Is there an alternative to Creative Cloud?

I too am not a fan of Adobe creative Cloud, the apps seem to more buggy than they were in the early days. You stop paying and you can't open your own files or edit them...

InDesign was closely based on QuarkXpress, which is it's own company. I used Quark professionally for many years and it was just fine. You could look at Coreldraw graphics-suite as well, Coreldraw started out as a vector based drawing program, like Adobe Illustrator. It appears to have grown to be more multi-purpose.

Original photoshop met most needs very well. Lost it during numerous windows 10 "upgrades" ,  Can't recall Adobe offering any updates to me at all. Only option to reactivate lost account was the creative cloud. Found CC to be a mishmash of unusable apps  and overly technical app instructional videos.  Wasted far too many hours  attempting to edit a simple photo.  After three attempts had to give up.  Spare me the complimentary CC offer after terminating the agreement!   - Will follow up on some of the suggestions submitted by others. Don't mind paying good money for something that actually works!

If I knew what the objection was, I'd edit my response.

I adored Adobe.

But maybe the time has come you could take a look at Google. The have OS Chrome and build apps even to design and so one.

And they quick become better and better. There where others remain with the same buggy stuff and other issues that - us users - cost a lot of production time and money. We are just looking for fast, stable, easy to use software. Google has it.

I think Adobe will do very well with subscriptions as there are plenty of large wealthy companies that can afford it, and if Adobe ever did decided to double or triple their subscriptions and hold those companies to ransom, those companies would pay that as well, they'd have little choice once they're locked in. (That's why I bought shares in Adobe…. $$$ Kerching $$$ ).

What I think it does affect are smaller businesses and individuals. I think a lot of smaller companies will be looking for alternatives. Our business regrettably won't be upgrading from CS6 to CC, we'll be switching to alternatives going forward, which is a shame because I've used Adobe products for 20 years +. There are alternatives out there, which I won't mention on an Adobe forum, and they are actually not 1,000,000 miles off Adobe's offering, but you can use their licences in perpatuity.

I'd much prefer if Adobe continued with the CS6, CS7, CS8 model, but perhaps made the upgrades more expensive, unless you pay an annual service contract which includes updates. I'd be quite prepared to pay the £400+ a year (which I already do for Maxon's Cinema 4D and that's 1 program) if I has software I could continue to use if I decided to stop paying the fee. I've been paying Maxon that fee every year since 2011 and don't see a reason to stop. I do it because it's my choice, not because I need to pay up if I want to see my work again. I think if Adobe gave a guarantee they wouldn't raise prices above inflation, that would also help their CC case. The thing is Adobe won't / can't give that guarantee, because (I can only conclude) they'd like the option to do just that, if they wanted to.

Personally speaking It's the gun to my head I object to, not the fee itself.

Hate to bump an old thread or open up old wounds, but we are now in the same boat.

I work for a community college, and we never had the funds to upgrade every version.  We'd usually upgrade every two or three versions; that way, we were relatively updated, the curriculum could stay stable over the course of those years because we stuck with the same version, and we saved money by not updating too often.

We have about 100 lab computers that we use Adobe CC on (in addition to about 20 staff computers with it).  We went ahead and paid it for the 2014-2015 fiscal year (that runs July 1 through June 30), but something has to change, at least in our circumstance.  The department that uses Adobe CC blew approximately 70% of its entire yearly budget on just Adobe CC.  Since then, the department has had to go to the school to request more cash just to stay afloat the remainder of the year.  That wouldn't be so bizarre, except that's just for a subscription -- which means we'll be in this boat again next year.

Because of state budget cuts, we are also looking at an overall budget reduction of approximately 4.5% next year -- which is pretty large.

My realistic expectation is this: somehow, the money will be miraculously found for the 2015-2016 fiscal year, and we'll have it one more year.  Then, one of two things will happen: (a) Adobe will substantially change its pricing model for higher education or (b) we'll finally find a suitable alternative and switch to it.  We've got a team looking for alternatives as we speak in case Adobe can't come through.

Just bought Adobe CS6 Design and Web Premium CS6 Mac -- DVD media-- online for $581.

Andy,

Thank you for articulating the truth so clearly. You expresses my sentiments exactly. I would be eager to hear the number of CS/ID users that have registered, licensed software that have NOT converted to CC. I am currently using CS5, will soon buy CS6 and that will be the end of my Adobe purchases. Will not move to the subscription model. Regarding the tech challenges of regular updates on a non-subscrition model: how is it that Apple does this regularly with both iOS and OSX? I get the Software update notice, I go to the app store, the software is updated.

I'm afraid that in this thread Adobe is once again muddying the waters by picking up on other spurious and easily rebutted issues in order to mask the major problem.

Which is:   If a designer subscribes to CC then every file they produce, from that point onwards, can be held to ransom by Adobe.

  If at any point in the future you decide that you no longer want to pay Adobe every month (say if Adobe decides to quadruple the price!), or you want to switch to a different software, then all the files you've produced on the CC will be effectively locked from you.

  With the current perpetual licensing system you could simply still open them up, using the license which you legitimately purchased, and either amend and re-print them, or copy and re-purpose the content into whatever your new software of choice is. You could do this forever (i.e. perpetually!), even if you had to keep an old machine running an old operating system.  If I so desired I could still be opening files created in Aldus Freehand 1 on my Mac IIcx with 2Mb of RAM and 80Mb HD. But it would be my choice!!

  With CC as soon as you stop paying the ransom then you will no longer be able to open your own work files.  That is not situation that I, as a designer, can allow myself to be put in.

Adobe is in very real danger of exactly mirroring Quark's downfall which led to Adobe having such an extensive user base.  With their decision to ride roughshod over the feelings of their users in pursuit of regular, predictable income (and hence a larger stock market valuation!!) rather than the peaks and troughs of the traditional upgrade model, they are showing the kind of arrogance that precedes cataclysmic downfalls.

I would like to add that I have been an Adobe product user for many years, and the move to cloud based only with no support for downloaded versions (I own CS 6 for both Mac and Win) is extremely disheartening.  I too am now looking at alternatives since when the time comes to upgrade, I won't be going with Adobe's Creative Cloud.

Chaostheory66821

You've got me very confused and concerned.

Do you mind telling us which part of the Creative Cloud license agreement your lawyer said that would give Adobe the option to own the rights to your product?

I need to ask my lawyer for her advice.