On October 30, 2025, Affinity has announced their new update and introduced a brand new pricing model for their creative suite.
Affinity has now become:
- Free to download
- Full access to core tools (Photo, Designer, and Publisher) built into one
- No limits, trial periods, or watermarks
- Noticeably different in logo identity and branding “By Canva”
The “Pro” tier is strictly optional which includes Artificial Intelligence (AI) and additional features.
Years prior (2022-2024), those who needed a free creative tool alternative to Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, or Publisher would resort to free open source software alternatives like GIMP, Inkscape, or Photopea, that had similar features and user interface. With the rebranding of Affinity, it provides creatives and artists another free alternative tool with professional features to steer away from subscription cloud based software models.
So, what’s stopping you? Get to creating by downloading Affinity from the official website: https://www.affinity.studio/
Canva Acquisition
Prior to the announcements and changes of Affinity, there has been backlash against Serif, the initial company and developer of Affinity before the March 26, 2024 acquisition by Canva. Rendering many speculations in the Affinity community. Leaving the community confused and uncertain about the future. Most of the Affinity community consists of mainly creatives that want to create without the cloud subscription, companies using AI to train on their work, or privacy concerns.
Those who purchased a lifetime Affinity license are left with limited to no support aside from online Affinity community forums. For example, those who own a license won’t gain access to legacy installers from the version it was purchased.
If you’ve purchased a license for any previous versions of Affinity products, you may want to download your licensed version before it is removed from the Affinity website server database. Official links for version 1 and 2 builds listed in the knowledge base below if you need them.
Personal Experience
Having purchased a perpetual license for Affinity Photo 1 and Affinity Designer 2, satisfied with the software. When visited the Affinity website in late October to upgrade Affinity Photo, I was greeted with no ability to purchase an upgrade to Affinity Photo 2.
I will continue to use earlier versions and plan to keep them installed on my systems aside from the unremovable annoying nagging popup to upgrade on the version 1 build of Affinity Photo.
Only time will tell if they remain functional in future operating system updates or builds.
What do you think about the changes? If you purchased previous versions of Affinity, how do you feel about the Canva acquisition of Affinity? Does it affect you?
