The world of creative software was turned upside down on October 30, 2025. On that day, Canva, the design giant that bought Affinity in 2024, released a brand-new version of the beloved creative suite. This wasn't just another update. It was a complete overhaul that changed everything we thought we knew about professional design tools.
For years, Affinity was the champion for creatives who were tired of Adobe's expensive subscriptions. You could buy Affinity Designer, Photo, and Publisher for a one-time fee and own them forever. That era is now over. The new Affinity is a single, unified application, and here's the bombshell: it's free.
But as we all know, there's no such thing as a free lunch. So, what's the catch? This article will break down everything you need to know about the new Affinity, from the amazing new features to the hidden costs of "free."
One App to Rule Them All: Introducing Affinity Studio
The first thing you'll notice about the new Affinity is that the three separate apps are gone. No more Affinity Photo, Designer, and Publisher as standalone programs. Instead, we have a single application, which we'll call "Affinity Studio" for clarity.
This unified app brings all the tools from the old suite into one place. You can now seamlessly switch between different "Studios" without ever leaving the application:
- The Pixel Studio: This is where you'll find all the powerful raster editing tools from Affinity Photo. All the non-destructive adjustments, frequency separation, and liquefy tools are here.
- The Vector Studio: This is the home of Affinity Designer's precise vector tools. The pen tool, node editing, and everything you need for vector illustration is right here.
- The Layout Studio: This is where Affinity Publisher's features live. Master pages, text wrapping, and pre-flight checks are all integrated into the single app.
This is a huge improvement for workflow. You no longer have to open multiple apps or "round-trip" files between them. Everything is in one place, which makes for a faster, smoother creative process.
Along with the unified app comes a new universal file format: .af. This new file type can hold all your vector, raster, and layout information in a single file. This is a big deal for managing your projects. No more linking to external Photoshop or Illustrator files. Everything is self-contained, which makes it much easier to back up and share your work.
But there's a catch here too. The new .af files can't be opened by the old V2 apps. This means once you save a project in the new format, you can't go back. It's a one-way street, which will push everyone to upgrade to the new free version.
The Best Things in Life Are Free: What You Get for Zero Dollars
Canva has made the entire core set of professional tools in Affinity completely free. This is a massive deal. All the manual creation tools that you used to pay for are now available to everyone. And they've even added some highly requested features.
Vector Trace is Finally Here
For years, Affinity users have been asking for an auto-trace feature to convert images into vectors. Now, it's finally here. The new Affinity includes a native Vector Trace engine, and it's in the free version. It might not be as advanced as Adobe Illustrator's Image Trace, but for most tasks, it's more than good enough. This is a game-changer for many workflows, as you no longer need a separate app for this.
Pro-Level Tools for Everyone
The free version also includes advanced features like Vector Mesh Gradients, which allow you to create stunningly realistic vector illustrations. The powerful typography engine is also still there, with full support for OpenType features and variable fonts.
By making all these high-end tools free, Canva is sending a clear message: you don't need to pay to be a professional. You just need the skills. This is a huge win for students, hobbyists, and anyone on a tight budget.
The Catch: How Canva Is Making Money
So, if the core app is free, how is Canva making money? The answer is AI. The new Affinity has a dedicated "Canva AI Studio" module, and to unlock its features, you'll need a Canva Pro, Teams, or Enterprise subscription.
Here are some of the paid AI features:
- Generative Fill and Expand: These are the headline features. You can use text prompts to add or remove objects from your images, or to expand the canvas and have the AI fill in the new space.
- Magic Edit and Super Resolve: Magic Edit lets you replace objects in your image using text prompts, while Super Resolve is an AI-powered upscaling tool that enhances image resolution.
- Portrait Blur and Lighting: These tools let you adjust the depth of field and lighting in your photos after you've taken them.
The logic here is simple. The tools that run on your computer are free. The tools that require a connection to Canva's powerful servers and AI models are paid. You're paying for the convenience and power of AI, not for the ability to create.
On the plus side, Canva has been very clear that your work in Affinity is not used to train their AI models. This is a big privacy win, especially compared to some of the controversies surrounding Adobe's terms of service.
The Fine Print: What You're Giving Up for "Free"
The new Affinity might be free, but it comes with some important strings attached. This is where the "free" part gets a bit more complicated.
You Need a Canva Account
To use the new Affinity, you must sign in with a Canva account. This is a big change from the old serial number system. Your copy of the software is now tied to your identity. This allows Canva to track usage and manage your subscription, but it also means you're no longer anonymous.
The One-Year "Kill Switch"
This is perhaps the most controversial part of the new Affinity. The app has an offline time limit. If you don't connect to the internet and sign in to your Canva account at least once every 365 days, the app will lock you out. You won't be able to use it again until you go online and re-authenticate.
This "kill switch" effectively ends the idea of "perpetual" software. You don't truly own it anymore. You're licensing it, and part of the deal is that you have to check in with Canva once a year. For most people, this won't be an issue. But for those who work in secure, offline environments, this is a deal-breaker.
The End of an Era: Goodbye, Affinity V2
With the launch of the new Affinity, the old V2 suite is officially dead. It's no longer for sale, and it won't receive any more updates. This means no new features, and more importantly, no compatibility patches for future operating systems.
If you recently bought V2, this is understandably frustrating. You bought a "perpetual" license, but the software is now frozen in time. To keep up with OS updates and get new features, you'll have to switch to the new free version and accept the new terms.
Community Under Construction: From Forums to Discord
The changes aren't just in the software. The community is also in for a big shake-up. The official Affinity Forums, a treasure trove of tutorials and support threads, have been archived. They are now read-only.
In their place, Canva has launched an official Discord server. This move is in line with modern trends, but it's a huge loss for the community. Discord is great for real-time chat, but it's terrible as a knowledge base. Information gets buried in a sea of messages, and it's nearly impossible to find solutions to specific problems.
For many long-time users, this feels like a downgrade. The structured, searchable help of the forums has been replaced by the chaos of a chat room.
What This Means for the Creative World
The new Affinity is a major disruption to the creative software market.
Pressure on Adobe
Adobe's biggest selling point has always been its powerful, professional-grade tools. Now, Canva is giving away a suite of tools that is "good enough" for a huge number of professionals, for free. This puts immense pressure on Adobe's subscription pricing. Why pay hundreds of dollars a year for Adobe Creative Cloud when you can get a powerful alternative for free?
A Challenge for Open Source
The new Affinity is also a threat to open-source tools like GIMP and Inkscape. For years, these apps were the go-to for anyone who needed a free creative tool. But now, Affinity offers a much more polished and user-friendly experience for the same price (free). This will likely make Affinity the default choice for students and hobbyists, which could hurt the open-source community in the long run.
Conclusion: A New Deal for Creatives
The new Affinity is a bold and brilliant move by Canva. They are giving away a fantastic set of creative tools for free, and in doing so, they are completely changing the game.
For creatives, this is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, you get access to a world-class design suite for free. The new unified app is a joy to use, and the new features are a welcome addition. On the other hand, you're giving up ownership of your software. You're now part of the Canva ecosystem, and you have to play by their rules.
The "kill switch" and the move to Discord are reminders that "free" always comes at a price. In this case, the price is your independence. You are no longer a customer who bought a product; you are a user on a platform.
The 2025 Affinity transition is more than just a software update. It's a sign of things to come. The era of buying and owning software is fading. The future, it seems, is a world of free tools and paid ecosystems, where the real product is not the software itself, but the network and intelligence behind it.