Affinity by Canva review (formerly Affinity Designer): free pro design software, with strings you should know

What happened to Affinity Designer

If you came here for Affinity Designer, the product this page originally reviewed no longer exists as a separate app. Canva acquired Serif, Affinity's developer, in March 2024. On October 29, 2025, Canva announced the "all-new Affinity": a single app that combines what used to be Affinity Designer (vector), Affinity Photo (pixel) and Affinity Publisher (layout), and made it free.

Our earlier review praised Designer's one-time $69.99 license. That price and that model are gone. Affinity's FAQ says existing V2 licenses stay valid and Serif will keep activation servers online, but the V2 apps will not receive future updates. The rest of this review covers the app you can download today.

What is actually free

Affinity's FAQ is direct: you can use every tool in the Pixel, Vector and Layout studios, plus customization and export features, "with no restrictions or payment needed", and the app will receive free updates. There are no export caps or watermarks described anywhere in the official pages we checked.

What you need is a free Canva account. You sign in with Canva to download the app and activate the license.

What needs Canva Pro (or another premium plan)

The AI layer. Affinity's get-Affinity page lists the Canva-premium features as Generative Fill, Expand and Edit; image and vector generation; background removal and subject selection; colorize, depth selection and super resolution; portrait blur and portrait lighting; and AI generation history. Canva's own pricing table confirms that Free users get no Affinity premium AI tools and that "Affinity: on-device AI tools and Remove Backgrounds" is included from Pro up. Those premium AI tools draw from the shared monthly Canva AI allowance (see our Canva review for the numbers).

So the honest summary: the design software is free; the AI conveniences cost a Canva subscription. Canva Pro is $144 a year or $18 a month in the US, according to Canva's pricing page.

Platforms, offline and system requirements

Affinity runs on macOS (native on Apple silicon and Intel), Windows 10 or 11 (64-bit) and iPadOS. Affinity's FAQ says the iPad app opens the same .af files as desktop and adds Sketch Studio and Apple Pencil support, and that some desktop features aren't on iPad yet, including Books, Batch, Data Merge, Quick Adjustments and macro recording. You can install it on as many devices as you like.

Offline: Affinity's FAQ says you need to be online to download and activate the license with your Canva account, and that "from then on, there is no requirement to be online." Canva's Affinity Terms add that access "may require online verification through an entitlement check." We read that as: you can work offline day to day, but the license depends on your Canva account staying active.

File formats: what opens, what does not

The new app saves to a single .af file that can mix vector, pixel and layout work. Per Affinity's FAQ, it opens all files made in Affinity V1 and V2, but older V2 apps cannot open new .af files. If you collaborate with someone still on V2 (or use V2 on an iPad), plan around that.

On import, Affinity lists PSD, AI, PDF, SVG, IDML and DWG, and its September 2026 update notes added native INDD import. On export, the help center documents settings for PDF, SVG, EPS, PSD, EPUB and DWG/DXF, alongside standard image formats, plus a quick export straight to Canva.

How it fits real creator jobs

Print merch. This is where Affinity beats every other free tool we cover. Its layout features include CMYK, spot colors, preflight and bleed, so you can hand a printer or print-on-demand service a proper file. Figma cannot export CMYK; Canva's CMYK and print-ready export needs a paid plan.

Logos and brand marks. The vector tools (pen, node, shape builder, booleans, the new blend tool) are built for precise marks you will reuse for years. Since April 2026, Affinity can publish brand elements straight into a Canva Brand Kit, per Canva's Canva Create announcement.

Thumbnails and social graphics. It can do them, and it is stronger than Canva at photo compositing (RAW editing, non-destructive adjustments, healing and inpainting). It has no template library or stock photo library of Canva's size, so it is slower for one-off posts. A common split: build the master assets in Affinity, then produce weekly variants in Canva.

Ebooks, lead magnets and media kits. Publisher's layout tools came along: master pages, linked text frames, EPUB export and .csv data merge. That makes Affinity a real option for a creator's free PDF guide or a printed workbook.

Slide decks. Not its job. Use Canva, Google Slides or Figma Slides.

Commercial use and who owns your work

Canva's Affinity Terms do not restrict commercial use of the work you create, and say your own content (images, files) is yours to control. Any Canva or Affinity library content you use inside Affinity is covered by Canva's Content License Agreement, which treats an Affinity project as a "Canva Design". AI output follows Canva's AI Product Terms, under which you own your output except where it modifies Canva library content.

The fine print a creator should notice: the license is "limited, non-transferable and non-exclusive"; Canva may "suspend, remove, modify or disable" the software at any time; and the license ends if your Canva account access ends. Affinity says your files stay on your machine and are not used for AI training, according to its September 2026 update post. Under our owned-not-rented test, your files are local and exportable, which is good. The tool itself is now rented from Canva at a price of zero. For a fully open alternative, see Penpot.

Affinity vs Canva vs Photoshop for creators

If you need speed and templates, use Canva. If you need precise vector, photo and print work and want to pay nothing, use Affinity. If you need Adobe file handoff with agencies and the Adobe ecosystem, Photoshop still has the edge. Many creators will end up with Affinity plus Canva Free, which costs $0.

What would change our score

A published long-term commitment to keeping the core app free would push it up. Any move to cap exports, gate core tools behind Canva Pro, or require frequent online checks would push it down.

What changed (Nov 7, 2026)

• Affinity's get-Affinity page now says "Available on Mac, Windows & iPad", and its FAQ says the app is available on Windows, macOS and iPadOS. We had it as "coming soon" from our Oct 7 check, and the platforms, pros and cons, FAQ and summary now say the iPad app exists. Some desktop features aren't on iPad yet, per the same FAQ.
• The score and verdict are unchanged.