--- title: "Affinity Designer Reviews, Pros and Cons - 2026 Software Advice" description: "Reviews of Affinity Designer. Learn how real users rate this software's ease-of-use, functionality, overall quality and customer support. Talk to our advisors to see if Affinity Designer is a good fit for you!" source_url: "https://www.softwareadvice.com/graphic-design/affinity-designer-profile/reviews/" page_type: "reviews" language: "en" --- [Home](https://www.softwareadvice.com/) / [Graphic Design Software](https://www.softwareadvice.com/graphic-design/) / [Affinity Designer](https://www.softwareadvice.com/vector-graphics/affinity-designer-profile/) / Affinity Designer Reviews Software Advice offers objective insights based on verified user reviews and independent product and market research. When our advisors match you to a software provider, we may earn a referral fee. [Overview](https://www.softwareadvice.com/vector-graphics/affinity-designer-profile/) Reviews [Alternatives](https://www.softwareadvice.com/vector-graphics/affinity-designer-profile/alternatives/) # Affinity Designer User Reviews ## Reviews summary - Overall rating: 4.7/5 - Total reviews: 454 ### Secondary ratings - Ease of use: 4.4/5 - Customer support: 4.5/5 - Value for money: 4.8/5 - Functionality: 4.5/5 ### Rating distribution - 5 stars: 344 reviews (76%) - 4 stars: 99 reviews (22%) - 3 stars: 8 reviews (2%) - 2 stars: 3 reviews (1%) - 1 star: 0 reviews (0%) ### Most mentioned pros - Affinity Designer has been an excellent tool for creating professional graphics, logos, social media content, and print materials. - Regular updates and strong file compatibility make it a reliable choice for both personal and professional design work. - I use is as a freelance graphic designer since v.1 and the compatibility with adobe apps is pretty good, but even if you have trouble you can simple share PDF files that work fine. ### Most mentioned cons - Some features are missing compared to Illustrator, and compatibility with certain files can be tricky - Image sizing loses quality of the image for vectors - What I may like the least is the photo editing tool for correcting imperfections, as it can sometimes hinder the editing process of photos. ## Affinity Designer customer reviews Showing reviews 1-25 of 454 (page 1). ### Go to design softeare - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Whiteinch W. - Industry: Design - Company size: Self-Employed - Product usage: 1-3 years · weekly - Reviewed: July 2026 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. Affinity Designer has been an excellent tool for creating professional graphics, logos, social media content, and print materials. Its performance is fast, the interface is intuitive once learned, and the one-time purchase offers outstanding value compared to subscription-based alternatives. Regular updates and strong file compatibility make it a reliable choice for both personal and professional design work. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros Excellent value, powerful design tools, smooth performance, and professional features without a subscription. Great for creating high-quality graphics. #### Cons Fewer third-party integrations and collaboration features than some competitors, with a slightly steeper learning curve for new users. --- ### Affinity Designer is a great alternative - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Industry: Information Technology and Services - Company size: 2-10 employees - Product usage: less than 1 year · weekly - Reviewed: January 2026 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered Affinity Designer is a great alternative for vector and branding work, especially for designers who prefer a one-time license. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 4/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros It’s fast, responsive, and capable of handling both vector and raster work in one environment. The pricing model is very appealing for small teams, and the quality is strong enough for professional branding. #### Cons Some advanced features found in industry-standard tools are missing. File compatibility with Adobe formats can occasionally require extra adjustments. --- ### Affinity Design is Great! - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Industry: Writing and Editing - Company size: Self-Employed - Product usage: 3-5 years · weekly - Reviewed: December 2025 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. Always being able to handle everything that I have asked it to do. The layout is easy to navigate and follow. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros Affinity design is an all-in-one complete designer package. Great value for money, brilliant graphic designs, help tutorials are easy to understand and follow. The security is good and data seems to be well protected. Design creation has regular updates and easy to use software. The image editing is fantastic and on par with photoshop at a much reduced cost. I love it! #### Cons Have not found any negative aspects what-so-ever with this software. If I have to find one thing it would be, that if you have never used this type of software before, it has a quite in-depth learning curve. You need to watch all the tutorials. --- ### Great cheap alternative - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Industry: Translation and Localization - Company size: 11-50 employees - Product usage: less than 1 year · daily - Reviewed: December 2025 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros I had some experience with affinity before it's canva's. I love the several images editing features it's offering. Compared to big mane, it's easier. #### Cons I feel many lacks using Affinity Designer. Maybe some options aren't where I had habits to find on other tools. --- ### A perfect replacement for Adobe - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Drijen S. - Industry: Information Technology and Services - Company size: Self-Employed - Product usage: 3-5 years · daily - Reviewed: November 2023 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. I was looking for an alternative to the Adobe suite, which have been great, but obviously expensive as I needed to pay each month. I heard about Affinity range (Photo, Designer and Publisher) and thought I should try them out. Of course, as with anything there were concerns about moving to a new platform, compatability etc, so I stayed with Adobe for a few more months which I became more familiar with Affinity. After a few years of using Designer, I am not missing Illustrator The layouts are almost identical, the tools are almost the same. The one thing I miss is the vector tracing, but apart from that I'm happy to have made the switch #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 4/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros Feature rich, One time payment (vs subscription), easy to use (coming from Adobe Illustrator) #### Cons Missing integration with Adobe fonts, text distortion tools, vector tracing --- ### Affinity Designer is an Excellent Must-Have Design Toolkit for any Designer/Artist/Developer - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Kade M. - Industry: Computer Games - Company size: Self-Employed - Product usage: less than 1 year · weekly - Reviewed: January 2022 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. 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. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros I 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. #### Cons Not 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. --- ### Excellent replacement to Adobe Illustrator - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Design - Company size: Self-Employed - Product usage: 1-3 years · daily - Reviewed: October 2019 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. This app has become an invaluable tool in my workflow. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros This app is great for creating graphics, logos, icons, and shapes. It has a great type tool that can be used for artistic text or blocks of text. It offers graphics creation for vectors as well as raster graphics. #### Cons The way that layers are arranged or not arranged can be frustrating. It is merely a learning curve, though. --- ### Great alternative the Adobe Illustrator - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Steve K. - Industry: Information Technology and Services - Company size: Self-Employed - Product usage: 3-5 years · daily - Reviewed: November 2021 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. I use a lot, especially when designing stuff for softball t-shirts or for laser engraving. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros Great set of features and sensible pricing, updated regularly #### Cons Sometimes doesn't export how you'd expect in all formats --- ### Best Alternative for Adobe Illustrator - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Abraham C. - Industry: Mining & Metals - Company size: 2-10 employees - Product usage: 3-5 years · weekly - Reviewed: October 2021 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. Overall, I am very happy with this app because I can finally work on vectors and graphic designs without worrying about monthly fees. It is so cheap and powerful. This is definitely the best alternative for Adobe Illustrator. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros I was an avid user of Adobe Illustrator before they changed into a subscription model. When I learned about Affinity Designer, I grabbed it immediately without second thoughts. It works great and has all the features and tools I need for my work and business. You just have to pay once and you get all future updates for life! Also, their mobile app comes free after your purchase. How cool is that? The app can be used on desktops and/or tablets. I have tried it on my iPad Pro and it's really fun to use, though I'd still prefer working on a computer. The price is so cheap and hard to beat. I will never look back after using this software for almost 5 years. I am now a fan and I highly recommend this app. #### Cons There is nothing to dislike with this software. I never had any issues or crashes so far. I love it! --- ### The best design software ever - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Alexandre T. - Industry: Design - Company size: 2-10 employees - Product usage: 3-5 years · daily - Reviewed: December 2021 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered - Fast development for my customers - For any visit card design or else, it's very immersive #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros I've been using affinity for about 3 years. It's soooo easy so great and mostly, SO QUICK ! I love designing with this software ! User experience is very cool, the customization is amazing. And the price it's like we give it to you ! I can only recommend that software ! #### Cons Sometimes, I need to go to Illustrator for some specific features such as color overall management or width modification. Anyway, there are a lot of innovative feature on Illustrator that i'd love to see on affinity. --- ### Great Illustrator Alternative - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Industry: Non-Profit Organization Management - Company size: 11-50 employees - Product usage: 1-3 years · monthly - Reviewed: October 2022 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered 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! #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros Affinity 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. #### Cons While some designers fault Affinity for not having certain features I found that all of the vital features I needed are included. --- ### A great vector creation tool for iPad users - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Industry: Marketing and Advertising - Company size: 2-10 employees - Product usage: less than 1 year · daily - Reviewed: July 2022 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. 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. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### 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 --- ### How not love it? - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Rogelio A. - Industry: Media Production - Company size: Self-Employed - Product usage: 3-5 years · weekly - Reviewed: March 2022 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered 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. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros Affinity 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. #### Cons The 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. --- ### Breath of fresh air for design products - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Industry: Marketing and Advertising - Company size: 2-10 employees - Product usage: 1-3 years · daily - Reviewed: June 2024 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros Full-featured suite that reminds me of the way Adobe products used to work prior to subscriptions and feature bloat. #### Cons Some features are still missing, but I’m hopeful they will arrive with the Canva merger. --- ### Powerful software for graphic design and illustration - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Industry: Photography - Company size: 2-10 employees - Product usage: 3-5 years · weekly - Reviewed: January 2025 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. Fast and powerful software with everything needed for graphic design and illustration. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros Extremely good software for graphic design and illustration. Offers all needed tools. One-time payment instead of subscription model. #### Cons Everything I need is included, but generative AI tools like in Adobe products would be nice to have. --- ### Affinity Designer is more bang for your buck - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Industry: Graphic Design - Company size: 2-10 employees - Product usage: 1-3 years · weekly - Reviewed: November 2024 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros Great alternative to Adobe products for an affordable price. #### Cons The UI is a little different than Adobe so there was a learning curve --- ### Capable "Owned" Replacements for Adobe Creative Cloud "Leased" Software - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: John G. - Industry: Consumer Services - Company size: 2-10 employees - Product usage: 1-3 years · weekly - Reviewed: January 2020 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. I'm very pleased with my Affinity products. I have used Affinity Designer (Illustrator replacement) since shortly after it was released and was also an early adopter of Affinity Photo (Photoshop replacement). As of about four weeks ago, I relegated the Adobe CS6 apps to a legacy machine and in that time, I have found no reason to go back to them. (Note: I have never used Adobe CC, since it is leased. The apps that I moved to a legacy Mac was CS6.) The only feature that I wish Affinity would add is "background texture" in "effects". It would speed up my uses of effects. The only feature that I wish Affinity would improve is their "live" view of effects changes. There is a learning curve. Some things are more difficult that with comparable Adobe apps, but others are much easier. I'm a Photoshop guru and have not found anything I can do in Photoshop that I can't do in Affinity Photo. The same applies to Affinity Designer, but I'm not an Illustrator guru. All in all, I'm "extremely pleased" with the Affinity apps. They are respectable "owned" replacements for the comparable Adobe "leased" apps. I have bid adieu to Adobe and after more than a month, I've found no reason to look back. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros Both Affinity Photo & Affinity Designer are excellent and capable replacements for the Adobe CC packages they replace. But most of all, unlike the Adobe apps they replace, I "OWN" the Affinity apps. Although I don't use Affinity software every day, when I need it, I need it immediately. I cannot afford to be denied access to leased software, simply because some black hat hacked a license server that I have no control over. As a former white hat hacker and IT Director, I know the risks all too well. That's why I only use software that I "own". Big companies spend tons of money on security. But despite all the high-end security software and procedures, we've all heard about numerous Fortune 500 companies and even the US government getting hacked. Not only is there no guarantee that a license server won't be hacked, but such servers are major targets. By contrast, my computer is a minor target. Sure, I can still be hacked. But if that happens, I can restore everything from an on-site backup in an hour. OTOH, if a hacker gets into a license server and sets all licenses to "expired", it could take days or even weeks for a company with 100K+ licenses to correct the problem, during which time, the license holders are down. I "OWN" my Affinity software. It cannot be turned off. Also, Affinity does not force you to update to the latest version, as do certain leased apps. I typically delay updating any app till I've had a chance to read the blogs about the update. #### Cons The way effects handles background textures is quite different from Photoshop and Illustrator and there is a resultant learning curve. That said, you can, with just a little more effort, achieve an output that is almost identical to what came from the comparable Adobe app. In fact, once you learn how to manipulate the effects, you can some times create a better looking output than what can be produced with an Adobe app. There are some shortcut keys that are in Adobe apps, for which I have not yet found a comparable shortcut in the Affinity apps. OTOH, there are some shortcuts in the Affinity apps that are no available at all in the comparable Adobe products. The negatives with Affinity apps are very minor, compared to the positives of being an "owned" product. --- ### Best Vector Design software in a Cheaper price - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Asfak M. - Industry: Design - Company size: 11-50 employees - Product usage: 3-5 years · weekly - Reviewed: December 2021 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered 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. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 3/5 #### Pros The 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. #### Cons There is no image tracing option. Lacking of Shape builder tool, pattern tool, real vector brush tool made this software hard to recommend to others. --- ### Affinity Designer - a great, cost-efficient alternative to Adobe Illustrator - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Industry: Electrical/ Electronic Manufacturing - Company size: Self-Employed - Product usage: 1-3 years · daily - Reviewed: October 2022 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. Everyday I use Affinity Designer to create social media artwork for my charity project. I used Affinity Designer each day to import clip-art from my Alibre Design Expert CAD software to create engineering and sales presentations. I have used Affinity Designer to import, edit PDF's and then output new PDFs. This software is a fantastic, low-cost, high-value tool that everyone should have in their toolbox. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros For many years I worked with the Adobe Suite tools, including Illustrator. Each year I had paid over $600 to rent these tools in a subscription. One day I discovered Affinity Designer. I put it through all the tests of art design functions I normally used Illustrator for. I was absolutely blown away that I could literally do everything I once did in Illustrator. The best part is, not only the price of Affinity Designer 1/12 that of Adobe Illustrator subscription, but I actually own Affinity Designer. I love this software. In fact, I went back and purchased all of their art tool lines: Affinity Photo, Publisher, and art-tool add-ons. I own all of these Affinity art tools at a fraction of the cost of one Adobe Suite subscription. #### Cons I have no negative comments about Affinity Designer. --- ### Best value for price in the industry - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Industry: Design - Company size: Self-Employed - Product usage: 3-5 years · daily - Reviewed: January 2023 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. Overall a very good experience and after using it for a while i cannot go back to Adobe Illustrator. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros It has a very competetive pricing for what it can do. It does not have a subscription model, which is very incommon nowadays. While it is still lacking behind on some features compared to others like Adobe Illustrator, it is catching up fast. #### Cons Some features that one is used to from Adobe Illustrator are missing. Hoping for the addition in a future update. --- ### Versatility and Easy to Learn - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Industry: Graphic Design - Company size: Self-Employed - Product usage: less than 1 year · daily - Reviewed: July 2022 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. Time saving: - Repetitive tasks: There are some intuitive features I'm learning about, while I was creating a template for printable stickers, I discovered after one 'duplicate' was dragged under the last, the next one would go to the space under that one (with just using the duplicate again). Saving time as I learn more and more. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros This is the easiest to learn in graphic design software. I like that I can edit parts of a design and link or embed the update. I have created book covers (for print), e-book templates, and recently a sticker series (convention logo sticker items for event items). It has helped me save time (revising templates instead of building from scratch with each one), and I was able to create exactly what the client wanted. I've also created marketing graphics for social and launches of books and media (for clients). I can create custom templates to save time with each project (and there are a lot of built in custom templates already). #### Cons The main thing I like the least is that the Affinity software is not 'one' integration. It is three different programs. This is not my favorite thing for a few reasons, but, mostly I wish they were one, because I have started at least three projects in the wrong one (of the three I have). --- ### Absolutely amazing product with mind-blowing price! - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Tyler M. - Industry: Veterinary - Company size: 10000+ employees - Product usage: 3-5 years · daily - Reviewed: March 2022 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. Wonderful. The quality is absolutely on par with Illustrator and works without a hitch on my Macbook Pro M1. No stutters or jitters. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros I love Affinity Designer so much! I been using it on a daily basis for 5+ years now. The price of $50 is absolutely mind blowing for what this is able to do. It's comparable to other products in its category for 1/10th of the price. I have not had any instance of something that could be done in Illustrator that can't be done with Affinity. #### Cons The only thing about the product that I don't like is that the art board is not transparent. This becomes an issue because I am not able to view anything outside of the work area and unless I find it in the layers tab, I won't be able to locate anything I put on it. --- ### Great graphic design software - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Industry: Retail - Company size: Self-Employed - Product usage: less than 1 year · weekly - Reviewed: February 2022 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Value for money: 4/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros Affinity Designer is a great one-time purchase software for graphic design. It has more features than the free program I was using previously and has allowed me to create more detailed designs for use in my business. #### Cons I don't have any formal training in graphic design so learning a new program can be difficult. I tend to turn to Youtube for tutorials and unfortunately there aren't a lot of tutorials for Affinity Designer compared to some of the other major design programs out there. --- ### No need for Adobe Products - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Ty B. - Industry: Automotive - Company size: 11-50 employees - Product usage: 1-3 years · daily - Reviewed: November 2023 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered Never had any problems with the software of the company at all #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros Get 99.9% of what you pay a gazillion dollars for Adobe products with AD. It is way more user-friendly, has all the same features for the most part and total cross-use with other affinity programs... and it's a one-time fee for the amazing software. #### Cons Every now and then you look for a feature you are used to with other platforms and its another key command or you have to dig for it a bit to get it done. a few features take a couple of extra steps that arent always necessary. --- ### A good Illustrator alternative, but far from perfect - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Industry: Design - Company size: Self-Employed - Product usage: 3-5 years · monthly - Reviewed: January 2021 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. 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. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 3/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros It'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. #### Cons I 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. ---