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Publishing · head to head

Affinity Publisher vs Kindle Direct Publishing

Affinity Publisher logo

Affinity Publisher

Publishing

Desktop page layout application, free since the Affinity range was relaunched by Canva

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Kindle Direct Publishing logo

Kindle Direct Publishing

Publishing

Amazon self-publishing platform that is free to use, earning Amazon a royalty cut instead of a fee, with a hard price band and per-megabyte delivery cost governing the 70% rate

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Affinity Publisher it cannot open native InDesign documents, only IDML exports, so inherited client archives either come across imperfectly or have to be rebuilt from scratch.; Kindle Direct Publishing the 70% royalty band has hard edges: pricing even one cent outside $2.99-$12.99 drops the royalty to 35%, which is a cliff, not a gradual scale, and easy to trigger by accident when adjusting price for a promotion.
  • They diverge on capability: Affinity Publisher covers Master pages and text flow, Kindle Direct Publishing covers Free publishing.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Affinity Publisher and Kindle Direct Publishing actually diverge.

Attributes where Affinity Publisher and Kindle Direct Publishing differ
AttributeAffinity PublisherKindle Direct Publishing
Pricing modelFree, no licence feeFree to publish; Amazon earns a royalty share rather than a fee
PlatformsmacOS, Windows, iPadOSWeb

Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Publishing).

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 Publisher

  • Master pages and text flow
  • Prepress output
  • Unified application
  • IDML import
  • Data merge
  • Cross platform files

Only in Kindle Direct Publishing

  • Free publishing
  • 70%/35% royalty tiers
  • Print-on-demand
  • KDP Select
  • Delivery fee deduction
  • Pre-order and release tools

What people use each for

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

Affinity Publisher

  • Freelance designers and small studios that cannot justify a monthly page layout subscriptionnot Kindle Direct Publishing
  • In-house marketing teams producing brochures, reports and price lists for commercial printnot Kindle Direct Publishing
  • Print buyers who need to check and correct supplied artwork without a design suite licencenot Kindle Direct Publishing
  • Schools, charities and community publishers where a zero licence cost decides the toolnot Kindle Direct Publishing

Kindle Direct Publishing

  • A self-published author wanting free, no-fee distribution to the largest single ebook and print-on-demand marketnot Affinity Publisher
  • An author pricing a book between $2.99 and $12.99 to qualify for the 70% royalty tier rather than 35%not Affinity Publisher
  • A publisher considering KDP Select exclusivity to earn Kindle Unlimited page-read royalties, trading away distribution on other retailers for the enrollment periodnot Affinity Publisher
  • An author with a large, image-heavy ebook file who needs to understand the per-megabyte delivery fee before setting a pricenot Affinity Publisher

Where each one falls short

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

Affinity Publisher

  • It cannot open native InDesign documents, only IDML exports, so inherited client archives either come across imperfectly or have to be rebuilt from scratch.
  • There is no scripting or plugin interface, so studios that automate catalogue or variable data production still need InDesign alongside it.
  • Signing in through a Canva account is now part of using the free application, which is a problem for regulated or offline environments that forbid cloud accounts.
  • The roadmap belongs to Canva, and the 2025 relaunch already reset the licence model that earlier perpetual buyers paid for, so long-term direction is outside your control.
  • Commercial printers and freelance collaborators still expect InDesign packages, so handoff usually means delivering flattened PDFs rather than editable files.

Kindle Direct Publishing

  • The 70% royalty band has hard edges: pricing even one cent outside $2.99-$12.99 drops the royalty to 35%, which is a cliff, not a gradual scale, and easy to trigger by accident when adjusting price for a promotion.
  • The delivery fee, roughly $0.15 per megabyte, is deducted on every sale under the 70% tier, so image-heavy or long ebooks lose meaningfully more revenue per sale than a plain-text book at the same list price.
  • KDP Select exclusivity, while optional, is the only route to Kindle Unlimited page-read royalties, so authors face a real trade-off between Amazon-only reach with page-read income and wider distribution without it.
  • Public domain or primarily public-domain content is capped at the 35% royalty regardless of price, so that category of publisher cannot access the higher rate at all.
  • As a single-retailer platform, an author relying solely on KDP is concentrated in one sales channel controlled entirely by Amazon policy, which has changed royalty terms before (the July 2026 price band expansion is itself an example) and can do so again.

Pricing, plan by plan

Affinity Publisher

Free
  • AffinityFree
    • Free for everyone since the 2025 relaunch
    • Layout, vector and photo tools in one application
    • Requires a Canva account to sign in

Kindle Direct Publishing

Free
  • 70% royalty tierFree
    • Applies to ebooks priced $2.99-$12.99 (expanded from $9.99 ceiling in July 2026)
    • In-copyright works only
    • Delivery fee of roughly $0.15/MB deducted per sale
  • 35% royalty tierFree
    • Applies below $2.99, above $12.99, or for public domain content
    • No delivery fee deducted
    • Applies automatically outside eligible territories for the 70% tier

Which should you pick?

Choose Affinity Publisher if

  • You need master pages and text flow.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on macOS, Windows, iPadOS.
  • You also want prepress output.
Affinity Publisher review

Choose Kindle Direct Publishing if

  • You need free publishing.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You also want 70%/35% royalty tiers.
Kindle Direct Publishing review

Questions people ask

Is Affinity Publisher or Kindle Direct Publishing better?
Neither clearly leads. Affinity Publisher starts at Free and Kindle Direct Publishing at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Affinity Publisher or Kindle Direct Publishing?
Affinity Publisher starts at Free and Kindle Direct Publishing at Free.
Does Affinity Publisher or Kindle Direct Publishing run on more platforms?
Affinity Publisher runs on macOS, Windows, iPadOS. Kindle Direct Publishing runs on Web.
Can I use Affinity Publisher for free?
Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is Affinity Publisher best used for?
Affinity Publisher is most often used for freelance designers and small studios that cannot justify a monthly page layout subscription, in-house marketing teams producing brochures, reports and price lists for commercial print, print buyers who need to check and correct supplied artwork without a design suite licence, schools, charities and community publishers where a zero licence cost decides the tool. Of those, freelance designers and small studios that cannot justify a monthly page layout subscription and in-house marketing teams producing brochures, reports and price lists for commercial print are not what Kindle Direct Publishing is typically brought in for.
What can Affinity Publisher do that Kindle Direct Publishing cannot?
Affinity Publisher covers Master pages and text flow, Prepress output, Unified application, IDML import. Kindle Direct Publishing covers Free publishing, 70%/35% royalty tiers, Print-on-demand, KDP Select.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Affinity Publisher: Is Affinity Publisher really free now?

Yes. Since the 2025 relaunch the unified Affinity application is free. Artificial intelligence features need a paid Canva plan.

Kindle Direct Publishing: Does KDP cost anything to use?

No signup or listing fee. Amazon earns revenue through the royalty share (65% or 30% of the list price after territory and delivery-fee adjustments) rather than a subscription or fee.

Affinity Publisher: Can it open InDesign files?

Only IDML interchange files, and complex layouts lose fidelity. Native INDD files cannot be opened at all.

Kindle Direct Publishing: What is the current 70% royalty price band?

As of July 2026, $2.99 to $12.99, expanded from the previous $2.99 to $9.99 ceiling that had been unchanged since 2007.

Affinity Publisher: What happened to the perpetual licences people bought?

Canva made the relaunched application free to everyone, which superseded the paid version 2 licence model.

Kindle Direct Publishing: What is the delivery fee?

Roughly $0.15 per megabyte of file size, deducted per sale only on the 70% royalty tier, calculated from the delivered file size.

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