Affinity (v3/by Canva) Review & Final Thoughts
Ayup! I've been using the new Affinity app for close to four months now. I've already written about my first impressions, now it's time to delve a little deeper with a full review. What I've been using it for, comparisons to Adobe, and how I've been finding it. Additionally, there's a possible concern to address.
Affinity's updated offering was released on the 30th October 2025. It's the first official version under the new Canva ownership. Understandably, this acquisition ruffled a few feathers, to say the least. That said, only good things have happened so far as a result.
In case you missed any of the significant changes, here's what's new:
It's now free (with the option to unlock extra tools with a Canva subscription).
All three of the previous apps (Photo, Designer & Publisher) are now bundled into one.
This is a brand-new product that gives you advanced photo editing, graphic design, and page layout tools under one roof. It includes highly requested features such as Image Trace, ePub support, mesh gradients, hatch fills, live glitch filter, as well as custom capabilities that allow you to rearrange panels and combine tools to build your own unique studios.
Farewell Adobe, Hello Affinity
If you've seen any of my recent posts on Affinity, you'll know that it's completely replaced my need for a Creative Cloud subscription. I'm achieving the same results in the same amount of time, but I've got an extra £797.88 in my bank account each year.
Obviously, this a massive (holiday shaped) bonus, but let's strip out the costs for a moment. I've been pondering over this recently. If it came to it, and both Affinity and Creative Cloud cost the same amount (don't go getting any ideas, Canva), I'd actually choose Affinity.
This is for a number of reasons, but primarily, the software is just so much more enjoyable to use. It's faster, more intuitive (once you've unlearned the Adobe way) and effortless to skip between studios.
Although everything is now in one app, you have the option at the top to select what used to be Photo, Designer and Publisher. They're now known as studios, and referred to as pixel, vector and layout.
Affinity vs Adobe is one of the year’s biggest design industry shifts. Adobe has remained the professional standard for over a decade, the default toolkit for agencies, studios, and internal brand teams. But Affinity’s recent evolution into a unified, fluid design environment has introduced a viable alternative that designers are now taking seriously.
What has Affinity replaced?
The first thing to consider is what Affinity can actually replace from the Creative Cloud apps. There are so many Adobe tools now, it's never going to compete in terms of sheer diversity. Nor should it.
Instead, Affinity offers an alternative solution that covers everything you'd normally work on in Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign. Simple. Other than dabbling with Dimension, these are the three apps I primarily used.
If you're also using Lightroom, you'll need to find a suitable replacement. I went from Apple Photos to Photomator to nothing at all. As an alternative, I have a simple location-based filing system and edit exclusively in Affinity. A slower, more meticulous approach with infinitely more control.
What I'm using Affinity for
Photo editing
Designing print materials
Setting up print files
Logo and branding work
Creating or editing vectors
PDF/page layout and design
Digital art / painting
The learning curve
Numerous things in Affinity work slightly differently to how you might be used to with Adobe. It takes a little getting used to, but once you persevere, it becomes 100% intuitive.
For example, I set up plenty of commercial print files for Leaflet Lion clients. In Illustrator or InDesign, the PDF would import with the bleed area visible. In Affinity, it just shows you what will be on the page when printed. It turns out there's a page box option in the top menu. Change this to bleed box, et voilà.
Anything you can't figure out is only a quick online search away. If you're using the app pretty regularly, you'll easily have found your way around in a week or two.
The right amount of AI
Most creatives considering ditching Adobe are doing so because of two things; their ridiculously priced subscription model and/or the relentless bombardment of AI. Affinity, on the other hand, has struck the perfect balance. In fact, you can use it without any AI whatsoever if you wish.
That's what I'm talking about! Even under the new Canva ownership, Affinity realise and address the concern designers, photographers and artists have with AI. Additionally, none of your work is used to train generative models. Massive tick!
Your content in Affinity is not used to train AI-powered features. Nor is it used to help AI features learn and improve in other ways, such as model evaluation or quality assurance. In Affinity, your content is stored locally on your device and we don’t have access to it. However, for any content you upload or export to Canva, you’re in control. You can review and update your preferences any time in your Canva settings.
With the free version, you have the option to install something called segmentation under settings, then machine learning models. This basically powers your object selection tool. Incredibly useful, and I have no issues using AI in this way.
For everything else, you need a Canva Pro subscription. This is currently £13 per month or £100 for the year. I tested out the additional tools that this unlocks. I have to say, pretty darn impressive. If you use or need anything like background removal, upscaling or generative expand, it's well worth a look. Personally, I cancelled my subscription in the end, as I wasn't really using any of the above.
The good
Alrighty! On to a quick fire round of the good, the bad and the ugly. First up, the bits that bring a smile to my day, starting with speed and productivity.
As mentioned further up, the Affinity app is lightning fast. It's only when you start using it that you realise how slow and clunky the Adobe alternatives are. Furthermore, having all three apps in one still blows my mind. It's so quick and easy to pretty much use everything all at the same time.
The export options are also infinitely better than with Photoshop or Illustrator. WebP files specifically were always a nightmare if you wanted to export at a certain size for the web. With Affinity, you simply select WebP, adjust your settings and choose your required size.
For my own use and requirements, it nestles into my workflow effortlessly. The transition from Adobe has mostly been smooth sailing, other than a couple of small niggles. Which leads nicely onto...
The bad
Three things; firstly, quite a lot of PSD mockups don't open correctly. This seems to happen most frequently with any curved elements, such as flyers or folded leaflets. The alignment of the artwork to the paper is often mismatched. Where it should be curved ends up being a straight line. This can be adjusted with the mesh warp tool, but it's really not that easy.
Secondly, while you're editing a photo, you're presented with a reduced quality version. I assume this is to keep things nippy, but I've never seen this in any other editing software. It's no dealbreaker, and I can still edit the file as I otherwise would, but it does seem really rather odd.
Lastly, the vignette isn't great. You can use it as a filter or via the develop module. They both somehow look a bit awkward/unnatural. You can change the blend mode when using it as a filter, but this doesn't really help. If you compare it with Photomator, Pixelmator Pro or Lightroom, there's a noticeable difference.
The ugly
Now let's address that concern I mentioned. Canva will likely become a publicly traded company in the next year or two. I'm keeping an open mind, but really, this changes everything. How will they handle the additional pressure to perpetually increase their turnover and revenue?
I'm more than happy to pay for this software, as I did with v.2. What I don't particularly want is to be forced into a never-ending subscription. Canva have gone on record saying they can offer Affinity for free due to their successful business model. Hopefully, I'm not being naive here, but as a company, I actually think they've got a strong culture and set of values.
Today, Canva is a rapidly growing company with over 28 million paying customers and $3.5 billion in annualized revenue. That sustainable foundation enables us to keep investing in both our free Canva experience and the next generation of creative tools, including offering Affinity completely free.
Affinity review - Conclusion
Boom! Thanks for sticking around until the end. This was a long one. You've probably guessed by now, but I absolutely love the new Affinity app. They didn't even pay me to say that (shame on them!).
From its perfectly timed drop to almost four months of daily use, what we're dealing with here, is a creative powerhouse. Very exciting times. Adobe hasn't really had any genuinely viable competition until now. The times they are a changin'. No longer do we designers, photographers and artists need to seek out sub-par alternatives. Affinity does it all, and then some.
The savings are an added bonus, but that's not what this is about. When the free software is actually better than the paid software, it's pretty much a no-brainer.
Is this the new industry standard? Well, not officially (yet), but I'm over here running a commercial print business, designing artwork for clients and editing all of my photos with Affinity instead of Adobe. It does everything the industry standard software does, minus the horrific subscription model and enforced AI. I'm calling that a winner.
