--- title: Affinity Designer Reviews meta_title: 'Affinity Designer Reviews 2026: Details, Pricing, & Features | G2' meta_description: Filter 452 reviews by the users' company size, role or industry to find out how Affinity Designer works for a business like yours. aggregate_rating: rating_value: 4.5 review_count: 452 scale: '5' date_modified: '2026-09-28' parent_category: name: Graphic Design url: https://www.g2.com/categories/graphic-design --- # Affinity Designer Reviews **Vendor:** Canva **Category:** [Vector Graphics Software](https://www.g2.com/categories/vector-graphics) **Average Rating:** 4.5/5.0 **Total Reviews:** 452 **AI Enabled:** This product embeds AI to enhance or extend its core functionality. ## About Affinity Designer Proud winner of an Apple Design Award in 2015, Affinity Designer brings inspiration to illustration in a strong, sleek tool. Combining vector design and raster finishing naturally in one tool, this innovative illustrator lets your ideas flow. Put simply, its speed, power and precision make creating art feel fun and spontaneous again, while delivering high-end results in both macOS and Windows. “We’ve been wondering when a serious challenger would appear, and Serif has thrown down the gauntlet in fine style.” Expert Reviews “Stunningly powerful.” TechRadar “Great UI, buttery smooth software and jaw dropping price.” Medium.com “A very attractive investment for anyone from beginners to professionals.” Touch Reviews “A remarkably polished design environment.” Stack Social ## Affinity Designer Pros & Cons Pros and Cons are compiled from review feedback and grouped into themes to provide an easy-to-understand summary of user reviews. **What users like:** - Users find the **ease of use** of Affinity Designer remarkable, allowing efficient creation of professional graphics without a learning curve. (10 reviews) - Users admire the **high-quality graphics** produced by Affinity Designer, appreciating its user-friendly design and professional capabilities. (6 reviews) - Users appreciate the **ease and speed of vector editing** in Affinity Designer, enhancing their design workflow significantly. (6 reviews) - Users value the **affordability** of Affinity Designer, appreciating its one-time purchase and cost-effective alternatives to subscriptions. (5 reviews) - Users love the **user-friendly interface and flexibility** of Affinity Designer for creating professional-quality graphics effortlessly. (5 reviews) - Users appreciate the **easy-to-use tools** in Affinity Designer, which enhance their design experience and versatility. (3 reviews) - Users appreciate the **affordable pricing and professional interface** of Affinity Designer, making it an excellent alternative to Adobe Illustrator. (3 reviews) - Vector Editing (3 reviews) - Users value the **compatibility** of Affinity Designer with Adobe Illustrator, enhancing their design experience effortlessly. (2 reviews) - Efficiency Improvement (2 reviews) **What users dislike:** - Users note the **tool limitations** of Affinity Designer, including fewer plugins and insufficient AI features compared to competitors. (4 reviews) - Users face **import issues** with Affinity Designer, struggling with limited file compatibility and fewer third-party resources. (3 reviews) - Users express concern about **limited features** in Affinity Designer, especially compared to industry-standard tools like Adobe Illustrator. (3 reviews) - Users find the **complexity of tools** challenging initially, especially during the transition from other design platforms. (2 reviews) - Users experience **performance issues** with Affinity Designer, especially when handling complex files on Windows. (2 reviews) - Vector Issues (2 reviews) - Users note **compatibility issues** with certain file types when converting from other software, affecting overall usability. (1 reviews) - Design Limitations (1 reviews) - Users note **high system requirements** for Affinity Designer, leading to performance lags with complex files on Windows. (1 reviews) - Learning Curve (1 reviews) ## Affinity Designer Reviews ### 1. Affinity Designer **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Jai Srikanth A. | Manager, Development , Financial Services, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through LinkedIn **Incentivized:** This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Source: G2 invite:** Invitation from G2. This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Reviewed Date:** January 03, 2019 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** Any designing Workflow is the best part in affinity designer. And though the primary purpose is to design new layouts / logos etc, it supports both vector images as well as the pixel based image editing, This is really helpful in basic photo editing in same application as design. And the best part is the pricing model. Just one time payment and that is it, lifetime support. **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** As this is heavy weight application, it consumes significant amount of resources. **Recommendations to others considering Affinity Designer:** This is very helpful, ease of usage and cheapest designer tool. Because of the pricing mode, it is very affordable and This can be used for personal use as well. **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** Very helpful in designing the screen mock ups for screen design and development work. also helpful in creating the web page layouts. ### 2. Architectural designer **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Dhawal J. | Architectural designer , Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through a business email account **Incentivized:** This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Source: G2 invite:** Invitation from G2. This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Reviewed Date:** June 20, 2019 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** It is a good replacement for photoshop especially with the psd license cost going up **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** It’s good but hopefully gets more popular so that more hacks are available **Recommendations to others considering Affinity Designer:** Substitute for photoshop **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** Substituting it for photoshop and creating some amazing renders ### 3. Better pricing than Adobe Illustrator, same functionality **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Program Development | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) This reviewer's identity has been verified by our review moderation team. They have asked not to show their name, job title, or picture. **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through a business email account **Incentivized:** This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Source: G2 invite:** Invitation from G2. This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Reviewed Date:** August 29, 2019 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** I like that Affinity Designer has the same functionality as Illustrator, but at a way better price **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** Aswell as Affinity Photo, Affinity Designer takes a little while to learn when changing from Illustrator **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** Designing logo's and images ### 4. Great low cost alternative to Adobe software. **Rating:** 3.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Cameron S. | Owner, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Current User:** The reviewer uploaded a screenshot or submitted the review in-app verifying them as current user. **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through a business email account **Source: Organic:** Organic review. This review was written entirely without invitation or incentive from G2, a seller, or an affiliate. **Reviewed Date:** November 28, 2018 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** I love that I can do a lot of the things that I would need adobe software for at a much cheaper cost. **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** I don’t like that a few essential things are missing from the software. Also, it is not “truely” compatible with main file formats. **Recommendations to others considering Affinity Designer:** If you need a low cost full featured alternative to Adobe software, Affinity designer is a great option. But I’d wait if you are looking to switch your entire workflow over, Affinity designer just isn’t all the way there yet. **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** Low cost alternative to Adobe Photoshop and illustrator. ### 5. better than illustrator! **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Graphic Design | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) This reviewer's identity has been verified by our review moderation team. They have asked not to show their name, job title, or picture. **Current User:** The reviewer uploaded a screenshot or submitted the review in-app verifying them as current user. **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through LinkedIn **Incentivized:** This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Source: G2 invite:** Invitation from G2. This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Reviewed Date:** August 02, 2018 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** The best things about this program are: -It's great for professional and amateur use in graphic design, vector illustration, logos, etc. - A clean and visually cool interface, very easy to use and intuitive. - lots of tools and with constant updates. Much better than illustrator. - For $ 50 you have one of the best vector editing programs with constant updates. - Open freehand old files without problems (for those who still have files that can not be recovered). - There is for pc and mac. - It does not occupy any space in the memory of the computer. - It's the same or easier than an illustrator, there will be no problem moving from one program to another. Definitely very good for everything that the program offers and above all compared to others in its category. **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** - You still need to polish some details and put some more tools. - Sometimes it gives some problems to the printers when not having said program. - Thankfully they update often and they are improving these failures. **Recommendations to others considering Affinity Designer:** I recommend this program to any graphic designer or illustrator, who starts on the subject or is professional, for vector drawing, overcoming in many things to an illustrator starting with the price and ending with the ease and agility of its use. **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** I was a Macromedia Freehand user for a long time until Adobe bought it and disappeared, since then I used an illustrator but I had the problem that I could not open the old files of Macromedia Freehand until I found this program and I opened them without problems. There are also tools that make its use much easier than in an illustrator. ### 6. Here comes the new standard **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Andrea G. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Current User:** The reviewer uploaded a screenshot or submitted the review in-app verifying them as current user. **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through LinkedIn **Incentivized:** This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Source: G2 invite:** Invitation from G2. This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Reviewed Date:** July 26, 2018 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** It's a young company, with a well defined direction and a LOT of drive. It's refusing to subjugate to Adobe's trend of making everything a subscription, so, once you pay for the software, it's YOURS. And you still get any update for—like—2 years, after that! As a program, I think it already surpasses the actual standard for vector design, Adobe Illustrator. It does all sorts of things that Illustrator, does some things more, and does it faster and, often, better. It's the future, and people are finally starting to notice. **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** The only thing missing is the ability to trace an image, like Illustrator does, but it's not that big of a deal, since: a) Almost no professional uses that option, b) there are lots of free programs that can do it, both locally and in the cloud. **Recommendations to others considering Affinity Designer:** Do yourself a favor and try this magnificent piece of software. You'll forget Adobe in a heartbeat. **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** We used to pay for Adobe Creative Cloud's expensive subscription, even though we only really used 3-4 programs that came with it. If you compare it to the ~50$ one-time policy of Affinity, there really is no competition. ### 7. Good program for vector drawing editing almost surpassing Illustrator **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Graphic Design | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) This reviewer's identity has been verified by our review moderation team. They have asked not to show their name, job title, or picture. **Current User:** The reviewer uploaded a screenshot or submitted the review in-app verifying them as current user. **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through LinkedIn **Incentivized:** This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Source: G2 invite:** Invitation from G2. This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **AI Translated:** This review has been translated from Spanish; Castilian using AI. **Reviewed Date:** July 21, 2018 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** This program is great for professional and amateur use in graphic design. Perfect interface and visually great, very easy to use and intuitive, it serves for vector editing with a large number of tools and they keep improving it. It has nothing to envy to the Adobe Illustrator program. The price is very, very good for everything the program offers and especially compared to others in its category. And a very important thing for those who have been in the field for a long time and have old Freehand files, this program opens them without problems! **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** I don't like some things, there are still some details to polish and some more tools to add, sometimes it causes problems for the printers by not having said program. **Recommendations to others considering Affinity Designer:** For those starting in design and for freelancers, I highly recommend this program because for the price it costs, you can do almost anything like other more expensive programs. It is very easy to use and is updated frequently, improving many things each time. In the end, it will be one of the best vector programs, and if not, just wait and see! **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** The most important problem that this program has solved for me is that it has allowed me to open old Freehand files that were impossible to open with Adobe Illustrator due to its restriction of eliminating everything related to Freehand once and for all. There are many designers who had old work files that they lost because of Illustrator, but with this, they can be opened without problems. Another thing is the great fluidity when creating vectors. ### 8. The Adobe Illustrator Killer **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Jie F. | Business Consultant, Media Production, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Current User:** The reviewer uploaded a screenshot or submitted the review in-app verifying them as current user. **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through LinkedIn **Incentivized:** This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Source: G2 invite:** Invitation from G2. This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Reviewed Date:** July 16, 2018 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** Everything just works! The program is intuitive and innovative. Its low impact requirements make it a must-have for any machine. IT'S NOT ON A SUBSCRIPTION MODEL! One affordable price and it's yours forever! It takes everything that makes sense from Illustrator and nothing that doesn't. The learning curve is incredibly low considering how powerful it is. Its update schedule is robust and frequent. **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** They have yet to put puppet warp in the software (it's in Affinity Photo) and we have been asking for 3 years. The devs have assured us that they are working on it and they are taking the time to do it right. That's all. **Recommendations to others considering Affinity Designer:** If you have any doubts, Google people who have switched. The software and the results speak for themselves. **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** Fast iteration Fully accepts Adobe .Psd and illustration files Small learning curve so anyone can pick it up and get to work fast Powerful Export Tools ### 9. Great program **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Graphic Design | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) This reviewer's identity has been verified by our review moderation team. They have asked not to show their name, job title, or picture. **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through LinkedIn **Incentivized:** This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Source: G2 invite:** Invitation from G2. This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Reviewed Date:** June 01, 2019 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** It is great for vector design and very easy to learn how to use **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** There are some features that are confusing due to being used to another program and sometimes it crashes without notice **Recommendations to others considering Affinity Designer:** It is worth the investment and one of the best vector programs compared to adobe illustrator **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** Vector logo designs. I have realized how easy it is to convert designs to vector designs. ### 10. Super Easy to Use **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Marketing and Advertising | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) This reviewer's identity has been verified by our review moderation team. They have asked not to show their name, job title, or picture. **Current User:** The reviewer uploaded a screenshot or submitted the review in-app verifying them as current user. **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through a business email account **Incentivized:** This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Source: G2 invite:** Invitation from G2. This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Reviewed Date:** March 19, 2019 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** I love how easy it is to use and the flexibility. It's also great that it is only a one time purchase rather than subscription based. **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** I don't like that you can't set a keyboard shortcut for macros the same way you can in Photoshop. **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** I don't need a monthly subscription just to edit photos. I can easily edit the photos I need for updates. ### 11. Great PhotoShop Alternative **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Computer Software | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) This reviewer's identity has been verified by our review moderation team. They have asked not to show their name, job title, or picture. **Current User:** The reviewer uploaded a screenshot or submitted the review in-app verifying them as current user. **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through a business email account **Incentivized:** This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Source: G2 invite:** Invitation from G2. This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Reviewed Date:** May 08, 2019 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** Easy to use and doesn't require a subscription **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** There are some differences between Affiinity and Photoshop that require a bit of a learning curve to adjust **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** Allows me to easily edit photos without having to pay for Photoshop every month ### 12. Inexpensive and does everything I need **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Design | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) This reviewer's identity has been verified by our review moderation team. They have asked not to show their name, job title, or picture. **Current User:** The reviewer uploaded a screenshot or submitted the review in-app verifying them as current user. **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through a business email account **Incentivized:** This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Source: G2 invite:** Invitation from G2. This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Reviewed Date:** March 06, 2019 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** I like that they charge a fair, one-time fee for their software. **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** There are some (albeit very few) tools that Affinity doesn't have that I used in other graphic programs. **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** I do 99% of all of my graphic design work in Affinity Designer. I use it to design both digital and print products, as well as conceptualizing new projects. ### 13. A fast, intuitive, and simple program **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Ryan D. | Professional Freelancer, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Current User:** The reviewer uploaded a screenshot or submitted the review in-app verifying them as current user. **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through LinkedIn **Incentivized:** This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Source: G2 invite:** Invitation from G2. This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Reviewed Date:** July 27, 2018 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** I love how simple the user interface is compared to other design programs. In addition, the Affinity is incredibly snappy in every single situation. **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** I don't like that there's not much addition integration with the Adobe Ecosystem. I believe you should be able to work hand-in-hand in case Adobe's software has a feature that Affinity has yet to add. **Recommendations to others considering Affinity Designer:** Although the interface is simple enough, it's still a good idea to look up some tutorials so you get a firm understanding of the program's workflow. **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** I can design whatever I need with ease due to the shear speed of the program. It also allows you to use vector shapes, brushes, and text, making it like a perfect combination of Adobe's Photoshop and Illustrator. ### 14. Love Affinity Designer **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Gabriella D. | Development Director, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Current User:** The reviewer uploaded a screenshot or submitted the review in-app verifying them as current user. **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through a business email account **Incentivized:** This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Source: G2 invite:** Invitation from G2. This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Reviewed Date:** November 20, 2018 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** One time cost instead of continued payments. I also had no prior design experience, and I am able to use it sufficiently for my needs. **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** I wish there were better tutorials for it. There should be more basic, simple, and short tutorials for basic use. **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** Anytime I need to design a card or banner for email, website use, or social media, I use Affinity Designer. ### 15. Affinity Photo, The complete and best alternative photo editing software to Adobe Photoshop **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Rangga S. | Information Technology, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through LinkedIn **Incentivized:** This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Source: G2 invite:** Invitation from G2. This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Reviewed Date:** July 31, 2018 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** * Affinity Photo has almost all features in Adobe Photoshop, from basic retouching like clone, dodge, burn, recolouring, inpainting, etc until high-end image editing. It has customisable filters like lighting, blurs, distortions, tilt-shift, shadows and glows. The best part when applying filter is that we can see the change we made in real time * Panning and Zooming in Affinity Photo is really smooth. Even smoother than Adobe Photoshop. If you switch from Affinity Photo to Adobe Photoshop. You will say that Adobe Photoshop is laggy * If Adobe Photoshop has "action" to speed up the editing process, then Affinity Photo has "macro" which act similar to photoshop action * Affinity Photo has dedicated RAW workspace to work with RAW files and it performs very well * From all the best things I explained above. Yes, Affinity Photo can work with PSD files. **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** Adobe still conquer the design software market hence many files need Adobe software to open them. For example, the mockup files. It needs smart object feature in Adobe Photoshop but Affinity Photo still unable to open it. Many users are asking for this feature to be available in Affinity Photo. I hope they will implement it in near future **Recommendations to others considering Affinity Designer:** If you are looking for professional yet low budget photo editing software, Affinity Photo is your answer. It packs with huge toolset and great features for editing, retouching, and compositing images and only cost $49.99. You will get 1 year update from developer. The good things is that you can keep the software forever **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** I'm using Affinity Photo not just to edit some photos/images but also create banner, book cover, name tag, label, etc. I know that it will be much easier to do such tasks on Affinity Designer but Affinity Photo surprise me with its capability to do this job well. One software for various designing purpose. ### 16. Brilliant keeps getting better **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Danny G. | Art Director, Entertainment, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through LinkedIn **Incentivized:** This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Source: G2 invite:** Invitation from G2. This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Reviewed Date:** July 26, 2018 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** The interface. The rendering speed. The price. The tools feel far more advanced than Photoshop. Adobe can change the look of their interface all they want but Photoshop looks and feels tired in comparison. **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** Providing that it's relatively new, some certain features that I was used to in Photoshop. Requires a little digging around but there are solutions to everything I've needed to do. Check their forums, videos, and Youtube. **Recommendations to others considering Affinity Designer:** For $35 what have you got to lose? Photoshop feels like an anchor tied around my neck compared to working with Affinity Photo. **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** I use Photo endlessly for a onetime price of $35 (as opposed to paying $20 a month. . . forever to use Photoshop, or $52 a month. . . FOREVER to use the 3 core programs in CC). The benefits are when you realize you DON'T need the Adobe ecosystem. There are so many good tools to achieve what you need available without subscriptions and from my experience the companies and forums are far more attuned to the investment of time and money their customers make in their products. ### 17. An excellent alternative to illustrator **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Education Management | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) This reviewer's identity has been verified by our review moderation team. They have asked not to show their name, job title, or picture. **Current User:** The reviewer uploaded a screenshot or submitted the review in-app verifying them as current user. **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through a business email account **Incentivized:** This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Source: G2 invite:** Invitation from G2. This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Reviewed Date:** December 07, 2018 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** Unbeatable value for money, excellent online resources, slick and simple GUI **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** Lacking in some useful features which means that I sometimes have to switch to Affinity photo for some tasks **Recommendations to others considering Affinity Designer:** This is a fantastic low cost alternative to the Adobe packages, especially as an introductory product to those not working in design departments, but who may occasionally need to complete simple design-like tasks. **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** Accessible to those without formal training or with little experience using digital design programmes ### 18. Inexpensive photo editor alternative for small business owners **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** James C. | Owner, Design, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Current User:** The reviewer uploaded a screenshot or submitted the review in-app verifying them as current user. **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through a business email account **Incentivized:** This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Source: G2 invite:** Invitation from G2. This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Reviewed Date:** September 04, 2018 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** Has full editing capabilities similar to the more popular photo editing software at a fraction of the cost. **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** Menus are difficult to navigate until familiar. **Recommendations to others considering Affinity Designer:** An excellent low-cost alternative to the traditional photo editing software packages **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** Editing and enhancing photographs is an essential part of my forensic work, which enables me to "see" details which were otherwise invisible to the eye and to be able to present findings to my clients in a manner which is clear. ### 19. Great product with very few problems. **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Religious Institutions | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) This reviewer's identity has been verified by our review moderation team. They have asked not to show their name, job title, or picture. **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through LinkedIn **Incentivized:** This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Source: G2 invite:** Invitation from G2. This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Reviewed Date:** March 30, 2019 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** The photoshop feel without the Photoshop cost. **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** Photoshop conversion (ex saving as PSD in Affinity) doesn’t allow text editing when you open it in Photoshop. **Recommendations to others considering Affinity Designer:** It’s worth the money! Great product with very minimal issues. **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** Great design opportunities at a less expensive rate. ### 20. Great alternative to Adobe Illustrator **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Executive Office | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) This reviewer's identity has been verified by our review moderation team. They have asked not to show their name, job title, or picture. **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through a business email account **Incentivized:** This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Source: G2 invite:** Invitation from G2. This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Reviewed Date:** April 09, 2019 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** Cheaper and more streamlined alternative to Adobe Illustrator **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** Not much to dislike— if you like Adobe Illustrator and hate paying for it, this is the perfect solution **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** Graphic design ### 21. Not even close **Rating:** 0.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Brian K. | Photographer, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through a business email account **Source: Organic:** Organic review. This review was written entirely without invitation or incentive from G2, a seller, or an affiliate. **Reviewed Date:** October 30, 2018 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** It's actually runner up almost to photoshop. Lots of uses and options and intricacies. If you're new to photo editing you can get the hang of it. **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** It's clumsy and very tiny in print and copies a lot from photoshop. **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** I tried it for 2 months but always ran into roadblocks and went back to using photoshop. ### 22. Affordable Adobe Alternative **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Rebekah T. | Print Team Lead, Media Production, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Current User:** The reviewer uploaded a screenshot or submitted the review in-app verifying them as current user. **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through LinkedIn **Incentivized:** This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Source: G2 invite:** Invitation from G2. This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Reviewed Date:** April 30, 2018 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** This is a great alternative if you can't afford Adobe Illustrator. There are a lot of the same tools and functionality that makes it pretty easy to transition to Affinity Designer. There are also more tutorials becoming available to learn the program. **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** Like any new program, it takes time to get used to a different interface. I am still trying to learn some of the tools. **Recommendations to others considering Affinity Designer:** If you're on the fence about it, download a free trial from their website and give it a shot. **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** I am saving money by using Affinity Designer. It is a one time fee instead of a monthly subscription. ### 23. Forget the competition, this is what you need! **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Rita V. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through a business email account **Incentivized:** This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Source: G2 invite:** Invitation from G2. This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Reviewed Date:** July 27, 2018 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** Affinity Designer is a software made from designers for designers, tired of paying an abusive amount of money on a tool. It has enough resources to work as a graphic designer and for a one-time payment! I am a huge fan! **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** The shortcuts were made for mac users, so some shortcuts are not so intuitive for windows users. **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** I was paying so much on monthly subscription, this costs me CAD$52. This tool is all I need, it's lightweight, it doesn't crash, it doesn't use all my ram, the file size is small. I can go on, and on... ### 24. Great alternative to adobe **Rating:** 2.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Design | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) This reviewer's identity has been verified by our review moderation team. They have asked not to show their name, job title, or picture. **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through a business email account **Incentivized:** This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Source: G2 invite:** Invitation from G2. This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Reviewed Date:** February 21, 2019 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** Inexpensive and easy to use as an alternative to Adobe creative suite **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** Not as comprehensive as Adobe, feels like a level up from canva almost **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** Design solutions for brands. ### 25. The best replacement for Adobe Illustrator **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Alexandru D. | Principal Cello, Co-founder, Head of Communications, Marketing and Advertising, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Current User:** The reviewer uploaded a screenshot or submitted the review in-app verifying them as current user. **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through LinkedIn **Source: Seller invite:** Invitation from a seller or affiliate. This reviewer was not provided any incentive by G2 for completing this review. **Reviewed Date:** January 19, 2018 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** I like that there was almost no learning curve while switching from Adobe software. Pricing is affordable and I love that there is no subscription based. I love it. It works as you expect, it has all the features that vector and graphic works requires. It has also artboards. Synced with iCloud. I love that the interface is customisable on a deep level. **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** The conversion from AI when importing, sometimes (!), does not import, but it is not an issue I cannot work without it. There is no major issue while working with Affinity or something that can hold you switching from Adobe or other vectorial software. **Recommendations to others considering Affinity Designer:** Try the app, you won't regret. It is so easy to switch from Adobe. **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** All vector design, prepress and graphic editing is done used with Affinity. I am working almost 2 years with the app, it works fantastic. Exporting is really great, all formats are available. RGB/CMYK. It has profiles to save when exporting. All the marketing materials for my agency, clients and extra projects are done with Affinity. Exporting for printing and PDF compatibility is what printing houses expect. ### 26. A Home Run From Serif, Affinity Designer Blew My Expectations Out of the Water. **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Nick D. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Current User:** The reviewer uploaded a screenshot or submitted the review in-app verifying them as current user. **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through a business email account **Source: Seller invite:** Invitation from a seller or affiliate. This reviewer was not provided any incentive by G2 for completing this review. **Reviewed Date:** January 16, 2018 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** I bought this software after using Adobe Illustrator for about three years. Prior to switching to Illustrator, I had used Serif vector design products (Drawplus SE Pro and Drawplus X4) which offered very basic functionality in comparison. I bought Affinity Design expecting a tradeoff, no monthly subscription fees, for reduced options. I was expecting Affinity Designer to be an evolved version of DrawPlus X4, and after buying the software it quickly became apparent that this is not the case. I honestly feel that in several areas, Affinity Designer is actually BETTER that illustrator, the UI is well laid out and very user friendly and although there are differences, no anyone will experience in Illustrator will pick up Affinity Designer very quickly and without much effort. **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** The fact that I did not ditch my Illustrator subscription earlier and buy this awesome software when it came out. **Recommendations to others considering Affinity Designer:** This software is perfect for small agencies, and at the price of under two months Illustrator CC subs, it offers exceptional value for money. **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** I get the same benefits as I did from my Illustrator CC subscription for a one of cost of less than two months subscription fees. ### 27. Really impressive **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** William W. | Senior Level Web Developer, Computer Software, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Current User:** The reviewer uploaded a screenshot or submitted the review in-app verifying them as current user. **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through LinkedIn **Incentivized:** This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Source: G2 invite:** Invitation from G2. This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Reviewed Date:** January 11, 2018 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** Basically this design app does absolutely everything I need and a whole lot more. Loads of very powerful tools for designing websites and producing mockups. Support for multiple artboards and the different persona's offer a very well organised way of working. **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** I can't honestly think of anything I don't like about the app. **Recommendations to others considering Affinity Designer:** I have found the video tutorials hosted on YouTube and Vimeo really useful. They have taught me a lot about the app. It was really useful to see the app being demonstrated within a real design agency and getting an insight into what actual users create with the software. **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** Previously I was using VectorDesign and Pixelmator. VectorDesigner became 'vapourware' a few years ago and Pixelmator was replaced with a new app called 'Pixelmator Pro'. I found myself in the market for a powerful design app. I purposely did not want to invest into Adobe products, because I dislike their 'rental' model and I prefer to support indie developers. ### 28. Affinity Designer: The Most Outstanding new graphic design program in years **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Information Technology and Services | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) This reviewer's identity has been verified by our review moderation team. They have asked not to show their name, job title, or picture. **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through a business email account **Incentivized:** This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Source: G2 invite:** Invitation from G2. This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Reviewed Date:** May 22, 2018 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** Where to begin? Affinity Designer is a feature-rich, well designed, ergonomic working environment with insane flexibility when designing projects. It is lightweight but absurdly powerful, and it has an ever increasing community base that has transitioned from Adobe. Also, it's a $50 one time purchase!!!! **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** Not much! My "dislikes" are simply because the software is still in development. I'd like to see image trace for vectoring raster images, but I think that's a future deal. Also, please standardize menu locations and keyboard shortcuts as much as possible between Designer, Photo, and Publisher. **Recommendations to others considering Affinity Designer:** Get Affinity Designer NOW! It is the most cutting edge design app there is right now. **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** My workflow has benefited massively from Affinity Designer. I do all my graphic design, mockups, and other artwork inside AD. IT has sped up my workflow and improved the quality of my art by orders of magnitude. It's easy to learn, friendly to navigate, and cheap! ### 29. This is a great replacement for Adobe Illustrator **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Devin G. | Founder, Graphic Design, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Current User:** The reviewer uploaded a screenshot or submitted the review in-app verifying them as current user. **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through LinkedIn **Incentivized:** This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Source: G2 invite:** Invitation from G2. This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Reviewed Date:** November 29, 2017 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** What I like best about this program is the fact that the workflow (like Affinity Photo) is very awesome. It's a learning curve, but once you get it, it's all muscle memory. The amazing thing about this plugin as well is that you can open Illustrator files in tact and edit them seamlessly with the plugin. The selection system of the program is very easy to use and not as direct as Illustrator. It allows you to select elements more easily with click drag functions. Another thing I love about Affinity Designer is the pathfinder functions and the easy font kerning hotkeys it has. It makes things a lot easier to adjust in the long run **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** The only thing I say that I dislike about this program is that it's sometimes freezes first when you open. I have a very stable OS and plenty of RAM to run it, but for some reason, it freezes on open. I don't mind it much since after the first few mins of working on a file, it goes away. Serif is actively working on this issue as well too so don't let that be a drawback to install the program. I'm running WIndows too and the Windows port is Fairly new **Recommendations to others considering Affinity Designer:** Take your time and learn the program. They have a book on how to do things in Affinity so if all else fails, grab that. It's not free but worth the purchase **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** I use this program to create all my Icons, Graphic art, and many other things personally. The main thing that I use this program for is for clients. The logos are up to par with Illustrator as well ### 30. Great Design Software without breaking the bank **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** David M. | (UX)User Experience, (UI) User Interface/Interaction Designer - Mobile & Web Apps, SaaS, Websites, Internet, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through a business email account **Incentivized:** This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Source: G2 invite:** Invitation from G2. This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Reviewed Date:** July 30, 2018 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** Besides not having to pay a monthly subscription, I like powerful zoom features and responsiveness of the app when working on projects as they get larger. Also, I like the ability to switch between full view and outline view quickly. **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** It lacks some pre-sets for strokes and other things out of the box. **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** I don't often design for non-web related projects and this helps by not charging monthly subscriptions to work on them. ### 31. Great software for advanced users and you can be advanced in just couple of hours **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Computer Hardware | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) This reviewer's identity has been verified by our review moderation team. They have asked not to show their name, job title, or picture. **Current User:** The reviewer uploaded a screenshot or submitted the review in-app verifying them as current user. **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through LinkedIn **Incentivized:** This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Source: G2 invite:** Invitation from G2. This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Reviewed Date:** April 27, 2018 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** I love auto settings, my favorite tool is Gradient tool. I also love Styles and Effects, they are great. Overall Affinity is great software with full potential to became perfect picture editing software. **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** So far i didn't find any option that i do not like. Interface is nice and clean and fast. Maybe needs more options to play with text. **Recommendations to others considering Affinity Designer:** I recommend Affinity Photo to all people that want their pictures to look amazing with not to much spending time creating them. With just few hours you playing with Affinity you will love it. **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** Am using this to create some nice pictures for websites and graphic design. Affinity is doing great job. All pictures looks like pro. ### 32. Great Illustrator. I prefer this over adobe. **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Wayne B. | Network Engineer, Education Management, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Current User:** The reviewer uploaded a screenshot or submitted the review in-app verifying them as current user. **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through LinkedIn **Incentivized:** This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Source: G2 invite:** Invitation from G2. This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Reviewed Date:** February 26, 2018 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** I have been very please with this software. Full range of features. Is on par with other leading products. Plus this one does not have a monthly fee. Easy to learn to use. Company offers many tutorials on there site for learning how to use the software **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** I have not had any issues. I have been nothing but please with this software. **Recommendations to others considering Affinity Designer:** This is a very cost effective solution. I prefer it over adobe in many ways. **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** I use this product for creating templates and layouts for a number of different projects. I have found it easy to use and cost effective. ### 33. Such an awesome tool for such an affordable price! **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Gerard G. | Owner, Internet, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through LinkedIn **Incentivized:** This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Source: G2 invite:** Invitation from G2. This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Reviewed Date:** April 05, 2018 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** I love that this tool has all the features of bigger and way more expensive options. I work in web design and I'm never let down whenever I need to work out a new graphic or edit something sent in by a client. **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** I honestly couldn't say that I dislike anything. I read that in a big design office it might be better to have the group management tools in Adobe suites and such, but as a freelancer, I do not need any of that overhead. **Recommendations to others considering Affinity Designer:** Just get a trial and get to it **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** Anytime I can quickly and simply edit or create a graphic myself, it's money saved as I do not have to outsource this task. ### 34. Essential for the freelancer **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Jan P. | Desarrollo y diseño web, Marketer, Capacitador de CRM, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through LinkedIn **Incentivized:** This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Source: G2 invite:** Invitation from G2. This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Reviewed Date:** January 30, 2018 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** The main reason that I use Affinity designer is the pricing tag. It is better than Adobe Illustrator in this regard, and slightly faster in other particular aspects, for example, batch exporting is beautifully made. **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** A reason to dislike Affinity might also be in its lack of features compared to Illustrator, but these features are so obscure and small that only a few portion of their possible customers would reject Affinity Designer. **Recommendations to others considering Affinity Designer:** Make sure that you are not using features only available on Illustrator or InkScape which I cannot honestly mention any from the top of my head. So that's good. The initial commitment for Affinity Designer might be slightly more, but since is not a monthly cost you can see how affordable the tool is in the next month alone. This is a major win-win if you are buying multiple licenses if you have multiple co-workers or employees. **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** Batch exporting the graphics of my clients in multiple sizes with different names is what I do. And Affinity Designer helps me export them easily. Much better than Illustrator's "Assets Export" feature. I also like the ability to move in different "Personas" or Workflow tools, so that your windows don't get cluttered. ### 35. Affinity Photo Review **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Brad S. | Owner, Marketing and Advertising, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Current User:** The reviewer uploaded a screenshot or submitted the review in-app verifying them as current user. **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through LinkedIn **Incentivized:** This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Source: G2 invite:** Invitation from G2. This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Reviewed Date:** October 30, 2017 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** What I like best is the price. If you have some experience with Adobe Photoshop but can't afford the extremely high price tag of owning your own copy then Serif has built the perfect alternative for you. Affinity Photo has just about all of the photography-related tools that Photoshop has — such as adjustment layers, masks, color management, dynamic paint brushes, a healing brush, lens correction, and CMYK and RGB editing. It even opens Photoshop files. Yes, it has it's limitations but for only $49.99 this is an amazing piece of software! **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** Not much to dislike with Affinity Photo other than it lacks some of Photoshop's extra functionalities that are outside the normal photo editing realm, such as 3D editing. It also seems a little slower than Photoshop. Not a biggy for my day to day tasks. **Recommendations to others considering Affinity Designer:** The learning curve is small If you have some Photoshop experience but can't afford your own copy. For under 50 bucks I highly recommend Affinity Photo. **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** The biggest business problem Affinity Photo has solved is having a Photoshop alternative at a price I can afford. This is not like settling for a free alternative like Gimp but a rather owning a high end, professional graphic studio built from a top line company in Serif. ### 36. Could really be the Photoshop slayer **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Design | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) This reviewer's identity has been verified by our review moderation team. They have asked not to show their name, job title, or picture. **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through a business email account **Incentivized:** This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Source: G2 invite:** Invitation from G2. This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Reviewed Date:** October 09, 2018 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** I can buy Affinity Photo for $50 and have a perpetual license. No subscription model. Interface is very similar to Photoshop so the learning curve is small. Does everything I need it to do. **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** I haven't found anything I dislike. I can import and export to Adobe products without a hitch. **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** The cost is much less than using Adobe. ### 37. Fantastic program! **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Sheldon M. | Brand Manager/Content Strategist, Design, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Current User:** The reviewer uploaded a screenshot or submitted the review in-app verifying them as current user. **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through LinkedIn **Incentivized:** This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Source: G2 invite:** Invitation from G2. This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Reviewed Date:** January 31, 2018 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** I love that I can have most of the tools that Adobe InDesign and Illustrator give you, built into one easy to use program. If you have learned on the Adobe CC, you will easily pick up on Affinity Designer! Another great perk is that it is a one time fee vs. month to month. **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** It could be a little more powerful. I sometimes feel limited by its ability to illustrate. **Recommendations to others considering Affinity Designer:** Get it!!! **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** Freelance design work. SO MANY BENEFITS. I could go on and on but honestly, it is a no brainer. Get Affinity Designer and only signup for Adobe CC when you really need it!!!!! ### 38. Unstable and has only basic features **Rating:** 0.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Anton L. | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through a business email account **Source: Organic:** Organic review. This review was written entirely without invitation or incentive from G2, a seller, or an affiliate. **Reviewed Date:** January 15, 2018 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** The program is a redesigned version of Serif DrawPlus that looked dated in the end. Designer looks better. Perhaps it sports a little more clumsy interface though. **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** Affinity Designer has been rebuild from scratch but after year of development is has disappointingly few advanced features. There is no precision tools, no really useful perspective tools, no mesh gradient, no knife tool and no shape building tools. It is all very basic. It is very cheap compared to Adobe Illustrator but it also very basic. Since free Inkscape can do whatever a professional designer wants, value for money is not great. **Recommendations to others considering Affinity Designer:** Compare it with other tools like Inkscape and Illustrator and CorelDRAW before making a decision. **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** I don't use it anymore. If you want a cheap tool for digital painting it could be a good tool, but I could not solve my business problem without a more complete feature set. I tried to use it for graphic designs for illustrations, logos, posters and occasionally icons. It is cheap - but cheap is expensive if you have to do all by hand. Then there is no point in digital anyway. ### 39. Affinity Designer **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Human Resources | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) This reviewer's identity has been verified by our review moderation team. They have asked not to show their name, job title, or picture. **Current User:** The reviewer uploaded a screenshot or submitted the review in-app verifying them as current user. **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through a business email account **Incentivized:** This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Source: G2 invite:** Invitation from G2. This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Reviewed Date:** March 15, 2018 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** Affinity Designer is a perfect platform for vector creation, a £50 one off price a lifetime of updates this is very close to being a 100% viable alternative to Illustrator in fact a number of studios have already moved from Adobe to Affinity, I think that once the eagerly awaited ipad version is released then I may even make the switch myself **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** having to wait for the ipad app is the only thing thats holding it back from perfection **Recommendations to others considering Affinity Designer:** This and Affinity Photo are the potential Adobe killers we just need Affinity's Indesign replacement to seal the deal **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** At a price of around £50 with free updates against Adobe's £500+ yearly subscription fee is a no brainer for our budgeting dept ### 40. Excellent Photoshop alternative! **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Jasmine S. | Web Developer, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Current User:** The reviewer uploaded a screenshot or submitted the review in-app verifying them as current user. **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through LinkedIn **Incentivized:** This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Source: G2 invite:** Invitation from G2. This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Reviewed Date:** October 04, 2017 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** As a beginner designer, it's good to weigh out your options on what programs you'd like to be skilled in. I've used Photoshop throughout my schooling and was fascinated with it but it has been very expensive ever since I could remember. Thankfully Serif's Affinity Photo has the same types of tools to get the job done with less financial burn in your wallet! The program has great flexibility and a very nice interface that doesn't overwhelm me. I like how users can change the mode of the program, (a.k.a. "Persona" modes) for specific designing needs. You can also create your own Persona. It truly is the Photoshop/Illustrator alternative I've needed. It's fast, efficient and genuine to photo editing/digital art. **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** I dislike that I considered paying monthly for Adobe's Creative Cloud before finding this gem! The only major problem is that there aren't many resources on how to use the program well, though I think that won't be an issue for too long. There aren't many working plugins and the cataloging system will take me some getting used to. **Recommendations to others considering Affinity Designer:** Give it a try! The price is absolutely worth it. If you enjoy this program, you'll love Affinity Designer. It's great for vector art. (Please note that my review is for Mac users. I haven't tried the Windows version yet.) **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** I really like that I don't have to pay a lot for Adobe. Serif's programs are affordable, have options for small businesses, freelancers, etc. (Affinity Designer is awesome too!) and can be licensed for multiple computers. ### 41. Incredible, a true Photoshop replacement **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Aaron P. | Owner, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Current User:** The reviewer uploaded a screenshot or submitted the review in-app verifying them as current user. **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through LinkedIn **Source: Organic:** Organic review. This review was written entirely without invitation or incentive from G2, a seller, or an affiliate. **Reviewed Date:** October 30, 2017 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** There are so many things to like about this product. It’s wealth of features is on par with Photoshop, and it even has a few unique features of its own - such as an incredibly easy to use panorama creation tool. The price compared to Photoshop is amazing at only a one time $50. **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** The learning curve is a bit steep - a number of the more advanced features, such as layer masks, can be a bit difficult to discover. **Recommendations to others considering Affinity Designer:** There is a free trial that is definitely worth taking a look at first. Beyond that though, if you’re frustrated with the cost and terms of using Photoshop, this is the product for you! **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** Graphic design for web pages and logos, as well as general photography editing. Completely replaces the need for photoshop. ### 42. Slick easy to use interface with intuitive controls **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Computer & Network Security | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) This reviewer's identity has been verified by our review moderation team. They have asked not to show their name, job title, or picture. **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through a business email account **Incentivized:** This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Source: G2 invite:** Invitation from G2. This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Reviewed Date:** March 28, 2018 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** I like the clear separation of vector and raster workflow within Affinity. Also the export tools work very well. Affinity has lots of great powerful features like reusable symbols that update everywhere when you edit one. And just the general workflow is smoother than Photoshop in my opinion. I also appreciate that Affinity is not subscription software. I don't use it every week or even every month, so having a subscription based software just makes no sense. **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** The export tool doesn't do a file size estimate when exporting slices, only when exporting the whole canvas. **Recommendations to others considering Affinity Designer:** Follow along with some of the online tutorials to get used to the workflow. If you're coming from Photoshop, give it some time to get used to it and I think you may like it even better. **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** I use Affinity for designing websites and marketing collateral. ### 43. Adobe Killer **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Neil J. | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through a business email account **Source: Seller invite:** Invitation from a seller or affiliate. This reviewer was not provided any incentive by G2 for completing this review. **Reviewed Date:** April 23, 2018 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** Software that's as powerful as Photoshop and Illustrator combined, at a minute fraction of the price and with a high level of compatibility. It's a wonder that this hasn't already killed Photoshop and Illustrator. **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** When exporting to Adobe formats, there can be some discrepancies with the exported file. **Recommendations to others considering Affinity Designer:** You want the power of Photoshop and Illustrator, without the ridiculous cost of Adobe, without sacrificing on abilities? Use Affinity Designer. **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** This is our main design software. It's a tool that we use all day every day - in a professional capacity. ### 44. Fantastic Adobe Ai CC Alternative! **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Liz A. | Box Office Agent, Entertainment, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Current User:** The reviewer uploaded a screenshot or submitted the review in-app verifying them as current user. **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through LinkedIn **Incentivized:** This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Source: G2 invite:** Invitation from G2. This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Reviewed Date:** December 14, 2017 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** Like Affinity Photo, Affinity Designer is easy and clear to use, is a single price (as opposed to Adobe's monthly fee), and is perfect for freelance designers, students, and the like! **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** I haven't found anything to dislike yet! The concept of "nodes" instead of "points" takes a little getting used to, but it makes a lot more sense to me than in Adobe Illustrator. **Recommendations to others considering Affinity Designer:** You should absolutely give it a go! If you are a freelancer, a student, a small business owner, or a casual user, you will love this software! **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** All my benefits are similar to what I would have had with Illustrator, except that it's much less stress-free to use. ### 45. Smart and light vector tool **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** David H. | UX Design Lead, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Current User:** The reviewer uploaded a screenshot or submitted the review in-app verifying them as current user. **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through LinkedIn **Source: Organic:** Organic review. This review was written entirely without invitation or incentive from G2, a seller, or an affiliate. **Reviewed Date:** January 26, 2018 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** Great control, well thought out interface, multiple artboards, and great price for something that rivals Adobe Illustrator. **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** Erratic Illustrator file import has caused trouble for me and there have been issues with a laggy system, but I think they have addressed that issue. **Recommendations to others considering Affinity Designer:** Switching from Illustrator is straightforward although you might have a small learning curve with combining shapes. **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** I use this tool to do a wide range of jobs, like poster design, editorial layout and a bit of UI work. ### 46. Excellent!!! Love this software **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Telecommunications | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) This reviewer's identity has been verified by our review moderation team. They have asked not to show their name, job title, or picture. **Current User:** The reviewer uploaded a screenshot or submitted the review in-app verifying them as current user. **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through a business email account **Source: Seller invite:** Invitation from a seller or affiliate. This reviewer was not provided any incentive by G2 for completing this review. **Reviewed Date:** January 30, 2018 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** Easy to use. Outstanding pricing for what you get and no stupid Adobe-like overpriced subscription fees. Ongoing, free upgrades. Great online community support for finding answers. Free bonus packs along the way. Can't say enough about Affinity software. They did it right. **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** Would like to see more options for customization. Clicking and selecting gets a bit tedious for my habits. Wold like option to turn off non-destructive cropping in order to reduce file size. **Recommendations to others considering Affinity Designer:** Make the switch. It isn't perfect - you'll have to make some adjustments - but the benefits are quickly realized compared to Adobe. **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** Design all marketing materials. We're rolling and moving them better than ever. ### 47. Today's Best alternative to PhotoShop for editing 360 photos **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Daniel G. | Executive Chef, Automotive, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Current User:** The reviewer uploaded a screenshot or submitted the review in-app verifying them as current user. **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through LinkedIn **Incentivized:** This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Source: G2 invite:** Invitation from G2. This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Reviewed Date:** July 28, 2017 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** Edits 360 photos, lots of options, works with PhotoShop plugins like google Nik collection Affinity Photo has a live preview option that removes some of the guesswork from applying effects and overlays. It is a very elegant solution to the pro-photographer settings that often impede learning how to turn ordinary photos into professional quality **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** Learning curve, limited documentation , small but growing user community **Recommendations to others considering Affinity Designer:** 360/VR is still in its infancy so I would expect that more software solutions will come. Affinity Photo is sure to be joined by competitors but the combination of affordability and feature set makes it worth the investment (for now). **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** 360 photos are a great way to display places and create an engaging experience for displaying products but like other images, retouching and editing can greatly improve the quality. AP has been the first software I've worked with thats brought the full feature set of what I use in photo editing to 360 ### 48. Good **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Marketing and Advertising | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) This reviewer's identity has been verified by our review moderation team. They have asked not to show their name, job title, or picture. **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through LinkedIn **Incentivized:** This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Source: G2 invite:** Invitation from G2. This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Reviewed Date:** July 05, 2018 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** Simple system, neat alternative to the usual software **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** Layout didn’t work for me - not organized in a way that worked for me. **Recommendations to others considering Affinity Designer:** Give it a trial run first - it may be exactly what you’re looking for, or not. Objectively a good product but didn’t fit my needs. **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** Attempted to use as alternative to others such as photoshop ### 49. A great replacement for Adobe Fireworks & Photoshop **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Barbara R. | President/Co-Founder, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through a business email account **Incentivized:** This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Source: G2 invite:** Invitation from G2. This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Reviewed Date:** October 05, 2017 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** There are many things that I can do with Affinity that I couldn't do with Fireworks that I found Photoshop to be too complicated with. I also like that Apple Photo has a plugin that I can open photos in Affinity edit them and then save them back to Apple Photo. **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** The learning curve has been a bit steep for me, but I am getting the hang of it. The tutorial videos are great but wish they would provide the sample photos being used in the tutorials. **Recommendations to others considering Affinity Designer:** Use their videos to get up to speed. I have found the videos to be a huge help in learning the program. **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** I needed a replacement for Adobe Fireworks and Photoshop because the cost of the software was huge. I don't really use any Adobe products anymore except for the image programs. For a one time fee I am able to do almost anything that I did with Fireworks. ### 50. Powerful Image Editing Software for a fraction of Photoshop's price **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Jerry D. | Digital Marketing Manager, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Current User:** The reviewer uploaded a screenshot or submitted the review in-app verifying them as current user. **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through a review partner **Incentivized:** This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Source: G2 invite:** Invitation from G2. This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Reviewed Date:** December 08, 2017 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** Ease of use, especially on iPad Pro. Using the iOS version with Apple Pencil is a pure joy. **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** The menu system is a bit convoluted. It took a while to get used to it. **Recommendations to others considering Affinity Designer:** Give the trial version a try on your computer. On iPad, it's so inexpensive you can just buy it and try it. It works BEST with the iPad Pro and Apple Pencil. **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** Affordability, and am able to do many editing tasks faster. ## Affinity Designer Discussions - [What is Affinity Designer used for?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-is-affinity-designer-used-for) - 2 comments, 2 upvotes - [Children's Picture Book - read Publisher is unable to create epub or mobi files](https://www.g2.com/discussions/children-s-picture-book-read-publisher-is-unable-to-create-epub-or-mobi-files-782f04d4-841a-419f-8d52-afa67bdb8be6) - 1 comment, 1 upvote - [Where can I find a complete tutorial set for beginners?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/51827-where-can-i-find-a-complete-tutorial-set-for-beginners) - 5 comments, 1 upvote - [Is Affinity designer good for beginners?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/36810-is-affinity-designer-good-for-beginners) - 8 comments, 1 upvote - [How can I add text around circle in Affinity Designer?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/34756-how-can-i-add-text-around-circle-in-affinity-designer) - 6 comments, 1 upvote - [View Affinity Designer pricing details and edition comparison](https://www.g2.com/products/affinity-designer/reviews?page=8&qs=pros-and-cons§ion=pricing&secure%5Bexpires_at%5D=2026-09-29+16%3A14%3A11+-0500&secure%5Bsession_id%5D=1ce39177-3a7c-480f-8e94-eec4492740e2&secure%5Btoken%5D=06e505d3596c7d68f4b5ce7de5ac33bb6f512bd00774eac100ce03ee27561f40&format=llm_user) ## Affinity Designer Features **Additional Functionality** - Data Visualization - Mobile App - AI Copilot - Commenting/Notes - Text Editing - Custom Brushes - Generative AI - Watermarking - Engagement Tracking - Pattern, Color & Art Storage - Version Control - API - Third-Party Integrations - Collaboration Tools - Design Templates - Search/Filter - Secure Data Storage - Workflow Management - Data Storage Management - Interactive Content - Drag & Drop Editor - Video Editing - Preview Functionality - Multi-Language - Image Editing - Content Import/Export - Customizable Branding - Content Management - CAD Tools - Content Library - Custom Fonts - 3D Digital Asset Management - Design Management - Presentation Tools - Social Media Integration - Print Management **Additional Functionality** - Document Imaging - Categorization/Grouping - Animation - File Management - Design Management - Document Templates - Configurable Workflow - Image Library - Custom Development - Activity Dashboard - Document Storage - Data Import/Export - Application Management - Templates - For Websites - Labeling - Multiple Format Support - 2D Drawing - Synchronous Editing - Project Management - Pattern, Color & Art Storage - Customizable Templates - Collaboration Tools - Activity Tracking - Image Editing - Third-Party Integrations - Preview Functionality - Tagging - WYSIWYG Editor - Generative AI - Image Tracing - Rendering - Sketching and Annotation Tools - Text Editing - Traceability - Workflow Management - AI Copilot - Reporting/Analytics - Drag & Drop - Content Library - For Vector Illustrations - Data Extraction ## Top Affinity Designer Alternatives - [Adobe Illustrator](https://www.g2.com/products/adobe-illustrator/reviews) - 4.6/5.0 (6,067 reviews) - [Sketch](https://www.g2.com/products/sketch/reviews) - 4.5/5.0 (1,210 reviews) - [CorelDRAW](https://www.g2.com/products/coreldraw/reviews) - 4.3/5.0 (540 reviews)