This week, I was starting work on an early mock-up of my niche typography zine using the newly free Affinity. Downloading the software, my thought process was something like: This used to be a paid creative suite, now it’s free, so it’s probably good. While I can report back that it did indeed allow me to create my mock-up, albeit with some frustrations on my end, its weak spots disappointed me. (If anyone would like to give me advice on publishing a zine and take a look at some very rough drafts, feel free to reach out. I’ll be sharing more about it in a few weeks, so stay tuned!)
My naive assumption, upon beginning the work, was pretty much that I was getting InDesign for free. But the Affinity creative suite, after being acquired by Canva, has been unified into one app, and a lot of its former functions have been dumbed down, gotten rid of, or hidden in layers of menus. What I was really getting was software that you’d expect from a free download: serviceable, if that, but certainly not more. Luckily, I didn't have to learn to use Scribus, an unintuitive desktop publishing application.
Most software falls into one of a few categories: free open-source, free closed-source, one-time payment, and subscription. Each one has its individual trade-offs, and some more than others.
Free open-source software can be great (think Handbrake, for video converting, and Blender, for 3D modeling). It gives you the power to do whatever you want with it, and if there’s something you don’t like about the program, you can hack it in. (Of course, there’s licensing and all that, but that’s not the focus here.) But open source software can sometimes also be difficult to use and not that polished (like Scribus).
Free closed-source software addresses some of those issues. They have a real company behind them, and as a whole, are probably more polished than free open-source software. Apps like Arc (free) and Raycast (freemium) bring a whole new level of power to their users. The downside is that they’re proprietary and can’t be modified like open-source software. Affinity certainly aided me in creating my design, but it felt like if it was paid, it would’ve been even better (sounds like I should just buy InDesign).
Finally, one-time payment and subscription software often have more polish and functionality than all of the other options. I’m not at all against paying for software (or at least my parents sometimes aren’t). Right now I pay for Mood Camera for taking beautiful pictures, Crossword Compiler for making my crossword puzzles (I haven’t gotten one in the NYT yet, but hope to be the youngest constructor), and Suno, for generating music with AI. I think that, sometimes, there’s really nothing that can match the power or ease of a certain paid software program, just like Affinity and InDesign.
Paid software, especially subscription-based software, gets a lot of negativity online. In a lot of cases, there’s a free alternative that’s just as good, and I think I use more free alternatives that anyone. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t use open source software or free software. Every type has its advantages and disadvantages, and the important thing is to weigh your options. If you have a big budget, and the paid choice is the best one, then you should probably get that. But in other situations, the decision might be a little bit more nuanced.
Free software is often limited by lack of funding, something that paid software doesn’t need to worry about. By buying indie paid software, you’re supporting the developers. When you buy regular paid software or subscription software, you’re supporting a company that you might not want to necessarily fund — like Microsoft or Adobe.
But when you support an indie developer creating a program that is genuinely useful and beautiful, you feel good — like you made a positive contribution to the world and to the developer. I personally aspire to support more indie developers, but if there’s a free alternative, I won’t necessarily jump to paying for a program.
I’m curious to know what my readers pay for, and how they feel about open-source versus closed-source software. You can be my first commenter!