Should You Choose Affinity Suite Over Adobe?

As a creative professional, I’ve always relied on powerful design tools to get my work done. After years of frustration with Adobe’s pricing, performance issues, and questionable business practices, I decided to give Affinity Suite a try. This is not a paid partnership—just my personal experience with Affinity Suite after using it for a few months. So far, I’m very happy with it. It’s stable, well-designed, and offers a great alternative to Adobe’s software.

Currently, Affinity only provides three applications: Affinity Photo, Affinity Designer, and Affinity Publisher. Hopefully, they will expand their suite in the future. Affinity is now owned by Canva, which could lead to even more exciting developments.

Adobe

Adobe has dominated the creative industry for years, but they’ve made a series of decisions that push professionals and hobbyists alike to seek alternatives. Here are a few major reasons why Adobe is losing favor:

1. Overpriced Subscription Model

Adobe no longer allows you to buy their software outright just like in the old days. Instead, you’re locked into a monthly or annual subscription. Even worse, if you decide to cancel your plan, you might be hit with an early termination fee. This is an anti-consumer practice that many users find frustrating.

2. Using Your Work to Train AI

Recently, Adobe has been accused of using customers' work to train their AI models without explicit consent. This raises serious ethical and privacy concerns, especially for professionals who create proprietary or sensitive content.

3. Performance Issues

Despite its high price, Adobe software is often bloated and slow. Many users experience lag, crashes, and memory leaks, even on high-end machines.

4. Bad Customer Support

Adobe’s customer support is notorious for being unhelpful. Users often report long wait times, ineffective responses, and difficulty resolving issues. When you’re paying a premium for a service, you should expect better support.

Affinity Suite

The Affinity Suite is a powerful set of design tools that includes Affinity Designer, Affinity Photo, and Affinity Publisher. Each program is designed for professionals and creatives looking for an affordable, high-quality alternative to Adobe's Creative Cloud.

1. One-Time Purchase, No Subscription

Unlike Adobe, Affinity lets you buy their software outright. There’s no monthly fee.

2. Stable Performance

Affinity software is lightweight and optimized, meaning fewer crashes and better performance overall. It runs smoothly even on less powerful computers.

3. No AI Training on Your Work

Affinity does not use your work to train AI models, keeping your work private and secure.

4. Easy Transition from Adobe

Affinity has a similar interface and hotkeys to Adobe, making the switch easy. Plus, it can open Adobe Photoshop (.PSD) and Illustrator (.AI) files, so you don’t lose access to your previous work.

The Downsides

No software is perfect, and Affinity does have its limitations:

No AI Generative Features – Unlike Adobe Firefly, Affinity does not offer AI-powered image generation or enhancements. While some might see this as a good thing, AI is undeniably the future of creative work. Affinity risks falling behind if they don’t embrace AI, much like how Kodak failed to adapt to digital photography.
Limited Software Selection – Right now, Affinity only offers three programs, with no alternatives to After Effects, Lightroom, or other Adobe tools.

Conclusion

Affinity Suite is a fantastic alternative to Adobe for those looking for a powerful, cost-effective, and privacy-conscious creative solution. It doesn't offer AI tools like Adobe Firefly, but after all, creativity is made, not generated! Still, AI is the future, and we can’t be dinosaurs refusing to use it.

Pros

Easy to transition from Adobe – similar interface and hotkeys.
One-time purchase – no expensive subscription.
Great performance – more stable than Adobe software.
No AI training on your work – keeps your data private.

Cons

No AI tools like Firefly – but this could be a good or bad thing.
Only three programs available – no direct replacement for After Effects for example.

Adobe alternetives

Photoshop Affinity Photo
Illustrator Affinity Designer
InDesign Affinity Publisher
Lightroom Capture One
Premiere Pro DaVinci Resolve
After Effects DaVinci Resolve Fusion (Not great for Motion Graphics)

I highly recommend Affinity Suite, especially for designers and photographers looking for a reliable, subscription-free alternative to Adobe. If they expand their software lineup, they could become an even stronger competitor in the creative industry.

What are your thoughts on Affinity vs. Adobe? Have you made the switch yet?