Affinity says its new Adobe-rivaling creative app is ‘free forever’ – here’s how that really works

• Canva has just merged three Affinity apps into one for Mac and Windows
• The new Affinity app is totally “free forever”, according the company
• Canvas has tried to allay user fears that there’s a catch

For years, creatives put off by Adobe’s subscription model and constant price rises have found sanctuary in the Affinity suite of apps, including Affinity Photo, Affinity Designer, and Affinity Publisher. In a major move, those products have just been merged into a single app, with developer Canva claiming that Affinity is now “free, forever” for all users – a move that followed the company making its iPad apps fee-free, too.

In a recent blog post, Canva claimed that you’ll now get “the full, professional-grade Affinity experience,” including future feature updates, without having to pay a dime. Instead of needing to download and install (and pay for) three separate Affinity apps, there’s now just a single app for Mac and Windows, with an iPad version also planned.

Toggles inside the app let you switch tools between Pixel, Vector and Layout modes, with these corresponding to Affinity Photo, Designer and Publisher, respectively.

Before the announcement, there was speculation and fear that Canva would introduce a subscription model, much like the one Adobe uses for its own creative apps. The worry was that this would replace the much-loved, pay-once model previously used by the Affinity apps. Concerns were also raised that Canva might ditch the Affinity name or lock core features behind a paywall. Thankfully, it seems like none of those things have come to pass.