Affinity vs VectorStyler
Both are bought outright, both sit in design, and both are bought by people leaving Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Creative Cloud. Here is what actually differs — including what each price does not buy.
The short answer
- Affinity is free; VectorStyler costs $95.
- VectorStyler has the cleaner licence: buy once, own forever, against free for Affinity.
- Affinity needs an account with the developer; VectorStyler does not.
Side by side
 AffinityFreeFree |  VectorStyler$95Perpetual | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | the whole design suite, now free for individuals | deep vector illustration app, 95 dollars once with upgrades included |
| Price | Free | $95 |
| Licence | Free | Buy once, own forever |
| What you get | No licence to buy. | One payment. Updates included, indefinitely. |
| The catch | Free, but the download runs through a Canva account and the AI tools need a paid Canva plan | One person builds it, so "lifetime" means the app's lifetime rather than yours |
| Macs per licence | not established | 6 |
| Account required | yes | no |
| Works offline | partly | yes |
| Apple Silicon | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | Yes |
| On Setapp | No | No |
| Minimum macOS | not established | not established |
| App Store rating | not established | not established |
| Last updated | not established | not established |
| Price checked | 2026-09-22 | 2026-09-22 |
Apple’s public API reports a rating for only a small minority of Mac apps, and returns zero for most of the rest even when the store page plainly shows reviews. A blank here means we could not read a number, never that an app is unrated or disliked.
In their own right
Affinity
The former Affinity Photo, Designer and Publisher merged into one app with vector, pixel and page layout in a single document, and given away to individuals by Canva.
VectorStyler
A technically dense vector editor that goes after the parts of Illustrator other alternatives skip: non-destructive effects, variable-width strokes, mesh fills and spot colour.