mr_bee Posted February 7, 2015 Share Posted February 7, 2015 I really want to get on board with this software, but the price is a bit ridiculous for a first time product that - who knows? - might not be around a year from now. It's advertised as $40 US, but in Canada, it's $60. This is just so offensive given that the Canadian dollar typically trades at almost par with the US dollar and is currently sitting at $0.80. In other words, the Canadian dollar is worth 20% less than the US dollar, but we have to pay 50% more instead of the 20. Why, why, why, why why. Probably you won't even approve of this posting, and no one will ever hear of my complaint, but after weeks of thinking about the pros and cons, I finally went to the store to buy this product, and was faced with this rip-off price. It's not fair to gouge Canadians in this way. I can't as a moral person buy your software when it isn't fairly priced. signed, deeply insulted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staff TonyB Posted February 7, 2015 Staff Share Posted February 7, 2015 We set the App Store price band to 50 and that translates to $50 US, Apple then set the price in each region based on that band. We don't have the ability to set anything other than the price band. As for $50 US, then I think there will be a lot of people on this forum that think the price is fair. I do appreciate that the price difference between regions can seem unfair but we in Europe also have this problem. Also, for $50 US we are also promising new features and updates for the next 2 years for free so again I think the price is fair. ronnyb, Tod and paolo.limoncelli 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hokusai Posted February 7, 2015 Share Posted February 7, 2015 mr_bee, Affinity Designer is an incredible bargain at $60. Try it and you will understand. The software is very powerful, fast, and they have added lots of nice little touches that show that how focused they are on making a great product. Also if you see how hard their team works to squash bugs, make improvements, and actually listen to what their customers say, you would also think that $60 is a steal. Affinity Designer compares very favourably with Adobe Illustrator which is priced much higher (and you have to pay a subscription to use it). Most comparable vector packages are going to cost you $400 or more (US Dollars and so it would be even more in Canadian Dollars). peter and BethaniRose 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arctic Gorilla Posted February 7, 2015 Share Posted February 7, 2015 I personally think the price is really great value for money, you just have to look at the price of apps such as Sketch in comparison. OS X Yosemite on a 2014 15" MacBook Pro Retina 2.2 GHz i7 16GB Intel Iris Pro 1536MB Never be afraid to try something new. Remember, amateurs built the ark. Professionals built the Titanic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
denironaut Posted February 7, 2015 Share Posted February 7, 2015 To say the price is a bit ridiculous makes no sense whatsoever. Try to consider what your getting for your money. Deeply satisfied. peter 1 http://earnshaw.photography Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Harris Posted February 7, 2015 Share Posted February 7, 2015 I really want to get on board with this software, but the price is a bit ridiculous for a first time product that - who knows? - might not be around a year from now. Serif as a company has been around since 1987. We've been supporting the Plus range for 25 years. Affinity Designer isn't our first product; merely our first on Mac. We're in it for the long haul. peter and nigelch 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peter Posted February 7, 2015 Share Posted February 7, 2015 To Affinity and beyond! boudewijndanser, DrPocter, BethaniRose and 2 others 5 MacBook pro, 2.26 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 4 GB 1067 MHz DDR3, NVIDIA GeForce 9400M 256 MB, OS X 10.11.6 http://www.pinterest.com/peter2111 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ronnyb Posted February 7, 2015 Share Posted February 7, 2015 Mr_bee: $50 or $60 isn't really that much for professional-level software, in fact it's quite a bargain if you're escaping the Adobe monopoly... as for your concerns about Serif: This may be Serif's first Mac product, but they've been around for decades. And they actually develop software from the ground up, they don't merely buy products from other developers and either kill the products for competitive reasons (Freehand) or slap a new label on them, as has been Adobe's approach for the last 2 decades... $50-$60 for Affinity Designer is what I'd consider A STEAL! David and nigelch 2 2021 16” Macbook Pro w/ M1 Max 10c cpu /24c gpu, 32 GB RAM, 1TB SSD, macOS Sequoia 15.1 2018 11" iPad Pro w/ A12X cpu/gpu, 256 GB, iPadOS 18.1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GRScott Posted February 8, 2015 Share Posted February 8, 2015 If you love to draw, and you need a vector/pixel drawing program to achieve that, then 40-50-60 dollars is nothing in the long run. Cheap for having fun or doing work. Gregg OS X Version 10.14.6 iMac 27" 3.2 GHz i5- 32 GB Huion Kamvas Pro 20 iPad Pro 12.9" IOS 13 AD = OS IOS, AP = OS IOS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jVh Posted February 9, 2015 Share Posted February 9, 2015 I really want to get on board with this software, but the price is a bit ridiculous for a first time product that - who knows? - might not be around a year from now. It's advertised as $40 US, but in Canada, it's $60. This is just so offensive given that the Canadian dollar typically trades at almost par with the US dollar and is currently sitting at $0.80. In other words, the Canadian dollar is worth 20% less than the US dollar, but we have to pay 50% more instead of the 20. Why, why, why, why why. Probably you won't even approve of this posting, and no one will ever hear of my complaint, but after weeks of thinking about the pros and cons, I finally went to the store to buy this product, and was faced with this rip-off price. It's not fair to gouge Canadians in this way. I can't as a moral person buy your software when it isn't fairly priced. signed, deeply insulted. I'm living in Canada and I got it for $39.00. I have not seen price of $80.00 ... kinda bizarre ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peter Posted February 9, 2015 Share Posted February 9, 2015 Serif as a company has been around since 1987. We've been supporting the Plus range for 25 years. Affinity Designer isn't our first product; merely our first on Mac. We're in it for the long haul. and so say all of us... nigelch 1 MacBook pro, 2.26 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 4 GB 1067 MHz DDR3, NVIDIA GeForce 9400M 256 MB, OS X 10.11.6 http://www.pinterest.com/peter2111 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VectorCat Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 as my wife would say of AD's price, "It's a screamin' deal!" ronnyb 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carbmac Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 It's a sweet price for all it's doing. Considering the alternatives aren't near as good and features packed as Designer is. I'm Canadian and I had no issues with the price :) Ben 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adrianna Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 Just Imagine forking out over a £1000 pounds for adobe products! :angry: ronnyb 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoadm Posted February 11, 2015 Share Posted February 11, 2015 I think the price is a bargain but I hear you about Apples currency conversion. Dont feel too bad though, the Australian $ is worth .98CAD but the AppStore US.99 is $1.29 here. Thats pretty much right now given the current exchange rate but its been that way since we were paying the equilevant of US$1.25. They are quick to raise prices on exchange fluctuation but take their time dropping it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AshTeriyaki Posted February 11, 2015 Share Posted February 11, 2015 Are we forgetting that illustrator used to be $600? Even at that price point it was worth the money if you were a pro. I'd actually argue that AD is far too cheap, but that's the world we live in nowadays. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VectorCat Posted February 11, 2015 Share Posted February 11, 2015 I feel that what's partly at work here is a something-for-nothing mentality which has been cultivated in party, frankly, by Apple itself..Apple "throws in" all kinds of great apps, either for free or for a ridiculously low price. and they aren't just any old apps, but well-formed, well-behaved software tools that let you do amazing things. It makes sense for Apple to do this because it helps build their brand (world's most valuable company ain't too shabby) and it helps them sell computers. That is a smart, shrewd move. Over my career, I've taken a chance on a lot of software tools which were, let's call them "rogue*" in the sense that they were trying to break into a market dominated by established and wealthy companies. These rogue developers try to change the game table by offering something very compelling, namely, professional results and tools, fraction of the cost. I have never seen such "rogue" software as mature and well-formed right out of the starting gate as these Affinity tools are. And they aren't merely aping what the big dogs do, they are inventing new ways of approaching our art and craft, and this simply does not come out of a bottle. It takes smarts, vision, and elbow grease. And I for one feel that deserves to be compensated and am happy to pay these, IMO, very modest software prices in exchange for how miraculous this software is. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ *and power TO the rogues..what's that saying that the big changes happen when a few decide to stand up and do things differently, or words to that effect. Rosa Parks, Ghandi, Mandela, to name a few. rui_mac, AshTeriyaki, Ben and 5 others 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
00Ghz Posted February 13, 2015 Share Posted February 13, 2015 I agree, price/features/performance is a hit and as long as they don't sell the company to Adobe or others their future is looking great. UI Designer, CG Artist Macbook Pro 15" 2014 2.5 Ghz, 750M https://www.behance.net/VladMafteiuScai Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elliot Posted February 13, 2015 Share Posted February 13, 2015 We set the App Store price band to 50 and that translates to $50 US, Apple then set the price in each region based on that band. We don't have the ability to set anything other than the price band. As for $50 US, then I think there will be a lot of people on this forum that think the price is fair. I do appreciate that the price difference between regions can seem unfair but we in Europe also have this problem. Also, for $50 US we are also promising new features and updates for the next 2 years for free so again I think the price is fair. the price is more than fair. Gheeesh Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DragonNotALizard Posted February 13, 2015 Share Posted February 13, 2015 I personally think its fair too. Did you check the latest Adobe cloud plans ?!?!?! :rolleyes: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aux1design Posted February 13, 2015 Share Posted February 13, 2015 I have forked out literally thousands of euro to the Adobe monopoly over the last 20 years, (albeit through various companies I worked for) and now with their highly inflated subscriptions policy my loyalty bubble is well and truly burst. I paid what I consider to be a snip for a very impressive first release of Affinity Designer, which tells me that there must be plenty more in the pipeline. Well done, the word is out in Dublin! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deeds Posted February 13, 2015 Share Posted February 13, 2015 There is no right way to answer this man's concerns about price. And there's no right way to converse with this man about this matter in public. Anything you say will be construed wrongly, negatively or otherwise disdainfully by a percentage of your audience and potential and existing customers. Given that you offer a 10 day "beta trial" as of this moment, and probably knew that was coming at the time of this person's expression of concerns, the only just answer is to send him to the trial, and have him contact you directly with any subsequent concerns. If you otherwise feel you want to respond, then you must do so with supporting evidence. Any subjective "i feel", "I think", "we consider" is just that... subjective, and nonsense. Make a case for the price, and be prepared to make that case for the price every single day, to anyone that ever challenges it, forever... if you want to engage this sort of questioning on price... and be sure you're absolutely, objectively convincing. It's not hard to do. There's a number of aspects of just the pure speed and ease of use and transference via clipboard of work done in Affinity Designer that justify its cost, and then some, in near immediate time saved and creative options available for anyone doing anything remotely near a professional creative standard. What this does bring to mind is how poor the website's justification of the pricing is, and the fact that you're not operating with a traditional 30 day trial as per just about every other creative software on the planet. There is a time to understanding the paradigms of software and its features, functionalities and methodologies that's always going to be worth more to the purchaser than the outright cost of the software. At this stage Affinity is not being taught well in terms of its processes, nor is it transparent as to what it's missing and what's on the roadmap... until becoming engaged here in the forums and being told where (in the forums) to look for such details. That's pretty inappropriate because the time it takes me to find the details of what's not currently working or part of Affinity is costing me far more than the purchase price in terms of time and consideration of its use for the things I want to use it for. There's no way that I'm alone in that regards. Whilst I commend you for providing 2 years of upgrades etc... the fact remains that Affinity Designer is missing some pretty big show stoppers for giving over to it for production. It's not a complete package for illustration just yet because it doesn't permit the kinds of iterative processes and exploration that's prevalent in vector design. If I'd known that (despite being a 1.x) product it's not anywhere near ready for prime time use, I would have approached it differently and used it differently in terms of my own time commitments to understanding its paradigms and approaches, and that's probably true of everyone. The thing that remains self evident is that there's an enormous creative community of Mac owners willing to give any rival to the Adobe entrenchment a go, and their goodwill. Don't squander that by not being transparent about what's missing from the software.... help people realise their best time path to committing to knowing and using Affinity Designer by way of the very public listing and promotion of the roadmap and missing features and functionally of this point, and every point in time along the path of the next two years, on a day by day basis. Permit users to subscribe to those updates, and update the roadmap in terms of anticipated timelines of each feature and bit of functionality. And do this in a way that's charming and fun to engage with, and interactive, so that anyone that really understands illustrative software's potential can chime in and help you make this better than the best, and better than you alone can make it be. Google and Apple and Android have forever changed consumer expeditions of software and computer service pricing. The correct response to these changes is not to go cheaper, it's to be more transparent about the effort and processes required to make sustainable, secure and performant software. //yes, I know google own Android, but it's important to differentiate them here, because they're different public entities that have had different impacts on the public's expectations of software services and products It takes immense planning, care and consideration to even begin to think about designing something like Affinity Designer and Photo, and truly prodigious levels of talent just to find and manage the development talent required to make these programs as fast, lightweight and efficient and fun to use as they are. It's ok to tell the world about that, because that's something very special, and that does more to justify the pricing than anything else you can ever say or do. Be your own best window to the reality of incredible software development, because that's what you're doing, and you should be applauded for it, but nobody can do that if they can't understand the processes, at all. And most don't. Patrick Connor 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peter Posted February 14, 2015 Share Posted February 14, 2015 If I'd known that (despite being a 1.x) product it's not anywhere near ready for prime time use, I would have approached it differently and used it differently in terms of my own time commitments to understanding its paradigms and approaches, and that's probably true of everyone. OK fair comment; but that's why the Betas are SO important. The users, myself included are shaping versions 2,3,4 etc. This is a very dynamic forum, with a sense of community. (I've been on it every day, since I joined). This will be a game changer in the long run, not tomorrow, as it is incomplete (but extremely functional) at the moment and the dev team DO listen. How powerful is that? Very! Just like ballroom dancing, this forum and the dev team are equal partners who rely on each other's feedback and right now that's all that matters. As for price...expensive is the wrong word! MacBook pro, 2.26 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 4 GB 1067 MHz DDR3, NVIDIA GeForce 9400M 256 MB, OS X 10.11.6 http://www.pinterest.com/peter2111 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VectorCat Posted February 14, 2015 Share Posted February 14, 2015 Yes, please don't sell to adobe, etc. The price is not just fair, but the entire Affinity construct is exactly what we've been crying for for years. "Legacy" software is just an expensive bugfest. The cloud thing is a crime, and in return for your constant gravy train of software fees, you don't get better software; just more features. No meaningful under-the-hood improvements, and near-constant narrative that, if you want better performance, keep buying newer and newer machines. In what universe is that a good deal? Here you have brand-new apps that are more stable and mature than the legacy counterparts and I don't feel like a shiv is being stuck between my ribs. I feel that these developers really know what they're doing, have vision and concern for their base of users. Maybe adobe was like that, once up on a time, long long ago in a place far, far away from here.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LilleG Posted February 14, 2015 Share Posted February 14, 2015 I have liked Illustrator and I loved Photoshop but the rental policy was the opt-out signal for me. Affinity Designer and now Affinity Photo will provide for all my needs. And the price is a great bargain! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts