Adobe CC pricing

[Dr. McKay]

I have an Adobe CC subscription, and have access to all the apps.
Only need Indesign, Illustrator and Photoshop. The thing is, these three applications cost just as much as the whole package. Am I missing something or is the CC subscription plan a rip off ?

 

[AnnaRegina]

Great post

 

[chabig]

...these three applications cost just as much as the whole package...

We need more detailed information to confirm or deny your hypothesis.

 

[turbineseaplane]

is the CC subscription plan a rip off ?

Unless you have a business justification for it, my opinion is "yes".
Obviously others will disagree

 

[MacGizmo]

If you think $55 a month for a ton of fonts, cloud storage and a dozen or so apps that are vital to designers is a rip-off, then you're in the wrong business. Actually, you're not even in the business, you're just playing.

 

[Dr. McKay]

If you think $55 a month for a ton of fonts, cloud storage and a dozen or so apps that are vital to designers is a rip-off, then you're in the wrong business. Actually, you're not even in the business, you're just playing.

I don't need a dozen apps, I only need three, Indesign, Photoshop and Illustrator. No need for Premiere, After Effects, Dreamweaver etc.
Considering switching to Affinity Designer, Photos and Publisher. Trying out the beta of Publisher now, looks pretty good so far. Less than three months of an Adobe CC subscription and that's the Affinity suite paid for...
Of course, the Affinity apps might not suit everyone, but for me, they offer more than enough functionality.

 

[MacGizmo]

I don't need a dozen apps, I only need three, Indesign, Photoshop and Illustrator. No need for Premiere, After Effects, Dreamweaver etc.
Considering switching to Affinity Designer, Photos and Publisher. Trying out the beta of Publisher now, looks pretty good so far. Less than three months of an Adobe CC subscription and that's the Affinity suite paid for...
Of course, the Affinity apps might not suit everyone, but for me, they offer more than enough functionality.

You don't need Acrobat? I can't imagine not needing/using InDesign and not needing Acrobat. As for Infinity apps, they're all excellent. The only real problem (and it's not major, in my opinion) is that nobody is really using Publisher, so sharing files with anyone is virtually impossible—you have to use a 100% PDF workflow.

 

[fig]

I have an Adobe CC subscription, and have access to all the apps.
Only need Indesign, Illustrator and Photoshop. The thing is, these three applications cost just as much as the whole package. Am I missing something or is the CC subscription plan a rip off ?

Those apps used to cost you something like $600 apiece, they now cost you around $600 per year. If you have a genuine need for them that's a steal.

If you don't, try Affinity as it looks like you already are.

 

[AZhappyjack]

I have an Adobe CC subscription, and have access to all the apps.
Only need Indesign, Illustrator and Photoshop. The thing is, these three applications cost just as much as the whole package. Am I missing something or is the CC subscription plan a rip off ?

Subscription apps are almost always a rip off. Unless you're the developer.

You think it's coincidence that Adobe bundles Photoshop and Lightroom for a lower price, but for any of the other apps, requires you to get the big bundle? Not really a surprise from where I sit.

 

[Dr. McKay]

Subscription apps are almost always a rip off. Unless you're the developer.

You think it's coincidence that Adobe bundles Photoshop and Lightroom for a lower price, but for any of the other apps, requires you to get the big bundle? Not really a surprise from where I sit.

In comparison, Office 365 is a steal...

 

[tizeye]

.
This last year I went through the "Dump Adobe" and was successful with the full CC but ultimately ended up keeping the Photography Plan. One thing I did find, to accommodate dome transition issues I opened another Adobe ID which was almost transparent converting the installer. But now I am getting the "please come back" intro 40% off first year on the inactive Adobe ID. I have to smile when I see that as they are oblivious that I am an active customer under a different ID.

InDesign - Also impressed with Affinity Publisher Beta and high hopes. Affinity also has the most user friendly upgrade policy (rare - full version number only) where everyone else scavenges their user base annually with an upgrade. An alternative to InDesign is Quark Express. It has a good "competitive" upgrade to start but the annual upgrades are the worst I have seen, structured where can't skip a version as second year out is back up to the competitive upgrade price.

Illustrator - Affinity Draw as mentioned earlier is a good choice. An alternative might be Corel Draw which is available for Mac.

Photoshop/Lightroom - This for me was a quandary and never could get it into a workflow, complicated with my Adove coming up for renewal as trying to learn other programs. Tried Affinity Photo, On One, and Capture One for Sony. None could rally substitute for Photoshop, particularly, layering with multiple base photos as they considered 'layering' as applying layering masks to a single base photo. The best program that could replace Photoshop, Corel's Paint Shop Pro, unfortunately is PC only (and wouldn't even want to think of running under Parallels and jumping to add-on on the Mac side and other quirks like where the files are saved.) The biggest turnoff that kept me with Adobe was Capture One inflating their upgrade price with each annual version, starting at $50, then $79, now $129. For $120 I get a year of both Photoshop AND Lightroom.

---Others that you don't use---
Premier Pro/After Effects - FCPX (and optionally the two $50 secondary programs) is the obvious. Coming on very strong, and people dumping Adobe subscription for it, is Blackmagic Davinci Resolve. Many can get by with just the free version, but a one time $299 for the Studio version isn't bad.

Dreamweaver - Perhaps RapidWeaver if need the full web programming. To a lesser extend if don't want to pay and be obligated to an online web design, such as WIX or Weebley, there are a couple of WYSIWYG programs where can reside on your harddive. Adobe Muse is included in CC. Sparkle v2 has really developed over v1, and I think it was a free upgrade.

 

[Dr. McKay]

.

---Others that you don't use---
Premier Pro/After Effects - FCPX (and optionally the two $50 secondary programs) is the obvious. Coming on very strong, and people dumping Adobe subscription for it, is Blackmagic Davinci Resolve. Many can get by with just the free version, but a one time $299 for the Studio version isn't bad.

Dreamweaver - Perhaps RapidWeaver if need the full web programming. To a lesser extend if don't want to pay and be obligated to an online web design, such as WIX or Weebley, there are a couple of WYSIWYG programs where can reside on your harddive. Adobe Muse is included in CC. Sparkle v2 has really developed over v1, and I think it was a free upgrade.

If you ALSO do any sort of video editing, then the full price of the Adobe CC full suite is easier to justify. On Apple's side, you'd not only need to buy FCP X, but also Compressor and Motion, perhaps Logic Pro. But those aren't subscription based. The combined price of those, including Logic Pro, plus the Affinity's suite, would cost me the equivalent of 10 months of Adobe CC.
Plus, Premiere still doesn't run as well as Final Cut Pro on the Mac. If you're on Windows, then that's another story, on the Mac, nothing beats FCP X

Anyway, as I said, your mileage may vary, but for me personally, Adobe CC is too expensive. I don't need the full extent of the Adobe apps, I'm not a graphics professional, just an enthusiast (I am using Adobe CC at work, though, but I'm not the one paying for it). I dabble in video editing as well, and for the moment, iMovie suits me. If I ever need more, I'll upgrade to FCP X, pay the one price, and be done with it.
That's why the complete 'all-in-one' Adobe CC suite looked attractive to me, I was going to be able to do everything, but ultimately, it's just not suited for me.

You mention Sparkle : trying out the free version, and I like the one-off payment as well if you want to upgrade. So, no, don't like subscriptions. The only thing that's not a rip-off in my opinion, is Office 365. 10 euro per month, and 1Tb of cloud storage, pretty good deal if you ask me, even when you're not a professional. In comparison, for its high price of 90 euros a month*, Adobe offers a measly 100Gb for graphic use, that's just ridiculous. Yes, it's professional level software, but so is Microsoft Office...
*Yes, I know it's only 60 euros per month if you go for a yearly subscription, but then you don't have the option anymore of cancelling monthly, something you CAN do with Office. Don't want to be stuck for a year without the possiblity of switching to alternative software...

 

[MacGizmo]

I still maintain that Adobe makes apps for professionals, not prosumers, not enthusiasts, not dabblers. PROS! If you're a pro user, then it only takes you a few hours of billable time to pay for the entire year of Adobe CC subscription. If it takes you more than a few hours, then you're not going to be in business long, and it has nothing to do with Adobe... you're just not charging enough (and no, it really DOESN'T matter where you live or what the local economy is).

I hate subscriptions. Is Adobe CC expensive? Yes. Is it "too expensive?" No. Is it a rip-off? Hell-no! You're just a fool for expecting pro-level software to be priced for your hobbiest needs.

 

[Dr. McKay]

You're just a fool for expecting pro-level software to be priced for your hobbiest needs.

Let me rephrase : I can understand the 90 euros per month for the whole suite. That is indeed reasonable. For that price, you get over 10 applications. But why does just one application cost 24 euros per month ? Because Adobe knows that there are very few people that actually need every app in the CC suite. They should just price the separate apps accordingly. I'd be happy to pay 25 euros a month for just Indesign, Photoshop and Illustrator. Not 75 euros, though... And a measly 100Gb of storage ? Pay even more for 1Tb. That's just Adobe being greedy.

And again, Office 365 is pro-level software and is priced very reasonably, even for hobbiests. 1Tb of storage. For small(ish) files...

 

[brofkand]

Let me rephrase : I can understand the 90 euros per month for the whole suite. That is indeed reasonable. For that price, you get over 10 applications. But why does just one application cost 24 euros per month ? Because Adobe knows that there are very few people that actually need every app in the CC suite. They should just price the separate apps accordingly. I'd be happy to pay 25 euros a month for just Indesign, Photoshop and Illustrator. Not 75 euros, though... And a measly 100Gb of storage ? Pay even more for 1Tb. That's just Adobe being greedy.

And again, Office 365 is pro-level software and is priced very reasonably, even for hobbiests. 1Tb of storage. For small(ish) files...

There should be a consumer-level CC bundle, you make a good point. I suppose that Adobe's answer to the consumer is either their "Elements" apps, which are perpetual licenses, or the full kit and caboodle if they need apps not included in the Photography plan.

Office 365 that we consumers buy is a different bundle than the Office 365 that most businesses purchase, for example.

 

[Dr. McKay]

There should be a consumer-level CC bundle, you make a good point. I suppose that Adobe's answer to the consumer is either their "Elements" apps, which are perpetual licenses, or the full kit and caboodle if they need apps not included in the Photography plan.

Office 365 that we consumers buy is a different bundle than the Office 365 that most businesses purchase, for example.

Adobe Elements isn't worth the price, there are better alternatives for even less money.
Office 365 for Windows includes Access, even when you have only a 'consumer' subsription. Who uses Access at home ?
On the Mac you get, OneNote, Word, Excel, Powerpoint and Outlook. On the PC side, you also get Publisher and the aforementioned Access. For 10 euros per month, and 1Tb of cloud storage included, that's one heck of a deal. Plus you can install the apps on 5 different machines (it's only 7 euros per month if you only need it on one computer). With Adobe CC, even for that full price, you're limited to 2 computers.

Microsoft :
I only use Word, Excel and Powerpoint (not counting OneNote since that's free): 3 professional apps for a monthly fee of 10 euros, including 1Tb of storage
Adobe :
I only use Indesign, Illustrator and Photoshop : 3 professional apps for a monthly fee of 75 euros, including 100Gb of storage

I know, I'm repeating myself, but surely anyone can see what a rip-off the Adobe CC pricing scheme is...

Adobe clearly doesn't cater for the enthusiast or hobbiest. Fair enough, I'll take my money elsewhere. As soon as Affinity Publisher comes out of beta, I'm buying their whole suite. Adobe kind of has a monopoly in the whole graphics and pre-press world since they pushed Quark out of the market and bought Macromedia. But I'm expecting big things from Affinity. I'm guessing they won't stop after Publisher. If they can keep on producing software like that at reasonable prices, then Adobe could have some serious competition on their hands. Which, ultimately, is a good thing.

 

[brofkand]

Adobe Elements isn't worth the price, there are better alternatives for even less money.
Office 365 for Windows includes Access, even when you have only a 'consumer' subsription. Who uses Access at home ?
On the Mac you get, OneNote, Word, Excel, Powerpoint and Outlook. On the PC side, you also get Publisher and the aforementioned Access. For 10 euros per month, and 1Tb of cloud storage included, that's one heck of a deal. Plus you can install the apps on 5 different machines (it's only 7 euros per month if you only need it on one computer). With Adobe CC, even for that full price, you're limited to 2 computers.

Microsoft :
I only use Word, Excel and Powerpoint (not counting OneNote since that's free): 3 professional apps for a monthly fee of 10 euros, including 1Tb of storage
Adobe :
I only use Indesign, Illustrator and Photoshop : 3 professional apps for a monthly fee of 75 euros, including 100Gb of storage

I know, I'm repeating myself, but surely anyone can see what a rip-off the Adobe CC pricing scheme is...

Adobe clearly doesn't cater for the enthusiast or hobbiest. Fair enough, I'll take my money elsewhere. As soon as Affinity Publisher comes out of beta, I'm buying their whole suite. Adobe kind of has a monopoly in the whole graphics and pre-press world since they pushed Quark out of the market and bought Macromedia. But I'm expecting big things from Affinity. I'm guessing they won't stop after Publisher. If they can keep on producing software like that at reasonable prices, then Adobe could have some serious competition on their hands. Which, ultimately, is a good thing.

I have only used Affinity Photo and loved it on the Mac. It is not Photoshop, but it seems to do most of what I need - just in a slightly different way. I would have to relearn a lot of my workflows. Luckily my job pays for my CC subscription so I don't need to work too hard to learn it; I just continue to use Lightroom and Photoshop. If that were to change I could more than make due with Affinity - but only if they added a DAM to their suite. I can't do without Lightroom.

For InDesign, I actually like Scribus - an open source alternative. But I don't do much in InDesign, I'm sure more sophisticated folks would need a fuller-featured application. Scribus actually reminds me of the old PageMaker more than it does more recent versions of InDesign.

Affinity will never be a replacement for CC for pro's. They need the CC suite, and Adobe knows that. As you said, Adobe doesn't focus on the hobbiest market so they are willing to cede that market to others apparently.

 

[Dr. McKay]

I have only used Affinity Photo and loved it on the Mac. It is not Photoshop, but it seems to do most of what I need - just in a slightly different way. I would have to relearn a lot of my workflows. Luckily my job pays for my CC subscription so I don't need to work too hard to learn it; I just continue to use Lightroom and Photoshop. If that were to change I could more than make due with Affinity - but only if they added a DAM to their suite. I can't do without Lightroom.

For InDesign, I actually like Scribus - an open source alternative. But I don't do much in InDesign, I'm sure more sophisticated folks would need a fuller-featured application. Scribus actually reminds me of the old PageMaker more than it does more recent versions of InDesign.

Affinity will never be a replacement for CC for pro's. They need the CC suite, and Adobe knows that. As you said, Adobe doesn't focus on the hobbiest market so they are willing to cede that market to others apparently.

A Lightroom equivalent may be on the drawing board at Affinity, wouldn't be illogical. As far as Scribus is concerned, I just cannot stand the interface and menus, it's free and open source, but it shows. Same with LibreOffice : it does almost everything MS Office does, but the interface totally looks out of place on a Mac and I haven't found any themes to alleviate my sense of disgust for it...

 

[brofkand]

A Lightroom equivalent may be on the drawing board at Affinity, wouldn't be illogical. As far as Scribus is concerned, I just cannot stand the interface and menus, it's free and open source, but it shows. Same with LibreOffice : it does almost everything MS Office does, but the interface totally looks out of place on a Mac and I haven't found any themes to alleviate my sense of disgust for it...

My needs for a page layout app sort of stopped at the PageMaker 7 feature set, so that is likely why I liked Scribus - Scribus is essentially a continuation of the PageMaker paradigm. Agree with LibreOffice, I would use iWork before I used LibreOffice.

Regardless, since I get CC from my employer I use InDesign nowadays.

 

[Dr. McKay]

Just got a mail from Adobe with a special offer : 40% off for a one year subscription. Small print states that afterwards, subscription will be automatically renewed at normal rates.

40% off is not a bad deal at all, but it also means you have to sign up for a year, without the possibility of cancelling before the year runs out. So, nice try, but I'm not going to re-subscribe to Adobe CC.
Will be buying the Affinity suite as soon as Publisher gets out of beta. Going to take the new Corel suite for a spin as well, see how that fares...

 

[tizeye]

Just got a mail from Adobe with a special offer : 40% off for a one year subscription. Small print states that afterwards, subscription will be automatically renewed at normal rates.

40% off is not a bad deal at all, but it also means you have to sign up for a year, without the possibility of cancelling before the year runs out. So, nice try, but I'm not going to re-subscribe to Adobe CC.
Will be buying the Affinity suite as soon as Publisher gets out of beta. Going to take the new Corel suite for a spin as well, see how that fares...

Actually, you can go into your Adobe account and turn off the auto-renew. After a few "gotchas" with Adobe and others, I do that as a standard of practice with everyone that pulls that stunt. Inconvenience me - I will renew if I want to! Like yesterday, saw Microsoft Office 365 at Costco for the normal $89 (6 user) price but included an additional 3 months free...so why would I want to auto-renew? Same way with Adobe...maintain two accounts and flip flop at renewal for the deals they send to the dormant email address to lure back - althought the 40% off for the full CC package doesn't interest me.

 

[Dr. McKay]

Actually, you can go into your Adobe account and turn off the auto-renew. After a few "gotchas" with Adobe and others, I do that as a standard of practice with everyone that pulls that stunt. Inconvenience me - I will renew if I want to! Like yesterday, saw Microsoft Office 365 at Costco for the normal $89 (6 user) price but included an additional 3 months free...so why would I want to auto-renew? Same way with Adobe...maintain two accounts and flip flop at renewal for the deals they send to the dormant email address to lure back - althought the 40% off for the full CC package doesn't interest me.

I'm not worried about the auto-renewal. 40% off seems like a good deal, but the catch is that you cannot cancel on a monthly basis. Not interested...

 

[tizeye]

I'm not worried about the auto-renewal. 40% off seems like a good deal, but the catch is that you cannot cancel on a monthly basis. Not interested...

I know, and that is my biggest complaint about Adobe. You meet your first year obligation as required when signing up, then, since month to month is not in Adobe's interest, they lock you in for another year which simplifies their corporate budgeting with a locked in income stream. That is why they turn a deaf ear to any suggestion of month to month.

 

[Dr. McKay]

I know, and that is my biggest complaint about Adobe. You meet your first year obligation as required when signing up, then, since month to month is not in Adobe's interest, they lock you in for another year which simplifies their corporate budgeting with a locked in income stream. That is why they turn a deaf ear to any suggestion of month to month.

You can get a monthly based subscription, but then it costs even more. And that 40% off doesn't count when you go monthly...

 

[AZhappyjack]

I'm not worried about the auto-renewal. 40% off seems like a good deal, but the catch is that you cannot cancel on a monthly basis. Not interested...

If the CC suite is a tool that you need to support your lively hood, 40% is huge... and even with the extra year at full price, that's an average of 20% discount over 2 years... still better than a sharp stick in the eye.