Publisher alternative in 2026

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 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.

I have tried them all. Canva is the only one that will work.

I wish MS would respond to us and give us a stand-alone version, but they do not seem to care.

I don't like it that pusbilsher go away. I do a lot of things with that.

I tried to find some alternative and a way to convert or something.

Yes, word and powerpoint is improved, but still not the same as publisher.

I have looked at alternatives to Microsoft Publisher but none of them are as easy to use. They also all seem to want me to use it in one way but I use publisher for the church magazine, for worksheets for teaching, for leaflets and posters etc - in other words I use it for a wide variety of work.

Word of course doesn't begin to compare as there is no working area around the page and moving pictures or text is often sticky and difficult.