TL;DR
I ran the Affinity vs Adobe debate in my head for months before I actually made the switch, and now that I’m a few months into using Affinity for real client brand work, I can tell you what the comparison charts don’t. This isn’t a feature by feature breakdown. It’s what actually happened when I moved my brand process over: the shortcuts that tripped me up, the font situation I somehow didn’t see coming, and the one file handoff problem I’m still working around.
Why I Started Weighing Affinity vs Adobe Seriously
I’ve been on Adobe since I started my design career back in 2015. Ten years of muscle memory, ten years of monthly payments that quietly crept up along the way. When Affinity went free after the Canva acquisition, I finally had a real reason to test the Affinity vs Adobe question instead of just complaining about my Creative Cloud bill every renewal cycle.
I want to be upfront that this isn’t a comparison post with a chart and a checklist. If you want that kind of breakdown, I’ve already written a full feature by feature breakdown of Affinity vs Adobe you can go read separately. This one is just me telling you what actually happened when I moved my day to day brand process, warts and all.
The Learning Curve Nobody Mentions
Here’s the thing about being ten years deep in one ecosystem: your shortcuts stop feeling like shortcuts. They just feel like how your hands work. Moving into Affinity meant relearning a bunch of them, and that slowed me down more than I expected in the first couple weeks.
I’ll say this though, because I’ve used more than one design tool over the years, the underlying logic of layers, artboards, and panels translated pretty quickly. If Affinity were my first design software ever, I think the Affinity vs Adobe learning curve would have felt a lot steeper. Having that base made the muscle memory rebuild faster, even if my fingers still occasionally reach for the wrong key combo mid project.
My advice if you’re in the same boat: don’t try to relearn every shortcut on day one. I picked the five or six I use constantly (undo, zoom, layer duplication, that kind of thing) and let the rest come naturally as I worked.
The Font Problem I Should Have Seen Coming
This one caught me off guard, which in hindsight is a little embarrassing. Adobe Fonts only activate inside the Adobe ecosystem. Once you’re not paying for Creative Cloud, those fonts stop working in new documents. Adobe’s own documentation confirms that fonts you activated through your subscription deactivate once the subscription ends, and anything you didn’t already flatten or outline will show up as a missing font warning.
I knew this on paper. I just hadn’t actually thought through what it meant for my day to day type choices until I opened a project in Affinity and half my go to fonts weren’t there anymore. Since then I’ve leaned a lot harder on Google Fonts, which has actually been a good forcing function. It pushed me to build a smaller, more intentional type library instead of grabbing whatever Adobe Fonts had on offer.
If you’re weighing Affinity vs Adobe and fonts are a big part of your workflow, do this step before you switch, not after: audit which fonts you actually use across active client projects and figure out which ones have a non Adobe source. It’ll save you the scramble I had.
Where Affinity Actually Surprised Me For Client Work
Given everything above, I expected my templates to be the biggest headache. They weren’t. My InDesign files open in Affinity’s Layout Studio with layers, character styles, and structure intact, which is honestly the part of this whole Affinity vs Adobe experiment that’s gone the smoothest.
That mattered most for client presentations, since that’s where I need things to look polished with zero last minute scrambling. My Brand Presentation Template already works in Affinity, so when I was nervous about whether my actual client facing deliverables would survive the switch, that was the file I opened first to test it. It held up. If you’re on the fence about making this same move and presentations are the part that worries you most, that’s the exact file I used to make the switch feel less scary, and it’s set up to work whether you’re in Adobe Express, Illustrator, InDesign, or Affinity.
The Real Affinity vs Adobe Sticking Point: File Handoffs
Here’s what I haven’t fully solved yet. Handing project files to other designers who aren’t on Affinity yet is still clunky. PDFs mostly work as a bridge, but they don’t preserve every part of a layered file the way a native format would, and that’s a real limitation if you’re collaborating with someone still on Illustrator or InDesign.
The most reliable workaround I’ve found so far, and this lines up with what Affinity’s own documentation on file compatibility confirms, comes down to which direction the file is moving. Affinity can’t open native INDD or AI files directly, and Adobe apps can’t open Affinity’s native format either. Exporting a PDF with fonts fully embedded and advanced features enabled is currently the most dependable bridge between the two, though you’ll still want to flatten complex layered elements before handing it off, since layer structure doesn’t always survive the trip.
I haven’t found a workaround that fully closes this gap, and I want to be honest about that instead of pretending it’s solved. For now, PDF with embedded fonts is doing the job for me, just not perfectly.
What I'd Tell You If You're Thinking About Affinity for Designers
If cost is your main driver, the free price tag on Affinity for designers is genuinely real and not a stripped down trial version. The paid tier only kicks in if you want Canva’s AI features, which I haven’t needed for my brand work. If your process leans heavily on templates and layout files rather than fonts you’ve collected over a decade, the transition will probably feel smoother than it did for me.
If you’re deep into Adobe Fonts specifically, or you regularly hand off editable files to collaborators who aren’t switching with you, go in with your eyes open about those two friction points. They’re solvable, just not instant.
Next Steps: Start This Week
- Audit your font library. Pull up your last three client projects and note which fonts came from Adobe Fonts versus a source you actually own or can access elsewhere.
- Test one template first. Open a file you already use often (a presentation, a guide, a proposal) in Affinity before you commit anything else, so you know exactly what will and won’t transfer cleanly.
- Flag your active collaborators. If you regularly hand off layered files to another designer, check now whether they’re on Affinity too, and if not, start practicing the PDF export workflow before you’re on a deadline.
- Give yourself two weeks of shortcut friction. Don’t judge the whole experience in week one. The muscle memory catches up faster than you’d think.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Affinity really free, or is there a catch?
The core Affinity suite, including vector, photo, and layout tools, is free with no trial limitations. The only paid layer is Canva’s AI features, which require a Canva Pro subscription.
Will my Adobe fonts work in Affinity?
No. Adobe Fonts are tied to an active Creative Cloud subscription and won’t activate outside the Adobe ecosystem. You’ll need fonts from another source, like Google Fonts or a licensed foundry, for anything you’re actively editing in Affinity.
Can Affinity open my existing InDesign or Illustrator files?
Affinity can open PDF, IDML, and other export formats, but it can’t open native INDD or AI files directly. You’ll need to export to a compatible format first.
What's the best way to send Affinity files to a designer who's still on Adobe?
Right now, a PDF with all fonts embedded and advanced features enabled is the most reliable bridge, though complex layered elements may need flattening first.
Do I need to switch everything over at once?
No. Testing one active workflow, like a client presentation template, before moving your whole process is a lower risk way to see how Affinity handles your specific files.
One Response
Something I forgot to mention is that you don’t have to use Google Fonts only. I do download fonts from type foundries but I barely use them and mostly used Adobe Fonts and Google fonts before I made this switch.