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Affinity vs IFS Cloud Platform comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 19, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Affinity
Ranking in CRM
23rd
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
IFS Cloud Platform
Ranking in CRM
21st
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
30
Ranking in other categories
Customer Experience Management (7th), Field Service Management (2nd), Help Desk Software (11th), ERP (13th), Activity Based Costing Software (7th), Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) (3rd), Local Government CRM (6th), IT Asset Management (10th), IT Service Management (ITSM) (10th), License Management (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the CRM category, the mindshare of Affinity is 1.4%, up from 1.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IFS Cloud Platform is 0.5%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
CRM
 

Featured Reviews

Marcus Quinn - PeerSpot reviewer
Open source, stable and capable of working with existing Adobe files
Affinity Photo needs to work more. They need to align as much as possible with the shortcuts and keystrokes of Adobe. It's just because when you learn a tool as a professional, you tend to learn all the shortcuts and keystrokes. And if they're not the same as the same type of products that you migrated from, you lose productivity because you forget how to do things. You don't know where things are on the menu. You don't know the icon for it because you just know it as, "Oh, if I press this key, I get that." You forget the user interface. You just remember the keystrokes and the shortcuts. So, if that could align as much as possible with what I'm used to from Adobe, that would be good. And there's another product I use called Pixelmator Pro. And as much as I wish Affinity Photos did everything that Photoshop did, I actually ended up using this other product, Pixelmator, more for image editing because I just find it faster and more in line with what I remember from Photoshop. So, they are good. They've designed a good product. It's just the shortcuts and keystrokes need to match what people are used to, especially coming from Adobe because, let's say, it didn't exist. Affinity is a newer product.
Brendan Fisher - PeerSpot reviewer
Robust, customizable, and modern
IFS is a very large and complex software, and implementation of IFS can be challenging and may lead to a difficult lengthy project. It can take between 12 and 24 months in some cases to deploy. I have found that not all clients are fully aware of how big the task is that they're undertaking when they make a decision to move to software like this. Companies need to be more aware of the complexity of an ERP implementation project and while I fully recommend moving to IFS, it is not easy and does require business change when adopting an ERP solution. New features are a difficult ask - I work across multiple industries and everyone would probably choose a different feature. Maybe BIM in Construction or Customs link-ups for importers/exporters.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"The most valuable features of Affinity are the connection features it provides because you have a large database of startups. The people who worked in the companies and founded them are displayed in Affinity. It can show if they are using some special intelligence feature and that you may know this person, of your connections. For example, if they know the person. It works similar to the way LinkedIn does when you seek a connection. Additionally, Affinity shows how close this person is and how often they contact each other."
"I like that it's completely automated. It's a very robust system. You are not going to have faults in it."
"For me, the most valuable feature is the fact that they work with existing Adobe files. And open and edit PDFs and web-optimized exports. It's been very good."
"IFS Applications' best feature is the user-friendly interface that has a .NET Framework application in the front end and an Oracle database and WebLogic middleware."
"IFS has been completely rebuilt, modernized, and cloud-based so we don't need bulky software installations."
"Having a young talented programmer, during the six years of use, we were able to save around 75 000 EUR preparing simple modifications using customization rather than ordering them in IFS / Partner."
"The solution overall is very versatile and flexible, especially compared to other products."
"There tends not to be a massive weakness in the product itself, as weaknesses can quickly be resolved in the next patch or the next release."
"When it comes to financing, the solution has helped us to concentrate finance functions like accounting processes in one system. This includes about 70 internal entities around the world."
"There are fewer fields on the user screen compared to other products."
"A high level of ERP can be handled in IFS."
 

Cons

"It would be better if it were "pay-per-user" instead of "pay-per-account." For example, I'm Siddharth Mallya, and I have two email accounts. Each of those accounts is a separate payable account for me. For instance, I have created a network using my personal email ID, and now I have moved to my company email ID. It'll choose any one of those accounts, and that will become my paid account. For example, if I put in my personal email ID, then that's the account that I pay for. But I'm no longer using it, and it's not going to get updated. If I put in my work email ID, then that's an entirely separate account that I have to pay for."
"To get people to migrate, Affinity needs to somehow give them an incentive to change. The key is to make it as similar as possible. Shortcuts and keystrokes would be my biggest learning curve. So, to scale, you're going to have to convince people to relearn their workflow, and everybody's too busy to do that. Scalability is kind of mid because you face adoption resistance if you're pushing out to a studio or staff that are used to Adobe. Many products don't think beyond Microsoft and Adobe. If it's not Microsoft, then they don't understand. So, scalability is a challenge."
"Affinity could improve by adding more features. It has been a while since I have used it, but when I did, the features could improve."
"It would be ideal if, in the future, the product could incorporate IoT and blockchain elements. We'd like to explore more of these types of features going forward."
"The support provided by IFS Applications has room for improvement. I'm based in Poland, and when my company had an issue, finding people from IFS to give my company the support it needed was difficult."
"Technical support could be improved."
"Ability to place approval check-points in the custom workflow, so clients can decide what they want it."
"The solution's reporting tools still require improvement."
"Sometimes from the sales perspective, clients don't always fully understand how large a task or a project they're getting involved in when they decide, "We're going to switch across to IFS." They could probably do a little bit more, maybe around preparing people for these projects."
"The integration is a bit complex, and post-implementation support services need to be improved. They have a service center based out of Sri Lanka. The support aspect is good, but the response time is a little slower than we anticipated. In the next release, it would be better if Warehouse Management could be improvised. They have a product line that's a data warehouse management system, but it's still premature and requires a bit of enhancement."
"The user interface can be improved. When you're clicking through the screens, there are some icons or symbols that really need updating and would be more useful and noticeable if they are aesthetically pleasing."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Affinity follows a pay-per-account model, and I think there will be a monthly or a yearly paid subscription. I have heard that it was expensive."
"Affinity is an expensive solution. However, they over a free version trial. The solution is expensive but the people that have used it say it is worth the money."
"There's an additional yearly cost for support."
"The pricing of the solution may appear to be expensive for smaller companies with only tens of users; however, for larger and mid-size industrial companies, IFS is able to win deals and the pricing is competitive in the market."
"The additional cost that comes with the solution includes the overhead of the people who are trying to fix the tool issues. These people are trying to reproduce the issue and report it to the technical support and testing with them which is huge. It is the cost of quality in the end."
"Ask for all-inclusive pricing, as they are pretty flexible if you ask for custom models."
"It is better to buy implementation services from IFS than from partners"
"IFS Applications are competitive in terms of pricing compared to other vendors, such as SAP, Oracle, and Epicor. They are generally cheaper, especially for licensing costs."
"Licensing is on an annual basis, with no additional costs."
"Pricing is an area that could be improved. They could be more competitive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
18%
Computer Software Company
14%
University
8%
Real Estate/Law Firm
8%
Computer Software Company
20%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Energy/Utilities Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Affinity?
For me, the most valuable feature is the fact that they work with existing Adobe files. And open and edit PDFs and web-optimized exports. It's been very good.
What needs improvement with Affinity?
Affinity Photo needs to work more. They need to align as much as possible with the shortcuts and keystrokes of Adobe. It's just because when you learn a tool as a professional, you tend to learn al...
What do you like most about IFS Applications?
Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a nine or ten out of ten since it is an extremely scalable solution that can be used for various use cases with thousands of users.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IFS Applications?
The product is reasonably priced. The costs are justified by the value provided, considering the comprehensive features and minimal need for customization. I rate the pricing a seven out of ten.
What needs improvement with IFS Applications?
I am not able to recall much about batch. Documentation-wise, they need more. There is not much available online, and the documentation availability is on the lower side compared to other products,...
 

Also Known As

No data available
IFS Applications, Assyst, IFS Cloud
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

T3 Advisors, Cushman & Wakefield,
China Airlines, Electrolux Group, Babcock, Cimcorp, Sky, Multiplex, Veolia. 
Find out what your peers are saying about Affinity vs. IFS Cloud Platform and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
847,646 professionals have used our research since 2012.