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ZDNET Highlights
- Canva’s free affinity tools make Adobe’s subscription hard to justify.
- Canva and Photoshop combined cost half the price of Creative Cloud.
- Adobe’s AI limitations and device restrictions push users away.
Oh, Adobe. I’ve been a long time Adobe user. My primary tool is Photoshop, which I’ve been using daily since before the World Wide Web existed.
I work on other tools in Adobe’s Creative Cloud suite. I mainly use Illustrator to create vector designs for my laser cutter, and Lightroom to enhance some RAW-format photos. My wife loved Adobe Express until they completely changed the UI one night. And I used Premiere, Adobe’s video editing tool, until it crashed over 100 times during a video. I then switched to Apple’s Final Cut Pro (which is a one-time fee).
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Photoshop used to be sold as a standalone software product. I bought it in 2010 for $700. I also paid the upgrade fee relatively regularly. And then, Adobe launched Creative Cloud Subscription PlanWhich started at $50 per month and is now $70 per month.
I have been paying it every month. It costs more than $800 per year.
A few years ago, Serif Ltd., a trusted Adobe competitor, released its Affinity software suite. Affinity had a photo editor that competed with Photoshop and Lightroom, a vector design tool that competed with Adobe Illustrator, and a page layout tool that competed with Adobe InDesign. Each device was sold for a one-time price of $50.
I purchased Affinity Photo Editor, which I found quite powerful. But I have a decades-long memory of Photoshop. What I could accomplish in minutes in Photoshop took me an hour in Affinity, not because Affinity was bad, but because I wasn’t familiar with it. Since saving time is extremely important to me, I stuck with Photoshop.
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Since I’ve been using Photoshop daily for decades, it’s become deeply ingrained in my work habits. However, I don’t use other Adobe tools very often.
And then Canva changed the game by acquiring Affinity in March 2024. Last month, Canva announced that All affinity apps are now free – For everyone – whether you have a Canva subscription or not. Canva also offers a wide range of free features for designers and marketers.
if you have Canva Pro MembershipAffinity tools also get AI features like generative fill. The thing is, Canva Pro is $15/month. Not $70 per month.
membership math
Let me be clear, Canva and Creative Cloud are different animals. Yes, Affinity offers pro-level graphics tools that match some Adobe tools, but Creative Cloud offers powerful prepress capabilities for color management and print pipelines. The Creative Cloud also offers advanced motion and visual effects capabilities through After Effects, as well as advanced Premiere workflows.
But I stopped premiering several years ago. And while Illustrator is nice, there’s no doubt I can get similar results with Affinity’s vector tools.
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But I can’t quit Photoshop. This will consume a lot of time. Luckily, Adobe offers a $20 Photography plan, which includes Photoshop and Lightroom. Adobe, on the other hand, is extremely stingy with its AI usage, giving you a total of 25 “credits” per month – basically, 25 spins on the Generative Fill AI wheel.
If you have Canva Pro, they don’t limit the number of generative fill actions you can do using Affinity. You get all this – and by all, I mean video editing, brand management, gigatons of templates, design tools, mailing tools, form tools and more – for $15 per month.
So, I can keep Photoshop, continue to leverage its muscle memory for $20 per month, and then add all of the Affinity apps, including their AI features and other design tools, for an additional $15 per month. In total, this adds up to $35, which is half the price of Creative Cloud’s monthly fee.
adobe troubles
The thing is, Adobe’s stinginess always seems unnecessary. It is not just a limit of 25 AI credits per month. The thing is that Adobe limits the use of its products to only two computers.
I regularly move between three machines: one in my office, one in the family room, and one on my laptop. If I want to use any of the three Adobe tools, I have to uninstall from one computer and install on another. This is inconvenient and unnecessary.
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I know Adobe has created actuarial tables for AI credits, because you can buy more by signing up for them Firefly Pro PlanFor another $20 per month. This gives you 4,000 Generative AI Credits instead of 25.
Basically, you can have Photoshop for $20/month, but hardly any AI. If you want your own Photoshop and your own AI too, you can add it to Firefly and get it for $40/month. Or you can go full Creative Cloud by paying $70 per month.
Canva + Affinity + Photoshop
I’m going to try the $35/month Canva + Affinity + Photoshop approach. Worst case, I might renew my Creative Cloud subscription.
But what about you? Is this approach for you? That’s what I would recommend.
- For everyday creators and marketers: Canva gives you design, publishing, and analytics. Affinity fills the “I need a real desktop editor” question for some graphics tools. And if you’re like me, you can add Photoshop for $20/month.
- For students, hobbyists, and low-budget freelancers: Canva has a zero-subscription approach to affinity, a free version of Canva, and a fairly inexpensive pro upgrade.
- For small teams: Canva offers brand kits, editing comments, approvals, and email tools at a fairly low price. Affinity handles some larger edits. In contrast, Adobe has extremely powerful Teams tools, but they get expensive very quickly.
- For graphics specialists (broadcast, VFX, prepress): Adobe Affinity hurts, especially when it comes to After Effects and Premiere pipelines, color management, and enterprise-wide team coordination.
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But if you skip the Creative Cloud apps and move to Canva, you get a lot more.
- Vector, layout and photo editing: Affinity apps effectively replace Illustrator, InDesign, and Photoshop for all but the most arcane tasks.
- Social Marketing: Canva has a ton of templates, designs, and marketing tools. Adobe Express, which comes with Creative Cloud, is on that path, but it’s not there yet.
- IInteroperability: Canva’s apps can open most Adobe formats, so you’re good to go.
Think about it. You can save some money.
my creative pile
Now that I’ve deleted Creative Cloud, my personal Creative Stack looks like this:
- photoshop, High-performance photo editing – $19.99/month
- intimacy, Line art illustration, plus AI photo editing – free, but AI comes with a Canva subscription
- Canva: Wide range of template-driven design tools, brand tools, marketing tools, and a huge creative asset library, plus AI features – $15/month
- final cut pro, Professional Video Editing – $299 one-time purchase (years ago).
- autodesk fusion, CAD Design Tools – Free for non-commercial and educational use
- Garuda, Property Management Tools – One Time Purchase of $34.95
- cleanshot x, Annotated Screenshots & Screen Recording – One Time Purchase $29
- audacity, Audio editing – free and open source
Obviously, what you choose will differ from the list above. There are some crossovers here too. For example, Affinity’s photo features are comparable to Photoshop’s, but I’m still paying for Photoshop because it’s deeply ingrained in my muscle memory and productivity patterns.
Canva has some basic video editing tools that can definitely get the job done, but I prefer the professional-level Final Cut Pro for all its powers. Canva also offers cloud-based asset management, whereas Eagle only stores files on my local server. I like it because it’s very fast.
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You don’t actually need to pay for CleanShot X if you want screenshots or screen recording. Mac and PC have native screenshot tools, and QuickTime offers screen recording capabilities. However, I really appreciate the editor and annotation features in CleanShot, which I use frequently with ZDNET articles. Those annotations can be done in tools like Canva, Affinity, or Photoshop, but they’re extremely fast in Cleanshot, which aligns with my theme of saving time.
bottom line
However, the bottom line is this: since all except Photoshop and Canva are one-time payments (with the occasional upgrade fee), I now have a fairly low-cost structure for an extremely powerful creative stack.
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How are you? Are you hooked on Adobe’s Creative Cloud, or do Canva’s free affinity tools force you to reconsider that monthly bill? Have you tried combining Canva with Photoshop, or are you ready to ditch Adobe altogether? How important are AI tools to your creative workflow, and do limitations like Adobe’s 25-credit cap make sense to you? What’s in your creative stash? Let us know in the comments below.
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