Adobe Takes 40% Off Creative Cloud Pro for Your First Year

[jchap]

Adobe, as well as many other software companies, need to offer a free tier for hobbyists. Those of us who make a living from it can subsidize it, since they’ll never go back to perpetual licensing anyway. Even Autodesk offers Fusion 360 for free, and their AutoCAD pricing schemes are nonsensical.

A free tier for hobbyists would be wonderful for customers, because then any customer could claim that they were a hobbyist and Adobe would tank.

Adobe already has an ample trial period during which you can use their expensive products for free. These are tools used by pros to make money, so it’s expected that they charge money for them. People who want to monkey around with software or who don’t need to use the software in a professional setting can use the open-source alternatives. I’m not saying that open-source software can’t be used in pro situations, but there are industries and clients for which you absolutely need to use Adobe software, and so you pony up to pay for the privilege of using that feature set.

I find that most people who complain about the value of Adobe products have never really used their software in a paid professional setting. You get what you pay for.

 

[MacGizmo]

Adobe used to sell the complete suite for $299 for life. Now they charge twice as much for 1 year. Massively overpriced.

I don't know what you sprinkle on your breakfast cereal in the morning, but Adobe NEVER sold anything for $300 for life. EVER.

 

[cupcakes2000]

Adobe used to sell the complete suite for $299 for life. Now they charge twice as much for 1 year. Massively overpriced.

I don’t think so. Maybe you may get a single app for that price. Or they used to sell the previous collection at a reduced price but I don’t remember seeing it that cheap.

 

[cupcakes2000]

Maybe some people actually need to batch edit thousands of photos in Lightroom, idk.

Yeah. I don’t know. Maybe a photographer? That’s who Lightroom is designed for.

As for the dedicated cameras, if one learns manual mode then the jpegs would be so good that you won’t even need to do anything in post

Doesn’t really work like that.

 

[Shirasaki]

Some cards do have a feature where you can generate separate card numbers that get charged to the same card. It's designed for shady merchants you don't trust

That’s very neat. Dunno about register names though if that needs to be consistent. And if adobe thinks abusing their introductory offer is a problem they may ban it.

 

[Shirasaki]

Curious to hear how that works over time. My hunch is that they would track you whenever you go online with any of the Creative Cloud stuff active. Or do you just use that VPN 100% of the time?

They track you 100% of the time and if you don’t have internet long enough (I think 3 days or 7 days, either way pretty short for a grace period), they won’t allow you to open the software and pester you to login.

 

[uacd]

Doesn’t really work like that.

Yeah, “shoot in RAW”, right?😏

Adobe is actually profiteering a lot from RAW formats. Since every camera upgrades them yearly and has their own version (not a universal .DNG), user has to keep app up-to-date. That’s how they were pushing users to pay for upgrades before introduction of subscription model.

Honestly RAW is the biggest scam of the 21st century. ProRAW can be useful on iPhones, but others are very much overcomplicated and you won’t get better result than the camera processes anyway. Nowadays algorithms have reached enough precision to detect what exactly is in the image before even capturing it, camera buffers have quadruppled. Why even bother with RAW and Lightroom subscription?

 

[svish]

Even with the discount, which is just for the first year, not going to subscribe. Pricing is still high. Was nice when there was a one time payment option in the past.

 

[cupcakes2000]

Yeah, “shoot in RAW”, right?😏

Adobe is actually profiteering a lot from RAW formats. Since every camera upgrades them yearly and has their own version (not a universal .DNG), user has to keep app up-to-date. That’s how they were pushing users to pay for upgrades before introduction of subscription model.

Honestly RAW is the biggest scam of the 21st century. ProRAW can be useful on iPhones, but others are very much overcomplicated and you won’t get better result than the camera processes anyway. Nowadays algorithms have reached enough precision to detect what exactly is in the image before even capturing it, camera buffers have quadruppled. Why even bother with RAW and Lightroom subscription?

You don’t know what you’re talking about, it’s clear as you go on about algorithms, and ‘learning manual’ means you only need to shoot jpegs. Just because my R1 can understand the subject before I shoot it has nothing to do with whether I would like the output that the camera decided when it edited my raw file for me to produce that jpeg. The camera buffer has even less to do with raw shooting.

Besides, Lightroom and Adobe is not the only software to be able to edit raw, and most cameras have a raw option - even phones. Are you blinded by hate for Adobe to suggest that it only exists for them to make money?

PS: as legendary as Mr. Rockwell is - a 16 year old post doesn’t make your point.

 

[erihp]

Yeah, “shoot in RAW”, right?😏

Adobe is actually profiteering a lot from RAW formats. Since every camera upgrades them yearly and has their own version (not a universal .DNG), user has to keep app up-to-date. That’s how they were pushing users to pay for upgrades before introduction of subscription model.

Honestly RAW is the biggest scam of the 21st century. ProRAW can be useful on iPhones, but others are very much overcomplicated and you won’t get better result than the camera processes anyway. Nowadays algorithms have reached enough precision to detect what exactly is in the image before even capturing it, camera buffers have quadruppled. Why even bother with RAW and Lightroom subscription?

you have no idea what youre talking about.

 

[Villarrealadrian]

Dont fall for it!! Its a fraud!

 

[elessar7]

My only issue with Adobe it’s their draconian termination fees.

Greedy AF

 

[cupcakes2000]

I signed up to the photographer plan as soon as it came out. What, 7 years ago? The price has remained the same for all that time, until this march (ish) when it has still remained the same, but they changed it so that it no longer includes photoshop, but it upped the cloud storage from 20gb to 1tb.

Now if you want PS with that package you need to pay extra. But if you were already subscribed to the plan, you can keep the same price.

ACR is very advanced now, it offered masking and advanced object removal, arguably the main things most photographers may need from PS in the first place.

I just dont get all the subscription angst with professional level software such as adobe provide. I mean yeah - a calculator app, or some other pointless subscription I hate them as much as the next person. But adobes apps are advanced, industry standard, plentiful, and a pretty good deal compared to the solution previously offered where you needed a massive outlay every couple of years. There are plenty of great cheaper alternatives with a variety of payment methods. Just get one of them.

 

[TonyTech]

I used to live in the States and never paid more than $30 a month for the entire Creative Cloud. Now that I'm back in Puerto Rico and had to change my region, I noticed we don't get the 40% discount—even though Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory and is considered domestic in most cases. They also automatically switch the language to Spanish, even though Puerto Rico has two official languages—Spanish and English—and there’s a large community of people from the mainland U.S. living here who only speak English.

 

[jakebrosy]

Of course it's for new users only, because companies no longer have any interest in rewarding loyalty.

Wanna workaround (short of moving to Affinity)? Use a new email address for each year. Once a year or so I need to use Acrobat Pro for about 4 hours. I download a trial using a new email address and cancel when I'm done. I assume the same would work for subscriptions.

 

[jakebrosy]

I ran across this article today and realized how glad I am that we converted to a 100% Affinity shop almost 3 years ago (video work is DaVinci).

We regularly hire contractors to work on book projects and I always worried we might get a virus from what was likely a pirated version of Adobe.

Plus the Affinity Suite was about $100 per seat for a perpetual license...let's see that's $100 ÷ 3 years = $33/year.

 

[MacMorrison]

Adobe jacked up their prices and Affinity has been taken offline (from purchasing). Many people theorize Affinity will go subscription-only like their owners, Canva.

Something is up.

 

[v3rlon]

Obviously yes. If you work in an industry where you need to use them for paid work, you have to pay for Creative Cloud (or work for someone who does).

If you're an amateur, etc, there are other non-rental tools that you can probably make work. (No shade to amateurs either -- the term literally means someone who does something they love.)

But if you're working for a client who expects a deliverable as an Illustrator file or a Premiere project or an InDesign package, then no, you can't hand them some random ass Affinity file or whatever and expect to get paid. As a practical matter many freelancers just have to absorb and write off the $800/year as a business expense. Because none of these file formats are open in any way, you're locked in. Not great, but this is the reality in 2025.

Those 'random ass Affinity files' are 100% Adobe compatible PSDs and the like.
Premier is another matter. You could use Resolve or FCP X - both of which have been used on Oscar winning films with budgets far higher than anyone likely to be posting in this forum, but if the file needs to be Premier compatible, that could turn into a speed bump.
Affinity Photo will apply export as PSD.

People using file compatibility just haven't tried it. They are sticking with what they know and Adobe is sticking it to them for their trepidation.

 

[v3rlon]

I ran across this article today and realized how glad I am that we converted to a 100% Affinity shop almost 3 years ago (video work is DaVinci).

We regularly hire contractors to work on book projects and I always worried we might get a virus from what was likely a pirated version of Adobe.

Plus the Affinity Suite was about $100 per seat for a perpetual license...let's see that's $100 ÷ 3 years = $33/year.

Right.
It is more than possible to abandon Adobe. It isn't even that hard. You do, however, have to be willing to change, because Adobe certainly won't.

 

[v3rlon]

Adobe jacked up their prices and Affinity has been taken offline (from purchasing). Many people theorize Affinity will go subscription-only like their owners, Canva.

Something is up.

Affinity is getting ready to release a new version. "Many people" fear monger for clickbait and do not know any more than the rest of us.
Canva did pledge that Affinity would always have a perpetual license option. Now, companies can and do forget the pledge they made. They can and do lie. But, I don't have anything at this moment that says anything other than what they posted: They don't want version confusion. I imagine they are also trying to dodge the hassle of "I bought 2.0 2 weeks ago and, - " followed by someone else saying "What about me, I bought it two weeks and two days ago?"

We always see this. Someone is always mad they just missed the window, and there will always be someone who did no matter how big the window is. Let's just wait and see. Honestly, the page looks more like designer than photos.

 

[MacMorrison]

Affinity switched to a "Freemium" plan under Canva. Affinity v3 only supports Apple Silicon on macOS 13 Ventura and later... Intel support has been dropped.

Generative AI features will be $120/year for individuals.

Affinity v1 and v2 apps will continue to activate and download for the foreseeable future...

The new app combines the functions of Affinity Photo, Designer, and Publisher into similar "Studios"... Vector, Pixel, and Layout.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/202...-but-locks-ai-features-behind-a-subscription/