Adobe Illustrator CC vs. Affinity Designer

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Adobe Illustrator
Score 9.3 out of 10
N/A
Adobe Illustrator CC is a vector-based graphic design software.
$20.99
per month
Affinity Designer
Score 9.1 out of 10
N/A
Affinity Designer is a vector graphics software developed by Serif (Europe) Ltd, replacing the former Serif DrawPlus. It is designed for professional illustrators, web designers, game developers, and other creatives.N/A
Pricing
Adobe Illustrator CCAffinity Designer
Editions & Modules
Yearly - Billed Monthly
$20.99
per month
Monthly
$31.49
per month
Yearly - Billed Upfront
$239.88
per year
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Adobe IllustratorAffinity Designer
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Adobe Illustrator CCAffinity Designer
Considered Both Products
Adobe Illustrator
Chose Adobe Illustrator CC
Adobe Illustrator gives you much more control over every aspect of the design process. Canva has several limitations like being unable to customize gradients or creating clipping masks. Inkscape only works in RGB space and has a less intuitive user interface. They benefit from …
Chose Adobe Illustrator CC
The integration with Creative Cloud Libraries and Adobe Fonts, combined with the powerful array of tools offered in Adobe Illustrator makes up for the high price compared with other tools that are often free. You even get an outstanding 3D renderer built in with excellent …
Affinity Designer
Chose Affinity Designer
the reason to choose Affinity Designer was the one time cost and ease of usage, they both exceeded my expectations. i was able to learn Affinity Designer quickly which i am still struggling in learning Adobe Illustrator. it literally helped me scale and it was very easy to …
Chose Affinity Designer
A GREAT alternative to Illustrator and Inkscape, especially given the software's cost and robustness.
Chose Affinity Designer
Every app has something to offer. Affinity Designer is a great alternative to the high price and usage limitation of Adobe apps and Clip Studio's convoluted pricing/installation pricing.

If you want a quick and easy to use app to get started on your art, then Affinity Designer …
Chose Affinity Designer
Affinity Designer stacks up really well against Illustrator, especially for the kind of work I do. While Illustrator might have more niche features that Affinity does not but It does covers the core functionality I need for vector design. And without the ongoing subscription …
Best Alternatives
Adobe Illustrator CCAffinity Designer
Small Businesses
Venngage
Venngage
Score 10.0 out of 10
Venngage
Venngage
Score 10.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
GIMP
GIMP
Score 8.0 out of 10
GIMP
GIMP
Score 8.0 out of 10
Enterprises
Adobe PhotoShop
Adobe PhotoShop
Score 9.2 out of 10
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe Illustrator
Score 9.3 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Adobe Illustrator CCAffinity Designer
Likelihood to Recommend
9.3
(110 ratings)
9.3
(8 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.0
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
9.4
(7 ratings)
8.9
(7 ratings)
Support Rating
5.0
(25 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Implementation Rating
10.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Adobe Illustrator CCAffinity Designer
Likelihood to Recommend
Adobe
It is the only tool that I use to create logos. It gives me the flexibility to create sharp text and marks and they can then be resized at will, color changes in a second and perfect way to export. I know that some people use Illustrator for document layout, it is not ideal. While I can easily create documents here, it really is InDesign that is the perfect tool.
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Serif Europe
Best suited: Creating on the go. The app is the same on desktop as it is on mobile. All the tools and shortcuts exist on both platforms, no need to learn more than one workflow to get my work done
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Pros
Adobe
  • Vector graphics for scaling to large sizes
  • Filling an object with a texture
  • Easily adjusting and expanding an artboard to fit the size of the content (especially for infographics)
  • Compatibility with other Adobe CC programs, but also exporting for PPT graphics
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Serif Europe
  • its is helpful in creating vector designs
  • it offers wide variety of brushes making it perfect for illustrations.
  • it provides us varies options for exports like eps, svg, png and jpeg and many more making it versatile.
  • we use to export our design with press ready pdf for print production where all the internal design and export done with Affinity Designer.
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Cons
Adobe
  • It's tough to master. If you haven't used Adobe products like Photoshop or Illustrator before, there is a lot to take in.
  • It would be great to have some better options to preview the final product if you're creating a multiple page document.
  • Better integration and pricing points with Adobe Stock for the useful stock images to complete your projects.
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Serif Europe
  • the new Affinity Designer suite lacks the original compatibility.
  • the brushes and spray tools needs improvement
  • Sometimes when we are dealing with big files say more than 10mbs it crashes often or slow down.
  • One of the major weak point is export time it takes quite longer time if compared to illustrator but for big files only.
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Likelihood to Renew
Adobe
While Adobe Illustrator CC is one of the only true design software out there, it really stands heads above the other products. It's clean UI and menu structure is easy to navigate.
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Serif Europe
No answers on this topic
Usability
Adobe
There's a bit of a learning curve to this software vs other similar tools that can take some time to learn and get familiar with but the amount of functionality that Adobe Illustrator CC offers is quite large compared to simpler tools.
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Serif Europe
Because the software is great. I have forced myself to learn it. I highly recommend to others. This is a game changer. Adobe is evil for going all subscription and not giving anyone the option to purchase lifetime versions of Illustrator, Photoshop and InDesign it is CRIMINAL
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Support Rating
Adobe
I normally already know how to do whatever I'm trying out, but the documentation (as well as a simple Google search) makes any question quick to resolve. The Adobe boards themselves are a fantastic resource, especially for resolving questions between new programs and iterative releases.
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Serif Europe
I have not had much opportunity to go directly to support, but the training modules that are employed by the company are fantastic. I also find that if I need to understand something, there is always another user ready and willing to share their secrets. As this tool becomes more accepted local communities will also start to organize
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Implementation Rating
Adobe
It was very easy to purchase and download.
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Serif Europe
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Adobe
I chose Rhinoceros 3D because it is accurate to make drawings in it and it is better to make drawings in Rhinoceros 3D and then put them in Adobe Illustrator. But while printing or scaling it is much easier to put it in Adobe Illustrator. This makes the whole printing aspect of it much easier.
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Serif Europe
First, Affinity has a much more attractive licensing model for users: Buy it once, use it forever. That's great and means one less recurring cost for a company. But I can go further, and as I've mentioned in other questions, Affinity has a very refined and polished interface, as well as superior performance, especially compared to Adobe's tools. On our team, we use Figma as the main tool focused on Product Design, and where it falls short, we complement it with Affinity. Price and product quality are the factors that make this choice happen.
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Return on Investment
Adobe
  • Helps us quickly and easily create and manage numerous logos
  • Cloud libraries allow us to access commonly used colors, fonts, logos and other design elements quickly
  • We are able to provide high-quality, scalable college logos for print and digital which give us a more professional, credible look.
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Serif Europe
  • Perfect for professionals. The price is insane for a professional tool.
  • I am able to fit the price of Affinity Designer into our business budget.
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ScreenShots