Affinity

Watch out Stage 2

Affinity built its following as the no-subscription alternative to Adobe. Canva bought it in 2024 and in 2025 made the core app free, with AI tools reserved for Canva Premium subscribers. It opens Adobe and open formats, so there is little lock-in, and nothing documented counts against it yet. Its future now depends on Canva’s incentives. Stage 2.

Since
2014
Category
Creative tools
VC-backed
No
Public
No
Acquired by
Canva (2024)
Website
affinity.studio
X
@affinitybycanva

The promise

Its first promise, and how much is kept · Scoring

100% kept

“No subscription. Just $49.99”
Affinity Designer page, 2015 No extraction or decline criteria met.

Why it’s rated 2

The criteria it meets, with sources · Method

Alignment 0 of 3
None
Lock-in 0 of 4
None
Extraction 0 of 7
None
Decline 0 of 3
None

Result No extraction that meets the stage 3 test, and either some lock-in or no alignment criterion, so stage 2.

News signals

Sourced reporting, tagged by strategy

Oct 31, 2025
Canva relaunches Affinity as one free app; AI features need Canva Premium
AI upsellSubscription bundling
Mar 27, 2024
Canva acquires Affinity’s maker, Serif
Market consolidation