Is there a difference between the “Affinity Store version” and the Mac App Store version?

[BeeWinters]

I have a question.

For V1 there was a version of the app that could be downloaded/installed from the affinity website, and there was also a Mac App Store version(and windows ver. Etc.)

I was told that the features were all the same and that there were no differences between the 2 versions.

 

For V2

On the affinity website, I see references to the licenses being purchasable from the affinity store(affinity’s website?) but I cannot find an download link on the website.

So here are my questions…

1, is there an Affinity store(affinity website) version of the desktop apps for V2?

the “how to update page” seems to indicate that there is a downloadable version from the website, but wasn’t sure

 

2, the “how to update page” says that the updates are different depending on where you purchased the software.

I am assuming that whether it was purchased on the App Store or the Affinity store, I will be able to switch between one from the other if I buy the universal license right?

3, this is the main question. Are there, or will there be any limitations by getting one or the other?

 

I generally prefer to install from the App Store, since it makes managing apps and updates easier, among various other things, but wanted to make sure there weren’t going to be downsides to this.

 

I couldn’t find a forum that talks about this, so asking it here

many thanks.

[MikeTO]

Yes, you can buy directly from the Serif Affinity Store website and download the three applications from there. Or you can buy from the Mac or Microsoft app stores, it's your choice.

To buy from the Serif Affinity Store website, just go to: https://affinity.serif.com/

In v1 it really mattered whether you bought from an App Store or directly from Serif but with v2's universal license you don't need to worry about that.

Here's the official FAQ

[BeeWinters]

@MikeTO thanks for the reply.

yes I see the official FAQ now. Didn’t know how to access this one. This definitely helped with some of my questions

1, so it clearly talks about the affinity store version of the app, so that answers my 1st question.

2, From reading this it looks like it doesn’t matter where you buy the license as long as you register it to you account.

So it looks like I can buy the license anywhere and use the license on both the app installed from the affinity store, or the Mac App Store?

 

3, what I still seem to be missing is the last question. Even if I have a license that works for either the Affinity store version or the Mac App Store version of the app(assuming that is true), which one is better? Is there a difference in any of the capabilities or features?

The App Store version would let me manage downloads and updates easier, and I assume that the file management may be a little different? Depending on how each app communicates with each other for brush files etc(it said that one of the new features was the all the apps are able to access brushes and some other tools in the other apps) so maybe the storage used is a little different? Or not?

I am trying to understand, if I am going to get the universal license (all 3 apps) are there differences, limitations, benefits to the app it self, depending on where I install the apps from? Mac App Store or the DMG from the Affinity store.

[MikeTO]

The v2 applications are identical regardless of where you buy them from. I think you should buy them from wherever you're most comfortable. There do seem to have been a few license activation issues with the Mac App Store version yesterday but I'm sure Serif will have that sorted quickly so I wouldn't worry about that in the long run.

[walt.farrell]

3 hours ago, MikeTO said:

The v2 applications are identical

Close, perhaps, but not strictly "identical".

For example, on Windows, the applications downloaded from the Affinity Store have a Help > Check for Updates function that the downloads from the Microsoft Store do not have. Also, in the Account dialog, the Affinity Store versions display your email address, while the Microsoft Store versions don't.

In terms of functionality that is applicable to working with documents, though, they should be the same.

[MikeTO]

28 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

Close, perhaps, but not strictly "identical".

For example, on Windows, the applications downloaded from the Affinity Store have a Help > Check for Updates function that the downloads from the Microsoft Store do not have. Also, in the Account dialog, the Affinity Store versions display your email address, while the Microsoft Store versions don't.

In terms of functionality that is applicable to working with documents, though, they should be the same.

I stand corrected, I didn't realize that.

[iconoclast]

31 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

Close, perhaps, but not strictly "identical".

For example, on Windows, the applications downloaded from the Affinity Store have a Help > Check for Updates function that the downloads from the Microsoft Store do not have. Also, in the Account dialog, the Affinity Store versions display your email address, while the Microsoft Store versions don't.

In terms of functionality that is applicable to working with documents, though, they should be the same.

I'm not sure how it is with the v2, but I have the v1 of Photo and Publisher from the MS Store and the Check for Updates there is part of the MS-Store-App. I decided to purchase my v2 apps directly from Affinity Store, because I want to have Installers to have more control about the installation (no hidden installation). With my vs1 from the MS Store I also had some problems installing the G'MIC plugin in Photo. I'm not really a fan of the MS Store anyway.

[Lemon Tree]

For version 1, the Mac App Store version is sandboxed, which restricts the way it can open files:

• I forget where, but there's a place in the interface where you have to grant access to a directory, and until you do stuff is greyed out. This had me stumped for quite a while on one occasion, because I "knew" it was necessary, but was not thinking about it at the time. This "grant access" button is not needed, and apparently not present, in the web store version.
• There is/was a kernel limitation in macOS which limits the number of files that a sandboxed app can open in a single run to aproximately 10,000. I hit this one when using Affinity Photo's actions feature to compress 7,000 TIFFs in a folder – it got to 5,000 and failed.

I decided then if there were to be a version 2 I'd prefer the web download version for these reasons.

[BeeWinters]

Thanks everyone for replying

Yes exactly
These are the kind of things I am trying to figure out

 

Obviously there are a ton of minor things that will be different, and it wouldn't be realistic or even possible to try and understand all of it.
However, I feel that it would be good to know things like
- They update differently (This had already been mentioned above by @iconoclast)
- If certain App data are stored differently on the Mac between the Affinity store version and the Mac App Store version(like where the app gets saved to, where imported brushes save to, app settings files save location, etc. ~Library, or somewhere different?)
- Certain app features working differently. This in my opinion would be the most key thing to know, since you may potentially be missing out on features(e.g. does the sandboxing prevent certain features from working even if you enable full access?)

 

@Lemon Tree thanks for your comment.

i didn’t know that limit existed in the V1 app(I didn’t even know you could use affinity photo to run that amount of images either.

I know this is a different category of questions from the above, but you said an “action feature”. How do you access multiple images at once through affinity photo?

[Lemon Tree]

2 hours ago, BeeWinters said:

- If certain App data are stored differently on the Mac between the Affinity store version and the Mac App Store version(like where the app gets saved to, where imported brushes save to, app settings files save location, etc. ~Library, or somewhere different?)

I know this is a different category of questions from the above, but you said an “action feature”. How do you access multiple images at once through affinity photo?

• The apps both live in /Applications.
• Stuff like macros and workspaces live in ~/Library/Application Support/com.serif.affinityphoto for a normal app. The App Store version also thinks it's looking there, but it's really under ~/Library/Containers.
• I should have said "batch and macros" instead of using the Adobe term "action". It's under "File > New Batch Job...". You can choose what macros to apply to each file in a folder. And right there at top right of that dialogue, in the App Store version, is an "Authorise" button that isn't present in the normal app, which is needed to tell macOS it's OK to trust this App Store app to write into that folder.