Affinity vs Capture One Comparison 2026
Affinity is a free general editor covering photo, vector and layout work, useful for almost anything except the two things Capture One is built around: camera-tethered shooting and colour graded to a client's exact reference. Capture One starts at $18 a month for its Pro tier, or $349 once for a perpetual licence. The decision is about workflow, not budget, since Affinity costs nothing either way and would not replace tethering if the job needs it.
Photo, vector and layout, free for individuals
RAW editing and tethering for professionals
At a glance
- Only Affinity has a free tier.
Side by side
Affinity | Capture One | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | Free | From $18 |
| Pricing model (they differ) | Free | Paid subscription |
| Free tier (they differ) | Yes | No |
| Billing (they differ) | One-time purchase | Monthly or annual |
| Free trial | None | Not stated |
| API | Not stated |
Affinity
Photo, vector and layout, free for individuals
Affinity is three professional applications in one window: a pixel editor, a vector editor and a page layout tool, with no round trip between them. Canva bought it and made it free, which is the largest thing to happen to paid creative software in years. Files from the Adobe applications open with their layers intact.
Our note
This is the most significant thing to happen to paid creative software in years, and there is no catch that we can find. If you edit photos or lay out documents and have been renting the ability to do it, install this before renewing anything.
Capture One
RAW editing and tethering for professionals
Capture One is what photographers move to when Lightroom's colour handling and tethered shooting stop being good enough. The colour editor works on ranges you define rather than on fixed sliders, and tethering to a camera is the feature its users will not give up. It is a professional tool with a professional learning curve, and it still sells a licence you buy once.
Why people weigh these two
- Capture One instead of Affinity
- Capture One goes deeper on raw processing and tethered shooting for $18 a month, where Affinity's raw tools sit inside a free, broader suite.
- Affinity instead of Capture One
- Affinity covers photo work alongside vector and layout and is free for individuals, a broad editor next to Capture One's raw-and-tether focus.
Which one should you pick
Choose Capture One if you shoot tethered in a studio or need colour editing built on ranges you define rather than fixed sliders. The $349 perpetual Pro licence is the reason to look here over a subscription-only tool, and five years of subscribing converts to one automatically. It supports 550 camera profiles, which shows up directly in skin tones straight out of the file.
Choose Affinity if the job is general photo editing, vector work or page layout, and tethering was never part of it. It costs nothing for individuals, across all three studios, with print-ready export and Adobe file compatibility built in. Anybody who does not own a camera worth tethering, or shoots for the web rather than for print, gets nothing extra from Capture One's price.
Common questions
- Does Affinity support tethered shooting?
- No. Tethered shooting is not among Affinity's features. Capture One is built around it: the camera fires directly into the application and the frame appears on a laptop immediately, which is why studios buy it specifically.
- Can Capture One be bought once instead of a subscription?
- Yes. A perpetual Pro licence is $349 one time, aimed at photographers who do not need the newest updates immediately. Subscribing for five years also converts automatically to a perpetual licence at no extra cost.
- Is Affinity actually free, or a trial version of something paid?
- Free for individuals with nothing held back, across the pixel, vector and layout studios, since Canva bought the company. Capture One has no free tier; its cheapest path in is $18 a month for Pro.
- How many cameras does Capture One support?
- 550, with colour profiles built per camera body rather than applied generically. Affinity does not publish a camera count, since it is a general editor rather than a raw-focused one.
Ratings are the average of reviews readers left. The facts are stated by each tool’s own listing and are not verified by CloutStack. How we make money.