Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Canva’s affinity strategy: Normies over power users

tedium.co

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 78 posts

Re: Canva’s affinity strategy: Normies over power users

#61

Post by layer8 »

robenkleene wrote: post #40

This is analysis is spot on. I made the same argument about Figma (that what made Figma successful is that design software had started to be used more like office suite software) in my overview of the historical transitions in creative software https://blog.robenkleene.com/2023/06/19/software-transitions... : > In the section on Photoshop to Sketch, we discussed an underappreciated factor in Sketch’s, and by extensio…

I disagree with the comparison to / characterization of “office suite software”. At least the desktop class of office suites have a lot of power features and power users.

It’s not that power users aren’t a market, it’s that casual users are now the larger market and cheaper to serve, and software companies have been catching on to that, to the detriment of power users.

Re: Canva’s affinity strategy: Normies over power users

#62

Post by gazook89 »

donmcronald wrote: post #55
deltarholamda wrote: post #35

I've been a paying Affinity customer for a while. I did not like the Adobe subscription model, even though pricewise it more or less the same as what I paid for software upgrades to Adobe products, ~$600/yr. So I looked for alternatives and Affinity was "good enough", and over time got significantly better. This new model, as of now, I don't have a problem with. Free is good, and Affinity (now Canva) already has my e…

It’s free for now . The log in and activation means they can change that any time. I’d rather pay for v3, v4, etc. than being held hostage with a login requirement. If it’s going to be free for everyone forever, why can’t they give us a truly free binary that will work locally forever? That would give people peace of mind they can always access their data locally, the revenue doesn’t change, and the AI subscription f…

My understanding is that you need an account and Internet for the download and license activation, but then works offline (they specifically say “for extended periods”) in the FAQ. That is pretty much the same as v2 right?

Re: Canva’s affinity strategy: Normies over power users

#63

Post by chii »

gazook89 wrote: post #62
donmcronald wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s free for now . The log in and activation means they can change that any time. I’d rather pay for v3, v4, etc. than being held hostage with a login requirement. If it’s going to be free for everyone forever, why can’t they give us a truly free binary that will work locally forever? That would give people peace of mind they can always access their data locally, the revenue doesn’t change, and the AI subscription f…

My understanding is that you need an account and Internet for the download and license activation, but then works offline (they specifically say “for extended periods”) in the FAQ. That is pretty much the same as v2 right?

They ought to follow the intellij/jetbrain model, where you pay for the subscription to access the latest version, but when you stop paying, you can keep using the last version you've paid a subscription for.

But of course, this does not hold your data hostage, and thus less "profitable" in the long run.

Re: Canva’s affinity strategy: Normies over power users

#66

Post by blub »

I use Pixelmator Pro, which can be bought on the AppStore. If you want to buy directly from the company, there’s Acorn from Flying Meat.

I tried to use Affinity Studio the other day and it wouldn’t allow me to register for “security reasons”. After switching browser and being able to create an account, the login handover from app -> browser -> app is failing.

Instead of user and password they use e-mail plus one-time code. The app opens the browser instead of allowing log-in natively.

I am a paying Sarif customer and I don’t intend to pay for the new version. It’s painfully obvious that I would have no control over the software I buy any more.

Re: Canva’s affinity strategy: Normies over power users

#67

Post by srean »

glimshe wrote: post #51
Kye wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

GIMP doesn't do 1% of what this does even if you don't have a problem with GIMP's UX. It's not comparable.

This. GIMP is a fine casual image processing tool. Its great in what it does. But you can't begin to compare it with Affinity or Photoshop.

I am not familiar with either, but am curious to know about their differences and intended workflows. Could you elaborate on your comment if time permits.

Re: Canva’s affinity strategy: Normies over power users

#68

Post by sixtyj »

pedalpete wrote: post #56
sixtyj wrote: post #44

A lot of professionals would like to switch to Affinity too - InDesign hasn’t changed too much for last 10 years… But if you have everything in its format, decision to switch is tough as there is no tool to import or open full indd files to Affinity or anywhere else than Adobe. Life-time vendor-lock. For new people, Affinity is easier to start, and their new policy to give it for free is awesome. What comes first fro…

Adobe likely doesn't have the market cap to acquire Canva, unless I'm missing something in understanding M&A. Canva is now north of $65B and growing at 100% YoY. Adobe's market cap is $142B, and with every month, Canva is chipping away at Adobe's value. Can Adobe give up 40% of the company to acquire Canva, and would Canva even want that? Mel, Cliff, and Cam continue to amaze me!

Yes, Canva is amazing. Except the AI that sort of sucks but it is a must in this AI bubble.

In Adobe they have to decide quickly how to deal with it. Canva is a real business competitor for them. Theoretically, some kind of joint venture could be set up.

Money, I mean a lot of money, often breaks a lot of people we think are cool. See Skype, LinkedIn, Zappos, Minecraft or even Affinity. Almost everyone has a limit. The only exception is perhaps curl or vlc player that I can remember off the top of my head.

Re: Canva’s affinity strategy: Normies over power users

#69

Post by robenkleene »

bsder wrote: post #60
robenkleene wrote: post #40

This is analysis is spot on. I made the same argument about Figma (that what made Figma successful is that design software had started to be used more like office suite software) in my overview of the historical transitions in creative software https://blog.robenkleene.com/2023/06/19/software-transitions... : > In the section on Photoshop to Sketch, we discussed an underappreciated factor in Sketch’s, and by extensio…

I don't agree. What made Figma successful was being able to share via a URL. Period. No program version problems. No file extension problems. No problems between Mac and Windows. No problems with anti-virus blocking your email attachment. etc. Figma exists because sharing a bloody file between computers is still a clusterfsck in 2025.

I'm not sure what part of this you think I'd disagree with, if just looking at the microcosm of Sketch to Figma. In other words, the ease of sharing and collaborating via a URL I think is the underlying reason office suite software has become successful.

But I suspect you're arguing against the wider arch of the point I'm making (that design no longer requiring as sophisticated features helped facilitate the transition to the web-based software). If I have that right, I suggest making sure that your hypothesis about motivations behind the market transitions also incorporates the transition from Photoshop to Sketch. Because that transition (which preceded the transition to Figma) made every problem you're describing worse. Which means for example that you can't attribute the transition from Photoshop to Sketch to Figma just to the URL.

Re: Canva’s affinity strategy: Normies over power users

#70

Post by rambambram »

Kye wrote: post #49
rambambram wrote: post #41

GIMP is still free. I made the switch from Photoshop to GIMP years ago. Never missed it for photo editing, creating logo's and other images, or designing large prints.

GIMP doesn't do 1% of what this does even if you don't have a problem with GIMP's UX. It's not comparable.

What can I not do with GIMP that I can do with the other software?
Post reply on HN