Is Affinity Designer or Fathom better?

Neither clearly leads. Affinity Designer starts at $69.99/one-time and Fathom at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.

Which is cheaper, Affinity Designer or Fathom?

Fathom has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at $69.99/one-time for Affinity Designer and Free for Fathom.

Does Affinity Designer or Fathom run on more platforms?

Affinity Designer runs on Windows, Macos, Ios. Fathom runs on Web, Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams.

Can I use Fathom for free?

Yes. Fathom has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Affinity Designer starts at $69.99/one-time.

What is Affinity Designer best used for?

Affinity Designer is most often used for logo design, vector illustration, icon design, branding. Of those, logo design and vector illustration are not what Fathom is typically brought in for.

What can Affinity Designer do that Fathom cannot?

Affinity Designer covers Vector drawing, Bezier tools, Gradient tools, Typography. Fathom covers Auto-recording, AI summaries, Transcription, Highlight clips.

Design Tools · head to head

Affinity Designer vs Fathom

Affinity Designer

Design Tools

Professional graphic design software for everyone

From: $69.99/one-time
Rated: -

Full review Website

Fathom

AI Tools

Free AI meeting assistant

From: Free
Rated: -

Full review Website

The short version

Only Fathom has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
Each has a real cost: Affinity Designer sold as a one-time purchase rather than a subscription: the Windows or macOS edition was priced at CA$94.99, the cross-platform Universal License at CA$224.99, and the standalone iPad edition at CA$24.99 (Internet Archive capture, 1 January 2024); Fathom team plan requires minimum 2 users; cannot purchase single seat at team pricing
They diverge on capability: Affinity Designer covers Vector drawing, Fathom covers Auto-recording.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Affinity Designer and Fathom actually diverge.

Attributes where Affinity Designer and Fathom differ
Attribute	Affinity Designer	Fathom
Starting price	$69.99/one-time	Free
Pricing model	one-time	Unknown
Free tier	No	Yes
Platforms	Windows, Macos, Ios	Web, Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams
Category	Design Tools	AI Tools
Founded	1994	2020

Identical on both: user rating (Not yet rated).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Affinity Designer

Vector drawing
Bezier tools
Gradient tools
Typography
Pixel-perfect editing
Artboards
Symbols
Non-destructive effects

Only in Fathom

Auto-recording
AI summaries
Transcription
Highlight clips
Zoom
Google Meet
HubSpot
Salesforce

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Affinity Designer

Logo designnot Fathom
Vector illustrationnot Fathom
Icon designnot Fathom
Brandingnot Fathom

Fathom

AI-powered meeting transcription and automatic note-taking for sales teams and professionalsnot Affinity Designer
Meeting analysis with AI scorecards and action item generation that syncs to CRMsnot Affinity Designer

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Affinity Designer

Sold as a one-time purchase rather than a subscription: the Windows or macOS edition was priced at CA$94.99, the cross-platform Universal License at CA$224.99, and the standalone iPad edition at CA$24.99 (Internet Archive capture, 1 January 2024)

Fathom

Team plan requires minimum 2 users; cannot purchase single seat at team pricing
CRM field sync and deal view summaries available only on Business plan ($34/user/month) and above

Pricing, plan by plan

Affinity Designer

$69.99/one-time

Standard$69.99/one-time
- Full version
- All features
- Lifetime updates

Fathom

Free

No published plan breakdown. See the Fathom review.

Which should you pick?

Choose Affinity Designer if

You need vector drawing.
You work on Windows, Macos, Ios.
You also want bezier tools.

Affinity Designer review

Choose Fathom if

You need auto-recording.
You want to start without paying.
You work on Web, Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams.
You also want ai summaries.

Fathom review

Questions people ask

Is Affinity Designer or Fathom better?: Neither clearly leads. Affinity Designer starts at $69.99/one-time and Fathom at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Affinity Designer or Fathom?: Fathom has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at $69.99/one-time for Affinity Designer and Free for Fathom.
Does Affinity Designer or Fathom run on more platforms?: Affinity Designer runs on Windows, Macos, Ios. Fathom runs on Web, Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams.
Can I use Fathom for free?: Yes. Fathom has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Affinity Designer starts at $69.99/one-time.
What is Affinity Designer best used for?: Affinity Designer is most often used for logo design, vector illustration, icon design, branding. Of those, logo design and vector illustration are not what Fathom is typically brought in for.
What can Affinity Designer do that Fathom cannot?: Affinity Designer covers Vector drawing, Bezier tools, Gradient tools, Typography. Fathom covers Auto-recording, AI summaries, Transcription, Highlight clips.

Affinity Designer vs Fathom

Affinity Designer

Fathom

The short version

Where they differ

What each one covers

Only in Affinity Designer

Only in Fathom

What people use each for

Affinity Designer

Fathom

Where each one falls short

Affinity Designer

Fathom

Pricing, plan by plan

Affinity Designer

Fathom

Which should you pick?

Choose Affinity Designer if

Choose Fathom if

Questions people ask

Related pages

More on Affinity Designer

More on Fathom

Keep looking

Other head to heads