Is Affinity for iPad free now? It would seem so
Every now and then, a mistake or a glitch converts a bunch (sometimes a whole horde) of window shoppers into happy owners who get the product they were considering at an outrageously low price or even for free. The examples are numerous in the realm of retail, online and brick-and-mortar; in the domain of software, such situations are reported less often, primarily due to a more rapid reaction from the developers and/or store operators
A recent case of paid-software-gone-free, as yet unexplained, is that of Affinity for iPad. The graphics suite, which includes Designer, Photo, and Publisher apps, can now be “purchased” for $0.00. The usual price of each application is around $19.
How to get Affinity for iPad for free?
As of the time of this writing (October 20, 2025), the in-app purchase section of the Affinity Designer’s page looks as shown in this picture. The purchase option is there, but the price is 0. Here’s what you need to do to get this app for free:
- download it from the App Store on your iPad;
- tap the buying option and go through the purchase process.
Since the price is zero, you won’t have to pay anything. The same applies to Affinity Photo 2 and Affinity Publisher 2 for iPad.
What’s going on?
There is no publicly announced answer to this question so far. The price of the Affinity apps for iPad has been zero for some time now — Apple Insider first covered this giveaway on October 16, 2025. Canva, which bought Serif (the company that makes Affinity) in March 2024, remains silent about this matter.
Here is some background — and clues about what may come next: Canva, an online graphic design platform and app, relies on the subscription model, while Serif preferred selling perpetual licenses, something very common a dozen years ago but quite rare nowadays. Naturally, this difference in the approaches to monetization made the acquisition a controversial move in the eyes of the Affinity community (and it does have a following).
In October 2025, Serif stopped sales of Affinity and effectively closed its forums by making them read-only. Earlier, the company mentioned it would make a major announcement on October 30, 2025. This may well mean that there won’t be lifetime license offers anymore, or Affinity as a separate product, for that matter. All the more reason to grab your free copy of the Affinity suite!
