Affinity Designer vs Gamma

Affinity Designer is a professional vector and raster design application originally built by Serif, a UK software company that Canva acquired in 2024. It is used for illustration, logos and brand identity, icons, UI mockups and print layouts, and has long been the most credible alternative to Adobe Illustrator for designers who refuse to pay a monthly subscription. The new unified Affinity app runs natively on macOS and Windows, with an iPad version announced to follow; the earlier Affinity Designer 2 also has a full iPad edition.

The core strength is the persona system: a Designer persona for precise vector work (pen, node, boolean and shape tools, symbols, artboards, constraints) and a Pixel persona for raster retouching and texture inside the same document. Performance is fast even with complex files, and it imports and exports PSD, PDF, SVG and EPS, with partial support for AI files. In late 2025 Canva merged Designer, Photo and Publisher into a single Affinity app and made it free to download, while generative AI features are tied to a Canva Pro subscription.

Affinity fits freelance designers, illustrators, small studios and students who want professional output without Adobe Creative Cloud costs. It is weaker for real-time collaboration and shared design systems, where Figma is the standard, and agencies whose clients send native Illustrator files may still hit compatibility issues. Compared with Illustrator it has a smaller plugin and tutorial ecosystem; compared with Inkscape, which is also free, it is faster and more polished, especially for print work.

Gamma is an AI-native tool that turns a prompt, outline, notes or an uploaded document into a finished presentation, document, social post or one-page website. It was founded in San Francisco in 2020 by Grant Lee, Jon Noronha and James Fox, and in November 2025 it raised a $68 million Series B led by Andreessen Horowitz at a $2.1 billion valuation, saying it had passed $100 million in annual recurring revenue and 70 million users.

Instead of fixed slides, Gamma uses flexible cards that resize to content, with themes, AI-generated or stock images, charts, embeds and analytics on who viewed what. You can edit with an AI chat, translate content, export to PowerPoint, Google Slides or PDF, or publish as a web page on a custom domain. AI actions spend credits: the free plan gives 400 once, Plus adds 1,000 a month and removes the Gamma badge, Pro adds 4,000 credits, the API and custom domains, Ultra unlocks the most advanced models, and Business adds SSO and shared themes per seat.

Gamma suits founders, marketers, consultants and educators who need good-looking decks fast and care more about speed than pixel control. Designers will find layout control limited, exports to PowerPoint can need cleanup, and heavy users burn through credits. Canva offers far more design freedom and templates, Komodo Decks targets polished business presentations, and ChatGPT can draft outlines but not designed decks.

Prices on gamma.app vary by visitor location. Start on free credits, then pick Plus unless you need the API or custom domains.