MikeO

I can agree with you here on personal experience. Through a long and winding road I had come to own the IP of an RPG that I had illustrated and art directed for a decade at that point. We had a strong and rabid, but small, fan base, and we had a bit of an outsider take on tabletop RPGs. But after an additional 15 years of trying to make it work and not really getting anywhere, my partner and I were burned out. If someone had offered to buy us out then, I would have sold it all in a second. Even on a project I had worked on on and off for half of my life. But no one did, so in this case I'm jealous of Serif. We ended up licensing it to a group of fans who have done amazing things with the RPG; but not things I would have ever done, but it doesn't matter. I couldn't have serviced the fans any longer because the fire was gone. So whatever Serif's reasons are, I get it and don't hold anything against them. 

I'm hopeful that the Affinity line will be permitted to maintain one of the principle reasons for it's success—reasonably priced, non-subscription pricing. If it switches to a subscription model then there's less to distinguish it from Adobe, which has more features and is seen as 'industry standard' by many.
I can't help but reflect on some of the graphics applications I've used over the years. I started with Illustrator 1.0 and Photoshop 1.0 (which was a big step up from MacPaint, I can tell you). Aldus Freehand became my favourite raster tool but Adobe bought it and killed it. (Same thing happened to Aldus PageMaker → Adobe PageMaker → dead.) I went back to Illustrator. I'd hate to see the same thing happen for Affinity Designer but perhaps I'll be back using Illustrator again in my dotage. Such is life, apparently.
The Affinity and Canva Teams are making the right noises and likely have the best intentions but there's no way of knowing what will happen down the track. All it takes is one new CEO driven by short-sighted greed, and everything changes overnight.
I don't think there's much point worrying about it . Just carry on and stay flexible. Here in 2024 Affinity is still the best thing for my needs.

Well we did ask them to commit to a perpetual license model. I totally get the pessemism around that pledge. We have all been stung in the past by similar pledges. However all we can do now is continue on and wait and see what happens. I'm not going to bother learning new software just yet. V2 is still being developed and at least for me is able to do all I need to do in this vein. It will be several years before I will need to worry about upgrading.
I'm a cynical bugger by nature but I can be hopeful. Fingers crossed this time the company is telling the truth. It's not like we don't already have enough to be stressed about these days. Let's not add to it if we don't have to.

You have fun hobbies. I feel like we could be friends.

They are not cash strapped (before the buyout), where did you get that from? However people saying they are sell-outs makes me laugh. If you had a company are were offered a butt load of money don't pretend you wouldn't bite their hands off and take it.

I'd buy it now. It could be years before it might change and it would be years you can't get back struggling with poor software or else paying the Adobe tax. $114 for apps of this quality is a steal. Especially Publisher, which I am beginning to like more than InDesign, as Adobe has let InDesign whither.

I'd buy it now. It could be years before it might change and it would be years you can't get back struggling with poor software or else paying the Adobe tax. $114 for apps of this quality is a steal. Especially Publisher, which I am beginning to like more than InDesign, as Adobe has let InDesign whither.

First of all: I am not writing this out of anger or to "bash" Serif. On the contrary: If I didn't care about the programs AND the company, I would have just read and that's that. But since I have appreciated both the Affinity Suite and Serif for ages, I am writing because I am both concerned (very much so) and saddened by this development.
Saddening news and I am really devasted about it. I switched from Adobe's in$anity exactly 10 years ago and loved this company to death - even having used their Page Plus, Draw Plus, Web Plus etc. for years before the Affinity line was published.
Using the Affinity suite was (and for the moment: still is) great. 
However having been around for almost half a century and knowing how acquisitions - especially in the tech world - end up nearly all the time, I just can't see any other future than: V3 - subscription (why else would the FAQ include red flags like no changes at the moment and updates to V2). If Canva keeps the apps at all and not just "include" some of their most wanted aspects into their, well, "app beloved by millions and millions of users".
I'll keep an eye on how this whole situation unfolds.
However I will start with a *very* heavy heart to look for alternatives instead of going on a haul on their spring sale (which I would have, if there wasn't this bad news). This time and for the lack of alternatives in the Open Source area. I don't want to be caught off guard again if Canva "surprisingly" changes its mind and the monthly fee is advertised with the "nicest" PR bullsh*t bingo on the website.
I really really do hope that you, Serif, will, or better said: I really do hope that they/Canva will let you, Serif, really continue with what made your suite so unique AND affordable with a one-time-buy, which is why a lot of us left Adobe's subscription lunacy years ago.
However my experience tells me that all roads lead to compulsory subscriptions and milking the paying cattle to death.
Accompanied by horrible AI excesses, because that's the "hot sh*t" today.
Let's not forget: We're talking about Canva here.
Really, Serif (or Canva): Please proof wrong.
Please be the one exception to the rule. 
Just this one time (referring to the rule of predatory capitalism, not to the Serif team).

I use both affinity and canva. Affinity for pretty much everything design wise and canva for quick social media / animation elements and collaboration.
I have the pro version of canva due to the charity status upgrade they offered (I do a lot of volunteer work), I use it for quick social media templates (99% of elements I've made, 1% of stock, 0% AI), the animation elements of it and the collaboration features because I need to share items with members that dont have any experience in design. But I wouldnt pay for it if I had to.
The best outcome would be they keep Affinity as a paid licence software set and not subscription based and V3 brings animation and collaboration elements and groups.
I dont think they'd go subscription based, it just wouldnt survive with adobe, so the most likely outcome is affinity dissolves and canva inherits all of the affinity elements.

I hate to make "me too" posts, but in cases like this, the more voices the better.
Affinity Photo has been a great tool and I've come to really like it, but I won't hesitate to jump if it goes subscription. Subscription-based software only exists because so many just agree to it instead of saying "no way!", so they know they can get away with it.
I would be happy to pay an upgrade fee for V3, but I would absolutely not agree to pay again and again and again to "rent" it; that just harms me financially.
So I hope you're listening, Canva, but just based on experience, I doubt you care when those dollar signs are floating in front of you. I hope you do the right thing by your customers, but that's not usually how anything goes these days.
 

Yeah, I am very discouraged with this message from the CEO.
I am a former Adobe user, who moved on when they went subscription. Bounced around with tools, all go to some kind of at least semi subscription model.
Then I found Affinity, and have loved it, haven't looked back.
I am a pro user who is here because of the non-subscription business model. 
 
Any be coincidence, my brother in law and close friend, who also is a pro user, and is an adobe guy who has to renew his subscription in a few weeks, and is considering a new tool set, well I sent him the link here to affinity. He first question was, its not a subscription model is it. Said he has zero interest if it is a subscription model.
I unfortunately have to call him shortly and retract my recommendation , or at least give the disclaimer that I am not confident it will remain non-subscription.
This makes me sad, because just yesterday, I had all the confidence in Affinity to put my word on it, and today, that is no longer the case.

Add me to the list of users/customers who will find alternatives is a subscription based model is adopted. I came to Affinity products from Adobe because I prefer purchasing software once rather than renting it forever. Hopefully CanvAffinity gets that.

My two cents is that Canva just decided to go all in on competing with Adobe Express; and instead of creating their own creative tools, they bought some. Tools like Express and Canvas are a really big deal in my space, higher ed. Nearly every institution either has one of these two (or a competitor) or is planning to implement one (we certainly are at this Tier 1 research university). I'm hopeful that Canva has more money to throw at feature requests we've been asking for for a long time because of their need to compete directly with Adobe. Time will tell of course.
I'm still with all of you skeptics on whether their pricing model will be retained; I hope if they do add a subscription it'll be part of the Canva subscription many are already paying. And the apps will still be available for purchase individually for non-canvas users. That's my hope at least.

My two cents is that Canva just decided to go all in on competing with Adobe Express; and instead of creating their own creative tools, they bought some. Tools like Express and Canvas are a really big deal in my space, higher ed. Nearly every institution either has one of these two (or a competitor) or is planning to implement one (we certainly are at this Tier 1 research university). I'm hopeful that Canva has more money to throw at feature requests we've been asking for for a long time because of their need to compete directly with Adobe. Time will tell of course.
I'm still with all of you skeptics on whether their pricing model will be retained; I hope if they do add a subscription it'll be part of the Canva subscription many are already paying. And the apps will still be available for purchase individually for non-canvas users. That's my hope at least.

Comet
I guess you waited a decade or more for Illustrator to get vector pattern fill, I do not remember it in version 8. 

Here's most of what I'm working with. Changing all of these objects to global colors would take hours and still wouldn't accomplish what I'd want since I have to select each color individually to change them, when all I want to do is select the group and lighten or darken all of it. An Adjustment layer gets the  look I want but exporting the file with active adjustment layers will rasterize any objects associated with the adjustment. This is a 3m high mural so rasterizing it at 300dpi would lead to an immense file.

Here's most of what I'm working with. Changing all of these objects to global colors would take hours and still wouldn't accomplish what I'd want since I have to select each color individually to change them, when all I want to do is select the group and lighten or darken all of it. An Adjustment layer gets the  look I want but exporting the file with active adjustment layers will rasterize any objects associated with the adjustment. This is a 3m high mural so rasterizing it at 300dpi would lead to an immense file.

What you would need in ADe is this overall missing functionality from Ai here ...
How To Brighten Colors In Illustrator Globally (Youtube video) How To Brighten Colors In Illustrator Globally (Website tutorial)

Maybe Serif should consider allowing plugin development and making a plugin store.
Thus, Serif itself could release first-party high quality plugins as a source of income and at the same time user or thrid-party developer like Astute Graphics could help developing "long wanted, low priority" or some "few needed but hard to implement" functionalities.

The issue "[macOS Monterey, Big Sur] Resize Canvas, Resize Document, Transform panel input fields: issues when entering values" (REF: AFP-5856) has been fixed by the developers in internal build &quot2.1.0.1720&quot.
This fix should soon be available as a customer beta and is planned for inclusion in the next customer release.
Customer beta builds are announced here and you can participate by following these instructions.
If you still experience this problem once you are using that build version (or later) please reply to this thread including @Serif Info Bot to notify us.

Just FYI, 2.0.4 is the current release since Friday, but this is not one of the fixes listed for it.

Hello @ambv, @tipsportalsg, @sgred18tips,
Welcome to Affinity Forums
Sorry the delay getting back to you. We've been quite busy since V2 release. Thanks for raising these issues with the input boxes. They are logged with dev to be looked at.
(Only affects macOS Monterey, no issues in macOS Ventura.)

Thanks @MEB. I am on Big Sur. It isn't as reliably reproduced as I initially thought. Of course I reproduced it just now on the width input box of the Export window after 5 tries. Thinking I had the exact steps, I started a screen capture and .... no dice. In typing 1920 for the width after double clicking the field, what I see when it does happen is typing the "1" causes the highlighted previous value to be cleared and the preview is displayed as a blank checkerboard. The "1" is not echo'd in the text box. 
One hint of where the bug might be is in the initial state of the input focus. Sometimes the Export dialog is displayed with focus on the Width field. Other times the input cursor is blinking inside the previously used value in the Width field. Other times the Width field is highlighted. And yet other times input focus is nowhere to be found. I thought I had it nailed down when I canceled out of the dialog and did anther Export. That's when I noticed the cursor was already in the Width Field. Double clicking the initial value in that state caused the problem. But alas, I could not reproduce it. So my gut says its related to the initial state of the preview/input focus/cursor/field value.   

Hi @brandonchang89, @matthiasbasler, @Les Wilson,
Sorry the delay getting back to you. We've been a bit busy since v2 release and are still catching up.
I was having trouble reproducing the input boxes issue (canvas/document/transform panel) because this is working fine in macOS Ventura. Monterey user's are affected though. Both these and the colour temperature issue (Montery and Ventura affected) are logged to be checked out.
Thank you all for your feedback.
 

I have this problem on DOcument resize, canvas resize and transform. THere's prolly a ton of them. I always double click the number and start typing. That reliably reproduces this bug.