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FYI Affinity Designer and Affinity Photo are good alternatives that also run on Apple Silicon. They have no subscription requirements and are 50% off right now

FYI Affinity Designer and Affinity Photo are good alternatives that also run on Apple Silicon. They have no subscription requirements and are 50% off right now ($25 each): https://affinity.serif.com/ https://affinity.serif.com/

aetherspawn 6y ago
Affinity wouldn't let me switch my 3 month old Affinity Designer for OS X license with a Windows license when my laptop got stolen. They wanted me to pay $70 for another license, and their support was quite rude about it. The reason they gave me was "it would be unfair to the other customers that paid full price for both platforms". I have a bad taste in my mouth about the ordeal and have been boycotting their software in protest. Because of how rude their support was, I would rather pay Adobe than spend a single dollar more at Affinity.
- fortran77 6y ago
  Yes. No problem with Adobe switching licenses to other machines. You just log in and select which machines you want to remove the license from, and you can switch them around easily.
  - jtbayly 6y ago
    Yeah, but that’s a subscription. The whole point of these apps is that they are a one time purchase.
- JKCalhoun 6y ago
  I was agreeing with you, empathizing, until your last sentence. You lost me there.
- preommr 6y ago
  I don't see how that makes sense. In HN of all places, I would expect people to understand that it costs money to maintain a product for different systems. And it wasn't even their fault, your laptop getting stolen is not on them [1]. There's a lot of bullshit with services (like Amazon not refunding you the difference on an order if the price goes down before your item arrives), but this doesn't seem like one of them. Also, if you paid $70 for designer, then that kind of sucks because I almost always see it for 50% off. Case and point, it's $35 right now. [1] I am trying to make a point that's purely technical, but I don't want to seem too callous - I am sorry your laptop got stolen, it sucks to lose something expensive that is very important, and has a lot of important data on it. And I know responses like mine are the last thing someone with anger wants to hear (I've been in that position), but I run my own business and I am also on the other side now where it's really hard to deal with situations like this.
  - dkersten 6y ago
    > I would expect people to understand that it costs money to maintain a product for different systems. Huh? What has that got to do with this case? They're already maintaining it on multiple systems and its not like aetherspawn would be able to use it on more than one system. It literally is no different to the Affinity devs whether aetherspawn is using the OS X or Windows version since they both cost the same amount (and the license was only three months old). It just seems like they wanted another sale to allow access to a second platform, which would make sense if they retained access to the first. I'm not sure what the right approach is here (certainly being rude about it isn't it, though!) but every time a company has given me leeway, I've always then went around telling everyone who would listen how great the company is. Seems like they did the opposite by alienating the customer instead. That doesn't seem like a good approach.
    - acomjean 6y ago
      I think the point is that its a one and done transaction. You bought the software on platform X. 3 months in it might engender goodwill to swap it. But bought software deactivation isn't really a thing... Now subscriptions. I notices my jetbrains stuff worked with the same license key when I switched it to linux. But I'm paying them yearly. I'll totally agree there is no need to be rude. Though I imagine if you are in customer service for a while, its probably a natural defensive posture.
      - throwaway8581 6y ago
        They're basically trying to make a sale, a windfall, from an existing customer's personal troubles. It's not a sale they would have made except for the guy needing to switch laptops. Frame it however you want, but that kind of thing makes people feel taken advantage of.
        dkersten 6y ago
        Yeah, that's my thought too. The fact that it is cheap makes me think they could have been more flexible, under the circumstances of someone who ran into some hardship. But even if not, they could have simply said sorry, our policy is that we don't do this. aetherspawn said they were rude about it. There was no reason to be rude, they could have said no while still being empathic to the situation and being courteous. I don't know how rude they were or weren't, of course.
- LegitShady 6y ago
  The good news for you then is that you're going to pay adobe much much much more in the long run, getting exactly what you wanted, apparently.
jscheel 6y ago
I love (and own) all the Affinity products, but Designer still has a long way to go to get to feature parity with Illustrator, imho. Good news is, they are always improving.
- mattkrause 6y ago
  I'm mostly happy with it too, but the lack of a "Select Same Appearance" in Designer drives me insane.
  - jkestner 6y ago
    Affinity just added this in the most recent update.
- ultrarunner 6y ago
  Designer feels like working with an arm tied behind my back. I absolutely hate Adobe's subscription model, software philosophy, and nearly everything else about them. But Designer has a long way to go to being productive.
- mrtksn 6y ago
  As someone who is not professional in graphics but need to do some vector graphics for professional work, I like Affinity Designer very much. Once it clicks, it’s actually easy to use and quite productive. That said, its probably not a marketable skill by itself as most places would look for the “Adobe Illustrator” keyword.
- webmobdev 6y ago
  The free and opensource https://inkscape.org/ https://inkscape.org/ is a great altrenative to Illustrator. More here - https://logosbynick.com/illustrator-vs-inkscape/ https://logosbynick.com/illustrator-vs-inkscape/ for those interested.
tecleandor 6y ago
Does anyone how well it holds (or if it's useful at all) against Lightroom? I'm tired of the Adobe subscription ...
- buzzerbetrayed 6y ago
  They don’t currently offer a Lightroom alternative. Affinity photo is a photoshop replacement, but doesn’t really offer photo organization capabilities like Lightroom does. I too am tired of paying for Lightroom every month
- rimliu 6y ago
  Depending on your Lightroom use, check out CaptureOne. Great RAW editor, fantastic if you shoot tethered with supported cameras, not so great for organizing photos.
- webmobdev 6y ago
  Checkout https://www.darktable.org/ https://www.darktable.org/ - it's free and opensource. More here - https://expertphotography.com/lightroom-vs-darktable/ https://expertphotography.com/lightroom-vs-darktable/
addedlovely 6y ago
Thanks, will check it out. Reads like it'll handle opening InDesign, Illustrator and PSD's - assume that's workable and doesn't have too many gotchas? I get a variety of artwork from designers in a plethora of formats and sadly can't enforce my preferences on them.
- pixelbath 6y ago
  One gotcha is there is no native bitmap trace. The developers currently recommend using external software to do so. Otherwise, I've been able to bang out some quick vector layouts since some of the basic hotkeys are the same, and it seems to handle almost any vector format I've opened with it.

aetherspawn 6y ago

Affinity wouldn't let me switch my 3 month old Affinity Designer for OS X license with a Windows license when my laptop got stolen. They wanted me to pay $70 for another license, and their support was quite rude about it. The reason they gave me was "it would be unfair to the other customers that paid full price for both platforms". I have a bad taste in my mouth about the ordeal and have been boycotting their software in protest. Because of how rude their support was, I would rather pay Adobe than spend a single dollar more at Affinity.

fortran77 6y ago
Yes. No problem with Adobe switching licenses to other machines. You just log in and select which machines you want to remove the license from, and you can switch them around easily.
- jtbayly 6y ago
  Yeah, but that’s a subscription. The whole point of these apps is that they are a one time purchase.
JKCalhoun 6y ago
I was agreeing with you, empathizing, until your last sentence. You lost me there.
preommr 6y ago
I don't see how that makes sense. In HN of all places, I would expect people to understand that it costs money to maintain a product for different systems. And it wasn't even their fault, your laptop getting stolen is not on them [1]. There's a lot of bullshit with services (like Amazon not refunding you the difference on an order if the price goes down before your item arrives), but this doesn't seem like one of them. Also, if you paid $70 for designer, then that kind of sucks because I almost always see it for 50% off. Case and point, it's $35 right now. [1] I am trying to make a point that's purely technical, but I don't want to seem too callous - I am sorry your laptop got stolen, it sucks to lose something expensive that is very important, and has a lot of important data on it. And I know responses like mine are the last thing someone with anger wants to hear (I've been in that position), but I run my own business and I am also on the other side now where it's really hard to deal with situations like this.
- dkersten 6y ago
  > I would expect people to understand that it costs money to maintain a product for different systems. Huh? What has that got to do with this case? They're already maintaining it on multiple systems and its not like aetherspawn would be able to use it on more than one system. It literally is no different to the Affinity devs whether aetherspawn is using the OS X or Windows version since they both cost the same amount (and the license was only three months old). It just seems like they wanted another sale to allow access to a second platform, which would make sense if they retained access to the first. I'm not sure what the right approach is here (certainly being rude about it isn't it, though!) but every time a company has given me leeway, I've always then went around telling everyone who would listen how great the company is. Seems like they did the opposite by alienating the customer instead. That doesn't seem like a good approach.
  - acomjean 6y ago
    I think the point is that its a one and done transaction. You bought the software on platform X. 3 months in it might engender goodwill to swap it. But bought software deactivation isn't really a thing... Now subscriptions. I notices my jetbrains stuff worked with the same license key when I switched it to linux. But I'm paying them yearly. I'll totally agree there is no need to be rude. Though I imagine if you are in customer service for a while, its probably a natural defensive posture.
    - throwaway8581 6y ago
      They're basically trying to make a sale, a windfall, from an existing customer's personal troubles. It's not a sale they would have made except for the guy needing to switch laptops. Frame it however you want, but that kind of thing makes people feel taken advantage of.
      - dkersten 6y ago
        Yeah, that's my thought too. The fact that it is cheap makes me think they could have been more flexible, under the circumstances of someone who ran into some hardship. But even if not, they could have simply said sorry, our policy is that we don't do this. aetherspawn said they were rude about it. There was no reason to be rude, they could have said no while still being empathic to the situation and being courteous. I don't know how rude they were or weren't, of course.
LegitShady 6y ago
The good news for you then is that you're going to pay adobe much much much more in the long run, getting exactly what you wanted, apparently.

jscheel 6y ago

I love (and own) all the Affinity products, but Designer still has a long way to go to get to feature parity with Illustrator, imho. Good news is, they are always improving.

mattkrause 6y ago
I'm mostly happy with it too, but the lack of a "Select Same Appearance" in Designer drives me insane.
- jkestner 6y ago
  Affinity just added this in the most recent update.
ultrarunner 6y ago
Designer feels like working with an arm tied behind my back. I absolutely hate Adobe's subscription model, software philosophy, and nearly everything else about them. But Designer has a long way to go to being productive.
mrtksn 6y ago
As someone who is not professional in graphics but need to do some vector graphics for professional work, I like Affinity Designer very much. Once it clicks, it’s actually easy to use and quite productive. That said, its probably not a marketable skill by itself as most places would look for the “Adobe Illustrator” keyword.
webmobdev 6y ago
The free and opensource https://inkscape.org/ https://inkscape.org/ is a great altrenative to Illustrator. More here - https://logosbynick.com/illustrator-vs-inkscape/ https://logosbynick.com/illustrator-vs-inkscape/ for those interested.

tecleandor 6y ago

Does anyone how well it holds (or if it's useful at all) against Lightroom? I'm tired of the Adobe subscription ...

buzzerbetrayed 6y ago
They don’t currently offer a Lightroom alternative. Affinity photo is a photoshop replacement, but doesn’t really offer photo organization capabilities like Lightroom does. I too am tired of paying for Lightroom every month
rimliu 6y ago
Depending on your Lightroom use, check out CaptureOne. Great RAW editor, fantastic if you shoot tethered with supported cameras, not so great for organizing photos.
webmobdev 6y ago
Checkout https://www.darktable.org/ https://www.darktable.org/ - it's free and opensource. More here - https://expertphotography.com/lightroom-vs-darktable/ https://expertphotography.com/lightroom-vs-darktable/

addedlovely 6y ago

Thanks, will check it out. Reads like it'll handle opening InDesign, Illustrator and PSD's - assume that's workable and doesn't have too many gotchas? I get a variety of artwork from designers in a plethora of formats and sadly can't enforce my preferences on them.

pixelbath 6y ago
One gotcha is there is no native bitmap trace. The developers currently recommend using external software to do so. Otherwise, I've been able to bang out some quick vector layouts since some of the basic hotkeys are the same, and it seems to handle almost any vector format I've opened with it.