Microsoft Publisher Is Leaving – Switch to Affinity Now
2025.11.10
When I first started in church communications, our parish, like many others, relied on Microsoft Publisher for bulletins. Coming from a visual communications background, I found it frustrating. While it was designed to make layout easy for beginners, it often restricted creative control. Its outdated interface and lack of professional-grade tools made it feel clunky compared to modern design software.
At the time, I was already using Affinity for my personal design work and believed it had real potential to make professional tools more affordable for small businesses and non-profits. But, Affinity Publisher, the layout program I would have needed for our bulletin, hadn’t been released yet.
In late 2023, Microsoft announced it would sunset Microsoft Publisher in October 2026. Not long after that announcement Canva, a tool much beloved by many church communication professionals for making flyers and graphics quick and easy, acquired Serif who created the Affinity software and made the software suite: Photo, Designer, and Publisher available for free to nonprofits. As soon as Affinity became available to our parish for free, I Registered for a non-profit account and got our parish switched over, and it is still being used by the current communicator for the parish.
A little over a week ago, Canva again sent shockwaves when they released the latest version of Affinity, which combines the three tools into one and made it free for everyone.
I have been using Affinity as my personal design software for over a decade, since the very early days when it was Designer and Photo with Publisher was still a long way off. I’ve been working with Affinity layout tools since the public beta release of Affinity Publisher years ago, and I know it is a solid professional grade tool that could benefit small businesses and non-profits especially.
Why Your Parish Should Move to Affinity Right Now
With Microsoft Publisher on its way out, now is the perfect time for your parish to explore something new. If you’re still using Microsoft Publisher to create anything, especially your bulletins, you’re heading into a season of change whether you want to or not. Support for Publisher ends in October 2026, for those using the subscription version of Microsoft 365 the tool will no longer even be available.
That’s why I believe Affinity should be on your radar. Rather than scramble later, this is your opportunity to move to a professional-grade layout tool that can grow with you. Affinity is available at no cost, powerful, and built for the kind of creative, mission-driven work parishes do every week. It’s designed by people who seem to genuinely care about making design tools accessible.
In fact, I believe Affinity should become the new standard in nonprofit and parish communications. It’s professional grade software and as more designers and volunteers adopt it, you’ll have a broader pool of people who can collaborate with you. That means your parish can more easily tap into creative talent: parishioners, volunteers, or even outside designers who can help your parish create materials that are beautiful and worthy of the Church, which is something we once valued deeply and can reclaim again.
Of course, change takes effort. There’s a learning curve with any new tool, but since Publisher is going away anyway, you have to make a move so you might as well choose a good one, that gives your team more options, modernizes your process, and positions your parish for the future.
To make that transition easier, I created a free course designed specifically for parish communicators. It walks you through the basics of building your own bulletin and getting comfortable with Affinity.
Although the course was made using Affinity Publisher 2 before the latest “Affinity Studio” update, the core principles are the same even if the workspace has a few minor differences. I do hope to release an updated version once I can rebuild it for the new interface, but this should still help you get started confidently.
Church communications materials are tools for ministry and they matter. Now’s the time to switch, and Affinity Publisher is a move that will serve your parish well for years to come.
