Adobe Tests Doubling the Price of Photography Plan With Photoshop and Lightroom

[SoyCapitanSoyCapitan]

Adobe today quietly debuted new pricing for its Photography bundle, which has long been available for $9.99 per month. Starting today, Adobe's website is listing a price tag of $19.99 per month, which is double the previous price.

The bundle includes access to Photoshop CC, Lightroom CC, and Lightroom Classic, and is aimed at photographers. In a statement provided to PetaPixel, Adobe said that it is testing new pricing tiers.

Most users appear to be seeing the updated pricing on the Adobe website, but there is a hidden section of the site where one can still purchase the Photography plan for $9.99 per month.

The new plan does offer 1TB of storage instead of 20GB of storage, but for those who do not use Adobe storage, the new pricing doubles the cost with no added benefit.

It is not clear if Adobe is planning permanent pricing changes for its Photography plan or if prices are going to change for existing subscribers in the future. If you previously signed up for the Photography option, you're likely paying $9.99 per month at the current time.

Adobe offers other plans, pricing a single app at $20.99 and access to all apps at $52.99 per month, but it has offered the lower-cost $9.99 per month Photography plan option since 2013.

Article Link: Adobe Tests Doubling the Price of Photography Plan With Photoshop and Lightroom

It was a bargain plan anyway. Two apps for the price of half an app, or a 4X discount. Even if the price doubles it is still half price. Might have to buy Adobe stock.

 

[Alan Wynn]

They’re taking advantage of Apple ending support of Aperture. Greed.

Sorry, there were not enough Aperture customers for Apple’s decision to have any impact. Further, if that were a consideration (which it clearly was not), they would wait until after Apple released the new version, people upgraded, switched to Lightroom and were then stuck, not six months before.

 

[SoyCapitanSoyCapitan]

With your assumptions, that is indeed how the math works out.

But start with a Student version instead and that $699 gets cut in half. Similarly, upgrade every other year and its
$199/2 years. So now we're talking about the same "3 years out" price being ~$500 instead of $1100. At five years out, its $700 and seven years its $900.

In comparison, the $9.99/mo model compares pretty close to these same benchmarks: 3 years is $360 ($140 savings), 5 years is $600 ($100 savings); 7 years is $840 ($60 savings).



Not quite on either point: second element first, the cost is perceived as less painful when its a "thousand slices" instead of a single big bill. And for the first, the point here is that it isn't $9.99/mo anymore, but now basically double that.

Thus, at this new rate, 3 years is $720 ($200 more expensive), 5 years is $1200 ($500 more), 7 years is $1680 ($780 more) ... and by 9 years, the subscription model is 4% short of literally double the lifecycle cost: $2160 vs $1100.

In the 90s app like Photoshop used to cost $1500 and if you didn’t upgrade every 1.5 - 2 years you were not going to be competitive against people who did.

By the early 2000s it was $1000 for the full version and $500 for the upgrade.

By 2010 it was nearly $2000 for the Master Collection.

These and many other pro apps like 3D Studio and Maya used to cost a lot more than today. If you adjust for inflation their cost was even higher. Young people coming in to the market today don’t realize how easy they have it. Software is more accessible than ever.

Adobe has always been a top target for software pirates and have lost many millions in sales over the years. There is never an excuse for piracy.

 

[teeoh717]

Shaka, when the subscription fell.

Slow clap.

 

[iMi]

This is the fundamental problem with the subscription model for software.

 

[GoodWheaties]

On the Australian site the old, cheaper plan is not hidden. It's right there beside the new expensive option. Doesn't make sense. https://www.adobe.com/au/products/photoshop-lightroom.html

How do you guys have the option to choose a single app? My wife would love to have just InDesign but there doesn’t seem to be that option in the US.

 

[Wash08]

I pay $10. I need photoshop to make covers for my publishing business. My question is, can infinity photo do the same kind of thing? Layers for making models work together on a cover and so on?

yes

 

[Chocomonsters]

The comments are going to be filled with a lot of upset users.

Photographer: Doesn't blink at spending $1500-5000 on a new lens, or $3000-5000 on a new camera body, or $300-800 on a new tripod, or $400-900 on a new flash, or $150 a pop on new UHS-II SD cards, or $800-3000 on a Thunderbolt RAID setup and SSDs, or $3000-7000 on a new Mac, or $800-2000 on a second and third display, or thousands of dollars on lighting equipment and backdrops and travel and paying models and grips.

Also photographer: Freaks out at having to pay Adobe a couple hundred bucks a year to edit, organize, share, and store all of their photos.

Y'all suck.

I think, everyone generally hates subscription model. RIP.

 

[prasand]

I’m pretty sure that the price hike is due to the fact that the full Photoshop CC for iPad is about to be released and will be included in the Photography plan.

Considering that a single app subscription for Illustrator, costs $20.99 ... the two full mobile and desktop apps will be included with the Photography Plan for $19.99 it is still a bargain, and a price hike is justified outside of storage. The mobile full-Photoshop was a serious undertaking of development, Adobe needs to compensate for that cost somehow. That is the reason people can now subscribe to the Lightroom only plan for $9.99 if they don’t care to have Photoshop. The new Photography plan pricing is really all about the new mobile Photoshop that’s about to drop.

Personally as an existing Photography plan subscriber already on their 1TB plan and paying $14.99 for it ... if they increase my cost another $4 to have the new mobile Photoshop, i’d welcome it. I think anyone who’d use the full Photoshop for iPad would too. It’s a solid price hike / move. Albeit a bit unfair to the non-iPad users. But even in their case, two desktop apps for the price of one is a good deal, not as good as it was before, but better than any of their non-Lightroom single app offers.

 

[gilstrac]

It is to high for me.

I am an amateur photographer for sure. It is hard to justify monthly subs. I take tons of photos but they are in bursts and not daily through the year.
I also don't like monthly fees for anything. I prefer to pay for my usage up front.
I moved away from adobe because of this subscription model. It was not without some pain. You have to find other tools. You have to learn how to do your different workflows all over again.
But now I am down the road a ways, I can't remember the last time I looked backed.
But like I said, I am an amateur. My needs are not the same as others.

 

[ChrisA]

This is a brilliant move. Think how much money Abobe will save on customer support. With half as many people using their product that can fire half the support staff and with the remaining customers paying double their income remains the same.

Even better, only their most loyal customers will stay and they need less suport. So maybe they can fire more than half of their customer support staff.

They should raise the price 100 times to $1000 per month and keep only 1% of their customers. But if each one pays 100X more they break even.

 

[T Coma]

Step one, create a barrel. Step two, get most of your customers over said barrel. Step three, gotcha.

 

[martyjmclean]

I have used PS for over 25 years. Do you think I might be happy with Affinity because it looks rather interesting.

There's a free trial on their website. I've been very happy with it, and a few of my co-workers who are veteran Photoshop users have said they prefer it.

 

[ChrisA]

It is to high for me.

I am an amateur photographer for sure. It is hard to justify monthly subs. I take tons of photos but they are in bursts and not daily through the year.
I also don't like monthly fees for anything. I prefer to pay for my usage up front.
I moved away from aAdobe because of this subscription model....

So "it worked" Adobe does not want you as a customer. Literally. They would prefer not to have to deal with non-professionals.

Likewise, I know someone who told me she was switching banks because of the fees. She asks what would happen if everyone like her left. I told her that was the intent of the fee. They don't need that $15 per month but what they need are small time customers like her to LEAVE. They prefer to deal with big companies and real estate developers and generally in multiples of millions of dollars.

I suspect that Adobe's customer service costs are sky-high and would be reduced if only profesional graphics arts people remain as customers.

 

[warp9]

With your assumptions, that is indeed how the math works out.

My assumption was standard retail price, like the vast majority of people are paying. Using any other metric would be biased.

the point here is that it isn't $9.99/mo anymore, but now basically double that.

To truly be unbiased, we must calculate with annual upgrades included as opposed to bi-annual upgrades. It's what the old model was like and is how most people maintain their software (at least myself and everyone I know). We also need to include the price of Lightroom and the upgrades for that (bi-annual because Lightroom releases were slow).

When all that is added up at the new $20/month price, subscriptions never exceed the price of outright purchase.

You can say you hardly ever upgrade, or you're a student, or you got a great deal somewhere. All of those scenarios are valid, but are not the norm. If you want to know if a subscription is right for you than look at your own situation and do the math. For the average person, a subscription is a financially superior decision.

 

[nitramluap]

"Adobe Tests Halving Their Photoshop and Lightroom User Base"

 

[Ghost31]

The comments are going to be filled with a lot of upset users.

Photographer: Doesn't blink at spending $1500-5000 on a new lens, or $3000-5000 on a new camera body, or $300-800 on a new tripod, or $400-900 on a new flash, or $150 a pop on new UHS-II SD cards, or $800-3000 on a Thunderbolt RAID setup and SSDs, or $3000-7000 on a new Mac, or $800-2000 on a second and third display, or thousands of dollars on lighting equipment and backdrops and travel and paying models and grips.

Also photographer: Freaks out at having to pay Adobe a couple hundred bucks a year to edit, organize, share, and store all of their photos.

Y'all suck.

Love how you start with high prices of things that are justifiably high priced to say we should all be cool with adobe doubling prices for no reason.

How about “Ya’ll have $30k cars and can’t spend $20 on a cup of coffee as Starbucks raises prices? Ya’ll suck”

No the two aren’t comparable.

 

[ambientdaw]

I will absolutely cancel if my subscription price doubles.

 

[InuNacho]

The comments are going to be filled with a lot of upset users.

Photographer: Doesn't blink at spending $1500-5000 on a new lens, or $3000-5000 on a new camera body, or $300-800 on a new tripod, or $400-900 on a new flash, or $150 a pop on new UHS-II SD cards, or $800-3000 on a Thunderbolt RAID setup and SSDs, or $3000-7000 on a new Mac, or $800-2000 on a second and third display, or thousands of dollars on lighting equipment and backdrops and travel and paying models and grips.

Also photographer: Freaks out at having to pay Adobe a couple hundred bucks a year to edit, organize, share, and store all of their photos.

Y'all suck.

Damn, I'm making off like a bandit. I've spent maybe 1.5-2k on my photography gear and its paid for itself a dozen times over.
You're a moronic photographer/artist if you aren't as frugal as possible.

 

[sevoneone]

Umm... This isn't a price increase. It is the Photography plan with 1TB of Adobe cloud storage. Which has been $20/mo since they made it available. The $10/mo plan is 20GB of cloud storage. Both of these plans have been available side by side for some time. All they changed was to make the higher plan show up first. Cheeky for sure, but you just have to change the dropdown before ordering.

Everyone should just use whatever software they like for whatever reason they like it and not worry about why another person hates it.

 

[Haust]

I never liked Adobe photo products. Not worth .99/month to me. But, then again I’m not a professional either. Seems like a good opportunity for a competitor to strike.

 

[Alan Wynn]

Yeah, there are a lot of alternatives out there, Like Capture One that people seem to enjoy. People should go use that instead if they want to get Adobe's attention and send a message that they don't care about cloud storage. Maybe they will never have to come back. Being serious. I would love for a smaller developer to compete more. I love using Affinity's software on my Mac/iPad. But you know what? People were insanely pissed off when they switched to subscription only everything, and Adobe has only massively increased their revenues since then.

Absolutely. Their risk, however, is that younger/newer users start working in other software and never start using Creative Cloud. This strategy works as long as most people stay. Once there is more than a small group who leave, Adobe has a problem. Currently, everyone uses Photoshop because everyone uses Photoshop. People expect to be able to ship PSD files around and not worry about it. Think of it like herd immunity with vaccines. Once a sufficient number of people switch, others who used to be able to say: “I will only accept a PSD (or a .AI or an Indesign file)” will start discovering that they need to be able to deal with Affinity Photo/Designer/Publisher, or Pixelmator Pro files. The more those people start to accept alternative formats, the easier it is for people at the margins to move away from CC.

For some other Adobe apps it can happen more quickly. Many people use Premiere Pro/After Effects because they are good enough and since they already pay for Photoshop, they are basically free. As that price goes up, they will start to look seriously at DaVinci Resolve and Fusion (free for the needs of many users, $300 one time purchase for those that need the extra features), or Final Cut Pro X/Motion and Logic. Again, the more it happens, the faster it goes.

You caught me! I've been lurking in the shadows on MacRumors for 11 years with 10,000 posts just so that I can shill for them using gorilla PR tactics. Boom! I'm also "the Russians" everybody talks about on the TV. Be scared.

Given how much time you have spent building this online persona, it seems odd that you are surprised that people are upset by this price increase.

Finally a sane person. I have the same thing just for freelance side work, and my work also pays for a license for my work Mac. It pays for itself so fast!

The problem that Adobe has is that there is they have done a very poor job segmenting their users. As someone mentioned, there are more than a few people who would not think twice for the suite at $100 or even $200. Unfortunately, there is not a version that satisfies the needs of the hobbyists and semi-pros, that is substantially cheaper. Adobe’s cloud storage is less valuable than Box/Dropbox/Google Drive/iCloud Drive and is even less interesting to people who use their systems for other software. There is some price (I have no idea what it is) at which CC is cheap enough that people will buy it without thinking twice about it. There is a higher price at which almost everyone will still buy it, but they will not be happy about it and may even start looking for alternatives.

As the price drifts, more and more people will drop from the ranks and start using other software. People like you who use it to make real money, will not worry about it and just keep paying. However, the faster it goes up and the higher it goes, the faster the lower end of the market leaves and the greater the likelihood of a catastrophic collapse.

Yeah yeah, I addressed this just a few posts down, still on the first page of comments. And again, there are a lot of cheaper alternatives that are pretty good that are coming to market like I mentioned above. Cancel your service and migrate your catalog to one of these promising startups.

The more that happens the faster it will happen moving forward. This is Adobe’s real risk.

 

[klerke]

Step one, create a barrel. Step two, get most of your customers over said barrel. Step three, gotcha.

pulp fiction comes to mind

 

[prasand]

They don't need that $15 per month but what they need are small time customers like her to LEAVE.

I take it you’re a Chase customer.

Funny how those with money pay no fees, only those who can’t afford it do. Chase Private Clients pay absolutely no fees at all, not for wires, bounced checks, non-Chase ATM usage, nothing.

 

[James T]

Big 'Photoshop for iPad' announcement on 9th May. Bet the big price hike is because they know they'll get a huge number of new subscribers to that model just for the iPad version, regardless of the monthly fee.