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[Locked] Can you purchase photoshop permanently rather than yearly?

Forum|Forum|11 years ago
July 17, 2014
15 replies
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I want to buy photoshop, but I don't want to pay for creative cloud every month/year, so is there a way that I can purchase photoshop and pay 1 flat fee?

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Correct answer davescm

Hi Otaks

Just for info, some info in this post is now time expired. Adobe stopped selling the CS6 perpetual license version and a CC subscription( Photography plan, Single App or full CC) is now the only way to buy.

Dave

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BobPhoto

Known Participant

One item that is left out of this discussion. I am an advance amateur. The$10/month is a fair deal for me since I always updated to the next version. I am also a senior citizen. As I get older I will be using Photoshop less and less. At that point the monthly cost becomes expensive for minimum use. If I stop I lose access. Because of this I am still using CS6.

ey b0ss

Participant

Yes, you have to call adobe and purcase cs6 from them. but be prepared to cough up atleast 700$. You can also go online to purchase it from ebay or amazon for a lower price.

Terri Stevens

Legend

That is true for now of the United States, but try buying CS6 in Europe and you'll be out of luck. Adobe want to put people off buying CS6 hence the price. They know that no further work is being done on CS6 not even bug fixes or camera raw and don't want to find themselves in a situation 1 or 2 years from now with customers complaining like mad because it doesn't run on Windows 11 or El Capitan 2 or whatever they happen to call it. To be honest it will be the customers own fault if they waste $1000 on what is a defunct product, its like buying Aldus Pagemaker rather than InDesign. I've been told the reason you need to call and why there is no web download is so the Adobe salesperson can make it crystal clear to a potential buyer what a dreadful mistake they are making,. On the forum we have explained so many times why technically and financially its insane to now buy CS6 but some people have strong masochistic tendencies I'm afraid As part of every Creative Cloud subscription you get CS6 as a download option at no extra charge. $10 a month and cancel anytime verses $1000 straight away. Anyone choosing the latter needs an economics lesson.

Socrates_in_NJ

Known Participant

Terri Stevens wrote:
Anyone choosing the latter needs an economics lesson.

Truer words were never spoken.

Noel Carboni

Legend

I'm not trying to influence you one way or another. Just some things to think about:

Given that Photoshop CS6 is about $700 (Extended is $1000), you may want to think about the $9.99 Photographer's deal as a comparison...

Creative Cloud free trial & plans : Adobe Creative Cloud

If you plunk down $700 now, you get an already outdated version of Photoshop. Photoshop CS6 works, but there actually are some very good things that have been implemented in Photoshop CC. And Photoshop CC is more efficient (outside of a few folks who are having problems with it).

If you subscribe to that Creative Cloud deal I mentioned, you plunk down $120 for the first year. You could save the additional $580 and use it to pay for the subscription in the future, in which case you'll be able to use Photoshop CC for more than 5 years at the current rate. Or you could invest it in ADBE stock.

The term "Perpetual License" is kind of a misnomer... You're not really guaranteed to be able to run it forever into the future on the latest operating system release of the day. How long is your computer going to last? Will you decide to upgrade to a new version of your OS under which Photoshop CS6 will not run? Will Adobe one day take their CS6 activation servers offline? We can't know. If Adobe were to lose its business it's possible you won't be able to run any version of Photoshop beyond the day that happens. No one can predict the future, but I'm just pointing out that you're at the mercy of Adobe's online activation process either way.

If you choose to get a computer of the other platform (e.g., Mac vs. PC), your CC license allows you to use Photoshop in both places. With Photoshop CS6, though Adobe does currently offer a "crossgrade", you can only use it on one platform or the other exclusively.

If Adobe had continued to offer new version releases every couple of years, would you likely have upgraded at some time in the future? If you've had an older version already, how many versions did you skip between upgrades?

Some folks simply feel negatively about subscribing vs. buying a license to use, and I fully respect that. I'm just giving some things to think about.

-Noel

Trevor.Dennis

Community Expert

I wish that the subscription model detractors would sit down and do the sums, and think about the real differences between a fixed CS6, and ever evolving CC. I almost wish my own interests did not include video so that I could make do with the Photography deal, because it is a huge bargain.

And what exactly is the problem with a subscription payment model? Do the same people rant and rave about their cell phone plan? What do they pay for cable or satellite TV channels? Medical and other insurances? How many years will they take to pay off the car that depreciates so fast it is only worth a fraction of what they eventually pay for it? PSCC continues to get better with time by comparison. How many years do those people hope to be using Photoshop? How will CS6 compare to CC 2020 or 2030?

N

nobodypanic

Participating Frequently

I think the point about the subscription model is that it opens up the software to people in business and enjoying a hobby who would never have considered Adobe before and it shows as Adobe according to the company report has over 7 million subscribers now. In the old days when you could buy the products now in Creative Cloud it cost around $3500. Ten years later and taking into account inflation that price today surely would be $5000. There are not many business' prepared to spend that much on software but with subscription it's available for $50 a month and the price draws in new users in consequence. Subscription is a marketing model and works as the number of subscribers shows.

A few things to think about. Adobe has not given us any options and there were a good number of users that didnt upgrade every year. So sure you will see in increase in yearly subscriptions, they have no other choice if they need to use this software. So the people that only updated every 2 or 3 years were forced into a yearly system for the software they used every day for their work.

There also have been many cases were people didnt realize once they stop paying they would not have access to the software anymore, assuming that if they paid yearly they would have access to the software but no updates or upgrades. I was part of a paid focus group about a year ago, there was 12 of us in the group and it turns out the topic was the creative cloud. It was more about the marketing campaign they were working on, but discussion also went into how the creative cloud worked, and only 4 of the 12 understood how things worked and the nature of the subscription system. Only 4 of us. There were a few that were very upset about this as well.

Sure it can be great for someone that is new and wants to try. But why not give the option for both, subscription and perpetual license? For what I do, and for many just like me, licensing is the way to go. I do not do this as a hobby, this software is used for my work and livelihood. I have been using Adobe software for well 20 years now. I loved my adobe software, but once they did the CC and subscription only, I started to look elsewhere.

And I dont know anyone that uses all the software adobe has to offer, for me it was mostly 4 or 5 applications. So no, I was not spending 3500 for my software. To be blunt, if I was doing the CC now, I would be paying about 100-200 more a year then I did when I uses using the licensed versions. Plus, I would have nothing at all if I stopped paying for the subscription, compared to the fact that with a perpetual license, you pay once, and use it as long as you want.

I say make it a choice, see how many people switch back to the perpetual licenses, I bet it would be a very large number.