How does Affinity Photo compare to other photo editors?

[Granddaddy]

People frequently ask in these forums how Affinity Photo compares to other photo editors. The best way to find out is to try the editors for yourself. I learned more than 30 years ago never to argue which is best with anyone already committed to a particular piece of software. Once committed to a software package, someone needs a compelling reason to change to something else. 

For those looking to change their software or to begin photo editing for the first time, PCMag.com on March 7, 2019, published a review of the "best photo editors for 2019" at https://www.pcmag.com/roundup/254618/the-best-photo-editing-software

Perhaps it is needless to say that Affinity Photo does not get mentioned except in the comments of readers, one of whom suggests adding Affinity Photo to the list. Strangely, that comment is dated one month before the publication date on the article itself. How PCMag.com manages to do that I leave as speculation for my readers. The table of features confuses monthly subscription costs with one-time purchase prices, but that misrepresentation has been common in PCMag.com for a long time.

PCMag.com gave a "full" review of Affinity Photo on February 13, 2019, at https://www.pcmag.com/review/366399/serif-affinity-photo . They ranked AP only Good, with three stars out of five. The author of the review says that Affinity Photo is not truly non-destructive unless you export to the afphoto file format. That criticism does not even rise to the level of being wrong.

Having used three of the "top" photo editors myself, I can say that I personally found compelling reasons to switch to Affinity Photo about 16 months ago. I haven't used the others since, in part because one or more of them lack features included in Affinity Photo. But then I'm just an old granddaddy with some 25,000 digital photos plus nearly 6,000 scanned 35mm slides plus several hundred scans of paper photos that date back more than 100 years. I realize from reading these forums regularly that professionals have needs I don't even understand. 

 

[jmwellborn]

 Perhaps the big question is, did the reviewer at PC-Magazine get a little outside monetary assistance while writing the article?  Rather like the “customer reviews” on websites which are inventions as well.    My personal guess is that Adobe is becoming seriously concerned that their confiscatory near monopoly may be coming to a screeching halt.   Quality and honor are increasingly rare commodities in today’s world.  Affinity has both, so far as I am concerned.