Marc EdwardsNov 1

“When we made Affinity free, some people assumed there had to be a catch. Let me be absolutely clear. There is no catch.”

I do not think this comment will age well. You don’t spend USD$1 billion on something just to give it away. It’s very likely the plan is a freemium model, because that’s what the rest of Canva is. That means gating features behind a subscription tier. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9YR9KeCJDY

How is Affinity now free?

YouTube
Show threadCM HarringtonNov 1

@marcedwards their doing/gonna do a few things… seems now you need a canva login to use it, and everything becomes input into their AI model. The future will also probably be multi-tier sub walls like figma where useful features will be only available at higher paid tiers rather than their base paid tier.

This allows them to inflate their canva user numbers/MAU, etc.

Show threadMarc Edwards
@octothorpe Yep, yep, and yep. So much of this seems obvious? And as we know from other companies, they’ll be under a lot of pressure to get every last cent from their customers post-IPO.
Nov 1 at 4:13amIvory for Mac
Show threadCM HarringtonNov 1

@marcedwards Yuuuuup. And folks are all ‘this is great!’ MF, you are in the year 2025. How do you NOT know how ‘free’ works outside of OSS?!

It’s like they’ve learned NOTHING.

Show threadMarc EdwardsNov 1
@octothorpe 😂 I guess some people need to be burned a few more times by “free” VC funded services.
Show threadBartNov 1
@marcedwards @octothorpe The terms and conditions of the EULA are just a bunch of catches in a trench coat.
Show threadMarc EdwardsNov 1
@bartreardon @octothorpe Yep. I think “right now, strategically it suits us to give this away for free, but we will probably change our minds” would be the most honest message.
Show threadstephen ryner jr. 🦉Nov 1
@octothorpe @marcedwards this time, it will be different!
Show threadCM HarringtonNov 1
@nuthatch @marcedwards ::charlie brown football dot gif::
Show threadJonathan HendryNov 1

@octothorpe @marcedwards

Hah, my talentless amateur doodlings are worthless to them. I'm still coming out ahead.

It'll be a while before it gets intolerably enshittified, and in the meantime I'll have some tools I didn't previously have. But what I do with them will be rubbish with no commercial or emotional value.