleaner boost to their userbase than the piracy Adobe products were known for.

Re: Affinity Studio now free

#576

Post by daemin »

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.

They offer it for free to gain more people with a Canva account, where they can sell their other products and services, not just limited to the AI integrations for Affinity Suite.

Re: Affinity Studio now free

#577

Post by ezfe »

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…

I understand what you're saying, and yeah, that does suck.

> Losing access to all your old work in its original format

Most photo editing apps retain your originals, even when they're in a database. For example, Apple Photos has a folder full of originals with no modifications. Does Lightroom not have this?

I understand that there is a lot of metadata that you also want, I'm just curious about this detail?

Re: Affinity Studio now free

#578

Post by daemin »

dangus wrote: post #309
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…

I realize that money rules everything but I find it so confusing that so many companies will spend a decade building a great product and then just exit with full knowledge that it will be the inevitable end of the relevance of their work. You might think that some founders somewhere out there would be motivated by some level of ego to say “no, I won’t sell out, I built this amazing thing and the highest bidder owner…

You can remain in control and continue to make good quality software, but that means staying small, very small, like a handful of people small. There are numerous software providers like that still making niche software.

Re: Affinity Studio now free

#579

Post by kyer-sh »

npilk wrote: post #502

What a fascinating thread. I bought Affinity Photo and Designer V1 as one-time purchases a few years ago. I didn't upgrade to V2 when those came out. I have continued to occasionally use the V1 apps - I was just in Photo the other day. To me this is exactly why you would want to buy software licenses as one-time purchases - the company can't rug pull you for what you already bought. If I want, I can keep using the Af…

You answered your own question. Buying a perpetual license ensures the company can’t rug pull you. Not having the option for a perpetual license gives no guarantees of the sort. One of Serif’s top selling points was the perpetual license, and people were rightfully nervous about the Canva acquisition. They even made it a huge point in their announcement to reassure people who were nervous about the perpetual license model going away.

A perpetual license does not entitle me to anything beyond the scope of the license, of course. It’s great that I can use V2 for as long as it serves my needs. But now, when someone new is looking for graphic design software, or if I find am missing some good features in V1 or V2 that get added to the new software, of course I will be upset that I no longer have the option to upgrade to or recommend the non-rug-pullable option.

I feel like it’s not unreasonable to have a negative opinion towards the decisions companies make that further the enshittification of the professional software world.

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