Affinity Photo vs Photoshop: Which is the Best Match for You

In this article, we will dig into which advanced photo editor you should choose: Photoshop vs Affinity Photo. We will look at these image editing software apps head to head.

Can Affinity Photo replace Photoshop as your go to editor?

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Quick Comparison: Affinity Photo vs. Photoshop

1. Features:

There are a bit more features and tools in Photoshop, but only marginally. You will find that both apps include all basic image editing tools, as well as what else you can dream of from any photo editing software, as a photographer. Both apps offer limitless layers, can import most raw image formats, pen tools, and whatever you need. Most users won't notice this in their day-to-day workflow, but still, Photoshop leads when it comes to features.

Winner: Photoshop

2. Price:

Affinity Photo is a low one-time payment of $69.99. Photoshop on the other hand is a subscription and comes bundled with Lightroom in the Adobe Photography plan for $9.99 per month or $119.88 per year. If you don't mind paying for a Photoshop subscription, then this isn't an issue for you, but many hate the subscription fees.

Winner: Affinity Photo

3. User Interface:

Both apps are similar when it comes to the user interface. Photoshop has a more sleek dark gray design, making buttons seem a bit similar, while Affinity Photo for some features requires a few extra clicks. But these are small issues, and both are identical in their approach to photo editing. Photoshop is getting more and more cluttered with new AI toolbars, so the edge is soon tipping towards Affinity Photo.

Winner: Tie

4. Workflow

Both Affinity Photo and Photoshop are similar in workflow.

However, Photoshop has more options for automating the workflow. While Affinity Photo's personas keep the workflow divided into what you need when you need it, Photoshop is more customizable overall.

Winner: Photoshop (by a margin)

5. Compatibility:

You will find that most plugins are designed for Photoshop (but may work in Affinity Photo). However, when it comes to deep integration, then 3rd party plugins like Nik Collection have only developed this for Photoshop, so far. If we look at compatibility the other way, more apps support reading Photoshop files, while only a few apps support Affinity Photo's native format (.afphoto).

Winner: Photoshop

6. Learning Curve

If you have never used similar programs you will have an equally steep learning curve, no matter which program you choose. Luckily, you can find video tutorials and courses for both apps on this site.

Winner: Tie

7. Updates

There are benefits to a regular paid subscription. Updates that include new features seem to be a little more frequent for Photoshop. Not to say that there are never new features in updates from Affinity Photo. It just doesn't happen as fast. It can take a year between new features being added to Affinity Photo, while 2021 had new features for Photoshop in 3 out of 4 updates.

Winner: Photoshop

Quick Verdict:

Photoshop is overall the best photo editor if you don't mind the subscription-based pricing. You can do more with Photoshop, and it is a more professional tool for specific tasks.

However, Affinity Photo is a very close competitor and at only a fraction of the price. Most users can do perfectly well with Affinity Photo.

Which app is the best for you really depends on your needs.

So let us see how they help you edit your images.

What are the differences between Affinity Photo vs. Photoshop CC:

Let us begin by looking at the price difference and whether they can justify the difference in price

Photo Editing: Adobe Photoshop vs Affinity Photo

Affinity Photo is probably the photo editing software that comes closest to being able to battle Photoshop in terms of functionality.

To be honest, Affinity Photo lacks a few features, but most of these features are not even used by the majority of Photoshop users.

So what it all comes down to is whether you can build a solid photo editing workflow in Affinity Photo, that gives reliable results.

Affinity Photo vs Photoshop: The user interface is 95% identical, so you will quickly learn the robes with Affinity Photo

One of the areas that set Photoshop apart is the new and faster selection tools. The object selection tool enables you to select an object with a single click. Furthermore, you also have other selection options like selecting the focus area, selecting the subject (automatically), and selecting sky, which all lack in Affinity Photo. However, when it comes to quick selections and live luminosity masks I think that Affinity Photo is more straightforward. But more on that later.

One-click selection using the object selection tool in Photoshop

Differences in Workflow: Photoshop vs Affinity Photo

The logic behind Affinity Photo is just the same as Photoshop, however, you might have to look for a few things in other places, even though 95% of the features and menu items will be in the same spot in the top menu. In my experience, if you are already familiar with Photoshop, then you won't have a steep learning curve.

Adjustment Layer Panel in Affinity Photo

The adjustment panel in Affinity Photo takes up a bit more of the user interface on the right side, but many of the adjustment layers you can add are the same as in Photoshop and with similar options for each adjustment layer.

Affinity Photo’s User Interface Is Divided Into Workspaces

One of the differences you will notice is that Affinity Photo is divided into personas or workspaces, that are accessible through buttons at the top bar.

The personas are:

• Photo Persona for most photo editing, like in Photoshop with similar retouching tools

• Liquify Persona for image manipulation

• Develop Persona for RAW editing like Adobe Camera RAW and fixing distorted photos

• Tone Mapping Persona for HDR-processing

• Export persona to export images in slices.

This makes the interface slightly less cluttered and a little more user-friendly than Photoshop.

Photoshop also has workspaces, but from a normal user’s point of view, you don’t often switch between them as part of your standard workflow in Photoshop.

When first opening RAW photos, Affinity Photo will open up in the Develop persona. This is kind of similar to Photoshop opening raw images in Adobe Camera RAW.

Develop persona equals to Adobe Camera RAW

Keep your edits in the Develop Persona for basic exposure corrections and for preparing your Raw file for further enhancements.

When you press the Develop button you are taken to the Photo persona, which is where you will do most of the enhancements like adding adjustment layers, working with advanced selections, and applying filters.

Integrating Affinity Photo With Other Apps

Integration with image library applications like Lightroom, Luminar, Capture One Pro, or ON1 Photo RAW, or DXO Photolab is quite easy. For instance, in Lightroom just select the image you want to edit, right-click and select Edit In..., and select Affinity Photo.

Affinity Photo integrates well with other digital asset management apps

However, there are a few issues to be aware of. You cannot open multiple images as layers in Affinity Photo. While most image library apps can read tiff and other file formats, not many of them can read the .afphoto file format. However, if you save .tiff files with layers in Affinity Photo, you can re-edit your tiff files in Affinity Photo, and you will still have all the layers.

Using Affinity Photo With Your Photoshop Plugins

There’s a big chance that you can continue to use most of the Photoshop plugins you own as Affinity Photo supports this. For instance, Nik Collection from DXO supports Affinity Photo.

Choosing Nik Collection from the menu in Affinity Photo

Can you open Photoshop files (.PSD format) in Affinity Photo?

You can both open .psd files in Affinity Photo. You can also choose to save your work in .psd. This is quite useful if you need to send your files to a colleague or a friend who doesn't have Affinity Photo.

Photoshop Actions vs Affinity Photo Macros

Affinity Photo Macros vs Photoshop Actions

I often get the question: "Can I create Affinity Photo actions?"

If you are used to using Photoshop actions in your workflow you will be happy to know that Affinity Photo also supports saving a series of steps into a workflow.

In Affinity Photo, this is called macros instead of actions. However, you cannot import your existing Photoshop actions into Affinity Photo.

Affinity Photo Focus Stacking and Panorama Stitching Could Be Improved

From a macro photographer’s viewpoint, focus stacking could be improved, as it is not quite up to speed.

For instance, Affinity Photo doesn’t show the layer masks and which part from each layer was used to create the focus stack. You can edit the stack and remove ghosting from the focus stack using the stamp tool in combination with the source panel, but only to a certain point. This is something I cover in my Advanced Affinity Photo course.

The panorama feature suffers from the same failure to show a layer mask of which part of each image layer was used to create the panorama, so you can add finishing touches to the panorama stitching yourself. You have to do this in the stitching process and cannot edit it after you apply the Panorama stitch to a pixel layer.

However, I must fairly say that I haven’t needed to manually stich panoramas, because the automatic process is so good.

Panorama stitching in Affinity Photo

Serif Vs Adobe

The choice between using Affinity Photo is often linked to which other apps from Adobe you might be using. Adobe has become the industry standard in many workplaces.

Adobes Creative Cloud Suite opens up a whole range of other Adobe programs related to graphic design and photography. If you do video editing and want integration with your photo editing, then the Serif Suite is currently not able to match this.

All Creative Cloud solutions within the Adobe subscription model come with cloud storage, which might allow you to cut down on other cloud storage expenses. Plus using Adobe Photoshop offers access to a huge library of assets like Photoshop brushes, and font sets, that you have to pay for as add-ons to Affinity.

If you are a fan of creating digital art, then you might discover that you might need to pay extra to get the add-ons. However, if raw image editing tools are all you need, then the add-ons are irrelevant to you.

The Affinity Suite currently these three different app types and has true seamless integration between Affinity Photo, Affinity Designer, and Affinity Publisher. So the complete trio might enable you to switch to Affinity from Adobe software, like Adobe Illustrator, and Adobe InDesign, and save even more money.

Why you might want to go for Photoshop

• Photoshop comes bundled with Lightroom which helps with image management.

• You can do more with Photoshop actions than you can with Affinity Photo macros.

• While Affinity Photo is quite capable and fast, there are times when it lags in terms of speed.

• There are a lot more tutorials and video courses available for Photoshop than there are tutorials for Affinity Photo.

• There are more Photoshop plugins available and custom panels that you can use to extend PS. Scripting is also not available in Affinity Photo yet.

• If you use smart objects a lot in your workflow, you might find it more difficult to adapt to a little different workflow. While Affinity can import a PSD files with a smart object, it doesn't support smart objects as such.

Reasons why you would want to go for Affinity Photo

• One of the primary reasons for choosing Affinity Photo vs. Photoshop is that you get almost the same for a lot less. 

• Using luminosity masks is much simpler in Affinity Photo. You don’t have to use a very complex set of channel masks. A live luminosity mask helps you create the selection of luminosity values that you need.

• It has a live brush preview. This allows you to see the effect of brush strokes before you apply them. This is very useful for photographers. Especially when creating masks or dodging and burning using the brush tool.

• Affinity Photo saves your undo history even after you close the image. It saves the undo history with the image. You can revert to any undo stages no matter where in the editing process you are.

Affinity vs Photoshop: Is it worth the switch?

Both Affinity Photo and Photoshop are designed to be pure photo editors and don't include photo management tools.

Affinity Photo is more than capable of taking over the editing needs of the majority of Photoshop users. Even some professional photographers have switched. Other photographers are perfectly fine with a subscription that gives you the top-notch and highly professional Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom bundle.

Since Photoshop and Lightroom are bundled together into a single subscription, it doesn’t make sense for them to switch from Photoshop to something else.

Serif hasn’t created an Affinity program that fits as an alternative to Lightroom.

So Affinity users need to find other software to cover their need for photo management tools (basic importing of raw files from SD cards, quick raw image enhancements, keywording, culling, and so on). My suggestion here is to look at DXO Photolab. It is an amazing app that is also subscription-free. They do require payment for upgrades to new versions, but you can decide if you want to skip a version or two.

In my opinion, DXO Photolab outperforms Lightroom in many areas, but that is for another article.

I hope this Affinity Photo and Adobe Photoshop comparison helps you make up your mind about which to choose.