Photoshop Pro Switches to Canva’s Free Tools & Saves Money

For creative professionals and businesses seeking powerful design tools without the steep subscription costs, Canva’s acquisition of Affinity and its decision to offer these professional-grade applications for free presents a compelling alternative to Adobe’s Creative Cloud. This strategic move allows users to access robust vector, layout, and photo editing software at no cost, fundamentally changing the value proposition in the creative software market.

My own journey with Adobe software spans decades, with Photoshop serving as my daily driver long before the modern internet era. I’ve also utilized other tools within the Creative Cloud ecosystem, Illustrator for laser cutter designs, Lightroom for RAW photo enhancement, and Premiere for video projects until persistent crashes pushed me toward Apple’s one-time-purchase Final Cut Pro. The transition from purchasing Photoshop as standalone software for hundreds of dollars to Adobe’s subscription model has meant paying increasingly higher monthly fees, now reaching over $800 annually.

When Serif Ltd. introduced its Affinity suite several years ago, I recognized its potential as a credible Adobe competitor. Each application, Photo, Designer, and Publisher, offered professional capabilities at a one-time price of $50. While I purchased Affinity Photo and found it impressively powerful, decades of Photoshop muscle memory made the switch impractical for my workflow. The time investment required to relearn processes outweighed the potential savings, so I continued with my familiar tools.

The landscape shifted dramatically when Canva acquired Affinity in early 2024 and subsequently made all Affinity applications completely free. This development, combined with Canva’s extensive free features for designers and marketers, created a new paradigm. Canva Pro subscribers gain access to AI features like generative fill within Affinity tools for just $15 monthly, significantly less than Adobe’s $70 Creative Cloud subscription.

The financial comparison reveals substantial savings. Adobe’s Photography plan provides Photoshop and Lightroom for $20 monthly but severely restricts AI usage to just 25 generative credits. For unlimited AI capabilities, users must upgrade to Firefly Pro for an additional $20, bringing the total to $40 monthly. Alternatively, combining Photoshop’s $20 plan with Canva Pro’s $15 subscription delivers comprehensive design tools, unlimited AI features, video editing, brand management, and extensive templates for $35 monthly, exactly half the cost of Creative Cloud.

Beyond pricing, Adobe’s operational limitations create practical challenges. The restriction to just two activated devices proves frustrating for professionals who regularly work across office computers, home systems, and laptops. The constant need to deactivate and reactivate installations across machines feels unnecessarily restrictive compared to Canva’s more flexible approach.

For different user profiles, the Canva-Affinity combination offers tailored advantages:

Everyday creators and marketers benefit from Canva’s design and publishing ecosystem enhanced by Affinity’s professional desktop editing capabilities. Adding Photoshop for specific needs creates a comprehensive toolkit at reasonable cost.

Students, hobbyists, and budget-conscious freelancers can access powerful software through Canva’s free version and completely free Affinity applications, with affordable Pro upgrades available when needed.

Small teams find value in Canva’s collaborative features, brand kits, editing comments, approval workflows, and email tools, complemented by Affinity’s advanced editing functions, all at accessible price points.

Graphics specialists working in broadcast, visual effects, or prepress may still require Adobe’s advanced pipeline tools like After Effects and Premiere, along with enterprise-grade color management and team coordination features.

The interoperability between systems remains strong, with Canva’s applications capable of opening most Adobe file formats, ensuring smooth transitions between platforms.

My current creative toolkit demonstrates this hybrid approach: Photoshop handles high-performance photo editing ($19.99/month), Affinity provides illustration and AI-enhanced editing (free with AI features through Canva Pro), Final Cut Pro manages video projects (one-time purchase), Autodesk Fusion handles CAD design (free for non-commercial use), Eagle organizes assets (one-time purchase), CleanShot X captures and annotates screens (one-time purchase), and Audacity edits audio (free open-source).

This configuration emphasizes both cost efficiency and workflow optimization. While Affinity’s photo editing capabilities rival Photoshop’s in many areas, the time savings from decades of Photoshop experience justify maintaining that subscription. Similarly, while Canva offers basic video editing and cloud asset management, I prefer Final Cut Pro’s professional capabilities and Eagle’s local storage speed.

The fundamental takeaway remains clear: creative professionals now have viable alternatives to expensive subscription models. By strategically combining Canva’s free Affinity tools with selective Adobe subscriptions, users can build powerful creative stacks while significantly reducing monthly expenses. This approach particularly benefits those who find Adobe’s AI limitations and device restrictions overly constraining for their workflow needs.

What does your creative software configuration look like? Are you continuing with Creative Cloud, exploring Canva’s offerings, or creating a hybrid solution that balances capability with cost-effectiveness? How important are AI tools in your creative process, and do usage limits influence your software decisions?

(Source: ZDNET)