Here is the unlisted demo video from their newsletter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UP_TBaKODlw
Key bits:
After acquiring Serif last year, Canva is now relaunching its Adobe-rivalling Affinity creative suite as a new all-in-one app for photo editing, vector illustration, and page layouts. Unlike Affinity’s previous Designer, Photo, and Publisher software, which were a one-time $70 purchase, Canva’s announcement stresses that the new Affinity app is “free forever” and won’t require a subscription.
Affinity’s one-time-purchase model was one of the most appealing things about its older software offerings, standing in stark contrast to Adobe’s controversial subscription-based creative suite. While Canva’s own design platform can be used for free, it also locks most of its capabilities behind subscription paywalls, which raised concerns that Affinity would adopt Canva’s subscription-based approach following the acquisition. The company is trying to put those fears to rest for good by repeatedly mentioning how “free” the new Affinity app is, but the AI integrations will likely be met with some resistance by creatives who oppose the technology.
I’m glad they didn’t add any subscription pricing, and while I don’t know if they’ll actually be able to fund it through the optional AI subscriptions alone, at least it can be used offline for those who want any AI things. Now my only complaint is the lack of a solid Linux client.
How is it free? Data mining for AI?
They don’t do data mining, they’re using it as an upsell to canva
You need a canva account and AI features are (expensive) subscription locked.
I expect the core app to stagnate after this and AI features to get all the attention.
They have a pro version that adds AI features, no idea the pricing yet though. People are also speculating that it’s also an ad for the parent company’s product Canva. And then the final guess is the standard enshittification where they try to corner the market by being unreasonably cheap for a while.
The aricle says the AI stuff is tied to Canva’s Premium subscription, which is 120 USD/year:
The business model is hoping that non-professional users will sign up for canva subscriptions in order to take advantage of the AI features. There’s zillions of users like that—far more than the number of professional graphic artists that would pay for this software.
And that’s fine with me. The key is that Canva understands the difference and give us control on how professionals use the software.