Buying and Free Updates

[ERK]

I'm thinking of buying both of these products, but I'm getting nervous since I was told that Designer will only have free updates for another year, and Photo will have Two years.

 

About a year more of free updates for Designer, about 2 for Photo, and they'll keep working beyond that time

 

I'm not sure what this means. Will I have to pay to get new features in a year? What's the plan? Will there be cheaper upgrade packs for previous users? Does it really make sense to even buy at all, or maybe just wait a year to prolong the update cycle?

 

Any thoughts / knowledge on this topic would be appreciated.

 

Thanks,

 

ERK.

[Dale]

Hi ERK, there might be more detail to follow from people who know more than me, but the bosses have publicly said that there'll be free updates for at least 2 years after launch. While that means about a year from now for Affinity Designer, it doesn't mean that we'll cut users off cold turkey—the apps will continue to work after we stop adding major new features. It's not mandatory to buy new versions, your spend on Affinity Designer today will serve you well for a long period of time if you do not want to invest further. 

 

While you might only get amazing new updates (check how much we added in v1.4) for about a year, you do also benefit from a great starting point that already has an extra year of development behind it.

 

Consider the cup half full; Affinity Designer is 5-star rated, App Store Editors' Choice, featured as a Best of 2014 app, won an Apple Design Award, it has a huge range of features added since winning much of that prestige, still has lots more major free updates to come, and will continue working for a number of years. There's no subscription, no obligation to spend more, and right now it's under US$40. Similar can be said for Affinity Photo except it came out the gate even more fully formed, has grown incredibly in its first 5 months with high quality new features, has just been named App of the Year 2015, and will continue to grow with more feature-rich free updates for at least 18 months.

 

Upgrade pricing is a tough thing to call as the Mac App Store doesn't offer upgrades, so it's something we considered when choosing the low price for our apps and is something Apple probably intended when they set their policy, to drive low pricing. The apps need to represent great value on their own and future versions will have the same expectations.

 

I hope that helps: if I can't convince you that a major award winning pro-level creative app is not good value at $40, with class-leading new features being added for a year or so, and an app life much longer than that, then I may have to take some time off. I appreciate you taking the care to look forwards past your nose and that this is not an impulse buy, of course—you do not want to experience the issue where a $40 spend today would only give you short term benefits, but that won't be the case. Serif's been around for almost 30 years and wants to be around for that long again so we're not only innovating in development but want to deliver a good customer experience all round too!

 

Apologies if I've rambled. Dale.

[Madame]

-Photoshop  and Lightroom 19.99 US$ pr. month.

 

-Affinity photo and designer in total 80 US$ for about two years when purchased now.

Free upgrades for the two years in mention and life long ownership. 

 

Any more to think about? ;)

[ERK]

Hi ERK, there might be more detail to follow from people who know more than me, but the bosses have publicly said that there'll be free updates for at least 2 years after launch. While that means about a year from now for Affinity Designer, it doesn't mean that we'll cut users off cold turkey—the apps will continue to work after we stop adding major new features. It's not mandatory to buy new versions, your spend on Affinity Designer today will serve you well for a long period of time if you do not want to invest further. 

 

While you might only get amazing new updates (check how much we added in v1.4) for about a year, you do also benefit from a great starting point that already has an extra year of development behind it.

 

Consider the cup half full; Affinity Designer is 5-star rated, App Store Editors' Choice, featured as a Best of 2014 app, won an Apple Design Award, it has a huge range of features added since winning much of that prestige, still has lots more major free updates to come, and will continue working for a number of years. There's no subscription, no obligation to spend more, and right now it's under US$40. Similar can be said for Affinity Photo except it came out the gate even more fully formed, has grown incredibly in its first 5 months with high quality new features, has just been named App of the Year 2015, and will continue to grow with more feature-rich free updates for at least 18 months.

 

Upgrade pricing is a tough thing to call as the Mac App Store doesn't offer upgrades, so it's something we considered when choosing the low price for our apps and is something Apple probably intended when they set their policy, to drive low pricing. The apps need to represent great value on their own and future versions will have the same expectations.

 

I hope that helps: if I can't convince you that a major award winning pro-level creative app is not good value at $40, with class-leading new features being added for a year or so, and an app life much longer than that, then I may have to take some time off. I appreciate you taking the care to look forwards past your nose and that this is not an impulse buy, of course—you do not want to experience the issue where a $40 spend today would only give you short term benefits, but that won't be the case. Serif's been around for almost 30 years and wants to be around for that long again so we're not only innovating in development but want to deliver a good customer experience all round too!

 

Apologies if I've rambled. Dale.

Basically my concern is, like Apple w/ Logic Pro 9. While it still "works", and it's still "Mine" I had to upgrade the Logic X due to the fact that stability was totally gone on future OS's 10.9-10.11 slowly killed it, and made it unusable by mosts standards.

 

By Upgrade pricing I mean like an In-app purchase to continue getting feature updates or spitting out a redemption code for 2.0 redeemable in the app store, vs having to repurchase the app in a year for something like full price.

 

While yes, $40 isn't that bad, at all. I know that Serif has some great things in the pipeline, concerning features and products. I just currently don't have such a massive budget. I can get behind spending $80 for something that will be supported performance and stability wise (like maintenance patches vs features for years to come) on 11.X or 10.15. Just because I own something for life, doesn't mean it'll work for life.

(If that makes sense?)

 

I apologize for being a pest, it's just a big decision for me, learning a new workflow and getting out of Adobe old ways, Shortcuts, etc...

 

-Photoshop  and Lightroom 19.99 US$ pr. month.

 

-Affinity photo and designer in total 80 US$ for about two years when purchased now.

Free upgrades for the two years in mention and life long ownership. 

 

Any more to think about? ;)

 

Photoshop and Lightroom - 9.99 a month, Trust Me I'm subscribed to that right now.

Free Upgrades For Two(ish) Year for Photo and One(ish) for Designer which is my main focus at this point, though if I buy one, I'll buy the other.

What I'm really thinking about is future stability. Like Will there be support on 11.X or 10.15. Just because I own something for life, doesn't mean it'll work for life.

[Madame]

Sorry the price on PS&L CC was wrong.

 

Well, I took the chance. ;) I think if they get around to make 11.x or 10.15, they will get around to support it too.

[VIPStephan]

Photoshop and Lightroom - 9.99 a month, Trust Me I'm subscribed to that right now.

 

So, that’s 120$ per year (or 240$ for two years) where you could have AD and AP for 80$. That means, even if you have to buy new versions of Affinity Software for the full price after the next two years you’re still better off – and it gets just better if you upgrade after a longer period of time (where you will still be paying monthly fees for Adobe software).

 

I think there is not much more to think about.

[anon1]

aaaand I´d always buy them with the reduced price tag (when they´re released in my case or right now in your case) and I also buy 100€ iTunes cards, they´re reduced sometimes so I can get them for 80€ with saves me another 20%

[william7]

Photoshop and Lightroom - 9.99 a month, Trust Me I'm subscribed to that right now.

Free Upgrades For Two(ish) Year for Photo and One(ish) for Designer which is my main focus at this point, though if I buy one, I'll buy the other.

What I'm really thinking about is future stability. Like Will there be support on 11.X or 10.15. Just because I own something for life, doesn't mean it'll work for life.

As I don't work for Serif I can't say for sure, but I would assume that like any software company once the new version is out the old one will kind of be as is. Like you said at some point a future OS update will surely break it, thats part of software. However you can realistically think that you would be able to run it for 1-2 years after it stops getting updates without much of an issue. Currently their apps are on sale for a combined cost of $80, full price $100 (all US prices), your subscription to PS and LR costs $120 per year. what that says to me is that you could afford to buy both affinity apps every year for less than your adobe subscription however you shouldn't have to with 2 years of updates for AP and 1 year of Designer that averages out to 1.5 years between buys. Finally (again I am speculating) I highly doubt serif cuts off free updates at exactly the 2 year mark, my guess is that they will be updating them for free for 6 months to a year after but probably without any new features just stability stuff.

[VIPStephan]

And not that it tells anything about Serif’s software but I’m currently still running Fireworks CS 5 (released in 2010) on El Capitan. Yes, it starts feeling old (especially with the new OS UI introduced in Yosemite) and has a minor bug in the image exporting workflow but it’s still working alright. I think we can assume similar longevity for Affinity.

[ERK]

Everyone keeps talking about how expensive PS and LR are, and how you don't own them.

 

But... They are an industry standards. A lot of time (and money) has gone into learning them, and understanding them. Designer is not (yet?) an industry standard. Though I'm very excited to learn it, because it has elements of photoshop and illustrator in it. I'm very curious too see how it evolves, but I don't want to pay 40 now, and then have to pay a much bigger fee in a year. No one from Serif is answering how future pricing and updates are going to work which makes me very nervous. 

 

Lets be honest there is a 99% chance that I'm buying it, in the next few days. I just want to figure out future logistics.

[Leigh]

 No one from Serif is answering how future pricing and updates are going to work which makes me very nervous. 

 

This is because we've not finished the current version yet and it's too early discuss the "next" version and its pricing. Our devs are working towards completing the roadmap for both apps ( here & here ) and making sure our apps continue to be solid. As Dale states above, the Mac App Store doesn't do upgrade pricing and when the time comes for us to release the "next" version there will be a fee but at the moment this is something we're not thinking about.

[mbell@skilltek.com]

I purchased Affinity Design and (I think) Affinity Photo a few months ago.  I think Apple believes that also, because I am getting notices that there is an update available for Affinity Photo.  What has me stumped is that I get a message from the App Store that the update they prodded me about is not available under this Apple ID.  How can I determine who the App Store thinks bought this app so I can get this straightened out?

[Leigh]

When you buy an app from the Mac App Store you should receive an Invoice to the email address registered to the Apple ID. Did you receive an invoice?

[mbell@skilltek.com]

Yes, I did. I received invoices for Designer and for Photo, both listing my Apple ID under "Apple ID".  I have been able to download the latest and greatest version of Designer, but no dice on Photo.

[Leigh]

If you're confident that you're using the correct Apple ID I would delete Affinity Photo from your Mac and reinstall it again from the Mac App Store.

[David4]

Now, I am wondering if AP will be shot down in a few years like some of the other Apple offerings. Never used Aperture, and know some photogs unhappy it's gone.

 

Maybe, just maybe, serif is NOT Apple. And Apple is just the pipeline from which is it distributed.

 

Cheers

 

David

[R C-R]

"Maybe, just maybe, serif is NOT Apple. And Apple is just the pipeline from which is it distributed."

 

There is no maybe about it. Serif (Europe) Ltd is an independent developer of software applications headquartered in Nottingham, UK. Like many others, the company sells its Mac OS X products through the Apple Mac Store. That is the only sense in which it is an "Apple offering."