Adobe Illustrator vs Affinity Designer

Adobe Creative Cloud

GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program)

Adobe Photoshop

CorelDRAW

Inkscape

Linearity Curve

Compare Adobe Illustrator and Affinity Designer based on features, pricing, verified reviews, integrations & more on GetApp. Find out which software is best for your business in 2026.

CoreIDRAW is a graphic design software which enables users to create professional designs with vector illustration, layout, photo editing, typography, template tools, and more. CoreIDRAW allows users to create, access and store artwork, web graphics and prints in the cloud, via the web app.

Adobe Photoshop is an image editing and graphic designing software that helps businesses streamline photo editing and compositing processes and create digital paintings and animations. The artificial-intelligence (AI)-enabled platform lets designers invite external stakeholders to edit documents and share projects via live streaming functionality.

Inkscape is an open sourced business graphic software. This Linux, Windows & OSX vector graphics editor (SVG format) features transparency, gradients, node editing, pattern fills, PNG export, and more.

Adobe Illustrator CC is a industry-standard software in vector drawing tools and applications for digital graphics in print, web, apps, and video animations

Activity Tracking

Application Management

CAD Tools

Collaboration Tools

Content Library

Content Management

Data Import/Export

Design Management

Design Templates

Document Imaging

Drag & Drop

Fashion Illustrations

File Management

For Vector Illustrations

Image Editing

Image Library

Preview Functionality

Project Management

Search/Filter

Synchronous Editing

Third-Party Integrations

Website Publishing Options

Adobe Illustrator

Android

Web-based

Windows

iPad

iPhone

Self Employed Rancer

The thing I like the most is the ease of use of software and the amount of awesome features that is included with the software.

Marketing Specialist

The pros of this product is that it is extremely great for creating projects, especially when using a MAC. I highly recommend Apple products as it works best for designing.

Media and Communication Director

You are able to make beautiful and stunning illustrations for your social media posts or any posters. You can edit any symbol, picture etc with it.

Owner

There is endless posibilities of creative creating of scaleable vector graphics. Perfect for logos and helps me save money by using it to collaborating with graphic teams.

Director of Marketing

Many designers work with Adobe products and there is a reason, they are responsive and great at what they do. Illustrator will allow your designer to create amazing designs that can scale so easily.

Tech Support

Everything about it worked like a charm. The entire Adobe package is great and is constantly being updated.

Proprietor

I  Love the art i have made an enjoy every second of illustrating with this software and the ease of moving to other products in the adobe suite to perform other graphic functions.

Freelance Graphic Designer

What I like most about Illustrator are the capabilities and advanced tools that are integrated with technology to achieve unique and creative techniques.

Graphic Designer

The bummer about Adobe is that you can no longer purchase the software as a one-off. Now it’s a subscription that you have to pay monthly or yearly and the fees are quite hefty.

L&D Manager

From logos to infographics, Ai has been the best tool for the job. I create assets for my websites that I manage and can export my design projects in the best formats for the job.

Marketing and Design Directot

Illustrator helps me mainly to create logos and graphics for my work. I love the way the software works in general, interface is great and easy to use in my opinion.

Creative Director

A.I. is popular with the artist and graphic design community, so we are pleased that its functions are user-friendly, which allows us to distribute content after modifications if they are necessary.

Design & Brand Manager

Great ease of use once you are familiar with the program. Works well and integrates with the full Creative Suite.

HR specialist

I think most of the frustration comes with user error and not doing enough research on the current subject.

Photographer

Over it really is a great program with a lot to offer, the cost isn’t too high and getting the creative suits will save you more in the end hopping from one adobe program to the next.

Editor in Chief

On rare occasions, the app will stall or close down altogether. This could be a flaw with either the application itself or the system I'm using it on.

Email Marketing Specialist 

The support is very bad for Adobe. I suggest not updating your app until a few weeks after the update comes out unless it stops working.

Fullstack Developer

There is a great community around this software which is actually the main point to focus when you are looking for a new tool.

Adobe Illustrator screenshot: With Illustrator CC, the touch type tool allows users to take individual letters and transform them, as well as change the text itself

Adobe Illustrator screenshot: Illustrator CC users have the possibility to free transform elements in a more intuitive way

Adobe Illustrator screenshot: Use images in brushes (pattern brush tool) and choose the way the image runs around corners with Illustrator CC

Adobe Illustrator screenshot: The export CSS feature in Illustrator CC allows users to copy elements from the illustrator document and transfer them into CSS directly

Adobe Illustrator screenshot: Search fonts quicker with Illustrator CC's font search window that enables the choice between searching entire font names or first words only

Adobe Illustrator screenshot: Import multiple images and place them on the page with the integrated place gun tool that allows users to drag and place images exactly where they want them with Illustrator CC

Adobe Illustrator screenshot: Illustrator CC's live corners tool lets users intuitively shape corners with on-art controls or specific values

Freelancers

Large Enterprises

Mid Size Business

Non Profit

Public Administrations

Small Business

Linearity Curve is a vector graphics solution that helps marketing teams create and animate content together.

Adobe Creative Cloud is a graphic design and video editing suite that enables businesses to publish print layouts, edit images, manage PDF documents, and collaborate with team members using various mobile and desktop applications.

GIMP is an open-source image manipulation software that enables businesses, graphic designers, scientists, illustrators, and photographers to edit and retouch images, design icons, create free-hand artworks, and convert files into various formats.

Affinity Designer is a graphic design software, which helps creative professionals manage documents, create vector designs with gradients, blend modes, adjustments and effects, edit images, build artboards, and more using various built-in tools.

2D Drawing

Document Storage

For Websites

Multiple Format Support

Templates

Text Editing

Affinity Designer

It is an excellent piece of software I recommended to all of my colleagues and they are very happy with it. I can definitely recommend Affinity Designer, you will not regret buying it.

They were not only the best, but the most human and kind. And that is the kind of company I want to give my money to.

Publisher

Wonderful program, easy to use, great in connection with the two other programs from Affinity, superlow price. I'm so happy I discovered these programs from Affinity.

Senior Strategy

Here is a piece of software with great customer support and an amazing community behind it. It is very intuitive and the learning curve is not steep at all.

Content Visualizer

The best thing about Affinity Designer is not that it is feature rich, but that it has all the essential features for designing/illustration.

Artist

Thank you so very much for the excellent software, I'm eager to see what else Affinity has in store for the future.

The layers functionality was confusing. No auto trace which was the huge disappointment for us.

design

Affinity Design is a software that has great usability and is very light for the operating system, so it is better at solving your daily jobs.

President

The software is fully comprehensive of what it can do. Full funtionality and great options.

Founder

Library of plugins, brushes, fonts, gradients... own and third party. Very good community to ask questions and excellent tutorial channel.

Junior Software Engineer 

They attach a great deal of importance to user feedback. And of course, the software's functions are really intuitive and efficient.

Creative Arts Director

A few, very few, features that I would expect in a high-grade design program are missing or difficult to use.

This is a fantastic alternative to Adobe's Illustrator, especially at Affinity's pricepoint.

A little confusing initially mostly because transitioning from other software.

Affinity's perpetual licensing is particularly attractive for people coming from Adobe. The software has all of the features you'd want, but is even more intuitive than competing products.

Business Owner/Graphic designer 

Easy to download more brushes, typefaces, and anything else you need. Now integrated with copyright-free photo services like pixabay, pexles, and unsplash.

Its strong point is in printing, because it offers a complete control on color profile and, if you are designing with Pantone print support, the complete ICC and CMYK color management is integrated.

Some features are missing compared to Illustrator, and compatibility with certain files can be tricky.

Adobe Illustrator vs Affinity Designer Comparison (2026)

Adobe Illustrator

Affinity Designer

Overview

Video & Screenshots

Pricing

User reviews

Key features

Integrations

Alternatives