{"slug": "affinity", "name": "Affinity", "category": "media", "category_name": "Media and creative", "description": "", "recommenders": 4, "commenters": 6, "warners": 2, "score": 2.124, "rising": 1.35, "first": "2025-11-02", "latest": "2026-10-27", "why": "Affinity is a great alternative to Photoshop that is free", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 4, "neutral": 0, "compare": 0, "warn": 2}, "spark": [0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 2], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "Affinity is a great alternative to Photoshop that is free", "icon": true, "domain": "martyr.shop", "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://www.affinity.studio", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["Affinity"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 804247488, "item_id": 50265468, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50265468", "by": "carlosjobim", "date": "2026-10-27", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Affinity is a great alternative to Photoshop that is free", "excerpt": "All these apps are modern and of the highest quality. All of them very popular except the last I listed. Not mentioned are the many high quality apps included with MacOS, including the Music.app (iTunes), which doesn't need any Internet connection to play your MP3s. Games I don't care about, for those a PC or console is most likely your better option. > Office and many professional productivity tools (Adobe) converte", "context": "", "use_case": "image editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Software may be getting worse, but it used to be horrible"}, {"id": 799381856, "item_id": 49961366, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49961366", "by": "pitchlatte", "date": "2026-10-05", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "i personally like affinity better than the FOSS photoshop alternatives", "excerpt": "i personally like affinity better than the FOSS photoshop alternatives, mostly for UX reasons. what i still haven\u2019t found a good replacement for is Lightroom. i use darktable but the way the interface is laid out is antithetical to getting into an efficient flow state. and i say this despite the fact that i consider the output strictly superior to Lightroom (or in fact anything i\u2019ve ever used).", "context": "", "use_case": "photo/image editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "ArtCraft Apps \u2013 open-source Adobe compatible suite written in Rust"}, {"id": 782273152, "item_id": 48892072, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48892072", "by": "giwook", "date": "2026-07-13", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "There have been some good alternatives mentioned in the comments here, like Affinity or Photopea.", "excerpt": "There have been some good alternatives mentioned in the comments here, like Affinity or Photopea. Does anyone happen to know if there is a similarly good alternative to Lightroom?", "context": "", "use_case": "Photoshop alternative", "switched_from": "", "story": "An Infuriating Goodbye to Photoshop"}, {"id": 765928976, "item_id": 47870561, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47870561", "by": "arecsu", "date": "2026-04-22", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Personally, I use Affinity, Resolve, Darktable, Blender, and Figma.", "excerpt": "Hey! Author here. Glad we're feeling the same. At the very end I've linked to another page where I maintain an organic list of software and interesting bits of internet that I admire and find useful as a creative, for other creatives alike. Just today for the purposes of ending my blog post in a good light I created the Software category in the directory, to list every alternative I found interesting to Adobe's offer", "context": "creative", "use_case": "visual creative work", "switched_from": "", "story": "Adobe Is Cooked"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 764177265, "item_id": 47761079, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47761079", "by": "bryanhogan", "date": "2026-04-13", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I've been looking for a good replacement since the Affinity betrayel.", "excerpt": "This is an amazing announcement! I've been looking for a good replacement since the Affinity betrayel. Have been using Davinci Resolve as my desktop video editor for years, and it's great, can highly recommend it as well.", "context": "", "use_case": "photo editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "DaVinci Resolve releases Photo Editor"}, {"id": 732744226, "item_id": 45796514, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45796514", "by": "blub", "date": "2025-11-02", "stance": "warn", "quote": "This Canva app\u2019s so dumb, even their log-in doesn\u2019t work.", "excerpt": "For casual users and likely some pro users, there\u2019s still Pixelmator Pro and Acorn. I used to use Photoshop CS for web design many years ago and they\u2019re good enough for that. This Canva app\u2019s so dumb, even their log-in doesn\u2019t work. I wanted to log in once and then keep it offline, in the hope that they would keep their promise and allow long offline use. If it\u2019s so buggy it will probably accidentally log itself out ", "context": "", "use_case": "image editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Affinity enshittification: How Canva's \"Four Pledges\" aged like milk"}]}], "who": [{"by": "arecsu", "context": "creative", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47870561", "date": "2026-04-22"}], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["image editing", "photo/image editing", "photoshop alternative", "visual creative work", "photo editing"], "compared": [{"slug": "adobe-photoshop", "name": "Adobe Photoshop", "co": 4, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "darktable", "name": "Darktable", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "pixelmator-pro", "name": "Pixelmator Pro", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "davinci-resolve", "name": "DaVinci Resolve", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50257548", "title": "Software may be getting worse, but it used to be horrible", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49958850", "title": "ArtCraft Apps \u2013 open-source Adobe compatible suite written in Rust", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48891200", "title": "An Infuriating Goodbye to Photoshop", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47868720", "title": "Adobe Is Cooked", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47760529", "title": "DaVinci Resolve releases Photo Editor", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45794055", "title": "Affinity enshittification: How Canva's \"Four Pledges\" aged like milk", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {"warn": 1}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {"warn": 1, "recommend": 1}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-08": {}, "2026-09": {}, "2026-10": {"recommend": 2}}, "quotes": [{"id": 804247488, "item_id": 50265468, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50265468", "by": "carlosjobim", "date": "2026-10-27", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Affinity is a great alternative to Photoshop that is free", "excerpt": "All these apps are modern and of the highest quality. All of them very popular except the last I listed. Not mentioned are the many high quality apps included with MacOS, including the Music.app (iTunes), which doesn't need any Internet connection to play your MP3s. Games I don't care about, for those a PC or console is most likely your better option. > Office and many professional productivity tools (Adobe) converte", "context": "", "use_case": "image editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Software may be getting worse, but it used to be horrible"}, {"id": 799381856, "item_id": 49961366, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49961366", "by": "pitchlatte", "date": "2026-10-05", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "i personally like affinity better than the FOSS photoshop alternatives", "excerpt": "i personally like affinity better than the FOSS photoshop alternatives, mostly for UX reasons. what i still haven\u2019t found a good replacement for is Lightroom. i use darktable but the way the interface is laid out is antithetical to getting into an efficient flow state. and i say this despite the fact that i consider the output strictly superior to Lightroom (or in fact anything i\u2019ve ever used).", "context": "", "use_case": "photo/image editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "ArtCraft Apps \u2013 open-source Adobe compatible suite written in Rust"}, {"id": 782273152, "item_id": 48892072, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48892072", "by": "giwook", "date": "2026-07-13", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "There have been some good alternatives mentioned in the comments here, like Affinity or Photopea.", "excerpt": "There have been some good alternatives mentioned in the comments here, like Affinity or Photopea. Does anyone happen to know if there is a similarly good alternative to Lightroom?", "context": "", "use_case": "Photoshop alternative", "switched_from": "", "story": "An Infuriating Goodbye to Photoshop"}, {"id": 765928976, "item_id": 47870561, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47870561", "by": "arecsu", "date": "2026-04-22", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Personally, I use Affinity, Resolve, Darktable, Blender, and Figma.", "excerpt": "Hey! Author here. Glad we're feeling the same. At the very end I've linked to another page where I maintain an organic list of software and interesting bits of internet that I admire and find useful as a creative, for other creatives alike. Just today for the purposes of ending my blog post in a good light I created the Software category in the directory, to list every alternative I found interesting to Adobe's offer", "context": "creative", "use_case": "visual creative work", "switched_from": "", "story": "Adobe Is Cooked"}, {"id": 764177265, "item_id": 47761079, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47761079", "by": "bryanhogan", "date": "2026-04-13", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I've been looking for a good replacement since the Affinity betrayel.", "excerpt": "This is an amazing announcement! I've been looking for a good replacement since the Affinity betrayel. Have been using Davinci Resolve as my desktop video editor for years, and it's great, can highly recommend it as well.", "context": "", "use_case": "photo editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "DaVinci Resolve releases Photo Editor"}, {"id": 732744226, "item_id": 45796514, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45796514", "by": "blub", "date": "2025-11-02", "stance": "warn", "quote": "This Canva app\u2019s so dumb, even their log-in doesn\u2019t work.", "excerpt": "For casual users and likely some pro users, there\u2019s still Pixelmator Pro and Acorn. I used to use Photoshop CS for web design many years ago and they\u2019re good enough for that. This Canva app\u2019s so dumb, even their log-in doesn\u2019t work. I wanted to log in once and then keep it offline, in the hope that they would keep their promise and allow long offline use. If it\u2019s so buggy it will probably accidentally log itself out ", "context": "", "use_case": "image editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Affinity enshittification: How Canva's \"Four Pledges\" aged like milk"}]}