The Microsoft Store has gained some powerful apps for creators this year. Affinity Photo is a powerful photo editing software that could easily be an alternative to Photoshop for many users.

The app is available for Windows 10 for $49.99 from the Microsoft Store — there's also a 10-day free trial available through the Affinity website .

Affinity Photo has a wide set of photo editing features including raw editing, color correction, HDR merging, panoramic stitching, and a full set of retouching tools. It is very much a professional photo editing software that will become increasingly useful as you learn the app's ins and outs.

A major boost to Affinity Photo is that it allows you to import and export Photoshop PSD files — with full support for multiple layers! The app also works across Windows, iOS, and macOS so you can bring your files across devices. You can also use the app to format entire folders for batch editing.

Using the app takes some time to get used to — it has a learning curve that's not dissimilar to Photoshop's. Affinity Photo has different areas for editing, such as developing for color and brightness corrections, and if you don't know what you're looking for you can get lost in the menus and options. With as many features as it offers, it's easy to get lost, so I definitely recommend taking some time to poke around and see what does what.

I've used Photoshop and Lightroom for editing both work and personal photos, but I'll admit that my skills are fairly raw. I could tell that I was only scratching the surface of Affinity Photo and that it's designed more for professionals. But with a price cheaper than even the bare-bones Photoshop Elements, which is currently on sale for $69.99, and significantly cheaper than full Photoshop, it's very tempting to switch over.

How it compares to Photoshop