All Affinity Designer Reviews
1-25 of 437 Reviews
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Leighton
Entertainment, 11 - 50 employees
Used more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
4
Reviewed July 2022
Excellent alternative to Adobe Illustrator
Rogelio
Verified reviewer
Media Production, 1 employee
Used weekly for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed March 2022
How not love it?
I have the whole suite working together: Designer, Photo, Publisher and it helps me stay on a competitive level against other businesses offering the same services.
PROSAffinity Designer is the best Adobe Illustrator alternative that will let you edit SVG, AI, EPS, PDF files with ease. The controls are very intuitive and easy to use, the results are way too good and so far, after all these years there's nothing I regret from using Affinity Designer If you buy a set of tools on the Serif store, you do not have to download them and install them on a certain folder, you just go into the panel, click, that's it. You have it ready to use and installed properly.
CONSThe only thing I cannot do in Affinity Designer so far is to get a PNG and trace it into a vector. For that, I have to use Inkspace but everything else: Affnity Designer. Another thing that you may feel limited is that you see templates for Illustrator everywhere but not for Designer. You can still open them but all the layers groups will be merged into a single giant group making you spend some time rearranging things.
Reasons for switching to Affinity Designer
Adobe is way too expensive for small businesses like mine
Alan Gerardo
Verified reviewer
Marketing and Advertising, 2-10 employees
Used daily for less than 12 months
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
4
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed July 2022
A great vector creation tool for iPad users
It’s been great overall. One purchase and you jump right in without worrying about renewing payment plans. At first it was a bit of a shock having such a high quality app for a table because it does things that you might not expect it to to do while at the same time not behaving exactly how you would expect. However it’s more because it must compromise in some aspects due to the fact that it MUST take into account both touch only controls as well as mouse and keyboad.
PROS-Purchase once and use forever. You don’t need a monthly subscription fee to access every feature -Accesible price, you don’t need to break the bank to purchase this app -Rich interface and tools
CONS-Interface and interactions may be hit or miss since it’s software built for tablets and may not always play nice when using mouse and keyboard - Slight learning curve when coming from other options
Reasons for switching to Affinity Designer
I switched my main work station from an older macbook pro the a new 12.9” iPad pro and Adobe’s options are not very well optimized plus have sometime outrageously high prices for the quality they offer.
Cindy
Verified reviewer
Computer Software, 51-200 employees
Used weekly for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
3
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed September 2023
A really great alternative
I really like the fact that Affinity is a one-time payment software. Unlike Adobe, it doesn't come with an annual subscription, and this factor plays a decisive role in my choice of software. Another of Affinity's strengths is their proximity to users. They attach a great deal of importance to user feedback.And of course, the software's functions are really intuitive and efficient.
CONSOn the other hand, what I don't like is the performance, which is really low on Windows, even with a good configuration. The software is not optimised for Windows and you can feel it. That's one of the software's only faults for me, the performance. Version 2 of Affinity has added a huge number of new features. I hope that this point will be improved in the future.
Reasons for switching to Affinity Designer
The lifetime licence of Affinity and these features.
Ronald
Verified reviewer
Entertainment, 1,001-5,000 employees
Used weekly for less than 6 months
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed January 2021
A game changer
I used to have a very specific workflow that involved the 2 most common image software on the market. These are expensive for the kind of tasks we were doing and a recurrent payment. Affinity Designer (and it's brother, Affinity Photo) replaced these with a one-time payment so we were able to get exactly the same results, same quality and same effiency.
PROSIt allows you to do all the advanced stuff you need to do. Of course, there are some industry-standards out there this software will be compared to. Affinity Designer will for sure save you money after you spend some time in the initial adaptation translating all your knowledge from other tools to it. It sounds scary but it isn't. Things are just called differently and some others just have a different shortcut, but all what you know should still apply. A very cool thing I saw is that the developers are always interacting with users and they do listen to the requests! It's very, very lightweight (v. 1.8.5 is less than 500mb). Updates happen frequently but it's up to you to install them. Also it's equally lightweight in terms of resources used when running. The industry standards require everytime more and more ram and cpu while Affinity Designer runs very smoothly on all low-mid range pcs.
CONSThe documentation isn't always super super clear. As it's an evolving sofware and features are being added or changed, this is really important. A couple of times i had to rely on youtubers to find how to do certain things.
Reasons for switching to Affinity Designer
Illustrator was too expensive for us and too heavy to run. We also had to run Photoshop at the same time which was a problem in terms of resources since we're now working from home so not everybody has specialized hardware at home to run these.
Barbara
Verified reviewer
Marketing and Advertising, 2-10 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed November 2019
Absolutely Outstanding!
It been beyond outstanding for us. Super satisfied and I can’t recommend it enough. It was super easy to migrate completely from the Adobe Suite. No hiccups at all.
PROSIt is lightning fast! And not to mention super affordable. Here is a piece of software with great customer support and an amazing community behind it. It is very intuitive and the learning curve is not steep at all. In fact, far more intuitive than Adobe Suite.
CONSSo far, all good! Maybe how it opens files from the Adobe Suite could improve but it has nothing to do with Affinity as much as how Adobe packages their files.
Reasons for switching to Affinity Designer
Price mostly but also bad customer support and bloatware.
Kade
Verified reviewer
Computer Games, 1 employee
Used weekly for less than 12 months
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
4
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed January 2022
Affinity Designer is an Excellent Must-Have Design Toolkit for any Designer/Artist/Developer
So far I really love it, very easy to use and very fun to play with despite the confusion of trying to understand and learn this new design software which I feel is worth its value.
PROSI really love how easy it is to just jump right in and start using it with a lot of useful creation tools, profiles, and more. There is a lot of useful functions, brushes, text, designs, shapes and such crammed into it.
CONSNot very friendly to 3d Artists and Game Developers in my opinion. The software is somewhat confusing compared to others so I am stuck having to learn something new since it doesn't follow traditional methods which might not be such a bad thing aside from the confusion of trying to use it more due to the different toolset profiles. It also appears to lack filters and affects so that means I would have to use, create, or go get another software to use alongside it and I was really hoping to have an all-in-one tool. This has left me with a design of getting Affinity Photo or going back to Krita.
Reasons for switching to Affinity Designer
Krita is good but I kept running into random crashing/lagging issues which left me with no choice but to use other software at times and I found it to be rather annoying for that reason after dealing with it constantly.
Melissa
Verified reviewer
Non-Profit Organization Management, 11-50 employees
Used monthly for less than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed October 2022
Great Illustrator Alternative
When Adobe switched to subscription service I was very frustrated as I don't use Illustrator often enough to make it worth the cost...but I do occasionally need a full featured design program. I searched through many options, but finally settled on Affinity. It has been a great replacement and the one time purchase is a perfect solution for our company. If they had a replacement for Lightroom, I would be able to leave Adobe behind completely!
PROSAffinity designer has all the priority features I look for in a design program. I hate switching to new software, but I found Affinity to be a fairly easy transition from Illustrator. Occasionally I can't find a tool I wanted in the spot I assumed it should be, but a quick search solves that problem. I love the way the tool bar is laid out and found all the main tools I wanted were easy to access. This is now my go to design program and I love that it is not a subscription based software.
CONSWhile some designers fault Affinity for not having certain features I found that all of the vital features I needed are included.
Reasons for switching to Affinity Designer
We primarily switched because of the subscription pricing at Adobe. Illustrator is a great software, but as we don't use it on a daily basis we couldn't afford the service and started looking for an alternative. Honestly I wouldn't go back even if we could afford it. Affinity works great and does everything we need.
C.J.
Verified reviewer
Financial Services, 2-10 employees
Used daily for less than 12 months
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
FUNCTIONALITY
3
Reviewed August 2021
You pay for what you get
It is good for what it is, but I felt as paid software they could have had more functionally
PROSWell cost was a factor, ease of use, simple UI
CONSLack of needed features. The layers functionality was confusing No auto trace which was the huge disappointment for us
Reason for choosing Affinity Designer
AD was the middle of the road. Inkskape was free but a hassle and adobe cost much more
Reasons for switching to Affinity Designer
Need more from the software
Trevor
Verified reviewer
Internet, 1 employee
Used weekly for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
4
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed February 2021
Better than the big name alternatives
I was able to replace the annual subscription for Adobe products with Affinity Designer (as well as Affinity Photo). As such, I got a much better value since I didn't need to use my Adobe products very often. Also I was easily able learn how to use Designer because of the learning resources they have and the community / forums are large so most questions are already out there and answered.
PROSAffiniity Designer easily and immediately replaced my existing vector graphics program I was using before it (Illustrator). As such there was no major learning curve or wasted time switching over. Further, even though there is no subscription required, the software only continues to improve!
CONSEven though it's not a major change from Illustrator, you do have to get used to a few things that are different. Not a big deal.
Reasons for switching to Affinity Designer
I didn't want to pay the annual subscription anymore for a product I only used once every so often.
Souleymane
Verified reviewer
Mining & Metals, 5,001-10,000 employees
Used weekly for less than 12 months
OVERALL RATING:
4
EASE OF USE
4
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
4
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed August 2023
The graphic design software for professionals.
Affinity Design is a powerful and comprehensive graphic design software that offers multiple advanced features for professional designers.
PROSWhat I really like about Affinity Design is that it offers advanced vector drawing tools such as geometric shapes and Bézier curves. It also supports layer styles.
CONSWhat I may like the least is the photo editing tool for correcting imperfections, as it can sometimes hinder the editing process of photos.
Reasons for switching to Affinity Designer
I switched to Canva and Gravit Design Pro for more functionality and flexibility in photo editing work.
Joshua
Arts and Crafts, 1 employee
Used weekly for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed November 2019
Brilliant Application - Incredible Brand!
My overall experience with the whole Affinity brand is supremely positive. Every aspect of their service: from the products they provide to the support, tutorials and workbooks they offer is of a supremely high standard. I'm incredibly excited to see how this brand evolves and will definitely be purchasing any product they add to their catalogue in the future.
PROSDesigner is an incredibly deep application that can satisfy just about everyone's demands for digital illustration. It has a phenomenal feature set and works on multiple devices, thus enabling the user to maximize their output and enhance their workflow. The accompanying Workbook is a brilliant way to familiarize the user to the capabilities of the software, and as the only viable alternative to Adobe Illustrator, anyone making the transition will feel right at home - you can even open up your Illustrator projects in Designer! Another great function is the seamless integration with Affinity's other applications - Publisher and Photo. I have only scratched the surface of this application but am astonished at what can be achieved. I can't recommend it highly enough and think that there is nothing on the market than can compete at this price range. Five stars!
CONSSince making the transition from Illustrator, I've honestly not looked back once. There is nothing in my workflow that Designer isn't capable of performing. As such, I have no cons and can't think of any reason not explore Designer and its capabilities.
Reasons for switching to Affinity Designer
I couldn't justify the exorbitant fees that Adobe charge and was desperate to find a feature-packed and affordable solution.
Anonymous
2-10 employees
OVERALL RATING:
4
EASE OF USE
4
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
4
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed April 2020
Better than I expected
I saw ads for the Affinity suite in the past, but always dismissed them as one of those half-baked knock-offs of photoshop that like to rope you in with "free"trials that don't let you save your files or something. Turns out I was very wrong! Affinity Designer and Publisher are both legitimate and very good pieces of software. They are feature rich, have some innovative features that aren't seen in other software and have ongoing development with regular updates. Affinity Designer is quite intuitive, can do most things Illustrator can, can open and edit Illustrator files, so the transition was very smooth, with hardly any learning curve. Still had to google some to to figure out how certain operations were done in Designer that were different to Illustrator, and grapple with a few odd choices the devs made, over all I've been pretty pleased with Designer. Decided to transition from Illustrator because it didn't make sense for us to pay for the subscription model because we only need to use it several times a year for creating product labels, and starting and cancelling subscriptions constantly is just cumbersome. Plus we already have a Photoshop and Lightroom subscription. I tried to move from Illustrator to Inkscape in the past, but that was just impossible, Inkscape can't open Illustrator files properly (even PDFs) and lacks so many features that it wasn't possible to use for what I needed it.
PROSComing from Illustrator, it's very easy to adapt to, just minor differences in some workflows, but mostly it's intuitive. It can open and edit Illustrator files if they are pdf compatible, even deal with complex things like knockout groups correctly. It's also has some great ideas that I was pleasantly surprised by that made the workflow better and faster. Affinity devs listen to user feedback and regularly update their apps, so any features that it lacks it will probably get soon.
CONSLack of a good font manager, it just takes the fonts you have installed in your OS. No Google fonts integration or anything like Adobe Fonts, so if you're missing fonts you have to manually find them online and (buy or) download them the old-fashioned way. Some odd workflow choices, minor things that can slow you down. Like no native way to permanently reset the bounding box of an object after it has been rotated, they have a toggle that works for 1 operation and switches back to the (skewed or rotated) original. The align UI and the order of actions to chose what to align to what is strange and can waste time. Other minor things like that that I ran into, but all in all it works well and gets the job done.
Reason for choosing Affinity Designer
An affordable one-time fee for a product that's just as good as illustrator. Works properly, has all the necessary features and is compatible with other software unlike Inkscape.
Emily
Design, 1 employee
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed May 2021
Absolutely Incredible
Affinity has hit every expectation and then some. Absolutely a dream come true and a great program. I love working with their design programs. I used their competitors programs but made the switch as soon as I saw how amazing it is.
PROSReal-time changes during designing and editing. Ability to work in vector or raster in the same application. NO SUBSCRIPTIONS Convert files into anything you need even for other design programs of other brands. Quick exporting with a preview and many options. Works amazingly on tablets and desktops. Easy to download more brushes, typefaces, and anything else you need. Now integrated with copyright-free photo services like pixabay, pexles, and unsplash. Everything is fantastic and I cannot recommend this enough.
CONSDoesn't like the corner tool at times. Wish Affinity had a cloud-like service that could download and keep files you're working on available when you switch devices.
Reasons for switching to Affinity Designer
Affinity does not have a subscription fee. Affinity Designer has all of the tools Illustrator has but they are fresh and better. Affinity Designer has more options and is easier to use as well. Adobe is going downhill while their prices go up.
Asfak
Design, 11-50 employees
Used weekly for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
4
EASE OF USE
4
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
3
Reviewed December 2021
Best Vector Design software in a Cheaper price
Overall, I am happy with this product. It comes with a perceptual purchase plan. I can do my 80% of design in affinity designer. I wish they add features like shape builder tool, Image tracer soon. Then, It will be the best Adobe Illustrator Competitor.
PROSThe interface is less complicated. Layer management is awesome. It supports non-destructive editing for both vector & pixel editing. It supports live preview while changing any properties like colour, font & effects of the design.
CONSThere is no image tracing option. Lacking of Shape builder tool, pattern tool, real vector brush tool made this software hard to recommend to others.
Reason for choosing Affinity Designer
These alternatives were nearly prefect for me. But they weren't a prefect fit for my purpose. Although, affinity designer is not fully feature packed but is ticks all the boxes I want.
Reasons for switching to Affinity Designer
The affordability was the main reason to switch. Moreover, I never need the extra options provided by Adobe Illustrator. Inkscape was not capable of CMYK colour print. On the other hand, Affinity was the prefect match for me considering these issues.
Richard
Graphic Design, 1 employee
Used weekly for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed October 2022
A powerful tool for all levels...
It's been stress-free. If ever I get stuck trying to do something I just search for video tutorials and there's always something to help you on your way. I've never had to contact support and to be honest, I don't even think I've had to upgrade more than once, and If I have it was a free upgrade. Affinity is really a great provider and suite of tools. Like I said I used to be all Adobe, but now I haven't looked back. Best workflow decision I've ever made.
PROSAn easy-to-use layout design tool that is capable of absolutely everything I need to do. I've been in the creative industry for over 30 years and Affinity Designer can handle everything I'm throwing at it from logo design and layout to full-blown artwork, and art collections I'm developing. It integrates well with the Affinity family of products (obviously). Essentially it's easy, fast, full-featured, and straightforward to get started. I used to use Illustrator (a little) but now I use Affinity and have never looked back. The transition took me minutes rather than hours. It's very intuitive.
CONSI haven't hit any limitations with the software yet. I always generally feel the things we don't like about the software is that we've mainly not learned how to use particular features or combinations yet, so really it's on us to work it out and innovate. Sure in any software there can be occasional bugs. But I haven't come across any yet, or anything particularly frustrating about the workflow, tool, or system as a whole.
Reason for choosing Affinity Designer
Affinity Designer offered the same (as far as I could tell) tools and features as Illustrator at the same price for a lifetime as a couple of months as the cost of the Adobe solution. I did wonder for a while, given the nature of my work at the time was becoming less 'accurate' and 'precise' whether I could get a long using Keynote as a hack. But no I decided to invest with Affinity and make the change. It was easy, efficient, and the right decision.
Srdan
Apparel & Fashion, 2-10 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed June 2022
My essential UX, Vector Creating tool
I am very satisfied with the performance the look, style and usability of Affinity Designer I am also using the Affinity Photo and Publisher.
PROSIt's built for Mac OS, an it works flawlessly with my M1 MacBook and my Dell 27" external screen. It has all the features and tools as Adobe Illustrator and then some more. I absolutely love it!
CONSNothing that I can think of at the moment, all is rainbows and smiles after few years of using it.
Reason for choosing Affinity Designer
Pricing and plus I know the product for several years.
Reasons for switching to Affinity Designer
Seamless and without any regrets, wouldn't go back to Adobe in a million years.
Connor
E-Learning, 1 employee
Used daily for less than 12 months
OVERALL RATING:
4
EASE OF USE
2
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed August 2019
It's not Illustrator, but it'll do
It gets the job done. That's probably the best thing I can say about it. It gets the job done, but I trudge through every moment of the job.
PROSIt's surprisingly fully-featured for the price. Once you know what you're doing, it can accomplish just about any task you'd use Illustrator (the industry standard) for.
CONSThe workflows are just ... Annoying. Maybe it's because I'm coming from Illustrator, where everything feels effortless, but it feels like every aspect of Affinity Designer was made unnecessarily complicated. Using the program makes me want to pull my hair out, because I know how much quicker and easier and just ... More "common sense" the process would be in Illustrator. Also, and this is a big one: Most stock vector files are completely useless in Affinity Designer. If there's any degree of complexity (meaning more than one shape), it's going to be an absolute disaster to work with in Designer.
Reason for choosing Affinity Designer
It was the cheapest alternative that seemed like it would get the job done ... And I still stand by that. You get a lot of functionality for the price. As a result, it makes a strong first-impression. But after you get beyond the free trial, and start diving deeper into projects (or trying to work with stock resources), it just becomes such a pain.
Reasons for switching to Affinity Designer
The company I was working for at the time wanted a cheaper alternative.
David
Telecommunications, 1 employee
Used monthly for less than 6 months
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed August 2020
Full power of creativity for and decent price
Overall I can designs faster in this software than Illustrator, finally I can work with something similar to inkscape that can work with CMYK but this one is faster than both adobe and free products, I think is the best bang for your buck for working with vectors.
PROS- You can create and handle CMYK documents. - The user interface is extremely simple which makes it easy to pick up and learn it. - You can save files on different drives and you are capable of performing live updates on the storage file. - You have the option to generate procedural vectors and self created as well. - The effects and alterations on your designs are extremely fast, the refreshing is really quick no wasting time. - When working with vectors you can see the direct result of your design in vector mode on a split view mode before exporting as raster image. - Amazing brush control and customization. - Automatically create a color pallet form an existing document. - You can create multiple symmetry points to create outstanding designs in a breeze. - The history is not deleted your history is saved all the way, so you can go back in your design. - It works flawlessly in the iPad and you have as much control as the desktop version. - You can works with multiple Art boards. - I has photo shop most distinctive tools built in so you can remove backgrounds of images without using another software. - It has designer constrains to help you visualize your design on different devices. - Is extremely affordable price point is $69 one license with updates and $27.99 for iPad.
CONS- You do not have the access to all of the Adobe programs like Premiere, Dream weaver, After effects, etc. - The tools it has are not as convenient as the shape builder form the competitor.
Reason for choosing Affinity Designer
The UI is better by far
Reasons for switching to Affinity Designer
Because is faster to design, I like the interface and the price is more accessible it is an incredible tool.
Kathryn
Arts and Crafts, 1 employee
Used weekly for less than 6 months
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed January 2023
Viable one-time-purchase option to get out of Adobe's subscription model
I have a one-person business where I design 2D files for laser cutting, as well as doing my own graphic design for packaging and promotional materials, photography, post-processing, etc. I am not a "power user" of Adobe CC or CS but I'm looking for something good at doing detailed vector artwork that doesn't feel like I'm back in the 1990s or something. I tested Affinity Designer on a project that I started in Adobe CS4, continued in Adobe CC; working on it in Affinity Designer was seamless.
PROSI have worked on one project to test it during the trial period before purchasing. The vector editing features are very similar to Adobe Illustrator, but it's a one-time-purchase for this version and updates rather than a subscription model. I'm happy that I can use it on multiple computers for my own use, as I have both a home and a studio workstation. Because my workflow includes tracing over photos, I appreciate having a suite (Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher) where it's easy to go back and forth with photo editing. I also do my own product photos and print materials so this suite is just what I needed.
CONSI have not tried to transfer files back and forth between workstations using Affinity and Adobe.
Reason for choosing Affinity Designer
I've used CorelDraw occasionally and it just annoys me. Inkscape annoys me even more. I thought I might like EazyDraw, but it's so different than Adobe Illustrator that I just can't get into it.
Reasons for switching to Affinity Designer
I've had a home studio where I use my Adobe CS4 "time capsule" on an old MacBook running OSX Snow Leopard. I am setting up a workstation at my laser cutting studio, where I've been using "member" workstations with Adobe CC, but now I need to supply my own software. I've been annoyed at Adobe for a while about the subscription model, just like everyone else. I think Version 2 of the Affinity suite will suit my needs and frankly exceed them.
Weronika
Graphic Design, 1 employee
Used daily for less than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed May 2022
Review of Affinity Designer after 2 years od using
I really like the affinity designer. I use it a lot in my illustrations, it's great!
PROSWhat I like the most about this program is that I can hybrid design by creating vectors with pixel elements. I also like very much that the program has a one-time, lifetime license!
CONSI miss a more intuitive shape builder. there are also a lot of options that I probably don't know and another program uses it, because I already know how to achieve the desired effect in it. There is still little material on youtube, and this is the main source of knowledge I use.
Reasons for switching to Affinity Designer
I use programs interchangeably. The ability to add pixels to graphics means that I most often use affinity designer for illustrations, while the vector logo is more convenient for me in another program, because I know it better in this matter
Anonymous
1 employee
Used monthly for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
4
EASE OF USE
3
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed January 2021
A good Illustrator alternative, but far from perfect
Overall, I recommend Designer, along with the other Affinity apps, but I have something of a love-hate relationship with them. I love that we have real alternative to Adobe's products. The tools are powerful, and in many areas they shine brighter than Adobe's tired old offerings. On the other hand, some basic usability issues seem to hang about forever.
PROSIt's almost impossible to judge any vector illustration software without drawing comparisons (excuse the pun) to Adobe Illustrator, and in many ways Affinity Designer compares very well. It certainly feels fast, as a modern, native Mac app should. And unlike Illustrator, you can buy the app for a very affordable one-time purchase—no monthly subscriptions. Affinity has done a great job of unifying (mostly) all their apps, and this has to be mentioned too—Designer exists as part of an ecosystem, which for many designers, makes it the first genuine alternative to Adobe's Creative Cloud.
CONSI have not found the transition from Adobe apps to be an altogether easy one. In some part, that is just the nature of switching from tools that one has grown very familiar with over many years. But some of it goes beyond that. The Affinity apps (and Designer is no exception) exhibit some *interesting* UI behaviours. Some of the more frustrating ones: - poor windows management, making Separated Mode almost unusable - strange intermittent bugs like a background window somehow having focus (and receiving commands) - working with colour swatches (especially Pantone swatches and spot colours) is cumbersome - some non-destructive actions, like deselecting an object, are added to the undo/redo stack (making it impossible to redo other commands) - no option to globally turn off antialiasing of exported artwork - no info panel - no ability to save your workspaces - lots of other 'little' interface oddities, which aren't big in and of themselves, but which can contribute to a somewhat frustrating experience overall. Some of these issues have been raised over and over again on the user forums, but Affinity seems very slow to address them.
Jeremy
Verified reviewer
Media Production, 2-10 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed May 2022
An Affordable Champion
I've been looking for an alternative to Adobe illustrator for years now, and Affinity Designer is the one. The interface is much faster to open and lighter in feel, and it offers pretty much all the features one could want from a vector editor. You can jump between vector and raster quite easily too.
PROSAffinity Designer is very inexpensive, but you wouldn't know it from using it. This is a full-on, best-in-class vector graphics application for designing logos, icons, UI, mock-ups and more.
CONSWhile Affinity Designer is very similar to Adobe Illustrator, it does behave quite differently in some ways, and will take a little longer to adjust coming from Illustrator. That being said, it's still very easy to use.
Reason for choosing Affinity Designer
Much more professional interface than Gimp.
Reasons for switching to Affinity Designer
Very affordable, no monthly contract.
Debbie
Health, Wellness and Fitness, 1 employee
Used daily for less than 12 months
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed February 2023
Affinity Designer from a Person who is not techie
The main problem that Affinity Designer solves is the need for a comprehensive and powerful vector graphics design solution. Affinity Designer provides users with a suite of tools and features to create sophisticated vector designs, including vector shapes and paths, complex masking, and advanced color and text manipulation.The benefits of using Affinity Designer include:1. Professional-grade design capabilities: Affinity Designer offers a robust set of tools and features that allow users to create sophisticated and professional-looking vector designs.2. Intuitive user interface: Affinity Designer has a clean and intuitive user interface, making it easy to create complex designs with ease.3. Full compatibility with Adobe Creative Suite: Affinity Designer is fully compatible with Adobe Creative Suite, allowing users to continue to work on their Adobe projects within the Affinity Designer interface.4. Cost savings: Affinity Designer is a one-time purchase, which means users don't need to pay for a subscription or purchase upgrades. This can save users money in the long run.
PROS-Affinity Designer is an intuitive and powerful vector design software that is easy to use.-It has an efficient workflow and allows for the creation of complex designs quickly and accurately.-It offers a wide range of tools to help create professional-looking designs.-It is compatible with both Mac and Windows.-It has a great user interface and is well organized.-It offers support for vector and raster images.-It can be used to create illustrations, logos, icons, diagrams, and web page layouts.
CONS-The learning curve can be a bit steep for those who are new to vector design.-It lacks some of the advanced features found in other vector design software.-It does not have a built-in library of templates and shapes.
Anonymous
2-10 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
4
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed October 2019
Excellent graphics design tool, Illustrator alternative!
Absolute pleasure! I couldn't afford the Adobe package but now I have Affinity Designer and Photo and it more than meets all my needs for website graphics and photo editing and design.
PROSSo much cheaper than Illustrator / Photoshop and packs all the features I need. Easy to use, easy to learn. Many tutorials from Affinity as well as other skilled users. Use it for simple projects or very in-depth. Replace expensive and subscription services with this one-time very reasonably priced vector graphics software. They also have an iPad app that is just as powerful and neither suck up resources!
CONSIf you are very used other software like Illustrator, it will take some time to adjust at first. You may have to find different ways to do the same task in Designer, but it is just a quick look-up away from learning.
Reasons for switching to Affinity Designer
Price.