Subscription cost increasing AGAIN

[ActivelyX]

I'm going to cancel my subscription too. I'm tired of paying exorbitant fees month after month. $72.99 a month? From $52.99? I don't see inflation at that level.

[ProDesignTools]

Hi Dominique,

Can't figure out any way that you could possibly be paying $937 CAD per year for Creative Cloud... That is significantly higher than any price that Adobe charges for individuals (even including GST).

Also, as mentioned on the previous page​​ above, it may be possible to avoid any price increase entirely... So you might want to take a closer look at that.

[JesseDS76]

Lol... ProDesignTools - How much are they paying you to troll their forums? $937 is one hundred percent accurate! That works out to $79/mth - It's actually even more than that when you figure in the USD exchange rate for Canadians.. Smh...

[gerardom007]

Yuup,

Sure is a load of B.S. They send you this super articulated email talking a bunch of non-sense about commitment to delivering the best product and blah blah blah. Just say what it is, a money grab to increase the bottom line! Haha.

I had a conversation with someone who turned out to be an Adobe employee who holds a very nice position there and told me even they know its B.S. but it was inevitable. said that it was good for them but not good for the consumer. basically, No real  reason for the rate hike, its just about how much can we get out of these people, how much can we charge before they notice, $1 here, $10 there. Meanwhile, try n guess how much an an employee there pays. Lol.

Yea Im one of the little guys getting squeezed. I hope to migrate soon to other software. Corel, Quark and something for photoshop.

[Abambo]

DId you notice that the OP did confuse things?

The best with the subscription model is, that you can easily return, when the competitor's software is not up to your expectations. But yes, there is competition out. So feel free to change.

[gerardom007]

SWEET!

Thank you to the folks posting here and sharing some of the alternative software out there! I do graphic design with emphasis on the print side of things, illustration and design, some image retouching/manipulation and just export my work for various applications.

I just purchased some software (With no subscription yaaay!) I discovered here that looks to work for me and what I do and as soon as I finish some projects Im working on, just to not interrupt my workflow, Its bye bye to Adobe after 10+ years. Now, Gimmie back my credit card, jeje.

[adtypeanddesign]

A year ago, I was told by a man in India I was getting a "senior citizen rate" for $29.99 a month when I upgraded from CS6 (they revoked my license for a legitimate copy) to CC. Now I get an e-mail today that my subscription is increasing to $52.99, a 76 percent increase.

Thanks, Adobe.

[Abambo]

I suppose you add a promotional offer limited in time. The standard subscription price increased, but not that much.

Your CS6 license is still valid, if you did not sell off the software and license.

[michiet]

I call it greed because Adobe allowed me to update my programs for 5 years before calling my license not legit. I can't prove my case because the company is out of business. If it were fake, Adobe should have let me know when I was updating and registered the program. Adobe wasn't always the standout page layout program. it was Quark for page layout, they were the top at one time. Adobe can and will be challenged in the future. I hope it's because of their bad practices.

[franchescao77442882]

QuarkExpress is very similar to InDesign. QuarkExpress is offering half price off for all customers switching from InDesign and it’s a perpetual license!  I have to switch since we can’t do offline deployment.

[Abambo]

franchescao77442882  wrote

QuarkExpress is very similar to InDesign. QuarkExpress is offering half price off for all customers switching from InDesign and it’s a perpetual license!  I have to switch since we can’t do offline deployment.

QuarkXpress was the market leader before. They lost market share because of their expensive license policy and their slowness for implementing new technology. Good luck if you changed. I'm sure you can do great work in QuarkXpress.

However, Adobe allows offline and on-line deployment.

[franchescao77442882]

Abambo,

You are wrong. InDesign is not available for offline deployment, not even as part of a VIP account or by purchasing a volume license. This is the only reason we will be forced to switch. QuarkXpress is offering half off if you can prove that you are switching from Adobe and it will end costing less than InDesign in the long run. We would agree to pay more for InDesign, but Adobe won't sell it to us for offline deployment. Some government clients require computers to be offline and we can't use subscriptions. 

[ProDesignTools]

Abambo is right:

Deploying Adobe CC Applications in Secure/Offline Environments | Public Sector Blog by Adobe

[franchescao77442882]

ProDesignTools,

Look at the date of your article. 2015. Call customer service and ask for offline deployment now and see what they say.

[ProDesignTools]

Franchesca,

You may have received incorrect information because In fact, Adobe continues to offer it.

Overview: Deploying Adobe Creative Cloud for enterprise

[cc4818531]

I found my Adobe Creative Cloud subscription fee for team had been suddenly raised nearly double from A$54.99 to A$101.19.  Adobe support team explained my promotional price from 2015 is finished in Aug last month.  I think this is absolutely unacceptable without notice - 3 years later.  They asked me to refer to their email back to 2015!!

[thinkpixels]

They really need more bundle options like they did on the old box products. For example, Production Premium. It included After Effects, Premiere, Photoshop and Illustrator. That is perfect for what I need these days. That I would gladly pay $25-30 a month for. $53 a month for a bunch of stuff I don't need is just too high.

They are going the way of Apple and the iPhone now and a number of colleagues and myself haven't upgraded to the X from the 7 because that cost of $60 isn't justified either. The whole subscription model was nice when it came out as it was a nice comfortable price and you didn't have to worry about buying a large update every year, but they need to cool it on the price increases or people will look elsewhere. Adobe I really hope you look into some sort of freelance discount. Thanks

[Abambo]

This is a quite fruitless discussion, as the subscription model is quite successful. There was only one price increase since its existance. Its, however, a different discussion if a price is correct or to high. I still own an iPhone 6+.There is no relation between a telephone and the software system. Do not compare Apple with Adobe. Apple is very often a « I want it » phenomena as Adobe is a « I need it » situation.

But anyway prices are not decided on an engineering level, and as this discussions are good for a while, arguments wear out.

Adobe is successful. As long as Adobe is successful Adobe will not change the strategy. And this is a purly commercial decision.

[laduck]

I was a professional graphic designer for over 20 years and have used Adobe software since day one. When InDesign came out in 1999, I was the first in the door of management, petitioning the design department to change to InDesign from Quark Xpress. Lack of competition had made Quark arrogant, their costs increasing, their service decreasing. We all fled to InDesign as soon as it came out, we all couldn't wait to get away from Quark, they stopped treating us well and they lost our loyalty.

Adobe is now doing the same thing. After 20 years of being a dedicated Adobe customer, I canceled my subscription to Creative Suite. I used InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, and Acrobat. Continuing to use those programs now is prohibitively expensive. $635 every year. In only four years that's over $2500. In just six short years I'll have paid out almost $4000. And that's if they don't raise the subscription rates.

I am now semi-retired. I would like to continue creating art. I have personal work I want to create, a few local charities for whom I create work, and maybe even an occasional paid job. I'm broken-hearted that after 20 years I now have to give up what I have spent my entire career learning because I can no longer use these programs without an expensive ongoing subscription.

I understand there is a cost to software, I don't expect to have the programs for free. But surely there should be a model that would support small freelancers, and people such as myself.

Most designers use InDesign, Illustrator, and Photoshop and then also Acrobat to make their PDFs. Couldn't there be a bundle for us? Couldn't there be an option to lower our cost if we agree to fewer or no updates?

[Abambo]

laduck  wrote

Couldn't there be a bundle for us? Couldn't there be an option to lower our cost if we agree to fewer or no updates?

There is... it’s called all apps. No need to choose between the programs, you get all in one basket.

You are doing your math: 2540 USD for 4 years. That’s less then we paid each 4 years in upgrade costs. And we can do the upgrades at our pace, the users get every app and they do not need to choose... And because it is cheap we added 50% licences to our pool.

I know, it’s hard for people not working at a professional level but the tools are professional tools and they are good. Sometimes there is a flaw in and Adobe then needs to work hard because all the users paying on the month want to get their software working.

If there would be a 3 out of all the apps bundle, people would rant why there isn’t a 4-products bundle. Or a 2 products bundle, for those that use only 2 products.

And then there are those who do not want to use the cloud. Or who do need only 50Gb or those who need 300Gb.

And not to forget those who use only RGB pictures and do not do CMYK. Why offereing a CMYK workflow?

Adobe has taken a wise choice. You get the all apps for 50USD per month. It’s cheap for the level of programs you get. For those 50USD you can use your 3 applications and as a bonus, yoou have 17+ in addition. You will not use them all. Animation may be to complex for you, Dreamweawer may be less design oriented then you need, XD could be much design oriented.

If you do it as a hobby, either put the money in it, like you do when going to the gym or buy a substitution product as you could buy a hometrainer. If you do use the programs for a living you will be better off than before.

[rayek.elfin]

Inexpensive alternatives do exist. Serif is playing its hand straight into the market segment in which you find yourself with its Affinity range: Designer (Illustrator), Photo (Photoshop), and Publisher (InDesign). Publisher is currently still on beta, and a free download. Photo and Designer are inexpensive, and all three work together in much the same way as Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign.

They're not there quite yet, but already very usable. And very affordable (perpetual license, no rent!): . Since Serif aims them at the segment of dissatisfied Adobe users, the transition is quite painless. And (I am guessing you work on Mac) the performance on Mac is generally impressive. Publisher looks very promising: it reminds me of when InDesign was first introduced.

Also have a look at PhotoLine (which I prefer for image editing nowadays, even over Photoshop) and Krita (great free open source digital art software).

Of course, Quark still exists, and still offers a perpetual license. They might give you the competitive upgrade, but Quark is still quite expensive.

A free open source option is Scribus. Clunky, but serviceable.

You could also continue to rent Photoshop & Lightroom for $10 a month, and switch to other apps for the rest.

All in all, lots of options out there, for much less upkeep.

[michiet]

Thank you so much Rayek.elfin. I have already downloaded Affinity Publisher beta version. Haven't had a chance to really play yet. I am going to buy there image editing program as well. I will check out PhotoLine before buying. I really appreciate your help.

[rayek.elfin]

PhotoLine's default interface setup is non-standard, so it will take some customization and more transition time to get comfortable with it. Affinity is a pretty seamless transition compared. But in terms of image editing "power" PhotoLine is a couple of steps ahead of Photo (and in a number of areas even beyond Photoshop). You may not need that power, though.

Affinity Photo and Publisher do not support 1bit bitmap images yet (such as 1bit b&w 1200ppi files), which PhotoLine does support (and it can do things in this regard that Photoshop users can only dream of). In this regard PhotoLine is more of a layout application.

Depends on your needs. I have and use both, and while I mainly stick to PhotoLine for image editing, Photo can do really nice HDR and focus stacking, which PhotoLine is weak at (focus stacking or 360 degree editing is not supported, for example).

Krita is an excellent replacement for digital painting, btw. Arguably "better" than Photoshop, with some good compositing thrown in as well. Text handling is very clunky, though. Free is hard to beat, however.

[michiet]

Very kind of you for an in depth description of the programs and what they can do. I copied both your posts into a file to remember the programs and what they are capable of doing. Not all comments have the nice tone and help that yours has and just wanted to let you know I appreciate that.

[rayek.elfin]

Thanks for the kind words.

I think it is also important to mention that no software is perfect and this holds true for both Adobe and alternatives. And it really depends on someone's particular needs and wants. My short descriptions of possible alternatives are very shallow, and I think the best approach is just to download trial versions and make up our own minds.

[Daniel E Lane]

Seems like there are a lot of new kids in here who are just starting out trying to be professional and not understanding how good they have it with the pricing of software. Kids, this is stupid cheap compared to how it was just a few years ago. Back when you updated your software with every version at a cost of $1500-$2000 a version. Or getting a package of software for $6500. And in order to stay competitive, you updated with every version which came out every 12 to 18 months. The prices now are nothing and really, they are just the pice of being a professional. If it's too expensive, maybe you shouldn't be playing around with professional software, or you need to find another line of work.