Affinity or Creative Cloud

[homespuncottage]

I have had so many people suggest the Affinity products from Serif, I'm curious how many you use it. I have used The Creative Cloud for so long I'm not sure that I am up for learning new software, but I wouldn't mind not paying the Creative Cloud subscription every month. But then again, it's the cost of doing business? Thank you all for your input.

Bev

[KeegansCreation]

While I have a Creative Cloud subscription, I bought Affinity Designer on a whim because it really is inexpensive (70$ lifetime license rather than subscription). It has fewer features than Illustrator but is perfectly serviceable for vector graphics. Don't worry about the learning curve. Everything you know about Illustrator translates to Affinity Designer. You really are just learning where on the screen the various features are located. It is probably the same for their photo editor. The hard part of vector graphics is just learning how to do them in the first place. Once you know that, it's all just "where is this tool located"?

 I decided to stick with Adobe because it has more advanced gradients (freeform gradient is impressive) and the 3D is pretty decent for symmetrical things plus all those fonts. There is also the Adobe Firefly to consider. Once that comes out of beta (I am predicting October or November because that's when Adobe does new versions) Adobe will have a considerable advantage. Their image generator is quite good even in beta (they trained it on Adobe stock) and now it can recolor vectors too. If commercial use were allowed in beta, I'd be using it here now.

tl:dr The only advantage Affinity has is financial. But the savings are considerable so that is a big advantage. The learning curve is shallow if you are already familiar with Adobe products.

[PenguinPower]

Looks like there's a 30 day free trial that doesn't even make you use a credit card... you could try it out.

[Sara_H]

@homespuncottage I have Affinity Photo & Affinity Designer and can't recommend them highly enough. Though I've never had a creative cloud subscription so can't compare it one on one with photoshop/illustrator. 

There are obviously things you can't do in AD that you can in AI but generally - it's the same (ish)  (and no subscription fee - you buys it - you owns it)

[LMGildersleeve]

You also get the upgrades for free. If you wait till Christmas time they run specials. I purchased mine some years ago for $30 each for A Photo & A Designer.

[Cat]

Or you could be really cheap like me. I use GIMP and Inkscape - both are free opensource apps.

[LisaMG]

I use Affinity Designer (iPad) and am getting comfortable with it as I'm a total Procreate fan. I had used Photoshop and Photoshop Elements but struggled with Illustrator and gave up. When Procreate came out I ditched the Adobe subscription about the time they did a big price hike a few years ago. Haven't looked back and since taking some Affinity Designer classes on Skillshare find I can do things in vector and switch over to their Pixel Persona within the app to add texture if I want. The fact that Procreate and Serif are one-off prices (although AD V2 was a price upgrade) is such a big plus. If you're used to Illustrator, AD would probably be very easy for you to switch to.