Photoshop has been under fire lately following some controversy around its new smallprint – and now the Canva-owned Affinity Photo is looking to capitalize with an impressive-looking new trial offer for its photo-editing software.
A new six-month trial for Affinity Photo, which you can also get for its Affinity Designer and Affinity Publisher software, covers the versions for Mac, Windows and iPad. There’s no obligation to buy and the best part is that you don’t need to give your payment details when signing up for the trial.
Free trials are nothing new, but they don’t usually last for six months – and this one is for the software we currently rate as the best Photoshop alternative. One of the reasons for that is because it’s also possible to buy Affinity Photo as a one-time purchase, rather than an ongoing subscription.
You can currently get 50% off Affinity Photo when buying it outright, taking it down to $35 / £35, although it isn’t clear whether this offer will still be available at the end of a six-month trial. Still, both are good offers for editing software that offers a clean interface, good range of tools and support for PSD files.
To check out the six-month free offer, head to Affinity’s official trial page. You get access to the full versions of the software for desktop or iPad, and can also sign up for the offer if you’ve previously done one of Affinity’s trials.
Is it worth signing up?
Right now, you can only get a seven-day free trial for Photoshop – so Affinity Photo’s six-month offer certainly looks a good one, particularly if you’re a beginner or starting from scratch.
Both Affinity Photo and Photoshop have a learning curve, so it’s good to have an extended free period to see if it works for you. As a photographer, I’m already locked into Adobe‘s workflows and use accompanying apps like Lightroom Classic (which is included in Adobe’s Creative Cloud Photography Plan), so the trial doesn’t hold the same appeal for me.
But if I was a beginner or amateur who was starting out in photo editing, and didn’t want to get locked into subscription software down the road, I’d certainly consider this Affinity Photo trial. It may lack some of Adobe’s most recent AI-powered tools, like Generative Fill, but it’s powerful enough for most situations – and you only need a free Affinity account to start the trial.
It’s also refreshing to have a trial that doesn’t ask you for payment details up-front, given it’s easy to forget and then waste megabucks on tech subscriptions.
