Affinity, my favourite photo editing app is now completely free

For years, I’ve used Affinity Photo as my go-to photo editor. It used to be a one-off purchase, a soothing balm in the face of Adobe’s increasingly expensive subscription-based apps. I say “used to be” because Affinity has now re-launched as a free, all-in-one design app under its Australian-based owners.

Last year, Australian design software company Canva bought Affinity. At the time, there were concerns that Canva would enforce its subscription-based business model on the previously one-time purchase apps. However, with the latest announcement, the promise is that “Affinity is now completely free, forever.”

Another major change is the consolidation of multiple programs into a single app. Previously, Affinity offered three separate apps: Designer, Photo, and Publisher. Made for distinctly different purposes, much like Adobe Photoshop and InDesign, each app varied between pixel-based and vector-based editing.

Now, there’s just one app, simply called “Affinity”, which now requires a Canva account to access. Windows and Mac versions are available now, with an iPad version to follow. Opening the app, you can swap freely between ‘vector’, ‘pixel’, and ‘layout’ editing modes. It’s designed to let you illustrate, edit photos, or arrange print designs without swapping between separate programs.

Then there’s the elephant in the room: Canva AI. Alongside the subscription concerns, a lot of creatives feared that they’d face a wave of generative AI features under Canva’s new direction. Those features, including generative fill and background-removing tools, are present, albeit gated behind a Canva Pro subscription.

“We know that transparency around AI use and data handling is essential, and your creative work will always remain yours,” said Ash Hewson, Affinity’s CEO, in an official blog post.

According to Hewson, any work produced in Affinity “is not used to train AI features”. Unfortunately, the V2 versions of Affinity’s apps, which still operated under the buy-once model, won’t get any more updates. At least they’re still available to use, if you have an existing licence.

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