Affinity Alternatives in 2026: Where Designers Are Going After Canva Took Over

Affinity is free now, but it needs a Canva account and its AI sits behind a Canva plan. Here are the Affinity alternatives worth looking at in 2026, and what each one is good for.

For years Affinity was the answer to "what do I use instead of Adobe?" You paid once, you owned the app, and nobody changed the deal on you.

Then Canva bought Serif in March 2024, and on 30 October 2025 the three apps (Photo, Designer and Publisher) were folded into one free app, Affinity by Canva. A lot of people were happy about the price. A lot of others started looking around.

This post covers what actually changed, who it matters to, and the alternatives worth trying.

What changed with Affinity

The facts, as of October 2026:

It's one app now. Pixel, Vector and Layout live in a single app with its own .af file format. CG Channel has the full breakdown.
The core tools are free. All the pixel, vector and layout tools and all exports cost nothing.
You need a Canva account to download and activate it. After that it can run offline.
The AI tools need a paid Canva plan. Generative fill, expand and the other Canva AI Studio features are tied to Canva Pro or higher and need a connection.
V2 is frozen. The old Affinity V2 apps are no longer sold. Existing licences still activate, but V2 gets no updates and cannot open the new .af files.
It runs on Mac and Windows. iPad is listed as coming soon on affinity.studio.

To be fair to Affinity, it is still a very capable app, and its September 2026 update added a lot. It also says your work in Affinity isn't used to train AI.

Why people are still looking elsewhere

The reasons we see most often:

The account requirement. People who bought Affinity to get away from cloud accounts now need one to install it.
Who owns it. Some designers don't want their main tool owned by the company whose templates they were trying to get away from.
AI on a subscription. The free app is free, but the newest features sit behind a monthly plan. That is the model people left Adobe to escape.
Their V2 licence is a dead end. It works today, but it won't get updates, so they'll have to move eventually.

If none of these bother you, staying on Affinity is a reasonable choice. If any of them do, read on.

The alternatives

Inkscape (vector, free)

Free and open source on Windows, Mac and Linux. It is SVG-native, so it is strongest at logos, icons and illustration. The current release is 1.4.4, and 1.5 with proper multi-page support is on the way.

Good for: replacing Affinity Designer for vector work.

Watch out for: page layout. Multi-page documents are still being reworked, so it is not a Publisher replacement yet.

GIMP (photo, free)

GIMP 3.2 is a big step up from the 2.x versions people remember: non-destructive filters, better colour handling and a cleaner interface. Free, open source, every desktop platform.

Good for: retouching and compositing if you used Affinity Photo for that.

Watch out for: the workflow is different from Affinity and Photoshop, so expect a week of relearning shortcuts.

Krita (painting, free)

If you used Affinity mainly to paint or illustrate, Krita is the better tool for it. Version 5.3 added a much stronger text tool.

Good for: digital painting, comics and textured illustration.

Watch out for: it's a painting app first. Layout and vector work are limited.

Pixelmator Pro (photo, Mac, one-time)

Apple bought Pixelmator and still sells Pixelmator Pro on the Mac for a one-time $49.99. It's also part of Apple Creator Studio, a subscription. The iPad version is subscription-only. Details are on Apple's page.

Good for: Mac users who want a polished photo editor they pay for once.

Watch out for: Apple-only, and a few newer tools are subscription-only.

Penpot (layout and UI, browser, free)

Open source and browser-based, built mainly as a Figma alternative. You can self-host it.

Good for: interface and web design, design tokens, handing work to developers.

Watch out for: it's not built for print or photo editing.

Bitgrain (posters, covers and print looks, browser)

I've been building Bitgrain, so take this one with that in mind. It runs in the browser and covers a specific slice of what people used Affinity for: posters, album covers, zines and social graphics, especially when they need a printed look.

What it has:

A layered studio with multiple pages, a vector pen, masks, blend modes, your own fonts and design tokens
A photo editor that opens RAW, HEIC and TIFF and processes everything on your machine
Print effects built in: dithering, halftone in mono, colour and CMYK, risograph separations, grain and film LUTs
Export to PNG, WebP, SVG and multi-page PDF, plus per-ink layers for riso and screen printing
No generative AI anywhere

What it doesn't do: it can't open .af, .afdesign or PSD files, there's no real-time collaboration, and it is not a full retouching suite.

Pricing: a free tier with no time limit (web-resolution exports with a small watermark), then Pro at $6.99 a month or $129 once for ten years. See pricing.

Which one to pick

You did vector work in Designer: Inkscape.
You did photo work in Photo: GIMP, or Pixelmator Pro on a Mac.
You painted or illustrated: Krita.
You designed interfaces: Penpot.
You made posters, covers and zines, and want them to look printed: Bitgrain.
You did long documents in Publisher: honestly, Affinity is still the best free option here. Scribus is the open-source alternative, but it's a big step down in comfort.

Before you move

Export your work from V2 now, while it still runs well. PDF keeps layout and type, SVG keeps vectors, and TIFF or PNG keep pixels.
Keep a copy of your fonts. Fonts are the thing people most often lose in a move.
Rebuild one real project in the new tool before committing. You'll find the gaps in an afternoon instead of a deadline week.

Most people don't need one replacement for Affinity. They need one tool for the work they do most. Pick that first, and keep a free app around for the rest.