Affinity Designer Reviews in June 2026: User Ratings, Pros & Cons

Good alternative to Illustrator, but only for simplistic digital designs

What do you like best? The user interface is really nice to work with. It resembles Adobe Illustrator is the UI. What do you dislike? There are so many features that are hard to work with after using Illustrator. There are many extras Adobe has that you have to go the extra mile to achieve with Affinity. Recommendations to others considering the product If you're just looking to make basic vector designs, basic logos, this will work just fine. Any in depth digital illustration needs ...

Fantastic Adobe Ai CC Alternative!

What do you like best? Like Affinity Photo, Affinity Designer is easy and clear to use, is a single price (as opposed to Adobe's monthly fee, and is perfect for freelance designers, students, and the like! What do you dislike? I haven't found anything to dislike yet! The concept of "nodes" instead of "points" takes a little getting used to, but it makes a lot more sense to me than in Adobe Illustrator. Recommendations to others considering the product You should absolutely give it a go! ...

Impressed with Affinity

What do you like best? I learned on Adobe products, so I love how similar and user friendly this program is. I didn't feel like I needed to learn a whole new program What do you dislike? I have to "export" a file instead of "save as" to get a png or jpeg What business problems are you solving with the product? What benefits have you realized? Need for a logo and other marketing materials

This is a great replacement for Adobe Illustrator

What do you like best? What I like best about this program is the fact that the workflow (like Affinity Photo is very awesome. It's a learning curve, but once you get it, it's all muscle memory. The amazing thing about this plugin as well is that you can open Illustrator files in tact and edit them seamlessly with the plugin. The selection system of the program is very easy to use and not as direct as Illustrator. It allows you to select elements more easily with click drag functions. ...

As good as photoshop, but far less expensive

What do you like best? THE COST! And it's pretty simple to use. There are many tutorials to show you how some of the features can be used to edit photos, create vector graphics etc. What do you dislike? Some features are hard to find. For example, creating a transparent background was a little tougher than it should have been to do. Recommendations to others considering the product BUY IT. If you don't want to pay Adobe for their ridiculous membership fees then buy Affinity - it'll do ...

Lighter on your system, not on its capabilities

What do you like best? It is easy to navigate and pretty intuitive to learn. Its not a Adobe Beast. What do you dislike? The user communities are smaller and it can take a few tries to export compatable formats. Recommendations to others considering the product Go for it! Its great, just not well known. What business problems are you solving with the product? What benefits have you realized? Less expensive design software

Great Program for Creating or Editing Vector Files

What do you like best? I love the ease of creating vector drawings and editing what I've drawn without distorting the quality of the image. Converting files to different formats such as.JPG, PDF, .PNG, etc, while also maintaining or changing the DPI of the image. Affinity Designer also has several paint brush filters that are free upon downloading the program and allows you to create your own filters. Many downloadable filters and fonts online are compatible Designer and extremely useful ...

Dump Adobe!

What do you like best? Great look and feel, and very easy for anyone who has used similar products before. Love single format! What do you dislike? Slightly confusing controls, and hunting for certain things. What business problems are you solving with the product? What benefits have you realized? Very powerful tool for the price that works with all the formats I need to throw at it!

Simple and Powerful

What do you like best? I love that Affinity Designer is affordable. Not only is it NO LESS powerful and useful than Illustrator, but it is also much cheaper. It has some better features too, but it's similar enough that the learning curve is very short. I taught myself everything I know about it (via experimenting and YouTube, and I would consider myself very adequate on the software now. What do you dislike? TO be completely honest, there is not too much I don't like. Usually when I ...

Awesome tool for design

What do you like best? Affinity Designer is a worthy competitor to Adobe Illustrator and compared to it, these are the advantages: - It is really cheap! 50$ for a permanent license is a bargain - Intuitive interface. Almost entire workflow is like in AI, but some features are done differently. Most shortcuts are same as in Illustrator, so switching to Affinity Designer is not a problem - It has customizable grid with numerous options - Image export is very detailed. You can export ...