Affinity Designer vs Readymag

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.

Readymag is a browser-based design tool for building websites, editorial longreads, portfolios and presentations without code. It is aimed at designers, so the editor works like a free-form canvas: you place text, images, video and shapes anywhere on the page instead of filling a fixed template grid, with precise control over typography and layout.

Animations, scroll-triggered effects, hover states, embedded media and custom code widgets let projects feel closer to digital magazines than to standard landing pages. Readymag supports custom and web fonts, team collaboration, custom domains, basic SEO settings, forms and a gallery of templates and community projects for inspiration. Mobile layouts are designed separately for each viewport, which gives full control but adds work. A free plan lets you try the editor with limited projects, and paid plans for freelancers, professionals and teams add custom domains, more projects and publishing features.

Readymag fits designers, studios and media teams producing expressive one-off pieces such as brand presentations, campaign microsites, annual reports and portfolios. It is a poor fit for content-heavy sites that need a real CMS, e-commerce or frequent updates by non-designers. Webflow is stronger for structured CMS sites, Framer for fast startup sites with interactions, Tilda for affordable block-based landing pages, and Squarespace for simple business websites.