Non-EU vendorDesignHeadquarters: GB

Affinity Photo: sovereignty score and 8 European alternatives

Affinity Photo was a raster image editor from Serif for photo retouching and image composition, able to open Adobe PSD files. It was sold as a desktop application for macOS, Windows and iPad with a perpetual licence. In October 2025 the standalone product was discontinued and replaced by a single app, Affinity, which combines vector, pixel and layout tools. It is a desktop download for Mac and Windows, free for individuals, and the download runs through a Canva login. Optional Canva AI features and export to Canva are part of the offering.

Serif is based in Nottinghamshire in the United Kingdom, outside the EU. Since March 2024 it has been owned by the Australian company Canva, so the ultimate parent is non-European and the software now sits within Canva's ecosystem. Affinity is proprietary and cannot be self-hosted. European organisations should check Canva account use, where Canva processes data for connected features, and how SSO is offered through Canva Enterprise or Education.

See the 8 European alternatives ↓Assess your stack with Affinity Photo pre-selected

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Sovereignty score

32 / 1000 = high exposure
100 = sovereign

Jurisdiction SOV-250
Headquartered outside the EU (GB)
Data residency SOV-30
No hosting in Europe (US)
Cryptographic key sovereignty SOV-340
Key management with a non-European vendor
Freedom from lock-in SOV-640
Closed source: switching requires data migration
Source & runtime sovereignty SOV-4 · SOV-630
Closed source, runtime with the vendor

SOV codes: the matching objective in the European Commission's Cloud Sovereignty Framework. Official source

How the score is calculated

Facts and evidence

Last checked September 22, 2026

Headquarters	GB (OTHER)Verified by hand
Ultimate parent company	AUVerified by hand
EU adequacy decision	Yes — found adequate by the European CommissionVerified by hand
Sovereignty model	Vendor-hosted (non-EU)Verified by hand
Data hosting	USVerified by hand
Open-source	NoVerified by hand
GDPR-compliant	NoVendor-stated
Hosting signal	CLOUDFLARENET - Cloudflare, Inc., US (US)Technically measured
Category	Design
Type	Product
Website	affinity.studio ↗

The hosting signal shows the network that serves the vendor's website, often a CDN, and not necessarily where the service or your data is hosted. How we verify · Something wrong? Suggest a correction

Top EU-based & GDPR-compliant alternatives to Affinity Photo

The European alternatives to Affinity Photo come from our knowledge base of over 6,800 vendors. We only list vendors headquartered in the EU or the EEA; fully European-owned vendors rank before vendors with a foreign owner. For each alternative you see the country, the open-source status and a short description.

Score per alternative: 0 = high exposure, 100 = sovereign

32 European Design vendors are in the catalogue. View the whole category · Submit an alternative · View category on the map

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Why digital sovereignty matters with Affinity Photo

Affinity Photo is headquartered in GB, outside the EU. Contracts and data therefore also fall under non-European law. The GDPR applies through contractual terms, but in a conflict with local legislation you have less certainty than with a European vendor. The ultimate owner is based in AU. Foreign control undermines part of the certainty a European headquarters offers.

Affinity Photo hosts data outside the EU (US). Personal data therefore leaves the EU, which requires a transfer mechanism under the GDPR and pulls the data residency score down.

Affinity Photo is closed source and hosted by the vendor. The encryption keys and the runtime sit with the vendor and switching requires data migration. Ask about bring-your-own-key, export options and open standards.

What this means for your organisation depends on your whole stack and context. The free assessment weighs Affinity Photo together with your other vendors and gives a total score, a heatmap and the main risk drivers.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best European alternative to Affinity Photo?

It depends on your use case. Strong EU alternatives to Affinity Photo include ArtFlow, Artweaver and Capture One. On this page you can compare 8 EU alternatives by jurisdiction, data residency and open-source status.

Are there open-source alternatives to Affinity Photo?

Yes. Open-source EU alternatives to Affinity Photo include darktable and Excalidraw. These keep your data fully under your own control and let you self-host if you want to.

Is Affinity Photo GDPR-compliant and where is the data hosted?

Affinity Photo is headquartered in GB (OTHER) and hosts data in US. Its GDPR compliance is limited or unclear. For full EU data residency the EU alternatives on this page usually offer more certainty.

Details and sources

Verified by handHeadquarters, owner, hosting locations and licence have been checked by us against public sources. Free of charge and for every vendor, not a paid label. Nothing in this knowledge base is taken over automatically. Last checked on September 22, 2026.

Sources

Public sources used in the latest check of this record.

Compliance evidence

The links below point to the vendor's own public documents. We only record what we found: a missing link means "not found publicly", not "not compliant".

No public compliance evidence has been recorded for this vendor yet. Do you know its DPA or subprocessor list? Something wrong? Suggest a correction

Digital sovereignty in Design

Design: Graphic design — photo editing, illustration, desktop publishing. In this category the choice of vendor determines who has legal access to your data, where that data lives and how easily you can switch later.

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