When comparing Affinity Photo vs Photoshop, the Slant community recommends Affinity Photo for most people. In the question“What are the best image editing software tools for Mac?” Affinity Photo is ranked 2nd while Photoshop is ranked 4th. 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 Industry standard
Photoshop is used by professionals everywhere. It is taught in classes, used by artists and is even used by medical professionals. If you've seen a magazine ad featuring a model, you've probably seen the effects of Photoshop. You won't be alone when using Photoshop. The internet is full of tutorials and videos on how to use Photoshop. This fact, coupled with the trove of plugins available for Photoshop means you can use it it to make the professional looking or artistic images you need.
Pro Fully featured
Photoshop is the most fully featured image editing software available today allowing you to perform highly advanced image manipulation.
On top of that it offers features beyond the realm of typical image editing software tools such as support for video editing, 3d elements and 3d printing among others.
Pro Content-aware tools
Photoshop includes content-aware tools such as content-aware fill that can fill in a select area based on what surrounds it.
Pro Reasonable UI
Pro Creative Cloud Photography subscription includes Lightroom
Lightroom is another image editing software from Adobe that's specifically designed for photo editing and managing of large quantities of digital images.
Pro A cheaper version called Photoshop Elements is available
A stripped down version of Photoshop, called Photoshop Elements can be bought as a standalone application for $100.
Pro Mobile companion apps available
There's a free mobile app available for iOS, Android & Windows Phone.
Pro Lots of tutorials
There's a huge number of both free and paid tutorials available online. Websites like Lynda.com offer premium high-quality, in-depth tutorials, but there are plenty of free alternatives to be found on YouTube, blogs and specialized sites on the Internet.
Pro Support for vector shapes
Pro Non-destructive blur
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.
Con Expensive
For a high-quality product, the price is high enough to match. With the new Adobe model, all Creative Suite Products are subscription based only. This means that for the complete "Creative Cloud" you are required to buy a year subscription for about 600 USD. In order to use just a single product, its a $20 monthly subscription. The cheapest option would be Photoshop Elements 12 which is a single time payment of less than 100 USD depending on where you look.
Con Only available as a subscription
Used to be a one time purchase. Now a monthly lease.