Alas, even if I pony up $120 for Canva Pro, Affinity’s AI tools still won’t have the juice I value for the work I do. And I stress the “I” in that sentence: I suspect most people won’t see the need to pay $120 to Canva for its suite of AI tools.
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In the underlying principles, I’m 100% with you. In this case, I think that’s just boilerplate TOS stuff. I rent VPS servers, and stuff like that (and much more) is in all of the TOS. It gives them a valid TOS breach to shut you down if you start doing criminal things. Canva/Affinity/whatever probably doesn’t need it at their current iteration, but it covers them going forward.
With the standard caveats around “own” and “software,” I’m a fan of that model. You stop getting updates, which means that if an OS update breaks your software, your software is broken - but you get to use what you paid for.
Ultimately, subscriptions are a value calculus. Microsoft Office is one of the best examples. You can get Office Personal for something like $70/year. Given that it includes everything in the box that used to sell for $400+ retail, that’s a heck of a deal for people who need Office.
I’m sure I’ve said this before, but I think the biggest gripe with subscriptions - especially in the early days - was that they frequently amounted to a stealth price increase. Rather than $50 software that you would upgrade every there years, now it’s $40 per year.
The question is always, “is it worth it now?” It will probably take Affinity/Canva a couple of years to really sort out their value propositions. If you’re already invested in Affinity for your workflow, why switch now? A couple of years is a long time in the software industry, and whatever you switch to now (unless you go full FOSS) could get bought and go to subscription as well.
One of Canva’s big strengths is in its collaborative features. I’ve been part of nonprofits where volunteer creative teams share templates back and forth, can quickly edit/publish content based on others’ previous work, etc. People who are competent graphic designers can do a ton with Canva, and they can share that work with less-competent team members who can make day-to-day designs.
For me, as a solo dev, that isn’t a value proposition. But when I was a director at a nonprofit, I definitely saw the value for my volunteer team.
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Putting aside the which app for which task question, how has your Linux usage worked out? Have you settled on a particular distro/desktop environment?
(asking for a very Linux-curious friend, of course!) 
And is all this on Apple hardware?
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I installed Ubuntu on my Mac air 2013. Took me 30 minutes and it runs great. I followed the steps from Gemini after I asked how to do it. Gemini even showed me how to get the WiFi working which needed another step.
It’s given my old Mac air a new lease of life and given me an opportunity to test Linux. I was very surprised how easy it was.
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It’s been a fantastic experience, far better than I ever expected. I do not hesitate to say that it is on par with using macOS in terms of ease of use, stability, and quality of design. I started with Linux Mint on a 2012 Mac Mini and then added a $200 Lenovo Thinkpad purchased from EBay. The Thinkpad is still running Linux Mint, Cinnamon desktop. I ended up trying Trisquel with the KDE Plasma desktop on the MacMini. I enjoy using them both. Each distro/desktop environment is a bit different visually but not so different that I can’t easily hop back and forth. And I have each arranged the same with no bottom panel (Dock), each with a top panel similar to the Mac menu bar.
It took me no time to adapt from iPadOS/macOS as it all works in the same way really. And I’ll add, that in terms of efficiency of the OS, wow. Linux and iPadOS are about on par in terms of opening apps and just the feel of daily use. MacOS on an M1 takes far longer to open similar/same apps with about the same boot time, possibly a wee bit longer on macOS.
And install of each version of Linux from a thumb drive… boot-up from the usb thumb drive with Linux. Takes a few minutes because it’s booting from a slow thumb drive. Install was 15-20 minutes. Easy peasy.
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Yep. I actually remember laughing at how easy the install was. And I couldn’t quite believe how fast it was. And it’s been smooth sailing ever since.
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On the surface that’s a great question. However, as using software and producing content invariably produces documents of a kind that belong to the app, it’s not that easy. Moving away from a particular workflow is not just about integrating a new app, but looking at how many documents need converting or exporting before the usage of the app runs out. If the app is good now with a potential that I need to move in 2 years, then I need to take into acount the amount of migration that will also include.
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That’s a fair point. Let me revise.
Let’s say that the runway for switching is six to nine months. If the current app’s expected life is two more years, then the time to switch is 15 to 18 months from now, not now. Which means the time to evaluate alternatives is probably more like 14 to 16 months from now.
Because (a) the current app may not ever have the problem that makes switching necessary, (b) the app you’d switch to now may develop its own problems that require switching in the near future, and (c) there’s always the chance that alternatives will exist in 14 months that aren’t even in play now.
In light of that, I think the original question is still valid - what’s worth doing now?
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I’ve owned all three apps for years. This move has left a bad taste in my mouth. Perhaps fears of enshittification will prove to be unfounded. But the fact that multiple people have reported online that they purchased an Affinity app in the last few weeks only to have them discontinued in favor of the free new product doesn’t seem particularly fair.
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I don’t think it was possible to buy Affinity products during October. I understand if someone bought in September and wouldn’t have if they could get Affinity 3 for free in November. Not sure if unfair is the word, but it’s not fun to miss out on a deal.
True, it may have been in the last couple of months that they bought. If Canva knew they were planning on rolling out a free substitute for the paid products, I think the more ethical thing to do would have been to make the v2 apps free in the interim, and then announce the new product.
Doesn’t that just kick the can?
What about the people who paid for the app and then the next week it is free?
Maybe it does. Good thing I’m not a CEO! Perhaps another solution would have been to offer owners of the paid apps some portion of their premium offering. In any case, these are just my quibbles. I’m probably going to move on from the product once the v2 apps start showing their age
The real victims were people who started things with the trial version and then couldn’t purchase when their trials expired in early October, or site licensees who couldn’t buy additional seats.
That moratorium on sales ought to be a business school case study.
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They should have kept the store open and continue to sell version 2 with a warning to please wait until November. And then continue to have it for sale after the new Affinity came out.
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30 days money back and stuff like that is the reason I believe they stopped in early October.