So, Affinity Is Free Now. What’s the Catch?
If you have no idea what Affinity is, well, it's basically Photoshop but from Canva.
Remember when software came in a box? A big, heavy box with a dozen floppy disks? You’d sit there feeding them into your computer, listening to the whirr-chunk, whirr-chunk. It felt... substantial.
These days, everything is a website. We live in the cloud. And mostly, that’s fine. But for some jobs, you just need a fast app. A native desktop app that doesn’t care about your internet speed. An app that just works. For years, that market has been shrinking. Today, it just got a massive shot in the arm.
My Breakup with Adobe
I’ll admit it: I broke up with Photoshop years ago. I’m a UX designer, not a digital painter. I couldn’t justify paying that steep subscription every single month.
I switched to Affinity when their V1 apps first launched. It was a single, one-time payment. It was fast, professional, and did 95% of what I needed. I never looked back.
Then, last year, Canva bought Affinity. We all got a little nervous. We braced for the worst. Would they turn it into a slow, web-only tool? Would they force it into a subscription?
Today, they announced their big move. And it’s not what anyone expected.
The Core Apps Are Now 100% Free
Yes, you read that right.
Canva has launched the new Affinity Studio. This isn’t just one app. It rolls the big three—Affinity Photo (Photoshop), Affinity Designer (Illustrator), and Affinity Publisher (InDesign)—into a single, unified program.
The price? Zero. Free. No cost.
This is a huge deal. It means everyone can now have access to excellent, professional-grade desktop design tools. The barrier to entry just vanished.
New Toys and a (Tiny) Hoop
They also added some long-overdue features.
My favorite? A real bitmap-to-vector tool. We can finally trace an image automatically. Yes, Adobe has had this since the dawn of time. But Affinity users have been begging for it for years. Getting it for free is a pretty sweet deal.
So, what’s the catch? You will need a free Canva account to download and use it. That’s it. For what you’re getting, this is a total non-issue.
They Got the AI Part Right
Here’s the part I, as a designer, really care about. How did they handle AI?
They did it perfectly: it’s optional.
The core Affinity Studio remains a fast, focused, local-first application. If you want AI tools, you can get them through the “Canva AI Studio.” But this is a separate part of the app that only activates if you have a paid Canva plan.
This is the right way to do it. The core tools are not bloated with AI features for those who don’t want them.
And the best part? Canva has been very clear about privacy. They state that your creative work is not accessed to train AI features. That’s a promise that builds a lot of trust.
Adobe Just Got Put on Notice
For years, the choice was simple: pay Adobe’s high subscription or buy Affinity once. Canva just took that choice and threw it out the window.
By making the entire professional suite free, Canva and Affinity are not just trying to compete. They are trying to change the entire market. This move gives millions of students, freelancers, and small studios access to tools that were once a major expense.
My advice? Go download it. Give it a try. There is literally no reason not to.
I do wonder, though... how will Adobe respond? This move goes directly after their bread and butter. We shall see, I guess.