Purchase: Mac App Store or online?

[Cooner]

Can anyone say if there are functional differences between purchasing the Affinity apps for Mac on the Mac App Store vs. purchasing a serial number online here?

I must admit I enjoy the convenience of having apps in the App Store so I can install them easily on my iMac or MacBook, or anytime I'm installing to a new upgraded machine. But I also know sometimes there are trade-offs to buying the "walled garden" version of an app.

Thank you!

[Old Bruce]

2 hours ago, Cooner said:

sometimes there are trade-offs to buying the "walled garden" version of an app.

I believe the only difference is where you bought it. Buy on the Mac App Store and you can only reinstall from there and the same for the Affinity site. 

[Alfred]

1 hour ago, Old Bruce said:

Buy on the Mac App Store and you can only reinstall from there and the same for the Affinity site.

If you buy from the MAS you have to log in to the MAS to install it on another machine. If you buy from the Affinity Store, having downloaded it once you can transfer the *.dmg file to another machine without any need to log into the store again (as long as you’ve kept a note of the product key).

[Fixx]

In principle you can copy a MAS app to another mac without downloading from MAS, but it does not work with every app and is not generally recommended.

I guess most technical difference comes from that MAS apps have to be sandboxed a certain way. This does not affect functionality.

For Serif the difference would be that Affinity shop does not pay royalties to Apple – thus Affinity shop brings more money to house. If you want to support Serif you should buy from Affinity store, right?

[R C-R]

3 minutes ago, Fixx said:

In principle you can copy a MAS app to another mac without downloading from MAS, but it does not work with every app and is not generally recommended.

Generally, you just need to authenticate with the Apple ID & password used to purchase the app to get it to work on a different Mac. This requires an internet connection so Apple can do that, but it is just a brief transaction that doesn't use much bandwidth.

Mac System Preferences > App Store also offers options to automatically download new app updates in the background & to install them automatically, so some users may find that useful, particularly since the Affinity MAS apps support family sharing so less technically savvy family plan members won't need help to make sure they are running the latest versions.

OTOH, Apple may take a few days to vet a third party update after it is submitted before it is available through MAS, so for Affinity Store buyers the update might be available a few days sooner than for MAS buyers.

[Cooner]

Thanks for your comments, folks! Sorry if my initial question wasn't clear ... I've been a Mac user for 30 years … technically I know the difference between buying a serial number online, downloading an installer and registering the software with the serial number vs. buying an app on the App Store and being able to install it on any machines logged into your AppleID.

I was more curious if there are any specific differences in the features or capabilities between the two versions, particularly because of the sandboxing that's required for Mac App Store apps. It sounds like there's no serious functional differences there … but if anyone knows of any, please let me know! I already bought Photo and Designer for iOS, planning to snap up the macOS versions in the next few days.

Not making Serif pay royalties for Mac Store sales … that is something to consider!

Thanks!

[postmadesign]

I am interested in this issue too.