Adobe Photoshop is the go-to when it comes to image editors. Whether on iPad or any other device. However, it’s far from the only option on the market, and its monthly subscription price will put a lot of people off.

Affinity Photo has become the first choice for photography and creative professionals around the world, who love its speed, power and precision. Born to work hand-in-hand with the latest powerful computer technology, it’s the only fully-loaded photo editor integrated across macOS, Windows and iOS. Whilst it’s difficult to demonstrate, I feel the quality of the photos from Affinity Photo is slightly better than Photoshop. Certainly, for landscape photography, they have a more realistic feel. The Photoshop images can sometimes appear a little false, almost as if they are a very detailed drawing with slightly unnatural colours. Serif released major updates to Affinity Photo, as well as Affinity Designer, in November 2017. Affinity Photo 1.6.6 was optimized for macOS 10.13 High Sierra (and Metal 2 acceleration), better integration with Apple Photos, improved Photoshop Plugins support and added an option to switch between a dark or light user interface. Affinity Photo is a British photo editor that is similar to Photoshop and Corel PaintShop Pro. It is also a good alternaive to basic free photo organizing software, with an extensive toolset for image retouching, photo merging for panoramas, making a HDR effect, and basic digital drawing. However, all programs have certain drawbacks, and Affinity Photo is no exception.

So, in this article, we compare Photoshop for iPad to Affinity Photo for iPad. Does the former offer enough over the latter to justify the higher price tag? Read on to find out.

An Overview of Affinity Photo and Photoshop for iPad

Affinity Photo for iPad launched back in 2017 during WWDC. It promised to bring a “desktop-grade” experience on the iPad for a fraction of the cost.

Affinity Photo Photoshop Ipad Cover

Coming in at just $19.99 on the App Store, you might think it can’t keep up with the likes of Adobe’s established Creative Cloud Suite, but you’d be mistaken. Affinity Photo is one of the best alternatives to Photoshop on the iPad.

Download: Affinity Photo for iPad

Affinity Photo Ipad App

Serif is no stranger to providing great creative software for a small, one-time fee; check out why Affinity Designer is such a great alternative to Illustrator. This is especially notable when you compare it to Adobe’s own Photoshop for iPad.