--- 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/vector-graphics/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: 455 ### 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: 345 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 455 (page 1). ### A perfect replacement for Adobe - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Drijen S. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Information Technology and Services - Company size: Self-Employed - Product usage: Used daily for more than 2 years - 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 #### Reasons for switching to Affinity Designer One-time payment vs Monthly cost, recommended by others --- ### Affinity Designer is an Excellent Must-Have Design Toolkit for any Designer/Artist/Developer - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Kade M. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Computer Games - Company size: Self-Employed - Product usage: Used weekly for less than 12 months - 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. #### 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. --- ### Excellent replacement to Adobe Illustrator - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Chris D. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Design - Company size: Self-Employed - Product usage: Used daily for less than 2 years - 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. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Information Technology and Services - Company size: Self-Employed - Product usage: Used daily for more than 2 years - 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 #### Reasons for choosing Affinity Designer It works and got used to the workflow, works in the same fashion for all Affinity products (Photo, Publisher) #### Reasons for switching to Affinity Designer When they went cloud and subscription based, Affinity products are a one off fee --- ### Best Alternative for Adobe Illustrator - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Abraham C. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Mining & Metals - Company size: 2-10 employees - Product usage: Used weekly for more than 2 years - 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! #### Reasons for switching to Affinity Designer I made the switch because of pricing. Adobe charges monthly while in Affinity Designer, you just have to pay once and it is yours for life! Also, everything is pretty the same, the functionality and tools. Switching to this app is pretty straightforward. --- ### The best design software ever - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Alexandre T. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Design - Company size: 2-10 employees - Product usage: Used daily for more than 2 years - 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. #### Reasons for choosing Affinity Designer Better UX Less expensive User friendly Immersive Beautiful Ease of use Very quick #### Reasons for switching to Affinity Designer For the features listed above --- ### Great Illustrator Alternative - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Melissa S. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Non-Profit Organization Management - Company size: 11-50 employees - Product usage: Used monthly for less than 2 years - 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. #### 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. --- ### A great vector creation tool for iPad users - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Alan Gerardo S. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Marketing and Advertising - Company size: 2-10 employees - Product usage: Used daily for less than 12 months - 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 #### 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. --- ### How not love it? - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Rogelio A. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Media Production - Company size: Self-Employed - Product usage: Used weekly for more than 2 years - 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. #### Reasons for switching to Affinity Designer Adobe is way too expensive for small businesses like mine --- ### Breath of fresh air for design products - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Marcus S. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Marketing and Advertising - Company size: 2-10 employees - Product usage: Used daily for less than 2 years - 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. #### Reasons for switching to Affinity Designer Cost, ongoing frustration, feature requirements. --- ### Powerful software for graphic design and illustration - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Photography - Company size: 2-10 employees - Product usage: Used weekly for more than 2 years - 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. #### Reasons for choosing Affinity Designer I prefer one-time payments over subscription models. --- ### Affinity Designer is more bang for your buck - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: TERI O. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Graphic Design - Company size: 2-10 employees - Product usage: Used weekly for less than 2 years - 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 #### Reasons for switching to Affinity Designer We could not afford Adobe anymore and needed another option --- ### Vector graphics for everybody - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Panagiotis K. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Media Production - Company size: 2-10 employees - Product usage: Used daily for more than 2 years - Reviewed: September 2019 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. As the leader of a small-to-medium-enterprise and an educator in sound for media, many times I have the need to create simple graphics. From schematics and diagrams to icons and beyond. I use them for my company's internal knowledge-base, when I blog, for my presentations in classrooms, and even to create our own software graphical assets from mockups to finished product. First of all, it's no secret that working in vector is what every software developer should do, as it allows for the generation of all the graphic assets to be made in various bitmap resolutions, so your application looks clear and crisp in any device. Lately, even the Unity game engine introduced a pipeline to use vector graphic assets to create games, so that they render in any resolution, I definitely recommend checking this out if you are a game developer. Anyway, Affinity Designer always delivered a great experience for me and all my colleagues said that I became a graphic designer, which is not true, but it is a great compliment, and I really own that to Affinity Designer. The exporter feature is one huge time saver, you should check out the videos they have about this one and also the rest of Affinity team's video tutorials in Vimeo. Overall, the experience of using the application can be described as smooth, fast and easy. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 4/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros What I liked most about this program, is the workflow and interface. The developers managed to create a simple to use application for vector graphics, that everybody can operate. I can't remember how many times I got frustrated trying to make a simple graphic in other programs, while in Affinity Designer, the workflow is mapped so well, that everybody can use it. From computer graphics professionals around the world, to amateurs like me, it is straight forward to open the application and start creating. The online help system is awesome and omni-present and the graphical interface is sleek and looks good in any monitor that I tried it, even small ones. I also consider a great bonus that the company keeps a straight policy about pricing, they don't use the subscription model which is very good for SMEs. #### Cons Some advanced vector tools are missing, but the software is still young and I'm sure it will develop to a great tool. After all, the developers seem to have usability, ease of use and fast workflows in mind, so they add new features very carefully, to keep Affinity Designer the great tool that it is now. #### Reasons for switching to Affinity Designer Over-complicated without making the interface and workflow intuitive, they only seem to add features to this program as they go and expect from the users to follow this progress from years ago. So I don't consider it a good onboarding process. Also subscription pricing model for a graphics creation application is only for those who make a lot of money by just making computer graphics, which many people who need graphics don't. --- ### My Preferred App For Vector Drawing - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Pinar U. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Design - Company size: Self-Employed - Product usage: Used daily for less than 2 years - Reviewed: November 2022 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. Even though it has some restrictions, I love using Affinity Designer and use it instead of Illustrator about 90% of the time. I switch back to Illustrator only when I have something I can't achieve with Affinity Designer. But the app gets updates pretty regularly so I'm hoping that it will only get better and better with each update. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros The interface felt so easy to handle, uncluttered, and user-friendly after Illustrator. Even though Affinity Designer lacked some features that Illustrator has, it became my favorite drawing app very quickly and is still after using it for more than a year daily. #### Cons I'm hoping that Affinity will introduce an image trace feature soon. This feature is not only important for tracing images (which I don't really do) but also for using some custom vector brushes. For example, I bought some lovely watercolor vector brushes for Affinity Designer from a website just to realize that what I draw with them in Affinity Designer doesn't become a real vector image. When I tried the Illustrator version of the same brushes in Illustrator, I could get true vector drawings. Then I realized how important image tracing actually is. #### Reasons for switching to Affinity Designer I saw reviews about Affinity Designer and was curious about how it was. When I tried it, I realized how much more I like working with it compared to Illustrator. Considering it being a one-time-off purchase, unlike Illustrator's subscription-based system, I wanted to switch to Affinity Designer altogether but couldn't entirely yet due to some missing features. --- ### Perfect for a wide range of graphic tasks in a marketing agency environment - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Frank S. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Public Relations and Communications - Company size: 2-10 employees - Product usage: Used daily for more than 2 years - Reviewed: September 2024 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered I was looking for a tool to do my entire design - from print materials to social media URL preview images. It covers it all and is easy to use. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 4/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros Pricing for what you actually get on functionality. #### Cons Some minor issues on figuring out how to set up the studio. #### Reasons for switching to Affinity Designer No vector capability at that time and a pricing incentive. --- ### IMO the Best Vector Editing Software on the Market - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Jens K. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Computer Software - Company size: Self-Employed - Product usage: Used daily for more than 2 years - Reviewed: July 2021 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. Fabulous. I bought the software in 2014 when it was first released and Serif has supplied free upgrades for almost seven years now (bringing it from version 1.0 to 1.9). It's super easy to learn when you come from competing software and because it's newly developed it doesn't carry the heft of many, many years of old code and compatibility issues around (looking at you, Illustrator!). #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros It's modern, FAST (in capitals), easy to use, affordable and regularly updated. Also, Affinity Designer (and it's companion applications Photo and Publisher) are available on both Windows and macOS with 100% file compatibility; In addition there is an iPad edition available, again with 100% compatible files and great drawing features for Apple Pencil. #### Cons The management of ,global colours' and 'normal colours' needs some getting used to. Once you know how it works, it works well, but it's a bit different than I expected. #### Reasons for choosing Affinity Designer The two reasons I chose Affinity Designer over other evaluated software: - There is two more products in the suite (Affinity Photo and Publisher) and "working seamlessly together" is an understatement (StudioLink basically melts the three applications into one) - Out of the three products I looked at Affinity Designer is the one with the best export options for print-ready PDF documents #### Reasons for switching to Affinity Designer I switched because Affinity Designer comes at a one-off price and the software I used before switched to a subscription model. The other software I used before that was not available on macOS (it is now, but runs really, really badly). --- ### Affinity Designer is a Worthy Contender in the Design Software Space - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Online Media - Company size: Self-Employed - Product usage: Used weekly for less than 12 months - Reviewed: November 2019 - 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 feels like a friendlier vector design option as compared with some of the other usual suspects. While old-school designers and illustrators may prefer a more traditional approach, A.D. doesn't make you work quite as hard for basic shapes, text, etc. On the other hand, the departures may make it a harder transition for more experienced users. And, while this isn't a reflection on the software specifically, as a newer addition to the space, there are fewer tutorials available. I don't use it exclusively in design work, but I definitely favor it in many ways. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Value for money: 4/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros The interface is user-friendly, although there is definitely a learning curve coming from other vector design packages. I appreciate that there is a library of built-in shapes. When I'm trying to work through a design, I'd rather not have to draw a call-out or a cog or a heart. It's nice to be able to just pop them in. I also find that the basic text tool is friendlier than other packages. #### Cons There are some features that don't work as intended or are missing entirely, when compared against other vector design software. There doesn't seem to be an easy way to auto-trace a raster image, which would be helpful for my use. #### Reasons for choosing Affinity Designer It's significantly less expensive than Adobe Illustrator and doesn't require a subscription fee. But I also just like overall design. #### Reasons for switching to Affinity Designer I haven't completely made a switch, but I use both packages. I find Affinity Designer to be easier to use and enjoy some of the added features, like the ability to easily create common shapes. --- ### Great graphic design software - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Hailey W. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Retail - Company size: Self-Employed - Product usage: Used weekly for less than 12 months - 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. #### Reasons for choosing Affinity Designer At the time I installed Affinity Designer, they were offering an extended free trial. This made it easy to install and try out the software before purchasing and the lengthy trial period gave me time to learn more about how to use the software at my own pace. When my trial expired, Affinity was still offering a great deal on the purchase price of the software so I happily purchased. The main alternative I considered was Adobe who charge a subscription for use of their software. I prefer a one-time fee over a subscription as the subscription price quickly surpasses the cost of purchasing the software and becomes an ongoing business expense. #### Reasons for switching to Affinity Designer I was looking for program with more features as my design needs changed in my business. I needed to be able to work with images as well as vector files and Adobe Designer seemed to be a good fit. --- ### No need for Adobe Products - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Tyler B. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Automotive - Company size: 11-50 employees - Product usage: Used daily for less than 2 years - 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. #### Reasons for switching to Affinity Designer Pretty much the same program for 1/1000th of the costs --- ### Gotta Get Them All - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Jeremy B. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Writing and Editing - Company size: Self-Employed - Product usage: Used monthly for less than 12 months - Reviewed: March 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 should start by saying that I didn't think I'd need Affinity Designer when I bought it. The only reason I bought it (and its product sibling, Affinity Photo) was because the product I actually wanted (Affinity Publisher) has a component called "Studio Link" that allows owners of Designer and Photo to switch "personas," which is a fancy word for summoning the tool set for Designer or Photo, whenever they need to update an image, logo, vector, landscape photo, etc. within a print layout for magazines, books (my exact use case), posters, fliers, or any other printed publication for business. By having a copy of Designer, I can use its full feature set right inside Publisher (same with Photo). I never have to exit the program or swap the image file I need to work on. It's not just innovative, it's efficient: one of the functional reasons (outside the obvious cost benefit) to using Affinity Anything over Adobe Anything (including Illustrator, it's main competition). But the funny thing is that once I bought Designer (and Photo), I saw a need for it. It's now my go-to for designing vector images, which can help me to make a logo for my website or a character + scene or idea design for my book covers (in comedies and coming-of-age fiction). The hardest part is actually learning how to draw with vectors. Spoiler Alert: It's not hard, even if you're an amateur like me. Get the Affinity Designer textbook or watch expert tutorials, and you'll figure it out in no time. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros The main reason I bought the program was because it integrates with Affinity Publisher, another tool from the same company that I needed for book design. This is probably more of a pro in Publisher's camp, but Designer's compatibility with Affinity's entire suite of products made it attractive. But it didn't take long for me to realize that I needed a program to design vector graphics, and Affinity Designer scratches that itch well. I can't compare its feature set to its competitor, Adobe Illustrator, because I don't use Adobe products, so I can't discuss what it lacks. But when it comes to essential layered shape designs and special effects (and creating patterns, and designing logos, and so on), it includes everything you need to get the job done well. It's also easy to use. The product's store page also sells a textbook that holds your hand through designing projects, so it's very learn-as-you-go. The video tutorials also offer quick tips and best practices, and you can get additional design ideas from Affinity's YouTube channel. The price is unbeatable. It charges an ownership fee, not a subscription fee, so you pay for the product once (and depending on your budget, you don't pay much) and keep it forever. The price includes all updates within that version, and it updates enough to maintain user confidence. Overall, my opinion is that if you care about graphics of any kind, this is a tool worth having. But you should get all of Affinity's products. They're worth it. #### Cons If I were a dedicated graphic design artist, I might have an opinion here. But as a writer and sometimes game designer, my graphic needs are governed by situation, and so far my situation has not revealed any frustrations that I wouldn't extend to all Affinity products. So, the only actual negative I have right now is trivial. I'd need to use the software consistently to become excellent, and I don't need it often enough to become excellent. But if I were to use it consistently, the tools it offers would help me become excellent. So, there's no real con to buying this program, especially at its price point. Keeping track of the art boards gave me a headache the first time I used them. I think I may have used them wrong. A true graphic designer probably wouldn't have that kind of problem. It would be like a non-writer trying to learn how to use the style sheets in Microsoft Word (or Affinity Publisher, for that matter). Not hopeless, but not easy on the first try. No, the only nitpick I have is the same about all of Affinity's products. To update them, you have to manually download and install the newest version. Each product is half a gigabyte in size. Multiply that by three (because all three share the same updates), and it can get expensive on your hard drive if you don't have that delete key ready. It would be nicer if they had an auto-updating option available (for those who trust the integrity of updates). But that's about it. Oh, and Affinity likes RAM. Lots of RAM. #### Reasons for choosing Affinity Designer When I saw what Affinity Designer (and Photo and Publisher) could accomplish as a complete design layout suite, and when I saw how little I had to spend to access such power, I couldn't justify leaving it behind. It was literally a case of "I don't know if I can afford to buy this, but I do know that I can't afford not buying it." So I bought it. And I could afford it. #### Reasons for switching to Affinity Designer I've been using PaintShop Pro as an alternative to Adobe Photoshop for years, but I've always found the quality of the end result lacking in comparison. For basic needs like touch-ups, light/dark adjustments, and so on, it's perfectly fine. But for more extensive work like compositing or typography (two things I need to do to create a salable book cover), it shows its weaknesses. And regarding vector graphics, it's about as basic as it gets. I've always appreciated PaintShop Pro's price point, which is why I've justified upgrading every few years. But when I discovered I could buy a stronger and more capable program for even less, Affinity Designer (and Affinity Photo, for that matter) was a no-brainer purchase. Thanks to the Affinity suite of products, I can't justify using any other design tool for my needs, especially not for the cost. --- ### An Affordable Champion - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Jeremy D. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Media Production - Company size: 2-10 employees - Product usage: Used daily for more than 2 years - Reviewed: May 2022 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. 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. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros Affinity 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. #### Cons While 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. #### Reasons for choosing Affinity Designer Much more professional interface than Gimp. #### Reasons for switching to Affinity Designer Very affordable, no monthly contract. --- ### The software Adobe doesn't want you to know about - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Paul C. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Non-Profit Organization Management - Company size: 2-10 employees - Product usage: Used weekly for less than 2 years - Reviewed: February 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 think it far surpasses Adobe at a great price point. While there are some things that are convenient with Adobe, it does not warrant the price. While it may not be the most popular too for graphic design, it is still one of the best by far. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros I started looking for something cheaper than Adobe. While Adobe has the market corned, the price is very high considering it is a subscription based service. I started looking into Affinity during the pandemic after downloading the iPad app. After some research, I decided to take the plunge and try it out. The price was only $50 with no subscription, which I could easily stomach. The price itself is a huge selling point. I began using Affinity designer and found it far more used friendly than Adobe Illustrator. Because there is no cloud services or extra software, your computer's power goes directly to the app. Plus, because there is an iPad app, you can easily switch between devices. #### Cons If you are used to Adobe products, it will be a learning curve moving to Affinity. you do not have access to Adobe fonts and will need to install font files from either another website or buying them from Adobe. You will also have to think about cloud storage for your projects. I use Google Drive and all of my projects and data sync perfectly. #### Reasons for choosing Affinity Designer Stated above #### Reasons for switching to Affinity Designer Price and ease of use --- ### My Affinity Review - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Victor S. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Design - Company size: 2-10 employees - Product usage: Used weekly for less than 12 months - Reviewed: August 2023 - 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 Affinity is one of the tools that has helped my graphic design agency it features and Fonts helped in making my graphics design making it organized and liked by my client . Affinity is one of the easiest tool with advanced features to make the design look beautuful. #### Cons The only thing i dont like is way the software has a dark background interface . --- ### Affinity Designer - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Ismaël Huberson C. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Apparel & Fashion - Company size: 2-10 employees - Product usage: Used daily for more than 2 years - Reviewed: November 2022 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered The best vector graphics software. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros Affinity Designer is a vector graphics software that allows you to do retouching, illustration and drawing. It is a great tool for designers and is compatible with most operating systems. The Affinity Designer software is easy to use with its intuitive tools and easy navigation. It is a great software for creating artwork for business, creating marketing materials, designing logos and more. #### Cons It's a nice software to use, suitable for beginners as well as for professionals. --- ### Excellent alternative to Adobe Illustrator - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Leighton F. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Graphic Design - Company size: 2-10 employees - Product usage: Used weekly for more than 2 years - Reviewed: July 2021 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. With the exception of a few missing features and performance issues that would be nice to have, the experience has been excellent. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 4/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros Affinity Designer is very affordable alternative that does most things as well as Adobe Illustrator (and a few things it does even better!) The UI is actually more intuitive than Illustrator in most ways, and those who come from Photoshop or Illustrator will have absolutely no problems adjusting to it. Affinity Designer is perfect for UI design, and illustration. #### Cons Unfortunately Affinity Designer is missing some of the more advanced features available in Illustrator, though none of these will be a deal-breaker for most users. The Affinity suite of apps also seems to have some (mostly non-critical) issues with memory management. Complex files can cause the software to become rather sluggish even on high-end computers. Adobe Illustrator is not immune to this, but this seems to happen with less complex files with Affinity Designer. ## More reviews [Next reviews](https://www.softwareadvice.com/vector-graphics/affinity-designer-profile/reviews/?page=2) --- Affinity Designer Reviews, Pros and Cons - 2026 Software Advice