Publisher alternative in 2026

I was only given a week free trial. I've seen other post they had 6 months. I shouldn't have taken the free trial at that time as I really didn't have the time to really look it over. I did answer their survey that I received after the trial period & mentioned the issue with Publisher & asked about a conversion would be good for them to think about doing. I've not heard back. I am going back to using Wordperfect. I'm sure there are a lot of features that if I knew WP better would be good. There again I've sent them a suggestion that they look at creating a conversion from Publisher.

You write about Affinity Publisher - is there a free trial version to try before buying it. We are a small association who use the Publisher to create monthly newsletters - Word is not a good option since we use a lot of graphics and Canva is not as user friendly as Publisher and does not meet our needs. Running on small budgets and would like to try Affinity before having to buy it. Any suggestions?

I wholeheartedly agree!

I have used Publisher for over 25 years. I felt it was a great tool to do what I needed (self-publish books, create newsletters, flyers, envelopes, menus, invitations, envelopes, etc.). I designed these for my customers. If you know Publisher and its capabilities (obviously whoever made this decision does not), you know that Word and PowerPoint cannot compare in versatility. I am currently looking for open-source software to replace it, because I still need it, or something that is similar. I only use Word for letters, and I stopped using PowerPoint years ago because I could do the same thing in Publisher. I won't miss Word or PowerPoint, but I will miss Publisher.

Hi Sophia,

I am hoping to use the new Designer to replace the banners and memes I create with Publisher. Currently, the inability to add new fonts and the presence of vertical text are preventing me from transferring all my creations to Designer. I have used it for other things since it was introduced, and I appreciate how it has evolved so far. There is a learning curve, and things I would like tweaked. I thought I would make you aware of my needs and hope that many features of Publisher can move to Designer. I would like to keep myself in the Microsoft family and not have to use a bunch of random apps or programs.

Thank you!