Affinity Designer vs Corel Painter: Which One Is Better in 2024?

Both Affinity Designer and Corel Painter are essential tools for businesses and designers, offering unique features that cater to different creative needs. We'll compare these two to determine which one excels in various aspects, helping you make an informed choice for your design projects.

A Quick Overview of Affinity Designer and Corel Painter

What is Affinity Designer?

Affinity Designer is developed by Serif (Europe) Ltd. The company specializes in creating professional-grade graphic design, photo editing, and publishing software available across multiple platforms.

Affinity Designer offers live, responsive performance and combines vector and raster workspaces. Unlike many competitors, it provides a one-off payment option with no monthly costs, making it appealing to consumers who prefer to avoid ongoing subscription fees.

What is Corel Painter?

Corel is a company that provides professional graphics software for designers. Their products include tools for vector illustration, layout, photo editing, painting, video editing, and office suite functionalities.

Corel Painter is known for its ability to create realistic digital paintings. The software offers a wide range of brushes that allow for diverse and intricate digital artwork, and it excels in blending digital mediums, providing a unique and natural painting experience that stands out from other digital painting software.

Features of Affinity Designer and Corel Painter

Similarities

Affinity Designer and Corel Painter share several key features that make them both powerful tools for digital artists and designers. Here are the most significant similarities:

• Vector and Raster Workspaces: Both software solutions offer capabilities for working with vector and raster graphics, providing a versatile design experience.
• Professional Output: They both deliver professional-quality output suitable for digital, print, and collaboration purposes.
• Extensive Toolsets: Each program comes with a wide range of tools and functions designed to save time and enhance productivity, such as customizable brushes, layers, and effects.
• Cross-Platform Availability: Both Affinity Designer and Corel Painter are available on multiple platforms, including Windows and macOS, ensuring users can work on their preferred operating systems.
• One-Off Payment Options: Both companies offer their software with a one-off payment option, avoiding the need for ongoing subscription fees, which is appealing to many users.

Differences

When comparing Affinity Designer and Corel Painter, it's clear that each software excels in different areas, catering to distinct creative needs. Here are the most significant differences:

• Vector vs. Raster Focus: Affinity Designer specializes in vector graphics with raster capabilities, while Corel Painter is primarily a raster-based digital painting tool.
• Brush Variety: Corel Painter offers an extensive range of brushes that mimic traditional media, a feature not emphasized in Affinity Designer.
• Artboards: Affinity Designer supports unlimited artboards, which is ideal for complex design projects, a feature not available in Corel Painter.
• Pixel Preview Mode: Affinity Designer includes a pixel preview mode for pixel-perfect designs, a feature absent in Corel Painter.
• Natural Media Emulation: Corel Painter excels in natural media emulation, offering realistic oil, watercolor, and acrylic brushes, which Affinity Designer does not focus on.

User Interface and Usability

Affinity Designer's user interface is clean and well-organized, with a clear navigation structure that makes it easy to find specific features. The user experience is designed to be smooth and informative, with comprehensive details about the software's capabilities. The overall usability is enhanced by its live, responsive performance and versatile workspaces, making it accessible for various creative projects.

Corel Painter's interface is also clean and well-organized, featuring a top navigation bar for easy access to different sections. The user experience is intuitive, with clear navigation and easy access to product information and trials. The usability is highlighted by its realistic painting tools and extensive brush library, making it user-friendly for digital artists.

Neither company has a clear advantage in user interface and usability.

Collaboration

Affinity Designer supports professional output for digital, print, or collaboration purposes, making it easier for teams to work together on projects. The software's live, responsive performance and consistent file format across Windows, Mac, and iPad enhance team productivity and ensure seamless collaboration. Features like layer groups, color tagging, and live outline view further streamline workflows, allowing team members to organize and manage their work efficiently.

Corel Painter, on the other hand, does not explicitly mention collaboration features on its homepage. While it offers a range of professional graphics tools, the lack of detailed information about collaboration capabilities may pose challenges for teams looking to work together on projects. The absence of real-time collaboration features and integration details could limit its effectiveness in a collaborative environment.

Affinity Designer appears to be better suited for collaboration compared to Corel Painter.

Affinity Designer and Corel Painter Pricing

Affinity Designer offers a straightforward pricing model with a one-time payment of $69.99 for macOS or Windows and $18.49 for iPad. Additionally, the Affinity V2 Universal Licence, which includes Affinity Designer, Affinity Photo, and Affinity Publisher, is available for $164.99. There are no subscription fees, making it a cost-effective option for many users.

Corel Painter provides multiple pricing options, including a one-time fee of $429 for the full version and $229 for the upgrade version. Subscription options are also available at $19.99 per month or $199 per year. While Corel Painter offers more flexibility in payment methods, its higher costs may be a consideration for some users.

Affinity Designer has a more attractive pricing structure compared to Corel Painter.

Comparing Affinity Designer and Corel Painter to Piktochart

Piktochart transforms complex ideas into captivating visuals that inform and engage your audience. With Piktochart AI, you can create stunning infographics, reports, and presentations in seconds, perfectly aligned with your brand. No design experience required.

Pros of Piktochart

• Ease of Use: Piktochart is designed to be intuitive and user-friendly, allowing anyone to create professional visuals without prior design experience.
• Variety of Templates: The platform offers a wide range of customizable templates for infographics, presentations, flyers, posters, and reports, catering to diverse design needs.
• Content Repurposing: Piktochart's video editing tool enables users to transform long videos, webinars, and virtual events into engaging, bite-sized clips, making content repurposing effortless.
• Automatic Subtitles: The software automatically adds subtitles to videos, which can be customized for different social media platforms, enhancing accessibility and engagement.
• All-in-One Tool: As a comprehensive visual communication platform, Piktochart allows professionals to create a variety of visual content without the need for multiple, complicated design tools.

Piktochart's Pricing

• Free: $0 (Free forever)
• Pro:
  • $29 per member/month (billed monthly)
  • $14 per member/month (billed annually, save 52%)
• Business:
  • $49 per member/month (billed monthly)
  • $24 per member/month (billed annually, save 52%)
• Enterprise: Custom Pricing (Contact for details)
• Campus: Custom Pricing (Minimum 3000 seats, contact for details)

What Are Others Saying?

Affinity Designer Reviews

Overall, users have given Affinity Designer a rating of 4.6 out of 5. While customers appreciate its affordability and intuitive interface, they find tool limitations and the learning curve frustrating.

"The software is good but has some limitations in tools and features." - Manoranjan R., 3.5/5

"It’s affordable but can be complex to learn initially." - Lindsey P., 3.8/5

"Import issues can be a hassle, but it’s still a decent tool." - Nidhi B., 3.9/5

Find more of Affinity Designer reviews on G2!

Corel Painter Reviews

Corel Painter has received mixed reviews, with users giving it an overall rating of 4.3 out of 5. Customers found the software's instability and high cost frustrating, while some appreciated its features and ease of use.

"The software's sporadic instability crashes and unexpected failures have been reported, which can cause annoyance and interfere with workflow." - sourabh p., 3.5/5

"Chances of the user getting overwhelmed by the amount of templates and vectors provided already." - Verified User in Graphic Design, 3.8/5

"CorelDRAW does not support a lot of plugins and it's difficult to open the cdr files in Adobe Illustrator." - Animesh P., 3.9/5

Find more of Corel Painter reviews on G2!

Piktochart Reviews

Our users have given Piktochart an overall rating of 4.4 out of 5. They appreciate its ease of use, variety of templates, and the ability to create professional visuals without prior design experience.

• "Piktochart is very easy and simple to use online graphics creation tool." - ASHESHWAR Y.
• "Piktochart offers good looking pre-built templates for creating graphics." - Jakub J.
• "Easily Create Social Images and Infographics to Boost Business Services." - Rachel L.

Find more of our reviews on G2!

Why choose one over the other?

Why choose Affinity Designer over Corel Painter:

• Consumers who need a versatile design tool with both vector and raster capabilities, and prefer a one-time payment model, will find Affinity Designer appealing. This software is ideal for professional illustrators, web designers, and game developers who require high-quality design software without ongoing subscription fees.

Why choose Corel Painter over Affinity Designer:

• Corel Painter is perfect for artists who seek realistic painting experiences with a vast library of brushes and effective blending of digital mediums. This software is tailored for professional artists and designers who prioritize natural media emulation in their digital artwork.

Why choose Piktochart over Corel Painter and Affinity Designer:

• Piktochart is ideal for users who need an all-in-one visual communication platform that is easy to use and does not require prior design experience. Professionals, educators, and marketers looking to create engaging infographics, videos, and presentations will benefit from Piktochart's comprehensive suite of tools and AI-powered design generators.

Affinity Designer, Corel Painter, or Piktochart: Which is the best platform for you?

Whether you're a professional designer, a digital artist, or someone looking to create stunning visuals without any design experience, there's a tool for you. Affinity Designer and Corel Painter both offer unique strengths tailored to specific creative needs. However, at Piktochart, we believe our all-in-one visual communication platform stands out for its ease of use and versatility. Give Piktochart a try and see how effortlessly you can transform your ideas into captivating visuals.