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Participant
December 10, 2019
Question

Adobe should sell InDesign software outright.

  • December 10, 2019
  • 5 replies
  • 1124 views

I want to be able to purchase Adobe InDesign outright without committing to paying an ongoing monthly or annual so-called Creative Cloud subscription. I used to be able to keep current by buying the software once and then upgrading to a current version every second or third time a major software upgrade was introduced. Paying an upgrade fee every three to five years worked much better for my budget than committing to paying an ongoing monthly rental fee which is charged even in the months I don't use the program. Please restore the old outright-purchase model as a replacement for (or at least as an alternative to) the CC program. Thank you.

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5 replies

BobLevine
Community Expert
Community Expert
December 10, 2019

That ship sailed a long, long time ago. More and more companies are going to a subscription-based fee. They're not going back, either.

Here's an article I wrote 6 years ago. Beyond the subscription numbers listed which have ballooned to millions of users, nothing in there has changed.

https://www.boblevine.us/why-creative-cloud-subscription-software-is-here-to-stay/

Community Expert
December 10, 2019

Unfortunately, this is not an avenue to contact Adobe - you can put your voice across here https://indesign.uservoice.com/ - and these are monitored and checked and replied to - the more people you get on board to vote for your idea the better, but it's not the main reason Adobe listens to users - you don't need a lot of votes for them to listen - just a reasonable request will do.

 

In terms of other applications that suit your budget:

Quark is a one off payment and a perpetual license - so you don't need to keep buying it with options to upgrade at later points.

Affinity is the same and a very cheap one-off payment 

Scribus is an open-source similar to InDesign

There are others if you look for them.

 

In terms of InDesign - it's payment model is currently subscription-based. 

 

Your options are relatively simple:

Commit to an annual plan and pay monthly for €24.59/mo

OR

Standalone Monthly Plan for €36.89/mo (needs to be renewed on month-month basis)

OR

Annual Plan and pay a 1 off fee for the year for €294.97 / year

 

And to be honest sounds reasonably priced to me.

Legend
December 10, 2019

That plan (skipping upgrades) worked for your budget but didn’t work nearly so well for Adobe’s budget. This is the new world. (Not an official reply). 

Derek Cross
Community Expert
Community Expert
December 10, 2019

If you only use InDesign occasionally, you can pay a little more and subscribe by just the months you want to use it.

Steve Werner
Community Expert
Community Expert
December 10, 2019

You might look at other solutions from Affinity or other vendors if you feel that strongly. The Adobe train left a long time ago.

 

While it may not work well for you, it does for a very large number of people (and companies), and Adobe is doing very well using the subscription model (check the stock market).