Register Login

Is Affinity Photo About to Replace Adobe Photoshop in 2020?

Updated Jan 21, 2020

There are several other image-editing software solutions in the marketplace today. The Affinity software is one software whose popularity is increasing by the day. You can avail it at a fraction of Adobe Photoshop’s price.

Affinity vs. Photoshop

The most fundamental difference between affinity photos and photoshop is their price. Affinity photo is too much cheaper than Photoshop. 

Adobe Photoshop CC Affinity Photo
Adobe Photoshop is a significant image/design manipulation platform for users across the world developed by Adobe. Affinity is a graphics editor software application developed by Serif. It is a combination of vector and pixel art environments in a single application.
You can buy Adobe Photoshop CC as a single app for teams/individuals. Affinity Photo provides only a single enterprise plan. The Windows or Mac versions of the software may be bought at $49.99 without any subscription fees.
Adobe Photoshop supports Windows, Linux, Android, iPhone/iPad, Mac, and Cloud/ web-based platforms. Affinity Photo software supports Window, macOS, and iOS platforms.
Useful for small businesses, large enterprises, and freelancers. Useful for small businesses, large enterprises, SMEs, medium-sized enterprises, and freelancers.
Adobe Photoshop CC supports integration with project collaboration platforms. It also supports different digital asset management systems. Affinity Photo supports integration with Pantone and Adobe Photoshop.
Costs $19.99/ Month Costs $49.99 one-off fee
You can move the tools module around while arranging the modules in Adobe Photoshop. Affinity Photo allows the arrangement of different modules like Adobe Photoshop. But, the Tools module can be docked or floating in Affinity Photo.
You cannot customize individual tools or arrange them. You can customize and arrange the tools. It is possible to replicate the Adobe Photoshop Tool setup in Affinity software.
Faster than Affinity Photo software. Slower than Adobe Photoshop software.
In adobe photoshop, you can create a smart object by dragging and dropping images into a document. In the case of Affinity Photo, all picture files are created as smart objects by default.
Adobe Photoshop does not crop the image parts that are outside the canvas. The smart object layers, as well as the regular rasterized layers, appear the same.
Photoshop has a total of 18 filter groups. Affinity has the Split Toning adjustment. It also has Along with Curves, Gradient Map and Color Balance.
The number of modifications is lower in Adobe Photoshop. Along with Curves, Gradient Map, Color Balance, etc. Affinity has the Split Toning adjustment.
Payments are on a monthly or yearly basis. The annual amount is expensive at 239.88/yr for the Annual Plan (Prepaid) for individual SMB. A single one-off payment of $50 makes Affinity photo software more affordable.
It provides an unintuitive user interface. Very user-friendly and easy-to-navigate controls and interface.
Less interface customization is possible. Highly customizable user-friendly interface.
Plenty of educational resources available. Lesser educational resources are available.
The software has been around for 20 years. So, it provides users with standard features and tools. An affinity is a new software with specific advanced first-time use tools and features.
Photoshop is the most potent photo-editing application in the market. Similar to Photoshop software but not as powerful.
It has the Blend If a function Lacks Blend If function.
Better Refine Edge tools. Lack of luster Refine Edge functions.

Affinity Photo

Photo editors may look for programs similar to Photoshop. These days the Affinity Photo software is becoming popular. 

Affinity Photo Overview

It is a vector graphic design software solution. It is handy for artists, professional designers, and creatives.

The software is designed to work on:

  • Icons
  • Branding
  • Illustrations
  • UI design
  • Print projects
  • Typography
  • Pattern designs
  • Concept arts

Affinity Photo Windows offers the right tools to craft images. You get dazzling colors, precise curves along with living shapes for vector illustrations.

Affinity Photo software is used for the creation of texts for frames. Headlines of advertisement body copies also use it.

Read here Krita vs. Photoshop

Affinity Photo Features

  • Affinity provides photo software users with the ability to create perfect designs. This is possible through advanced grids, flexible guides, zooming features, snapping options.
  • Affinity also provides useful tools to create websites, UIs, and app designs.
  • There are various dynamic symbols and responsive items available. You can use them to manage the pixel resolutions of customizable images.
  • Affinity software provides you with innovative asset management functionality. Smart graphic design solutions allow you to organise your projects.

Affinity Photo Software Benefits

  • Creates accurate designs with 1,000,000 percent zoom
  • Provides advanced snapping, dynamic precision guides and grid options
  • Vector and Pixel features are present in a single workflow
  • Users can craft beautiful vector illustrations with this software
  • Accurate geometrical figures and precise curves
  • Stunning colors with full-range of ICC and CMYK color management
  • Smart brush stabilization features and advanced artboards
  • Responsive designs with dynamic symbols
  • Asset Management and superior file system support
  • UI, App and based Design Optimization features
  • The upgraded memory system, etc.

How much does Affinity Photo Cost?

  • Single Enterprise Plan only.
  • No Subscription Fees.
  • It will cost you $49.99 for Windows and Mac versions.

Adobe Photoshop Software

You might find several Photoshop replacement options. But very first image editing software is still popular among its users.

Photoshop Overview

Adobe Photoshop CC is useful as an image, photo, and design editing software. It is built for designers, photographers, photo editors, and artists. It is a professionally designed tool in the hands of its proponents/users. The design and imaging app is an integral part of the Adobe Creative Cloud services.

It is beneficial for designing the following:

  • websites
  • banners
  • mobile apps
  • posters and icons

You can create these with the help of available templates and tools.

Adobe Photoshop software provides several professional photography tools for enhancing pictures. There a plethora of options for creating beautiful works of art!

Read here Photoshop vs. GIMP

Adobe Photoshop Features

Adobe Photoshop CC helps in the creation and enhancement of paintings. You will also be able to 3D artworks and illustrations. It provides the right tools for creating unique patterns, designs, and effects.

You get advanced brushes in Adobe Photoshop CC. So, you can easily create and customize all types of digital masterpieces.

Some essential features of the Adobe Photoshop software are as follows:

  • Brush management
  • lightroom photo access
  • brush smoke smoothing
  • curvature pen tool
  • color and luminance controls
  • paint symmetry
  • group layer arranging tools
  • variable fonts
  • quick share menu

Adobe Photoshop Benefits

  • Stroke smoothing and advanced brushes from Kyle T. Webster
  • Smart brush organization capabilities
  • Luminance and color range masking
  • Quick Share Menu
  • Easy shareability of creations
  • Curvature pen tool
  • Easy navigation through tooltips
  • 360 panorama workflow features
  • Advanced level of paint symmetry
  • Depth Map Import features from High-Efficiency Image Files (HEIFs), etc.

How much does Photoshop cost?

Adobe Photoshop CC is available in the form of single apps for individuals/teams. You can also buy the Adobe Creative Cloud software.

The SMB (single app) is available for:

  • Monthly Plan - $29.99/mo.
  • Annual Plan - $19.99/mo. Monthly
  • Annual Plan (Prepaid) -$239.88/yr.

The Single App for businesses/ teams is available for:

  • Annual Plan (Monthly payment) -$29.99/month
  • Yearly Plan (Prepaid) -$359.88/year

Key Differences Between Photoshop vs. Affinity Photo

  • The most fundamental difference between affinity photos and photoshop is their price. Affinity photo is too much cheaper than Photoshop. Affinity is subscription-free software which user can buy at $49.99 one-off fee whereas Photoshop monthly subscription costs $19.99/mo and yearly plan cost $239.88/yr.
  • Adobe Photoshop supports Windows, Linux, Android, iPhone/iPad, Mac, and Cloud/ web-based platforms, whereas Affinity photo only supports windows.
  • Adobe Photoshop software is faster than Affinity Photo.
  • Less interface customization is possible in Photoshop, whereas a Highly customizable user-friendly interface is provided in Affinity Photo.
  • Photoshop provides blend function whereas Affinity Photo doesn't offer a blend function

How Is Affinity Photo a Photoshop Replacement?

There have been several Adobe Photoshop rival software apps throughout the years. It is still considered the top photo editing software in the industry. But, it is now facing competition in the photo editing industry. Affinity Photo by Serif is the competitor.

This cross-platform software boasts of a lower price than its successor Adobe Photoshop. The points below show how programs like Photoshop are being rivaled by Affinity.

Design

Affinity Photo is way ahead in context to software design. This is because of its iconography, positioning or spacing and layout tools. So, Affinity Photo has surpassed Photoshop in several noticeable aspects.

The design of Affinity is not crammed, it is cohesive, and not cluttered with icons or panels. It gives a neat feature where the windows are capable of being separated.

Customizability

Photoshop allows users to install different extensions/plugins. You can install different kinds of filters. Affinity has quite a few customization tools. This includes benchmarked, fully-customizable shortcuts to enhance the productivity of users.

Its ability to customize toolbars and separate panels. This has increased the potential of Affinity software manifold.

Performance

Affinity Photo is quicker in handling and opening large photo files in Mac. The export time for assets is quite similar to that of Adobe Photoshop. Adobe Photoshop is 881 MB, and Affinity Photo is 344 MB in size.

Affinity takes up less space at the time of its installation. It is light-weight. Affinity carries out several functionalities that are on offer by Photoshop. It competes with the wide-ranging, extensive, and useful features of Adobe Photoshop. But it does not have some of the default editing features of Adobe.

Thus, Affinity serves to be an apt replacement for Photoshop.

Price

Affinity Photo is priced at a $49.99 one-off cost. There are no hidden costs, zero monthly fees, and nil yearly commitments. Cost of four month’s subscription of Adobe Photoshop equal to lifetime usage by Affinity Photo.

List of other Photoshop competitors

Adobe Photoshop's has competition in the form of various image editing software alternatives; these are:

Name of Photo-editing Software Platform Price
Serif Affinity Photo Mac, Windows, iPad £48.99/$49.99 (one-off payment)
Sketch Mac $99/year or try Sketch for free
GIMP Linux, Windows, Mac Free
Pixelmator Pro Mac $59.99 (special launch price)
Pixlr iOS, Android, web app Free
Corel PHOTO-PAINT Windows $599.99 / £599.99 (full CorelDRAW Graphics Suite) or free for trial
Paint.net Windows Free
SumoPaint Browser or iPad Free (basic), $4/mo (Pro)
Acorn Mac OS X $29.99

Conclusion

The Serif Affinity Photo reviews are positive and encouraging. The platform has been set for the software to become a reliable replacement for Adobe Photoshop software as the image editing software of choice.

You may want to check out the features and functions of Serif Affinity Photo software in details to make a more fruitful comparison with Adobe Photoshop. In case you have any further inputs concerning Adobe Photoshop vs. Affinity software then do let us know your contributions, we will be glad to include them in this article.


×