Introduction
A budget-friendly alternative to Adobe Illustrator. Affinity products are great in the fact that it is a one-time payment that includes upgrades versus a subscription-based model like Adobe.
For most of Affinity's products, the price for each application is a one-time payment of $54 plus the appropriate tax. Comparing this to Adobe where the entire suite is $54 plus tax a month. Illustrator itself is $21 plus the applicable tax a month. I do not believe in a subscription model because you don't own anything. I have some subscriptions, but I am not overly subscribed to services. This is why I prefer having a software key or a license key over subscriptions any day.
Affinity Designer provides the same baseline vector style as Adobe Illustrator, however, the feature set is significantly less. I am not a graphics designer, but with the knowledge that I have picked up over the years, I can comfortably say that learning the program, tools, features, and everything in between was exciting and exceptionally easy. I see myself as an average user, and the program felt natural. Affinity Designer has all the same tools that I am familiar with and at a more affordable price.
The best part of this is that they offer it for Mac, Windows, and iPad. I say that is a solid deal. A deal which you can get right at their website.
Baseline Features
- Pen, Line, and Contour tools
- Vector or Raster tools
- Color options (blending, gradients, and more).
- Geometry tools (move, transform, curves)
- Support for the following file formats: PSD, AI, PDF, SVG, JPG, TIFF, EXR, GIF, EPS
- Unlimited Artboards
- Advanced grid support
- Impressive typography support
iPad
macOS
Windows
Conclusion
I hope that this article has shown you that an alternative to Adobe Illustrator exists and is comparable in its tools and affordability. My personal opinion is that this application gets the job done and exceeds my needs. I would hope that if you are in the market for a new tool and things like GIMP aren't what you are needed and willing to try something else.
Full Disclosure
All information and images have been provided by Serif. Serif is the owner of the Affinity brand. I am using the provided press kit for this article. Their website and my use of their programs are conveyed in this article. Most of this article is comprised of facts and opinions. The featured background image was created by andyoneru and is available on Unsplash. I added a blur and a gradient overlay with the program logo for this blog post.
