
Sketch
Inkscape
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe Photoshop
Canva
Adobe InDesign
GIMP
Professional creative software, exclusively for Mac.

Substack
Formo.so
Advanced analytics for Substack writers. Runs 100% locally, no cloud, no subscription. Discover your superfans, churn risk, and cohort retention.

Which is more popular?
Based on our record, Affinity Designer seems to be a lot more popular than StackStats.app. While we know about 47 links to Affinity Designer, we've tracked only 1 mention of StackStats.app.
Website, pricing, platforms and company facts side by side.
|
|
|
|
|---|---|---|
| Website | affinity.serif.com | stackstats.app |
| Pricing | — | |
| Company | — | Startup from the United Arab Emirates · 1 - 9 employees · 2026 |
| Listed in |
In their own words, as submitted to SaaSHub.


No description of Affinity Designer yet.
StackStats is a local desktop app for serious Substack writers. Import your CSV exports and get analytics Substack doesn't show you: bot-filtered open rates, cohort retention, dead subscriber detection, superfan ID, content-to-growth correlation, and an optional AI layer (supports Ollama,...
What each product offers, as listed by its team.


Possible disadvantages
An editorial look at what each product does well and who it suits.


No analysis of Affinity Designer yet.
Overall verdict
Why this product is good
Recommended for
Walkthroughs and reviews on video.
Illustrator vs Affinity Designer - Review and Comparison
More videos
No StackStats.app videos yet. You could help us improve this page by suggesting one.
How often each product is chosen within a category, 0–100% relative to the other.


As answered by people managing Affinity Designer and StackStats.app.
StackStats.app's answer:
I built StackStats because Substack's native analytics weren't cutting it. I wanted cohort data, real open rates (not bot-inflated), and a way to identify which posts were actually driving subscriber growth — but every tool I found was either cloud-based or required migrating off Substack entirely. So I built a local app that works with Substack's own CSV exports. No migration, no cloud, no subscription.
StackStats.app's answer:
StackStats runs 100% locally on your machine — your subscriber data never touches a server. It also goes far beyond what Substack shows natively: bot-filtered open rates, cohort retention, superfan identification, dead subscriber detection, and content-to-growth correlation. No subscription, no account, no cloud. Pay once, own it forever.
StackStats.app's answer:
Most newsletter analytics tools are cloud-based SaaS with monthly subscriptions. StackStats is a one-time purchase that runs entirely on your device. For Substack writers who care about privacy — especially those with paid subscribers — that's a meaningful difference. You also get analytics features that don't exist anywhere else, like bot-filtered open rates and cohort retention, without having to migrate away from Substack.
StackStats.app's answer:
Serious Substack writers who are frustrated by Substack's shallow native analytics and want real data to drive growth — without moving their subscriber data to the cloud.
StackStats.app's answer:
Electron (macOS + Windows), HTML/CSS/JavaScript, Chart.js, PapaParse. Optional AI layer supports Ollama, Claude, GPT-4, Gemini, Groq, and OpenRouter. Licensing via Cloudflare Workers + D1. Payments via Gumroad.
Share your experience with using Affinity Designer and StackStats.app. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
External articles and on-site reviews we used to compare the two products.


Affinity Designer has recently released version 2 of the app for professional photo editing, illustrations, and graphic designs. It’s used by millions of designers worldwide for prototyping, mind mapping, and other...
And last but not least, the area in which Affinity Designer excels is its licensing system. You only pay for the software once ($60 + a free trial) and can use it on your Windows or macOS devices.
if you are looking for an editing tool that can switch between vector, export, and pixel modes, Affinity Designer is a perfect choice.
We have no reviews of StackStats.app yet. Be the first one to post
Recommendations tracked on public social media and blogs since March 2021.


Well, there is Serif's suite: https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/designer/ (There's also a Photo and page layout app) or the open-source stuff: - https://krita.org/en/ - https://inkscape.org/ - https://www.scribus.net/. - Source: Hacker News / over 2 years ago
There's Affinity Designer, too. https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/designer/. - Source: Hacker News / about 3 years ago
Affinity Designer (https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/designer/) is a good choice for doing layouts, although Scribus (https://www.scribus.net/) may be all that you need depending on the complexity of your layouts. Source: over 3 years ago
I'm working on 3 products now: 1. FormBeep(https://formbeep.com) at $38 MRR now - A form to Whatsapp tool. Stack is mainly CF workers with Clerk Auth. 2. SlashLink(https://slashlink.app) $0 - A simple pay as you go amazon link localizer.... - Source: Hacker News / 2 days ago
When comparing Affinity Designer and StackStats.app, you can also consider the following products.


With Substack, anyone can start a publication that combines a personal website, blog, and email newsletter or podcast. It's quick and simple.
Compare Substack to Affinity Designer or StackStats.app:

Inkscape is a free, open source professional vector graphics editor for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.
Compare Inkscape to Affinity Designer or StackStats.app:

Analytics and data platform for DeFi apps
Compare Formo.so to Affinity Designer or StackStats.app:

Adobe Illustrator is a vector graphics editor.
Compare Adobe Illustrator to Affinity Designer or StackStats.app:

Adobe Photoshop is a webtop application for editing images and photos online.
Compare Adobe Photoshop to Affinity Designer or StackStats.app: