Thursday, PetaPixel pointed out Adobe's incredibly popular $10 per month Photography plan was missing from its website. What's really going on is a bit more complicated, but it could mean big changes are coming for photographers that rely on one of Adobe's best deals.
Adobe's current lineup of photography-related plans includes the Photography plan and the Lightroom plan, where the Photography plan comes with Lightroom, Photoshop, and options for 20 GB of cloud storage ($9.99/mo.) or 1 TB of cloud storage ($19.99/mo.). The Lightroom plan is Lightroom-only for $9.99. But it's that first Photography plan that many, many photographers (myself included) are huge fans of. When Adobe switched to a subscription-only model, many creatives felt it was asking too much. But for photographers, plans like the Photography plan seemed reasonable enough to go along with it. But what if that price were to double?
Recently, some users have noticed Adobe is not displaying all of the available Photography plans, which means if you want both Photoshop and Lightroom, you're going to have to pay $19.99/mo. for the 1 TB plan, since the 20 GB cloud storage plan is gone. This is incredibly unfortunate, especially considering many users simply do not need or want any cloud storage space to begin with. And now, $10 only gets you Lightroom with 1 TB of storage, but leaves out Photoshop entirely.
Some users can apparently still see the original plan, and Adobe has now commented about the more affordable Photography plan:
From time to time, we run tests on Adobe.com which cover a range of items, including plan options that may or may not be presented to all visitors to Adobe.com. We are currently running a number of tests on Adobe.com. The plan can be purchased at http://www.adobe.com/go/photo18sptst, via phone at 1-800-585-0774 or via major retailers."
While it may be the case that it's still available, unsuspecting users (i.e. new customers) would almost certainly not know about the original Photography plan for $9.99 when it's not presented on the page. They would have to either shop elsewhere or specifically call in and ask if there just happens to be a more affordable plan available for purchase. Even then, who is to say Adobe may not be running tests through their phone sales as well, where they would tell some people and potentially not others. After all, this is what's currently happening on Adobe's website.
Notice how Adobe's current wording on the bottom shows only the $19.99 starting price. This continues for many users that view all plans as part of tests Adobe is running in a way that for some seems linked to the Internet browser they're using.
It is understandable that a company might want to run tests for various design, interface, and marketing elements and how this is all displayed on a website. But it might not feel right to some who would unknowingly purchase more than they needed to. Rarely do companies actually remove more affordable, better plans from many customers' views while leaving it up for others as a test.
Of course, this could mean the worst could be coming, as someone has to ask why someone would run such a test. If these tests are successful in that more than half of the percentage of people that only see the $19.99 Photography plan still end up going through with that purchase compared to the percentage of people that see both plans, Adobe will have good reason to get rid of the more affordable plan altogether. While Adobe may grandfather in current subscribers as many companies do when there are subscription price increases and changing plans, anyone new to photography would face paying twice as much as we all did when we started. Those that rely on being able to stop a subscription and restart it during varying work cycles would also be hurt by not being able to keep a more affordable plan.
This is all a big what-if scenario, granted. But actually changing pricing by hiding a plan for a vast number of customers is a pretty drastic way to run market tests. But what do you think?
For now, everyone can still find the standard Photography plan for the original pricing at B&H.
I most likely have to leave adobe after 10 yrs if they go to the4 $20 a month plan next year. Other apps for use are maturing, though not as robust as PS. I won’t Judge them for 100% increase, but American greed enters my thinking. Adobe keeps adding thieve “value added” “stuff” that has little value to me. My rant for the day
"American greed ..."
Greed is a human phenomenon not exclusive to America.
As is stereotyping.
Thanks for the correction. Adobe has abandoned with its core mission just like IBM when they missed the PC revolution. I turn 73 today. Seen a lot in my years in the market place. But my own view of Adobe is from the bottom up. Historically, Big companies never look down till the wheels fall off. It is after all, share holder value that counts.
Look into Affinity photo
Coincidentally, I left for Capture One a week ago. Good riddance, Adobe.
Am doing the same. Back to C1 after 12 years!
How did you find the transition to C1? I remember I trialed it last year and couldn't find myself to leave the Lighroom UI, especially with catalog organization. But now that Adobe is hitting a new greedy low, I'm ready to switch again. I really hope C1 improved on that.
I love it. It's a time investment up front to learn it, but I'm all in now. As for catalogging, I'm still learning the ropes. But for me, I'm very happy so far. Beats the tar out of LR for my style and usage.
I wouldn't mind paying $20 if they actually got the bugs in applications under control.
You do get a lot for $10 though...Behance, Portfolio etc....
Yes, if you use it... For example - im paying for LR and PS, and im using C1.
Most people don't care or use those services though. Those should be add-ons. The subscription model should be saving customers money, but also locking us in so that they make a good profit. They are flat out getting greedy now but doubling their price, while offering the same buggy and slow-running apps.
I think they were testing how far they could push their de facto monopoly and were pushed back.
As an Australian consumer I already get shafted on pricing so any rise like this would mean bye-bye Adobe products.
Yeah, that was my thought as well. Stuff is already insanely expensive here in Aus, if they basically double their price, I cannot justify it. I've stuck with 'em for convenience, so I don't have to re-learn a new platform and all that, but when it comes to my bottom dollar...
In my country - according to BigMac index - its triple...
In this "new test pricing" if you drop down the menu, one of the options is a "Lightroom Plan" with just lightroom and 20gb of storage. I have only used Photoshop a handful of times as a hobbyist, but it was a "value added" proposition that made me OK with the $10 a month. $20 a month moves me to the new photomechanic for library management and something like luminar. I don't make my living at photography, so I am a little price sensitive. With the record profits and limited iterations of improvements within lightroom, it really looks like a money grab for adobe.
It's definitely a money grab. Most companies who do subscription models offer a reasonable monthly cost (even lower if you commit annually), to entice users to stick with them for the long-run while being able to innovate and update their apps faster while making a profit. Microsoft is a great example of this with Office 365, and you get 1TB per user in addition to other goodies. Adobe is flat-out getting greedy. If you notice in their updated Lightroom plan, they removed Lightroom Classic (taking away any ability to work on your local storage) and only offer a measly 20GB of slow-ass syncing. They know that users will need more storage since RAW files are huge, so it's basically going to be 9.99 USD + ANOTHER 9.99 USD to add 1 TB. What a scam. And they purposely don't allow users to use their local storage or hook in their cloud storage of choice (e.g. OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox, etc.), even though they can easily do that. The competitors do this in their cloud apps, so there's no reason Adobe can't, especially for the ridiculous prices they charge.
I don't know if this will continue to be the case, but a couple times I've found good deals from third party retailers who sell a 1 year license for $100. I am also curious if people who already are subscribed will be grandfathered in.
I read in another thread that someone asked Adobe Support and they said that unfortunately they won't be grandfathered, BUT the new rate won't start until your current annual plan is over. Ridiculous.
As an amateur I only use Photoshop and don't need cloud storage, doubling the subscription would mean I would look at an alternative, since they have gone subscription based I think their profits have rocketed so cant understand this new strategy.
Likewise. If the price switches, then I think that will be the last straw and I'll jump ship, as I'm sure many will. I suspect it'd be quite damaging for Adobe as once their long term customers are accustomed to alternative software, it'd take something pretty significant to draw them back in.
I make a living from photography and I have been with Adobe since 2006. It is convenient but at one point it becomes a matter of principal. Do I want to support a greedy company? I can learn a new program if I have to and maybe it is time to do so.
Another interesting fact, my XP-Pen tablet stopped working with the previous LR update. However, when trying it with a trial version of Alien Skin Exposure it works fine. Maybe another good reason to dump Adobe.
A small note, my credit card expired and I just received my new one. Although I paid in full for Adobe sub until Feb 2020, they keep emailing every couple of days that my card is expired. I am sure it's automatic but heck, leave me alone. When time comes I will input my new one....that is if I am still interested.
Same! Though I don't make a living, it's more of an expensive hobby at the moment. I tried switching to C1 last year, and it was a bit overwhelming and I didn't like the Library experience. BUT I was being a little biased because I didn't mind paying for the Photography plan, and I like Lightroom Classic's UI (despite it being a resource hog and really slow). But now with this price, I think I'm officially done. I'll give C1 a more deeper try and take the time to learn it. One thing I noticed immediately was how much faster it was and better at system resource handling.
I think the case is they are starting to push a package with one TB sky storage. It's not the same product, and 10 dollar for a TB storage is a good price.
People love to hate Adobe but look at Capture one, they charge more for Capture One then even this new package.
I don't think Adobe will change the deal I have now. Maybe I shuld look at upgrading:)
I'm sorry, but if a company that provides it's clients a service starts getting greedy, lazy and arrogant, then they must concede to the fact that those clients will find some other provider. I did, not because I'm a cheapskate, but I have my own interests to protect. Even more so when there are equally beneficial and competent alternatives out there.
That's the problem, what's the competent alternative to Photoshop? What application not only has all the tools, but also supports channels and layers. Crud, which other one has 31 blending modes with 2 of them exclusive to drawing tools?
they are starting to show up. Luminar 3 is one of them. It has lots and lots of good adjustments, layers all kinds of things. Even though I have the Adobe package, I've been trying others and luminar keeps improving and is less expensive. I'm one of those that may move to them especially if it dobre raises the price at all. They are at record profits and they're still greedy to keep trying to get more money out of people. Shame on you Adobe. I hope you double the price cuz you're going to lose more than half the people.
ACDsee, Coral Photopaint; Zoner, On1, Gimp,Photfiltre, and Serif's Affinity are good alternatives, with loads of add-ons and plugins available.
Notice that there's no photoshop for $9.99? Just Lightroom! Because they have real competition for Lightroom and they don't for photoshop! They know that if they tried to charge $20 for the photo plane and $9.99 for just photoshop, people would buy a competitor to Lightroom and continue to pay the $9.99 for just the photoshop.
Personally, I'm going to learn how to do as much of this stuff in the new GIMP as possible and just go with either Capture One or Alien Skin Exposure for my RAW Processing.
I'm done with this rented software approach and I'm even leaning towards ditching Windows for Linux now that I have a Mac for Image Editing.
Yeah the Photoshop Single App plan is $20 USD. Which doesn't make sense given that the Photography Plan is $9.99USD (which is still pretty pricey, but at least somewhat reasonable). Increasing the price by 100% is absolutely disgusting and greedy, when other companies have much more valuable subscription and non-subscription options.
I just used the link above to access Adobe.com and the price was still $9.95 for both Lightroom and Photoshop. Paypal just paid my subscription fee of $10.66 for both programs
The thing is, it might change in the very near future. Their test is only in the US but it could becomes permanent t to all users globally.
With photography going to cell phone users and the losses in major camera manufacturers (directing efforts to other fields) I’m not surprised that adobe would do this recoup some of their losses. I’ll be “recouping “ some loss of income by dumping Adobe. We do have options. Too bad but , time to bow out
I visited a major car dealer the other day. I saw this great car that suited my needs. So, I walked up to the salesman and told him I wanted to buy it. We walked over to his deck and he drew up the paperwork. However, I noticed it was written up as monthly payments. I told him I wanted to pay cash for it on the spot. He then proceeded to tell me, and I quote.......wait for it........
“I am so sorry sir, we do not sell our cars to our customers, we only rent them.”
If this actually goes through, I'm done with Adobe. I don't care how much of an 'industry standard' they are anymore. They flat out know they can be greedy now, without offering anything new or of value. We haven't seen any huge major cutting-edge updates in so long, and Lightroom itself is still really laggy after years and years of customers complaining. Also, giving only 20GB is a ridiculous amount for the photography community when they know that RAW files are often very huge. They should be offering 1TB just like Microsoft does, along with more affordable add-on plans to get more storage or at the very least let us hook in our cloud storage providers of choice (again, just like Microsoft does). On top of that, Adobe has some of the most expensive cloud storage plans on the market and the most SLOWEST at syncing. And especially with them removing 'Classic' from the Lightroom plan, those customers will be paying $9.99 + ridiculously more for more storage since you can't use your local storage. I honestly don't see any value with Adobe anymore as they are focusing more on nickel and diming their customers instead of listening and improving our customer experience to stay with them.
I did the 10 dollar plan for a while, but then Affinity Photo came out. One payment of 50 dollars, same set up as photoshop so you dont have to relearn the interface. Some featers work better such as the panorama photo stitch or making tricky selections