Canva has relaunched the Affinity creative suite as a new, all-in-one application following its acquisition of Serif last year. The new platform combines the functions of the previous standalone apps—Affinity Designer, Photo, and Publisher—into a single app for photo editing, vector illustration, and page layouts.
Canva is noew offering the new unified Affinity app as “free forever.” This replaces the previous one-time purchase model, where each app cost around $70, and is designed to alleviate user concerns that the software would be moved to a subscription-based system similar to Canva’s own.
The new all-in-one app is available now for Windows and Mac, with an iPad version planned for a future release. According to Canva, the platform now uses “one universal file type” and includes integrations that allow users to export designs directly to their Canva accounts.
While the new Affinity app is free, some features are locked behind a Canva Premium subscription. Subscribers to Canva’s premium plan will gain access to AI-powered editing tools, such as image generation, photo cleanup, and instant copy, directly within the Affinity interface.
For users of the older, standalone V2 versions of Affinity, Canva has stated that those apps will continue to function. However, the V2 editions were removed from sale several weeks ago, and the company has not yet clarified if these legacy apps will continue to receive support or security updates.
