When comparing Affinity Photo vs Better Touch Tool, the Slant community recommends Affinity Photo for most people. In the question“What are the best Mac OSX apps for someone that's new to Apple?” Affinity Photo is ranked 9th while Better Touch Tool is ranked 20th. The most important reason people chose Affinity Photo is:
Pay once, get updates forever.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Lifetime updates
Pay once, get updates forever.
Pro Interface will be familiar to those coming from Photoshop
The interface, especially the Photo persona, is laid out in way that's very similar to Photoshop - a panel for icons for tools on the left, a panel for information and settings on the right.
Pro Compatible with Photoshop PSD files
Affinity Photo can import and export .psd files.
Pro Great performance
Uses the GPU extensively for fast speed on any platform.
Pro Supports layer styles
Layer styles allow non-destructively applying effects to a layer.
Pro Personas allow separation of concerns
At a high level the interface is organized into broad groups of tools called Personas. Personas like Photo for in-depth image manipulation, Liquify for warping the image, Develop for basic RAW photo development and Export for exporting. Each persona displays only those tools that are needed for that task.
Pro Powerful effects
Dozens of visual effects available. All run extremely fast with live previews
Pro Non-destructive adjustment layers
Extensive adjustment layers are non-destructive.
Pro Everything is well organized
Easy to find and use tools.
Pro Runs faster than Photoshop's old code
Pro Lots and lots of undo
Pro The easiest, even easier than photoshop
Pro The perfect combination of Photoshop and Lightroom - all in one
Pro Supports Photoshop brushes, shapes, etc.
Pro Many tutorials
But still it does not actually matter which tutorial you're actually watching, Photoshop or Affinity's, they are pretty much the same.
Pro Very, very cheap for such an app
Pro Has an iPad app
Pro Decent functionality, 100% comparable with Photoshop
Pro Much more lightweight than photoshop
Pro RAW file editing
Pro HDR image editing
Pro Powerful, cheap and lightweight
Pro Very modern and intuitive interface
Pro Color correction
Pro Very fast to learn
Takes about 20 mins, it's that easy.
Pro Growing decently fast
Pro Panorama creation
Pro Imports free images from Unsplash
Pro Endlessly customizable
Pro Extendability
Allows user to extend my MBP with touchbar by creating custom actions per app. Also supports system-wide integration (touchbar actions).
Pro BTT makes it simple to sync your hotkey, Touch Bar and gesture setup between several machines
Pro Sync settings in the cloud
Pro There's a free companion app for iOS that you can use to remote control your Mac
Pro Supports Apple script, bash, javascript
Pro Customize window button behaviour
Pro Make your own menu bar items
Pro Active community
Pro Built-in clipboard manager
Pro Highly configurable window moving / window snapping options
Pro Key sequences
Supports key sequences for things like text expansion.
Pro Supports MIDI devices (keyboards, DAW controllers, etc.)
Listen for MIDI events and have them control anything. For example you could use a DJ controller in your favorite video editor, etc.
Pro Lets you configure your external mouse's 4th and 5th button per app
Pro Record gestures / drawings and assign them to actions
Pro Developer is regularly adding features / improvements
Cons
Con Limited selection of plugins
Plugin support was only recently added to AP and not many plugins have been created for the program so far.
Con Can not import gimp or krita files
Free alternatives like GIMP (and Krita) are sort of "go to" apps you can always install and use for simple image editing or graphics on any computer. Affinity's support for Photoshop is great, but having support also for opening and editing GIMP and Krita files would make the versatility and use of this program absolutely superb.
