Yes, Affinity really is free. You can use every tool in the Pixel, Vector, and Layout studios, plus all of the customization and export features, as much as you want, with no restrictions or payment needed. If you’re on a Canva premium plan, you’ll also be able to unlock Canva’s powerful AI tools within Affinity.

  • SatyrSack@quokk.auEnglish
    1·
    14 days ago

    I was really hoping for Linux support some day. Now, I am totally fine sticking with GIMP.

    • woelkchen@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      12 days ago

      never support anything by canva

      Getting Affinity without ever paying is hardly supporting them. At least it’s a stopgap until Krita finally fixes their text tool which is honestly the sole reason why I bought Affinity 1 and 2. (In case anyone wonders: Yes, I also donated to Krita.)

        • neon_nova@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
          1·
          14 days ago

          About a year ago, Canva tried to raise their prices significantly.

          I forget exactly, but I pay for an account and can have 5 people on my team. They said they would start charging for each team member or something like that.

          One person said their cot went up from like $100 to $600, maybe the numbers are off, but it’s close to how severe there increase was.

          There was so much backlash over it that they decided to keep the old pricing structure.

          • floofloof@lemmy.caEnglish
            1·
            14 days ago

            So they’re planning to hook people in with freebies then boil the frogs a little slower.

            • woelkchen@lemmy.worldEnglish
              0·
              12 days ago

              So they’re planning to hook people in with freebies then boil the frogs a little slower.

              If you never pay a dime anyway, it’s kinda irrelevant how much the AI features cost, no?

              • floofloof@lemmy.caEnglish
                1·
                12 days ago

                Sometimes companies gradually reduce the usefulness of the free product to incentivize people to pay. They may do this.

      • woelkchen@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        12 days ago

        AI training?

        When created a Canva account for Affinity 3, the setting “train AI using information about your general usage which includes fonts, colours, search queries and instructions you input. This does NOT include any of your uploaded images, videos, or designs” was on, “Allow your content to improve AI” was off.

        For now it’s configurable at https://www.canva.com/account/privacy-preferences and I think they’ll have a hard landing on the face if they ever change it.

  • panda_abyss@lemmy.caEnglish
    0·
    14 days ago

    I’ve been a paying affinity customer for years, and I’m not signing up for Canva.

    I get it’s “free”, but I’m sketched out.

    • Cethin@lemmy.zipEnglish
      1·
      14 days ago

      I’m not buying that it’s free unless it’s FOSS almost ever. Maybe it’s just a “create an account so we can collect data on you” deal, but that still isn’t free.

  • setVeryLoud(true);@lemmy.caEnglish
    0·
    14 days ago

    Oh god, how are they financing its development? Selling my personal data? Training AI on my data? Nagware? Not giving us a Linux version, ever?

    • kubofhromoslav@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      1 day ago

      I suspect that both they are using Affinity as a gateway drug For Canva Pro, and are super happy about taking even more customers from Adobe.

    • floofloof@lemmy.caEnglish
      2·
      14 days ago

      The best possible scenario is that they’re just using it to entice people to pay for a premium subscription and will leave it that way. But the chances are that once they’ve pulled enough people in with the offer of free software, they’ll alter the deal.

    • woelkchen@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      14 days ago

      Oh god, how are they financing its development?

      Canva’s AI features are a subscription service. Existing Affinty features are now free.

    • Emily (she/her)@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
      1·
      14 days ago

      Considering you can turn off telemetry and never need to connect it to the internet after activation, I’m assuming that - like how Adobe uses cheap education licenses to on-ramp people onto their platform - this is largely intended to drive professionals towards Canva and their various other products. They take a loss on this product to become the de-facto standard image/vector/publishing application.

      • woelkchen@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        12 days ago

        They take a loss on this product to become the de-facto standard image/vector/publishing application.

        For now they take the loss to break the Adobe monopoly.

    • danielton1@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      6 days ago

      Honestly, this. This is exactly why people don’t trust Canva not to enshittify it. OnlyOffice is also owned by a company, but since it’s free as in freedom, people know they can trust it.