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Comparison

Affinity vs GIMP

Affinity lands on Worth it, and GIMP lands on Depends.

Affinity

affinity.serif.com

Worth it

Confidence: Medium

Buy if you want pro-grade photo, vector, and layout tools with no subscription . v3 is now free under Canva.

Read the full report

GIMP

Depends

Confidence: High

Use it if you need serious image editing for $0 and will invest time learning it.

Read the full report

Affinity versus GIMP
Compare	Affinity	GIMP
Verdict	Worth it	Depends
Best for	Freelance designers ditching Adobe subscriptions	Hobbyist photo editors
Who it's not for	Pros needing the full Adobe ecosystem (After Effects, plugins)	Design teams needing collaboration or shared workflows
Privacy	Active CVE stream under Canva ownership . 8 disclosed in 2025-26: one local RCE, one CVSS 7.8 out-of-bounds write, several info-disclosure flaws.^⁹	Multiple 2026 CVEs, mostly file-parser overflows and info disclosure; patch promptly.
Support quality	No support evidence found	Volunteer community project; no official support
Public sentiment	Reviewers and community users call Affinity a strong free Adobe alternative, while longtime users grumble about licensing changes under Canva.^¹	Users consistently praise the power and zero price but gripe about dated UX and a steep learning curve.¹⁴
Biggest gotcha	Classic perpetual licenses discontinued . v2 store closed; future model rides on Canva^⁶	File format parsers are a recurring CVE vector; avoid opening untrusted image files

Pick Affinity when

Freelance designers ditching Adobe subscriptions
Illustrators and photo editors wanting precision tools
Students and hobbyists (it's free)
Teams pairing precision design with Canva scale

When Affinity is not a fit

Pros needing the full Adobe ecosystem (After Effects, plugins)
Guess: Linux users . no native version
Casual creators who just need Canva templates
Buyers wanting perpetual licenses and vendor independence

Pick GIMP when

Hobbyist photo editors
Linux users
Budget-conscious creators
Occasional image retouching

When GIMP is not a fit

Design teams needing collaboration or shared workflows
Anyone wanting official support or SLAs
Users who want modern, polished UX
Quick casual edits . simpler free tools exist

Sources

Affinity Review: Free and Powerful, But Still Not Adobe (PCMag)pcmag.com
review
Get Affinity . official pricing pageaffinity.studio
official
Affinity by Canva Review (The Phoblographer)thephoblographer.com
review
Canva Affinity Studio Review (UXPilot)uxpilot.ai
review
Affinity by Canva Pricing: The Professional Cost of Free (Quark)quark.com
news
Affinity Stops Selling Their Software . Store is Closed (YouTube)youtube.com
news
Moving from Canva to Affinity (Reddit)reddit.com
review
Disgusting pricing . V2 feedback (Affinity forum)forum.affinity.serif.com
review
CVE-2025-66342: Canva Affinity RCE (SentinelOne)sentinelone.com
security
CVE-2025-64301: Out-of-Bounds Write, CVSS 7.8 (Strix)strix.ai
security
Affinity Review: The Best Adobe Alternative for Designerskusiima.com
review
Why we Switched from Adobe to Affinity Photo (WeCreate Digital)wecreate.digital
review
GIMP Review: A Free, Full-Featured Photoshop Replacement . PCMagpcmag.com
review
GIMP Reviews 2026 . G2g2.com
review
GIMP 3.0 review . Dedoimedodedoimedo.com
review
GIMP (2026) review . TechRadartechradar.com
review