When I announced at Canva World Tour in October that a brand new professional grade product Proximity will be completely free, the design world reacted with a mixture of shock, curiosity and, among other things, relief.
In an industry long dominated by expensive subscriptions, closed ecosystems, and tools that seem increasingly removed from the needs of working designers, the idea of studio-grade software at zero cost seems almost radical.
Since then, more than three million people have downloaded Affinity in just a few weeks. And this proves that this is not a trick. Instead, the move signals a deeper shift in what the creative community values: power, accessibility and ownership now come first.
As CEO of Affinity, I've seen how much designers value tools that support their craft rather than complicate it, and how deeply the community strives for true creative freedom.
Now the shared mission of Canva and Affinity is clear to everyone. Creativity should not be closed. Tools should empower, not extract value. Workflows must respect the skill of the people who use them.
A new chapter in professional design
No tricks, no hidden data replication, and no background AI training.
Ash Hewson, CEO of Affinity
The relaunch of Affinity marks our most ambitious evolution yet. The new app combines vector design, photo editing, and layout into a single, high-performance workspace—without switching apps, slowdowns, or missing features. No tricks, no hidden data replication, and no background AI training.
Created in collaboration with the authors and under the guidance of Canva's Design Advisory Board, it doubles down on what professionals consider most important: performance, reliability and creative freedom. The result is a unified environment in which all types of design work are carried out in one place.
Flexibility is at the heart of the new platform. Creatives can personalize their workspace to reflect how it actually works: mixing and matching tools from vector, pixel, and mockup studios; rearrangement of panels; creating multiple saved settings for different projects; and even sharing of individual studios between teams.
The tools themselves are designed with precision and speed in mind. Vector curves, meshes, shapes and paths are updated in real time, even in heavy files. Photo workflows remain non-destructive, GPU-accelerated, and endlessly adaptable—from RAW development to retouching and compositing.
Layout tools create structure without restricting creativity with smart master pages, shared styles, and advanced typography that keeps complex documents consistent. It's a user-created design environment that's fast, fluid, and pixel-perfect. And now it is available to everyone completely free of charge.
This decision was not just strategic; it was philosophical. Every designer deserves tools that respect their craft and give them full ownership of their work. Making Affinity free is a continuation of that belief, a vote of confidence in the designers themselves.
Whether you're designing a brand identity or creating a multi-page publication, Affinity keeps you in the flow—deeply capable, never intrusive.
Free forever – and created primarily for artists
A designer's worth should not be determined by what they can afford.
Ash Hewson, CEO of Affinity
The all-new Affinity isn't just cheaper. It's truly free. There is no cut-down version. No additional sales. No restrictions on use. There are no AI-first caveats hidden in the terms and conditions.
Instead, it's all about putting artists first – a commitment to placing creative control, ownership and respect for craft above business models and industry trends represented by our .from file extension.
We know this is a bold move in a market where professional tools have long equated subscription fees with legitimacy. But we, like Canva, believe that true creative freedom starts with access. A designer's worth should not be determined by what they can afford.
This is software to be developed as a public good, not a locked service. While Affinity remains a precision tool built for detail-obsessed designers, its partnership with Canva has opened up new possibilities for us.
Some will say this move is disruptive. Others will call it idealistic. But making professional design software more accessible has always been the philosophy of both Affinity and Canva, and this is simply a step towards the future we want to build—a future where every creator has the tools to achieve their best results, and where the industry is raising its expectations of what “professional software” should look like.
Affinity remains what it always was: a powerful, precise, professional-grade design suite built for people who care about design. Now, with Canva's resources and technology, it can grow faster, go further, and reach more people than ever before.
The all-new Affinity is available for Mac and Windows, with an iPad version coming next year. Existing Affinity users can switch easily, and new users can download the software for free by creating a (free) Canva account. Here.
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