Adams said the Affinity products would be kept separate to Canva’s platform but would feature integrations over time.
“Our product teams have already started chatting and we have some immediate plans for lightweight integration, but we think the products themselves will always be separate,” he said.
“Professional designers have really specific needs.”
but, on pst experience, I don’t think it bodes well and I would like to bet that the Affinity suite will go subscription!
The usual platitudes on the Affinity site aren’t reassuring. If this deal is anything like the UK’s trade deal with Australia which threw UK farmers under the bus, Affinity will soon lose its identity and be subsumed into the Canva “Family”. At that point I would bet it will become subscription based.
Yes, the “Pro” version of Canva is £99/year. I am reminded of the excellent website designer in the noughties GoLive. It was bought by Adobe, who made similar promises to carry on developing it in parallel with Dreamweaver, and then closed it off within 6 months.
There are no changes to our current pricing model planned at this time, with all our apps still available as a one-off purchase. Existing Affinity users will be able to continue to use your apps in perpetuity as they were originally purchased – with plenty of free updates to V2 still to look forward to! Source
… I’m wondering what will happen at “another time” (say: next month) or to new Affinity users. Or V3.
Yeah, it’s an interesting one. Most people I know who use Affinity products do so simply because they’re good enough and not subscription. If they introduce that, there will be little reason not to return to Adobe
I agree, but I also won’t return to Adobe. That would be equivalent to ending a relationship because your partner cheated, and then going back to the ex that cheated in your previous relationship. Doesn’t sound healthy.
Affinity can say what it likes. Other than day to day management, the Canva takeover means they lose control and all the major policy decisons will be made in Oz.
Somehow they “forgot” to release this yesterday, but whatever:
TL;DR: “we are committed to continue to offer perpetual licenses in the future. If we do offer a subscription, it will only ever be as an option alongside the perpetual model, for those who prefer it.”
Canva may not be dedicated to perpetual licensing, but they can do math and are probably smart enough to figure out how important the backlash against Adobe has been to Affinity’s success.
FWIW, no less a player than Microsoft is offering both perpetual and subscription licenses. They appeal to different segments of the market.
