Apple Creator Studio Hands-On: What You Get for $12.99 Per Month

[BornAgainMac]

There is a flip side to this subscription. The apps don't get much updates when it is a one-time purchase. In a year, lets see if that changes.

 

[lovehateapple]

Since apple is starting to charge subscription fees for software updates, they should (IMO) at least offer apple gift cards at Christmas for 15% off. I normally buy one or two $100 cards on Black Friday / Cyber Monday, but none of these deals were to be found last year... 😢

 

[paulvee]

I have paid a a lot of money over the past 3 decades for software. Spent thousands on Adobe's products. They finally went subscription and I still pay tons of money. Same with Microsoft Office Suite. And Apple? I bought FCP - the full suite version of the OLD FCP at least two or three times. Then they killed it and I decided - despite being a real fan of Apple's - to not use FCP again. I'm still ticked off over that one. But I did buy the new version, just as I bought Logic, Compressor, DVD Studio Pro (a million years ago) and some others that I can't even remember - can you say "Quicktime VR"? - and, as I scan a list of all the apps and plugins and helper apps I have bought, I get kind of sick to my stomach.

So now it's subscription? For now, I have no desire to use any AI features for any of these. I'm hoping the other features get updated, but I am way too familiar with the way software companies work and fully expect these older versions to be orphaned off at some point. As for Pages, Numbers, etc., they will lose me on those. So, the answer to the question posed at the bottom of this article is NO, I do not plan to buy into any of these now if I can help it. I have other, often better, choices.

 

[rweed]

I tried downloading it and it says that "the app is not available in my region" I live in Vermont and all of my devices say the same. Any thoughts?

Did you try paying in cheese and maple syrup?

 

[jonparadise]

This is incredibly good value for those who use family sharing.

 

[LevorgPenmancho]

“Many of Apple's apps are hundreds of dollars if you purchase them on a standalone basis.”
True, but equally, these apps are hundreds of dollars on a subscription. Subscribe for 8 years and they’ll cost you the price of a new MacBook Air.

 

[baruch]

Apple today launched its latest subscription service, a software bundle called Creator Studio. Creator Studio provides access to Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro, Pixelmator Pro, Motion, Compressor, and MainStage for one $12.99 per month fee, with a $129 per year purchase option also available.

Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos.​

We checked out the Creator Studio bundle to see if it's worth what Apple is charging.

Creator Studio includes Apple's pro image, audio, and video editing apps that were previously only available for one-time purchase. If you don't currently own Apple's apps and you have need for a range of creative tools, the bundle has the potential to be a good deal.

Many of Apple's apps are hundreds of dollars if you purchase them on a standalone basis. Here are the individual costs:

• Final Cut Pro - $299.99
  
• Logic Pro - $199.99
  
• Pixelmator Pro - $49.99
  
• Compressor - $49.99
  
• Motion - $49.99
  
• MainStage - $29.99

Together, the apps cost just about $680, so there is potentially money to be saved by paying $12.99 per month or $129 per year. Creator Studio provides full access to the apps, along with exclusive AI features that are not available in the standalone versions. Apple is even including Creator Studio-exclusive features in its free apps like Freeform, Keynote, Pages, and Numbers.

You can use Freeform, Keynote, Pages, and Numbers for free and purchase Apple's apps without opting for Creator Studio, but a Creator Studio subscription is the only way to get the new AI features that Apple has developed.

Unfortunately, there is no option to purchase access to just one or two apps at a lower subscription price. Creator Studio is all or nothing, so if you just want access to image editing capabilities with Pixelmator Pro and also the AI tools for Apple's iWork app, you have no option to pay less just for those. You have to pay the full $12.99 per month price even if you don't need some of the apps.

Apple envisions Creative Studio as a tool for creatives who need to do all their content creation and management on their own, from filming videos to creating audio for those videos to making graphics. It is a highly useful option for people who can take advantage of most of the apps, but it isn't going to make as much sense for those who just need one or two.

Creator Studio is best for people who have shied away from Apple's professional video and audio editing apps because of their high cost, or those who need tools for video creation, music making, and image editing. It would be nice if Apple could offer more specialized, affordable bundles in the future, much like Adobe does for its Creative Cloud apps.

Apple is offering a one-month free trial for those who want to try out Creator Studio, or a three-month trial with the purchase of an eligible Mac or iPad. Up to six family members can share a single Creative Studio subscription.

Do you plan to subscribe to Creative Studio? Let us know in the comments below.

Article Link: Apple Creator Studio Hands-On: What You Get for $12.99 Per Month

I will not be subscribing. Why would I when 14.5 works just fine and is free with the OS? This is just Apple getting deeper into people's pockets. It's tiresome and kind of sleazy in my opinion.

 

[mva68]

For the same price as Microsoft 365 Family i will now get all the creator apps and an improved Numbers and Pages? I say byebye Microsoft.

 

[vgmrm]

Until now, we had Stallone, Statham, Schwarzenegger, and Willis as Mercenaries.
But it seems they forgot to include Cook as the protagonist.

 

[MilaM]

I'm puzzled why they included the "office" apps in this bundle. As a user this is a huge red flag, because it means, that at some point Pages, Numbers and Keynote will only be available when you subscribe to the bundle. I'm glad now, that I never created a lot of documents in Apple's proprietary format.

 

[Megaman]

“You'll own nothing and you'll be happy”

All going according to plan for 2030.

 

[RobDacoder]

Then you’re in luck because Apple is offering exactly that.

Except they're not. No iPad version unless you subscribe, missing features from the Mac version unless you subscribe - absolute joke.

 

[cSalmon]

There is a flip side to this subscription. The apps don't get much updates when it is a one-time purchase. In a year, lets see if that changes.

That seems like a good thing to me. Sure it was great when photoshop updated the ability to edit 16bit files or created layers those days are gone most updates today seem like software engineers adding beta bloat. "Here try this, doesn't always work maybe you the paying customer can figure it out"

I have yet to see software generated masks work great on Stills - Motion I'm skeptical.

the biggest reason I left Adobe once they went subscription was because every time I needed to work they had released a new update that froze my work until I updated then of course the updates had glitches.

personally I think Apple's reasoning it to justify killing off their software in the near future

 

[satchmo]

I guess it's only a deal if you find use for all these apps.

If you only need Final Cut and Pixelmator, it's cheaper not to go subscription after 2.7 years.

$350/$129= 2.7 years

 

[teaneedz]

I woke up this morning with notifications for 3 app updates : keynote, numbers and pages but I'm afraid to update. Are these replacing my older versions completely or are they new apps sitting alongside the older ones? i don't want more liquid glass ******tification or prompts to upgrade to that gross new paid plan. Any helpful details on this would be appreciated.

 

[MacBH928]

is imovie dead?

 

[BigBlur]

is imovie dead?

I don't think so. The macOS version had an update yesterday.

 

[Ubele]

Not a terrible price if they keep solid updates coming. Especially the student/educator deal.

But for my uses (Which are not much) I’ll stick with my Davinci Resolve, and Affinity Photo/Designer/Publisher combo going. And keep using my existing purchased versions of Motion/Compressor/FCP

I get Adobe CC through my job, but I bought the Affinity trio to support the company (Serif) and because they were so inexpensive. I have only a few years left until I retire, and my plan was to use the Affinity apps for personal projects. I don't know if you're aware, but Canva bought Serif last year and bundled the Mac versions of all three Affinity apps into a single app called Affinity. It's free, but there's a paid subscription available for additional AI features. You sign up for the new app through your Canva account. The original Mac apps are no longer available, but they still work if you have them. I don't know whether they'll receive updates. The iPad versions are still available and supposedly will remain free forever. I'm not sure what Canva's business model is for this. I haven't played with the new app, so I'm wondering if it integrates in some way with Canva.

 

[ivan101]

apps like Numbers and Logic Pro have very different user bases. Forcing people who need just Numbers and Pages if they want advanced features to also pay for image and audio editing apps is nuts. No go for me.

It certainly is. And they probably counted the downloads and these were the monitizers

 

[meggie_v]

Apple has a history of losing interest in its own in-house creative software. The north remembers Aperture, not to mention several workflow-busting on-a-whim redesigns of Final Cut, multi-year-long periods of neglect with MainStage, etcetera etcetera etcetera. We're well past the "fool me once, shame on me, fool me twice shame on you" stage of Apple's business in this area. Mark my words: this bundle isn't going to be a going thing three years from now.

And then there's the issue of return on time invested learning the apps in the bundle that don't have any broad user base traction or bear the title of "industry standard." Time spent mastering the peculiarities of "Pixelmator Pro" don't get you any of the collaboration benefits of knowing the same app as two billion global / cross-platform Photoshop users. I recognize that Logic, MainStage, and Final Cut have more "industry" traction comparatively, but none are the hand-down leader in their fields. If you're a musician, your world is just bigger if you're recording in Ableton, FL Studio, ProTools, some others. Cross platform stuff just gets you more collab opportunity.

And of course the competition's thick. It's not just Adobe anymore, there are the Canva-Affinity apps now too, which are also free without generative AI, and competitively priced with it--and offer a broader cross-platform user base. And competition isn't just from the usual players of the creative software business. We're getting close to the point--if we aren't already there--that the REAL level bosses are Google Nano Banana or Suno Studio or ten thousand other generative services I don't even know about. "Creativity" is quickly becoming a prompt-driven and/or agentically-orchestrated AI slop race. (It's a trend which I freaking hate, by the way, but it is what it is.)

I also can't help but note that Logic, MainStage, Final Cut, etc. completely skip participation in the "Liquid Glass" fiasco. Nice to see Apple keeping the UI standards consistent, eh?

Ack! I hate to be Debbie Downer. The bundle's priced attractively--you get a lot of capability for your monthly rent--but I just worry about the opportunity costs involved, sacrificing cross-platform collaboration and investing time mastering apps Apple will inevitably neglect a couple of years from now.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[pelowj]

While every business circumstance is different and I am not your accountant, SaaS exists because businesses prefer it. It creates predictable, ongoing CODB rather than sudden, one-time investments, and defers or sidesteps entirely ownership of assets. Same for things like leasing of durable goods (computers, office space, etc.) Again, every circumstance is different but there's a reason why, if you're a business, you're generally going to look for ways to offload one-time purchases.

Well, our own personal experience as a small business relying on SaaS was good until it wasn't. We started back in 2018 or so at €240 a year. By 2022, that had risen to around €2,900 a year, which was fine because we'd gone up a tier or two in their features. Last year they introduced an "innovative" new pricing structure without consultation or warning, and our annual price jumped to €35,000.

The issue isn't so much the structure of monthly payments — it's that you're at the mercy of someone with a spreadsheet trying to extract as much money as possible from your business, knowing full well their product is deeply embedded and you have nowhere to go. Textbook ******tification, and it happens the world over.

-James

 

[JSRinUK]

I’ve never used this software before due to price, so this initially interested me.

Then I saw you wrote this elsewhere:

Students and educators are able to subscribe to Creator Studio for $2.99 per month or $29.99 per year.

I’m not about to pay 5x the price that Apple charges someone else. If they can charge that price to some people, they should charge that price to everyone.

 

[David Scott Orkney]

As we've seen with other subscription products, the price on launch day isn't the issue. It seems like a pretty good deal, even! The issue is when you come to rely on these products and they start turning the screws.

Relying on subscription software and cloud services is the worst decision any business can make, and I've found that out the hard way.

Apple today launched its latest subscription service, a software bundle called Creator Studio. Creator Studio provides access to Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro, Pixelmator Pro, Motion, Compressor, and MainStage for one $12.99 per month fee, with a $129 per year purchase option also available.

Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos.​

We checked out the Creator Studio bundle to see if it's worth what Apple is charging.

Creator Studio includes Apple's pro image, audio, and video editing apps that were previously only available for one-time purchase. If you don't currently own Apple's apps and you have need for a range of creative tools, the bundle has the potential to be a good deal.

Many of Apple's apps are hundreds of dollars if you purchase them on a standalone basis. Here are the individual costs:

• Final Cut Pro - $299.99
  
• Logic Pro - $199.99
  
• Pixelmator Pro - $49.99
  
• Compressor - $49.99
  
• Motion - $49.99
  
• MainStage - $29.99

Together, the apps cost just about $680, so there is potentially money to be saved by paying $12.99 per month or $129 per year. Creator Studio provides full access to the apps, along with exclusive AI features that are not available in the standalone versions. Apple is even including Creator Studio-exclusive features in its free apps like Freeform, Keynote, Pages, and Numbers.

You can use Freeform, Keynote, Pages, and Numbers for free and purchase Apple's apps without opting for Creator Studio, but a Creator Studio subscription is the only way to get the new AI features that Apple has developed.

Unfortunately, there is no option to purchase access to just one or two apps at a lower subscription price. Creator Studio is all or nothing, so if you just want access to image editing capabilities with Pixelmator Pro and also the AI tools for Apple's iWork app, you have no option to pay less just for those. You have to pay the full $12.99 per month price even if you don't need some of the apps.

Apple envisions Creative Studio as a tool for creatives who need to do all their content creation and management on their own, from filming videos to creating audio for those videos to making graphics. It is a highly useful option for people who can take advantage of most of the apps, but it isn't going to make as much sense for those who just need one or two.

Creator Studio is best for people who have shied away from Apple's professional video and audio editing apps because of their high cost, or those who need tools for video creation, music making, and image editing. It would be nice if Apple could offer more specialized, affordable bundles in the future, much like Adobe does for its Creative Cloud apps.

Apple is offering a one-month free trial for those who want to try out Creator Studio, or a three-month trial with the purchase of an eligible Mac or iPad. Up to six family members can share a single Creative Studio subscription.

Do you plan to subscribe to Creative Studio? Let us know in the comments below.

Article Link: Apple Creator Studio Hands-On: What You Get for $12.99 Per Month

I only use the iWork suite and I’m confused why Apple would tell me to download the new Pages app whilst keeping the old Pages in my Applications folder. It feels like Apple will in the future make the Creator Studio version subscription-only for everyone and just say, we’ll you can still use the old version if you want but it will never be updated.

 

[Sputman99]

Couple of things - The new icons win the ‘Most Ugly Icons 2026’ awards - I hope someone finds a way to remove the AI icons from the tool bars - also Do NOT run your spreadsheets or any other data you value or is private through any AI - what is happening to Apple UI and software people - dumbing down and filling it with AI bombs and subscription traps - it’s horrible - I might dump it and use Linux and all the free stuff

 

[pauloregan]

I'm having collaboration issues with Numbers on my 2017 iMac since the update.