This newly-free Photoshop alternative convinced me to cancel Adobe

When it comes to photo editing, Photoshop is the 800-pound gorilla in the room. It is so universal that the noun has even become a verb.

However, a competitor, Canva, is now offering its Photoshop alternative, Affinity, for free. After spending a few hours with it, I don’t think I’ll ever return to Photoshop.

What’s wrong with Photoshop?

Photoshop is incredible software; it’s unrivaled if you’re strictly concerned with the number of features and flexibility available.

These features and flexibility come at a cost though, literally. The cheapest Photoshop plan available on Adobe’s website currently costs $30 per month if you pay month by month. This works out to $360 per year.

If you commit to paying for a year, you can pay as little as $20 per month or $240 per year, but that comes with a huge catch: If you cancel early, you’ll have to pay “half of your remaining annual commitment.” This could cost up to $120!

I’m not a professional artist, so the relatively high cost combined with the unfortunate Cancellation policies mean that Photoshop, while amazing software, is simply too expensive to justify.

Fortunately, there is now another free alternative.

Affinity is a fantastic alternative to Photoshop

Photoshop is so packed with features that you’d be hard-pressed to find something to match it, but Affinity (by Canva) gives it serious bang for the buck, especially if you’re aiming for more casual use.

Affinity’s biggest advantage over Photoshop is how incredibly intuitive it is. all tools are.

The first and biggest difference I noticed between Photoshop and Affinity are the four large tabs at the top: Vector, Pixel, Layout, and Canva AI.

Since using Affinity, I’ve found that sorting the UI this way helps reduce clutter significantly. When you are in the Vector tab, you see the tools most relevant to vector art; When you’re in the Pixel tab, most of the tools are ones you would use for raster art.

Drawing tools are everything I wanted

I’m not much of a drawer – normally I limit myself to stick figures – but I still found Affinity’s drawing tools very easy to use. My favorite is the stabilization tool, which is featured prominently at the top.

It smooths out your mouse movements so you can draw nice, smooth lines, which is normally almost impossible.

It also contains all the other normal features you would need, and using them was just as intuitive as the rest of the program.

Vector tools are better than I expected

Adobe Photoshop isn’t Illustrator, so when I started with Affinity, I wasn’t really looking for a suite of vector tools that could hold its own against Illustrator. However, Affinity does not disappoint. It offers a ton of options, certainly enough for whatever I would like to do with it.

There is a helper

When I started clicking on things, I quickly noticed that a “wizard” would sometimes add something automatically.

I’ve found that this usually happens when you’re doing something you’re not supposed to do, like drawing with the brush directly on a vector shape. The wizard will automatically add a layer so you don’t have to think about it.

This isn’t a feature I expected, but I found it very handy.

Affinity is very easy to use

Switching apps, especially if you’ve been using one for a long time, is sometimes a painful process. You get used to your workflow, the user interface, and the way a program responds.

Whenever I test a new program to see if it can replace something I’ve been using for a while, especially something I have to pay for, one of the biggest factors is how difficult it is to adopt and integrate into my existing workflow.

I was very pleasantly surprised to find that Affinity didn’t create a lot of friction for me. The user interface is different from Photoshop and GIMP, but it’s not so different that it’s difficult to learn how to use.

Even if you’re new to photo editing apps, I doubt Affinity will pose many problems. The four main tabs, Vector, Pixel, Layout, and Canva AI, all indicate exactly what you should use them for.

Likewise, all the tools describe what they do when you hover over the icon, and even tell you important keys you can press to change how it works.

It’s a well-designed interface that won’t pose a problem for seasoned professionals or newcomers.

It’s pretty unusual for a giant like Photoshop to suddenly face real competition, but Canva has risen to the challenge by making Affinity free. Anyone who occasionally does photo editing or vector drawing should take a look at Affinity. Before they pay for Photoshop.