--- title: Affinity Designer Reviews meta_title: 'Affinity Designer Reviews 2026: Details, Pricing, & Features | G2' meta_description: Filter 453 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: 453 scale: '5' date_modified: '2026-07-19' 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:** 453 ## 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 **What users like:** - Users find Affinity Designer's **user-friendly interface** and tools make creating graphics easy and efficient. (10 reviews) - Users praise the **high-quality graphics** produced by Affinity Designer, finding the performance and tools exceptional for professional work. (6 reviews) - Users love the **fast and easy vector editing** capabilities of Affinity Designer, making professional-quality design accessible. (6 reviews) - Users appreciate the **affordability** of Affinity Designer, making it an ideal choice for budget-conscious graphic designers. (5 reviews) - Users value the **user-friendly interface and vector-raster flexibility** of Affinity Designer for professional-quality graphics creation. (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 express concerns about **tool limitations** in Affinity Designer, noting fewer features and weaker integration compared to competitors. (4 reviews) - Users experience **import issues** due to limited file compatibility and fewer third-party resources compared to competitors. (3 reviews) - Users note the **limited features** of Affinity Designer, highlighting gaps compared to industry-standard tools and third-party support. (3 reviews) - Users find the **complexity of tools** in Affinity Designer challenging, especially during the initial learning phase. (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. 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.) **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. ### 2. As good as photoshop, but far less expensive **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Computer Software | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 28, 2017 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** THE COST! And it's pretty simple to use. There are many tutorials to show you how some of the features can be used to edit photos, create vector graphics etc. **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** Some features are hard to find. For example, creating a transparent background was a little tougher than it should have been to do. **Recommendations to others considering Affinity Designer:** BUY IT. If you don't want to pay Adobe for their ridiculous membership fees then buy Affinity - it'll do everything you need at a one-time cost. **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** I'm able to create customized graphics and illustrations for websites, office stationery, logos etc. Until I purchased this product I've been using free programs like Paint.NET and Inkscape, but I Affinity is worth the cost to replace both. ### 3. Really good Photoshop substitute **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Internet | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 21, 2017 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** I used Affinity to make watermarks and edit pngs, make patterns and brushes. Pretty well documented and made the task easy. It's also fun to edit and play with photos. It worked so well I ended up buying the lifetime license. Maybe someday I won't need to pay Adobe anymore. But not quite there yet. **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** Can't use Photoshop actions, so those automated things I have set up don't roll over and I can't replace Photoshop completely like I was hoping. **Recommendations to others considering Affinity Designer:** It's a good photo editor and very good pricing. **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** Simplifies some tasks better than Photoshop. Much cheaper. I like that you can buy it outright. ### 4. Best software of year **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Design | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 14, 2018 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** Graphic design i like most in affinity deaigner and also ease of use in this software. **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** Color pickup process is little hard in this product. **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** Logo designing for fiverr ### 5. Very effective Illustrator alternative **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Information Technology and Services | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 22, 2017 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** Affinity Designer is $50, opposed to the thousands of dollars you will have to pay to use Adobe Illustrator. Where Illustrator is clunky and counterintuitive, Affinity Designer is just as feature rich, but more intuitive. **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** If you are coming from Adobe Illustrator, Affinity Designer will have somewhat of a learning curve because there are some features that the two do not have. **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** I am able to create stellar graphics with Affinity Designer that I wouldn't be able to use only with Sketch. ### 6. Simple and Powerful **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Holly B. | Executive Director, Religious Institutions, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 28, 2017 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** I love that Affinity Designer is affordable. Not only is it NO LESS powerful and useful than Illustrator, but it is also much cheaper. It has some better features too, but it's similar enough that the learning curve is very short. I taught myself everything I know about it (via experimenting and YouTube), and I would consider myself very adequate on the software now. **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** TO be completely honest, there is not too much I don't like. Usually when I think I don't like how a certain feature functions, I find out it's because I'm not doing something the easiest way. **Recommendations to others considering Affinity Designer:** Go for it. There is a free trial, and then to purchase it's only $49.99. You have very little to lose. **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** I am the Executive Director for a church, and am in charge of all design work (for the time being) due to the fact we are very small and working on a budget. With Affinity, I am able to quickly design series media, printed media, signage, marketing material, etc. all relatively easily. This allows us to not hire a graphic designer at this moment, while still getting the job done in a timely manner, and saving us money and resources that could be used to help people in need. ### 7. better than illustrator **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Information Technology and Services | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 02, 2018 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** It offers controls easier than any other app available in the market for a similar work. Additionally, it can almost everything related to graphic designing. **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** not as good a community support as illustrator **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** designing graphics for my own vlogs. ### 8. Powerful tool at a great price **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Computer Software | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 10, 2018 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** Actually what I find I really like about Affinity is that it has all the tools I used in Adobe Illustrator for a fraction of the price. **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** I haven't found anything yet that I don't like. **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** Affinity Designer makes it easy to design and layout any print layouts I need for my clients. ### 9. Awesome tool for design **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Vladimir J. | Business owner / Full stack designer, Design, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 12, 2017 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** Affinity Designer is a worthy competitor to Adobe Illustrator and compared to it, these are the advantages: - It is really cheap! 50$ for a permanent license is a bargain - Intuitive interface. Almost entire workflow is like in AI, but some features are done differently. Most shortcuts are same as in Illustrator, so switching to Affinity Designer is not a problem - It has customizable grid with numerous options - Image export is very detailed. You can export custom slices of your design, with transparent background with no problems. Those slices can be customized further, so you can export one slice in several file formats and dimensions. - For the most part image editing is non-destructive - Zoom offers magnifications up to 1.000.000x - Customizeable UI - Really great support for importing of PSD and AI files! - Semi-responsive artboards! You can customize how to objects on artboard behave when you change artboard size. This is a really great feature when creating responsive design for the web and it saves a lot of time. - Resource libraries - you can create your own resource libraries and reuse those objects even more. **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** From time to time it tends to slow down with larger files. **Recommendations to others considering Affinity Designer:** If you are looking for cheaper and better solution than Adobe Illustrator, don't look any further. For a price of a monthly CC you will get a program with permanent license that does most of the tasks even better than Illustrator! **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** I am using Affinity Designer for the following: - Graphic design - Icon design - Web design - Prototyping and mockups ### 10. Lighter on your system, not on its capabilities **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** John K. | Director of Sales, Marketing and Advertising, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 03, 2017 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** It is easy to navigate and pretty intuitive to learn. Its not a Adobe Beast. **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** The user communities are smaller and it can take a few tries to export compatable formats. **Recommendations to others considering Affinity Designer:** Go for it! Its great, just not well known. **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** Less expensive design software ### 11. Great Photo Editing Software in Mac, that's Fast and Affordable **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Ryan C. | Full Stack Marketer, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 16, 2017 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** I love the tons of features that's similar to the most expensive professional photo editing softwares. They also have tons of video tutorials and item packs which helps the newbie Affinity user to get up to speed with using the software. The updates are also included for life! Which means that this investment will be only one time upfront. **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** There is still some learning curve for transitioning to the Affinity Photo from Photoshop. I can't find a way to import Actions from Photoshop to Photo. **Recommendations to others considering Affinity Designer:** Actions to be implemented to Affinity Photo **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** Professional designs that's easy to create, tons of features and brushes. Affordable and fast solution. ### 12. Good alternative to Illustrator, but only for simplistic digital designs **Rating:** 2.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Information Services | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 19, 2017 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** The user interface is really nice to work with. It resembles Adobe Illustrator is the UI. **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** There are so many features that are hard to work with after using Illustrator. There are many extras Adobe has that you have to go the extra mile to achieve with Affinity. **Recommendations to others considering Affinity Designer:** If you're just looking to make basic vector designs, basic logos, this will work just fine. Any in depth digital illustration needs better software. **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** Easy logo design without paying the cost of Creative Cloud. ### 13. Powerful with beautiful interface. Alternative to Adobe products **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Writing and Editing | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 28, 2017 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** Feature rich, smooth bug free interface, works well and does what I need **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** Kind of a compromise between two types of programs and once in a while you notice that. Usually though, the usefulness and quality of the product is surprising. **Recommendations to others considering Affinity Designer:** Much cheaper than Adobe products but still fits the bill, depending on your needs. RGB and CYMK conversion, vector, Adobe formats. Has a lot for a small pricetag **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** Editing images, creating signs, vector based software ### 14. Impressed with Affinity **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** ami m. | Photographer, Design, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 30, 2017 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** I learned on Adobe products, so I love how similar and user friendly this program is. I didn't feel like I needed to learn a whole new program **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** I have to "export" a file instead of "save as" to get a png or jpeg **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** Need for a logo and other marketing materials ### 15. Powerful Photoshop alternative **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Rob N. | Building Design & Construction Technologist, Architecture & Planning, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 05, 2017 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** No recurring subscription fees, its a one time purchase. Great features comparable to photoshop **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** Its not a feature complete replacement (but they are working on it) **Recommendations to others considering Affinity Designer:** Request features on their user forum, they listen to the users **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** Its a great photo editor ### 16. Edit your Photos fast and smart **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Peter F. | Owner, Photographer, Internet, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 15, 2017 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** Affinity hit the market already some time ago but us still more a "secret tip" as it is not yet known to the large crowd of Photographers. The software runs on Windows and Mac OS X and offers all common features talking about image manipulation. After a trial and test period the cost for the full version is only 49€ **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** Honestly speaking there is not much to say here. File support for all different kind of cameras is surprisingly good. **Recommendations to others considering Affinity Designer:** I would simply recommend to use the trial period to see if Affinity fits your needs. No risk here ... **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** As a working Pro-Photographer image manipulation is part of my daily job. I do like to test new software solutions especially as I am not a big fan of monthly payment plans for software that one used to buy and "own". ### 17. A great option for those abandoning Adobe **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Jenny H. | Freelance Artist, Arts and Crafts, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 09, 2017 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** I chose Affinity Designer because I was already paying out for a Adobe Photoshop subscription which is my primary go to tool, but I needed a vector program for the odd time I needed to create a vector illustration. I knew I wouldn't be using it a lot so I really couldn't justify the hike in the price that I would see in adding Adobe Illustrator to be subscription. I chose Affinity because it was a one hit fee that wasn't expensive and appeared to integrate well with what I knew of Illustrator. So far I've been very satisfied with the results. It does exactly what I need it to do and works similar to illustrator and integrates with Photoshop nicely so I don't have problems exporting vectors and them not playing nice with other programs. Problem solved! **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** I've spent 11 + years getting to know Adobe Illustrator so making the switch to Affinity was a little painful. It feels the same but there are some minor differences that catch me out from time to time and make life a little frustrating. For the most part this is when I'm creating and editing paths with the pen tool. There's a weird double click thing that happens that ends a path and I don't even realise I'm doing it until it's done. Similarly selecting points on a path can be a little cumbersome and strange sometimes but again this is likely because I know Illustrator so well, and likely wouldn't have a problem if I had made the switch sooner. **Recommendations to others considering Affinity Designer:** If you're looking for a cheaper alternative to Illustrator and are happy to go through the slight learning curve with making the switch then Affinity Designer is for you. The software is very similar to Illustrator and that in a way is what makes it a little frustrating because you can jump right in and it all feels really familiar and then suddenly your wondering why you can't adjust that bezier curve like you normally do. As I said - just a learning curve and worth it in my opinion. **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** The main problem I'm solving by using Affinity Designer is not losing an extra £10+ a month for a program I honestly won't be using that much. I would have loved to add Illustrator to my subscription but it just isn't worth it given how much I'll be using it. I love that Affinity Designer are out there for people who are on a budget and need an excellent alternative option. The UI and usability is familiar and straightforward and there's really nothing I miss about Illustrator other than the aforementioned ways of using the pen tool that are simply my learning errors! ### 18. Best designer tool for your buck! **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Jacques M. | Designer graphique, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 02, 2017 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** It a very versatile software, great to create graphic design elements, illustrations, website. I really like the gradient and the transparent tool. Effects are really easy to use and non-destructives. The blur is very painful in illustrator, but in Affinity Designer it so smooth. Very light and fast. The ui is very clear, everything seems in place. **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** - Need more perspective tools, preferably non-destructive alternatives. - Better snapping guide, I still prefer the illustrator smart guide. - I Feel like the character and paragraph can be improve, they are not difficult to use but I feel like there should be some improvement. - I think the icons of the tool palette could be simplify, like in Adobe tool. **Recommendations to others considering Affinity Designer:** I don't think you can find a better software for that price that does as much as Affinity Designer. It very cheap, and you don't have monthly fees like Adobe charge you. With the persona mode you also have access to pixel design, like you would have in photoshop or other pictures software. I waiting for the indesign version of Affinity to see if a complete switch could be made to affinity. **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** I create illustration far more quickly in affinity. Illustrator is a great tool, but I found that the gradient, effect panel, layering of the project in Affinity are far more intuitive. I think I can say I save around 1/3 of the time on a big illustration. ### 19. Great and full software for vector design **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Computer Software | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 27, 2018 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** I came over from Pixelmator, and this is pretty good for most vector design needs **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** I wish I could make animations in it, but I can’t. Also some importing and exporting formats cause problems, especially in Apple Motion **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** I don’t really solve problems, just create things ### 20. My absolute favorite vector design app **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Dave Y. | Senior Developer, Internet, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 21, 2017 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** For years I have struggled with both the learning curve and cost of Adobe Illustrator. I've tried other "alternatives" and none ever wowed me enough to sway me from the necessary evil that was AI. Then came Affinity Designer. It's intuitive, well-supported, FAST (and without feature bloat), and it has completely replaced Illustrator in my workflow. It has even replaced a few of the functions that I would normally use Photoshop for. And the price is right - super affordable! **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** Honestly, nothing. It does everything that I need it to as far as vector design. **Recommendations to others considering Affinity Designer:** Buy it. Minimal investment and awesome feature set. **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** I am a web developer & designer. I usually design in-browser, but obviously have custom elements that I need to design in a separate app. I've used Affinity Designer for icons, logos, banners, etc. ### 21. 'Illustrator Killer' is an understatement **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Collin K. | Owner, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 19, 2017 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** To start off i'll just say that I am a graphic designer and web developer so using vector based design programs is an every day kinda thing. Aside from a web browser, Illustrator had been my most used program. When i first tried Affinity Designer, I was very skeptical to say the least. A design program that can do everything Illustrator does and for a fraction of the price for a lifelong license? That is a lot to live up to. After spending a few weeks switching back and forth between Illustrator and Affinity for projects I came to realization that my projects done in Affinity all had less time involved. Since then i have converted over to Affinity Designer for all my projects saving time and money - lots and lots of money. Affinity Designer is just plain better than Illustrator. Not only is Affinity Designer much more intuitive but I think it looks better, feels better, and makes me work faster. Something that took 5 steps to do in Illustrator takes 2 in Affinity Designer. Affinity takes just enough elements from Illustrator to make it feel familiar but adds new features and a better work flow to make it far superior to it's competitors. The team at Affinity did a fantastic job of creating something that was immensely powerful but not overwhelming to the operator. In the past it felt that with the Adobe CC they would push out new features but wouldn't take the time to make them easy to use or understand which ultimately just made Illustrator more cluttered and less efficient. To me what makes Affinity Designer even more amazing is its price point. What you would typically spend on Adobe's CC for a single month you can spend on Affinity Designer for a lifetime license. Thank you Affinity for ending the Adobe monopoly! **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** Theres nothing to really dislike about Affinity Designer. The only thing I dislike is that more people are making the switch and using it. **Recommendations to others considering Affinity Designer:** At the price of Affinity, even if you don't like you'll still be paying less than what you would for Adobe CC **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** My bottom line is happier as i'm not forced to hand over monthly checks to Adobe anymore. I use Affinity Designer on about 80% of my projects. ### 22. Real Competition for Photoshop **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Andreas S. | Director of Media Services, Marketing and Advertising, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 04, 2017 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** It's a full-featured photo editor with a brand new and full modern code-base with a fresh take on just how non-destructive non-destructive editing can be. When Adobe changed its pricing structure to a pay-to-rent model, many editors (especially freelancers) were outraged. The new revenue model eliminated the user's option to upgrade or not. Affinity Photo uses a traditional perpetual license (pay to own). That's the first obvious shot across Photoshop's bow. The second is the more devastating blow: it's a fantastic product with so many advantages and shifts in how to think about editing that it has changed not just how I approach my work, but my productivity has improved. Affinity Photo is - at first blush - an affordable competitor. But using it reveals a much richer shift in how to think about accomplishing your projects. I've been photo editing for well over 20 years - Affinity Photo has not only impressed me, but won me over. And yes, I used to be one of those people who used to say, "no one will ever touch Photoshop." **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** It fits my workflow perfectly, but some might be disappointed that there are no cataloguing tools (yet). **Recommendations to others considering Affinity Designer:** The **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** The problem was finding photo editing software at a reasonable price that wouldn't be a major ongoing expense. OWNING (perpetual license) Affinity Photo it costs a half a year of Photoshop. Problem solved. ### 23. So Awesome! **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** William "Solomon" D. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 08, 2017 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** I love the ability and freedom it allows me to design & and advance my skills. Very well designed and easy you use. **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** The cost of some of them. But still great!!! **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** Customers expectations. ### 24. Promising Photoshop alternative, but not quite there **Rating:** 3.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Information Technology and Services | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 02, 2018 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** Affinity is FAST and feels much more Mac-native than Photoshop (understandably). It's also closing in on Photoshop feature-wise at a decent clip. **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** Some features still aren't there to make it a full replacement. **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** I use Affinity for lighter editing jobs that don't require Photoshop. ### 25. Not An Illustrator Killer...But It Doesn't Have To Be **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** James R. | Owner, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 07, 2016 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** I've used Adobe Illustrator for over 10 years, but ever since they opted for subscription based payments, it's been on my list of things to get away from. Enter Affinity Designer. This app does a great job, at a great amount of things. While the toolbar isn't completely intuitive, it's not difficult to learn. I think for myself, coming from Adobe after all these years made the switch a bit more difficult than if someone came into the app brand new. It's easy to create vector designs that are exported without issue, and it even has raster based functions so you can keep all aspects of your design in one program and under your control. I've been using Affinity Designer professionally for over 6 months now, and since switching, I haven't felt any need to go back to Illustrator, which says a lot. **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** Some of the tools are not as evident as they are in AI (Adobe Illustrator). I'm used to being able to delete plot points on a pen line and having it break, but that's not the case in AD (Affinity Designer). You have to manually break a point first, with a separate tool. This creates an extra step in the process, that while not a deal breaker, is a bit annoying. Other issues like not being to sample colors within certain tools is also not user friendly. I have to go out to the main color picker, copy the color code, and then enter my tool of choice (ie, gradient tool) and apply it there instead of sampling directly in the tool panel. **Recommendations to others considering Affinity Designer:** Work through the issues, and after some time you will come to love the app. It takes a little getting used to, but it does offer a lot in terms of functionality and quality. **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** I use this program to create vector logos, and recently I've been using it to create full website mockups. The vector elements make it easy to change and resize things, unlike Photoshop. I can also put in raster photos and then crop them as needed, directly in the vector program. So even though some of the tools have things I don't like, I have found that the benefits have increased my productivity a bit, and my ability to output high quality files and examples easily comes in very handy. ### 26. Excellent alternative to Illustrator **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Computer Software | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 19, 2017 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** Great and simple UI with Pixel and vector based Editing **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** Workflow between after effects and Affinity isn't ideal **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** Icon and vector graphic manipulation for digital media project and animated videos ### 27. Dump Adobe! **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Miciah S. | Owner, Information Technology and Services, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 11, 2017 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** Great look and feel, and very easy for anyone who has used similar products before. Love single format! **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** Slightly confusing controls, and hunting for certain things. **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** Very powerful tool for the price that works with all the formats I need to throw at it! ### 28. Photoshop's good twin, and more. **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Andrés S. | Director, Marketing and Advertising, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 25, 2017 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** The fact that you can use all the features you have on Photoshop, and many more. **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** So far, I think it has so many options and they are trying so hard to distance themselves from Adobe, that they are placing usual features in different places. **Recommendations to others considering Affinity Designer:** There are more things than you can do with it, than just use it as a Photoshop stand-in. **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** Basically, I can edit PDFs and Illustrator files, as well as PSD files, make files of your own, play with layers. It's great. ### 29. Excellent for those just starting in the editing/design field **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Marketing and Advertising | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 28, 2017 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** Affinity Designer has most of the bells and whistles included in Adobe Photoshop, but without being overwhelming to new users. The interface and tools have a familiar feel to them which is good if you are a regular Photoshop user who is trying this software for the first time. **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** The software forces you to save in it's own format unless you go through extra steps to save the file. This makes the workflow quite cumbersome. **Recommendations to others considering Affinity Designer:** I recommend this product for beginners in the design field. It would be a hard transition for anyone with experience using Photoshop or Illustrator to start using this product in place of the Adobe Suite. **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** This software is great for anyone who needs to edit/design and stay within a budget. Much more affordable than the Adobe Suite with almost the same capabilities. ### 30. A Powerful Tool for Artists Starting Out **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Consumer Electronics | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 15, 2016 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** I'm an emerging illustrator, and I need tools that are powerful and competitive, but I can't afford Creative Cloud! So, I was delighted to find that Affinity Designer was a real competitor for Adobe Illustrator. I actually prefer the UI to Illustrator, and I love the updates that they seem to put a lot of thought into. There are a few tools I miss, like being able to Live Trace images. But overall it does what it needs to do! Sometimes I use Adobe CC apps on my phone and export them to PSD format and then open those in Affinity Programs. It's not ideal, but I will keep Affinity in mind as I grow and hopefully as they grow too. **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** Honestly my biggest dislike of this program is the lack of a mobile app, but they're working on it. I would also really love for them to dip a toe into animation because of how intuitive they seem to make their UIs. Hmm...Honestly...I don't know what to put here. I'm going more and more mobile, so I CANNOT WAIT for the iPad Pro app, which they have been teasing for a looooong time. **Recommendations to others considering Affinity Designer:** Give it a try! It's a one time purchase and it's so worth it. **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** Adobe Creative Cloud is incredibly expensive! Artists just starting out simply cannot afford it. When I was in college I loved it, especially the high range of apps I was able to explore and play with...but now that I'm out of school it's insane to keep paying for it. Affinity Designer has empowered me and people like me to make quality, printable, SELLABLE work and that's something I will always admire. I think in the future if they were to keep expanding, I would be loyal for a long time, even though Adobe has more functionality. ### 31. Versatile easy to use design software **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** hannah d. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 27, 2016 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** The Affinity designer allows you to create beautiful designs with little hassle. I love the user friendly icons that are easy to navigate and give you the opportunity to focus on actual creating. The formats are versatile and there are many outlets you can create from. **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** When I am zooming in and out of certain images it takes a bit to come into focus. You have to be patient with it to get settled down before moving to the next step. **Recommendations to others considering Affinity Designer:** This is a great product for someone that is starting out and dabbling in graphic design. The easy to use program will get you well on your way to creating beautiful pieces. **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** I love the transparent feature and that all of the images are created in vector format. The clarity of work has helped me to focus on the designs I am creating. Seeing what the finished design will look like on the preview is very helpful to modify while in the program. ### 32. Powerful but easy to use vector app. **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Mansfield M. | Sole Proprietor, Graphic Design, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 28, 2017 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** Quality and ease of use. All tools need to complete any project. **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** I'm still discovering new tools and haven't found anything to dislike. **Recommendations to others considering Affinity Designer:** Highly recommend. **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** When transferring the vector art to printers, especially in cmyk eps files even minor adjustment can be made by the printer's art department. Affinity Designer gives me the confidence that the final product will turn out like I intended. ### 33. New To the Program Affinity Designer **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Entertainment | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 29, 2016 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** Unlike Adobe programs, you don't have to commit to a monthly or yearly subscription. There are some similarities to Adobes layout and workspace so it won't be impossible to learn and use. It is good for casual designing and budget friendly. **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** I am so used to using Adobe that It took me a while to get use to the interface. As of now, I can't see this program replacing Adobes suite as the industry standard, but if you work from home as a freelancer. I think you can make do. **Recommendations to others considering Affinity Designer:** It is budget-friendly. If you are a designer at a corporate company. I would stick to the tools of the trade (Illustrator, Photoshop, etc.) It is a great program for beginners and the casual designer who doesn't want to commit to a subscription with Adobe. **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** I have been using this program to create graphics for promotional items and personal projects. Mode Mirroring is awesome. It allows you to view your outline and vector view simultaneously. ### 34. Outstanding Design Tool **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Higher Education | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 20, 2016 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** Feature packed, intuitive & priced right **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** I used Sketch for a little while and ready liked the ability for 3rd party plugins and open source. I've heard Affinity might be doing this in the future, I sure hope they do! **Recommendations to others considering Affinity Designer:** BUY IT! **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** I design a lot of user resources and videos and previously used the Adobe suite. I'm always on the hunt new and innovative tools and find that in Affinity Designer. AD is years ahead of Adobe in terms of functionality , speed and cost. My entire work flow has transitioned from Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator to just using Affinity Designer and I've never looked back. ### 35. Great **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Laura P. | Graphic Designer, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 06, 2016 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** Great alternative to Photoshop and Illustrator. Add the raster to vector is very great and the interface is really easy and intuitive. It does not take much to learn, especially for those who already use other softwares, and even the keyboard shortcuts are immediate. The software is very fast and it has never crashed like other softwares. In addition, it has many ways to export the files for compatibility. **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** I expect many more tutorial for it because I want to become an ace in that. I wish there will be even more effects, such as Photoshop and Illustrator. I hope they can also fix compatibility problems with Illustrator ( opening an .eps file, I cannot change colors). **Recommendations to others considering Affinity Designer:** It's very economic: you have to pay only once and then you get it forever. It's very easy to use. If you know other vector or raster softwares, then you know this too! **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** It's very cheap, because once you buy, future updates are included and you have not to pay anything else. ### 36. A great alternative to Photoshop **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Laurent S. | Consultant en Stratégie et Innovation, Professional Training & Coaching, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 13, 2016 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** For about 50 USD or EURO, you get a professional app, without having to pay for a subscription. The user interface is very similar to Photoshop, so it is quite easy to switch from one to the other. It takes a while before you get used to it, because there are some differences, but as soon as you find your workflow, you can get the same results as with PS. You can use all of the PS plugins like NIK software, which by the way are free now. Because it has been built, brand new, from scratch, it is even faster than PS for some tasks. The developer team is really great, you can subscribe on the forum and ask them if you have questions or requests. The first beta version was already working fine, with almost no bugs. **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** It is really difficult to find some things I dislike with this app. Maybe they could add “smart objects”, or some automated tasks like in PS, otherwise I can’t say anything. It is not a standard for now, unfortunately, and they don’t have a PC version yet, but apparently they are working on it. **Recommendations to others considering Affinity Designer:** If you believe in what you are doing, then let nothing hold you up in your work. Much of the best work of the world has been done against seeming impossibilities. The thing is to get the work done. Dale Carnegie **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** I can do all the things I did with PS, and Lightroom or Aperture if you add Pixave another great app. I could save money by not having to pay a subscription to Adobe CC. Now I am happy again, I have a reliable app to replace PS, Aperture, Lightroom and Pixelmator that I purchased a few years ago and which is a real nightmare. ### 37. Illustrator killer **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Goncalo M. | Senior Web Designer, Retail, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 30, 2016 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** For years now I’ve been using other tools and lately I’ve been feeling the need to find a new one that simply works. Affinity Designer caught my eye since their beta version and luckily my expectations were met, even though it’s still only version 1. Affinity Designer is a great app, robust, reliable and above all user-friendly, making the re-learning almost instantaneous, be it for web designers like me, graphic designers or illustrators. I highly recommend Affinity Designer. **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** Even though Affinity Designer is a great app, I still think it has some features missing like: blend tool and actions. **Recommendations to others considering Affinity Designer:** This is the app you are looking for to replace illustrator ;) **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** As I said on a previous review, currently I am creating a full responsive email newsletter framework and along side with Coda, Affinity Designer has been a very powerful sidekick, allowing me to no only rapidly creating a modular wireframe and style guidelines but also exporting files in @2x and @3x for HIDPI support. ### 38. Brand Designer **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Arpad S. | UI, UX & Visual Designer | WordPress Developer, Design, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 12, 2016 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** Different personas for different tasks. The shape manipulation tool placement is very good (in draw persona) and I really like the smooth gradients. **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** The pencil tool's accuracy could be better. **Recommendations to others considering Affinity Designer:** File format compatibility is still limited and vector precision could be better, other than these it's a great and affordable design software. **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** I design brand elements, mainly logos with the app. ### 39. Rivals Photoshop **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Cosmetics | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 03, 2016 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** Most of the features available in PS are also available in Affinity. It is user friendly and their website offers a lot of free tutorials if needed. The price point is fair, it's under priced in my opinion, and free updates for life is something you can't beat. You can also use it on any computer that you own without having to pay for the software multiple times, which makes working in the office on one computer and working at home on another a bit easier. **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** It would be helpful if you could pick up the work from one computer with the software to the next. Instead you'll need to save progress on one computer and send it to the next to be able to pick up where you left off if using two computers (think office and at home). **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** It has made editing product images a lot easier and fairly seemless. With the tutorials provided on the website you're really able to learn just about anything without needing to pay for a course. ### 40. Fantastic photo editing **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Matt G. | Senior Videographer, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 19, 2016 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** Affinity Photo has some great tools and does a great job with very large file sizes. I love that you just buy it, rather than have to pay a monthly subscription. It is a great way to save money over the long run if you plan on using this one software for the foreseeable future. **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** Nothing really. I still use photoshop quite a bit, but if you're looking for something that doesn't require a subscription, this is a great option. **Recommendations to others considering Affinity Designer:** Give it a try. There is a free trial, so you're not risking anything. **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** It solves the issue of paying a monthly fee to have photo editing capabilities. ### 41. Illustrator and Sketch Had a Lovechild Named Affinity Designer **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Lee Q. | Web Designer / Inbound Marketing, Building Materials, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 05, 2016 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** This is one of the simplest vector art platforms I have used in a long time. It has become my go-to for creating artboards of vector graphics, logos, and website layouts. The simplicity and quick responsive actions are amazing with this application. **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** Certain fonts get mangled on the missing font mapper when you open a document that has fonts missing from the system. **Recommendations to others considering Affinity Designer:** It will not entirely replace Illustrator for certain things, but for web designers it is a dream to use. **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** I've been able to create fast wireframes and mockups of websites easily and effectively thus reducing the time I spend in the drawing software and increasing my productivity to deliver. ### 42. I No Longer "Need" Photoshop **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Brandon W. | Creative Director, Information Technology and Services, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 16, 2016 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** Affinity Photo gives me all the major power of Photoshop in a well-designed platform, for pennies on the dollar. Now that they just announced Affinity for Windows, I think you're going to see a LOT of Adobe CC cancellations. If my company didn't pay for my CC subscription, I wouldn't even bother with Photoshop anymore. In fact at home, I don't. Affinity Photo is THAT good. **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** Like anything, there's a learning curve. They didn't just copy Photoshop's UI and UX. It's different, and that's okay, but it means having to learn some things anew. I've used Photoshop for 16 years, so I'm pretty fast, and I know where everything is, and how to use it. I feel a bit like a child when I use Affinity Photo, because it feels like I'm learning to walk again. But I think once I've invested a good solid amount of hard usage, I'll be just as adept at Affinity as I am w/ Photoshop. **Recommendations to others considering Affinity Designer:** Download the trial. Use it. The learning curve, like any learning curve, can be frustrating, but I guarantee you - if you approach it like NEW software that you want to learn and become a master of, you'll forget you even have Photoshop installed. But don't launch it and expect everything to be the same as Photoshop. It's not, but that's a good thing. **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** Adobe Creative Cloud is a HUGE expense for companies with large design teams, and an even BIGGER expense for individuals (proportionately speaking). Affinity Photo is the Photoshop-killer we've all been waiting for. The company is invested in solid UX, and providing designers the tools we've been asking for, and needing all these years. I use it for photomanipulation, raster designs, and even some vector-based stuff. I actually taught my 11 yo how to do simple vector editing in AP in just a few minutes. I used to be afraid of losing my company's CC subscription. I'm not anymore. ### 43. Designed for awesome **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Adam R. | UX Designer, Information Services, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 22, 2016 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** The way affinity Designer uses both raster and vector formats makes this product a good contender for a Photoshop replacemnt. The price point is way more than fair, and a lot of the features are super cool. **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** The User Interface is not familiar, and it isn't too clear what a lot of the icons mean. It took me a good couple hours to navigate around so I could actually start using the product. **Recommendations to others considering Affinity Designer:** The community is great, and the price is just too hard to ignore. **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** Photo editing as well as illustration creation. It's the best of Photoshop and illustrator. ### 44. Amazing Design Software **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Christophe H. | Talent Acquisition Consultant, Computer Software, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 02, 2016 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** Interface is great, the engine behind the software is very powerful, easy to export file, the product is very affordable with a pay once type of model. **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** I dislike the fact the software happens to crash sometimes - second thing is copy/paste of a png file which doesn't seem to work properly ( drag and drop of the file is easier ) - third thing is the layer scrolling down panel which can become annoying when you need to untick a layer box. **Recommendations to others considering Affinity Designer:** Great product at a very Affordable price **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** The learning curve with Affinity Designer has been faster and easier than a product like Photoshop which provides a clunky interface and a subscription model ### 45. Affinity Photo trial **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Publishing | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 20, 2016 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** intuitive features, similar to Photoshop but more simple, cheaper than adobe products and has better interaction between vector and raster. **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** New keyboard shortcuts to learn, not so widespread as adobe products. Hard to find tutorials and add-ons. **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** using a new tool, trying different features in stead of standard adobe products. ### 46. Great alternative to Adobe **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Diamond L. | Marketing Communications Manager, Marketing and Advertising, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 04, 2016 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** Not having to pay a monthly license fee saves a ton when leading a brand new startup. **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** I would swap some tool logos, other than that it works great! **Recommendations to others considering Affinity Designer:** Move QUICKLY. Great for use in small or startup businesses. **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** Image retouching- love using this tool on my laptop or desktop. Works fast, all necessary tools available. ### 47. This is THE best alternative to Photoshop! **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Debbie G. | Principal, Public Relations and Communications, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 03, 2015 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** Affinity Designer is hands down the best alternative to Photoshop! The user interface and the learning curve are very good, especially for non-designers such as myself. You can import the same file types easily that you can with Photoshop and best of all, the price is excellent! I'm still learning how to use all its features, but I've already done some projects that I couldn't have done without this great software! **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** I wish there were more basic how-to video tutorials, but I think over time, there will be more available. I'm just impatient as I want to learn now! **Recommendations to others considering Affinity Designer:** What's great is that you can try it out for two weeks, which I did. And that's what sold me on Affinity Designer. **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** This is a great graphics software so you'll be able to apply what you learn to Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms. ### 48. Affordable replacement to Adobe Illustrator **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Manuel R. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 31, 2016 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** When you compare it with the mammoth that is Adobe Illustrator, Affinity Designer is lightning fast, light and with a learning curve much friendlier. **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** It is still a new application and some needed features are still missing, but the team is hard at work and constantly improving it. **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** With an affordable price and an easy learning curve this is the app that any new designer/illustrator should try first. ### 49. Very compelling alternative to Illustrator, at a low price, although somehow incomplete and OSX only **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Stefan B. | sr. BIM Manager, Information Services, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 10, 2014 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** Very powerful and quite complete vector illustration software. It is targeted as a direct Illustrator replacement and they have a low introduction price (20% discount in the App Store in October 2014). At €35 you get a professional, complete and usable illustration application, with no forced subscription and a perpetual, commercial license. It leverages OSX technology and provides hardware-accelerated smooth panning and zooming. It also integrates with many common formats: PSD, PDF, EPS and AI (with some limitations). You can mix vector layers with pixel layers and when switching to the "Pixel persona" you get basic image editing brushes. **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** It is only for OSX. For a first release, it does pretty well, but some things are missing (still): line patterns for curves (e.g. dashed or dash-dot lines), arrowheads for curves... The interface seems to hint on them being added in a future update. With floating panels, it is clear OSX-like GUI, but current Apple products migrate to a single-window interface with docked panels, which I prefer. **Recommendations to others considering Affinity Designer:** Give it some time. It seems a tremendous and strong contender in the graphics market and if you are running OSX, it has a very attractive price for what you get. **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** I've move away from Adobe Creative Suite, after the switch to an expensive enforced subscription scheme. When this product matures a bit (they promise a few years of free updates), it could replace Illustrator (or CorelDRAW). It has also support for image layers, but it is not a Photoshop replacement. For that, you have to wait for Affinity Image. And as an InDesign replacement, they also announced Affinity Layout. At this price point, the future looks bright. ### 50. Nice, but not yet perfect, alternative to Adobe Illustrator **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Piero B. | Chief Creative Officer & Co-Founder, Marketing and Advertising, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 26, 2016 **What do you like best about Affinity Designer?** Affinity Designer have a lot of features that I needed, most of all the edit capabilities of single shapes. **What do you dislike about Affinity Designer?** Arranging artboards is still clunky, also exporting options are not so easy to understande, you have to get used to them. **What problems is Affinity Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** Affinity Designer is the best solution for vector graphics if you don't wanna spend lot of money each month for a Adobe CC subscription ## 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=9§ion=pricing&secure%5Bexpires_at%5D=2026-07-21+06%3A29%3A25+-0500&secure%5Bsession_id%5D=c48c8cdf-db76-457d-879d-ec91a06f2a86&secure%5Btoken%5D=c98bb200356118d9a8d8136e1f0795650b99e2ab6852b1ded454f4ff351cb368&format=llm_user) ## Affinity Designer Integrations - [Adobe Illustrator](https://www.g2.com/products/adobe-illustrator/reviews) - [Adobe Photoshop](https://www.g2.com/products/adobe-photoshop/reviews) - [Affinity Photo](https://www.g2.com/products/affinity-photo/reviews) - [Affinity Publisher](https://www.g2.com/products/affinity-publisher/reviews) - [Autodesk 3ds Max](https://www.g2.com/products/autodesk-3ds-max/reviews) - [Canva](https://www.g2.com/products/canva/reviews) - [Figma](https://www.g2.com/products/figma/reviews) - [LibreOffice Writer](https://www.g2.com/products/libreoffice-writer/reviews) - [Revit](https://www.g2.com/products/revit/reviews) ## Top Affinity Designer Alternatives - [Adobe Illustrator](https://www.g2.com/products/adobe-illustrator/reviews) - 4.6/5.0 (6,055 reviews) - [Sketch](https://www.g2.com/products/sketch/reviews) - 4.5/5.0 (1,209 reviews) - [CorelDRAW](https://www.g2.com/products/coreldraw/reviews) - 4.3/5.0 (540 reviews)