Yes — this is very definitely a beta. I think they are on the right track, but there is a long way to go. Even before getting the beta I knew I’d be waiting until 2.0 or beyond before even considering a permanent switch… too much of my livelihood depends on InDesign right now.

One thing I’d like to bring into this conversation just so all the viewpoints are out there: I’m not switching for matters of cost as much a deep hatred for the subscription model. While I like the Affinity $50-per-app price tag, I certainly would have been happy to pay more. I am one of those that paid the full price for each of the Adobe apps and I dutifully kept them up to date for years.

I am and have been a full-time freelancer for many years, and in lean times in the past I could decide to delay an update if I needed to. With the subscription model that option is gone — and while I’ve been fortunate to not have any of those lean times lately, the whole thing irks me quite a lot. I love InDesign (so much that colleagues tease me about it). If Adobe hadn’t gone to the subscription model, I would be a hardcore Adobe loyalist forever and I’d see no need to ever look elsewhere. I’m one of the annoying complainers who contacted Adobe maybe a half-dozen times since they went subscription telling them that it sucks, but I guess not enough of us complained.

When I switched from Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator to Affinity Photo and Designer a year ago, it was incredibly liberating! I look forward to someday switching from Adobe inDesign to Affinity Publisher — but I think that is a long way off. (And anyway, Adobe Acrobat Pro is pretty superior to all the alternatives out there, so I’ll never be able to completely leave the Adobe fold. Sigh.)