Next month, Adobe is raising the price of its Creative Cloud subscription plans for the first time in five years.
As Adobe announced in October 2017, after April 16 of this year, those who are subscribed to the All Apps plan, Individual Single App plans, or Creative Cloud for Teams All Apps plan will see increases on their bill at their next annual renewal date.
While the price increases are modest — single app subscriptions will increase $1 per month, the All Apps plan will go up $3 per month, and the All Apps for Teams getting the short straw and going up $10 per month — those who are already not happy with the initial switch to the Creative Cloud subscription model will not find peace with this.
Adobe clarified in an email to DPReview that the Creative Cloud Photography plan and Student/Education plans will not see a price change at this time.
Fortunately, since the time Adobe’s Creative Cloud was first announced, much more comparable alternatives to popular applications such as Photoshop and Lightroom have been released.
Is now the time to seriously consider the one-time fee alternatives? Or is this minor price increase of little concern? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
personally, the price hike is inconsequential, but i'm very glad to see more and more choices available on the market.
I am sure that this price increase will come with a performance increase and bug fixes, so it will be well worth it.
My thoughts EXACTLY!
You're joking, right?
He's joking.
He must be joking!
Just the beginning, have fun boys and girls.
Their stock is up 25% in 3 months....time to get in if you aren't already :)
Too late Patrick. I don't see it going up much more.
Why would it not go up? They just increased revenue and it's still the industry standard.
Increased revenue doesn't always mean payouts for shareholders. Even though they claim higher income (profits don't necessarily relate to stocks going up), many other and better editing software for both photographers and video editors are abandoning Adobe in droves. Adobe may have a lot of general consumers at the moment, but I see lots of other app producers taking over in the future. I wrote another comment in this thread showing the ciaos that is in their inner workings.
You get in on the low NOT on the rise. Should have thought about it months ago. Just like nVidia.
Time in the market beats timing the market...I've been in both for years :)
I'd like to see some additional features/improvements to justify the increase. A handful of bug fixes won't do it for most people.
They're constantly adding features and improvements. For a lot of people, nothing will "do it".
Started off with Aperture, moved to Lightroom stand-alone.
When Adobe announced the "end" of development for Lightroom stand-alone I moved to Capture One.
WOW!!
Awesome application, and I kick myself for not moving directly from Aperture to C1.
Capture One is head and shoulders (IMO of course) above what Aperture was, or Lightroom is.
Combined with Affinity, I don't care what Adobe does with its "cloud" - they chased me away completely when they abandoned Lightroom stand-alone (and everybody who'd purchased it) a couple of months back.
So Adobe is making a killing already with an inferior product just because of name recognition (there are MANY better products out there, I personally use C1 and One1 RAW converters (they do the best job of high quality NEF conversions out there beside Nikon's SW). I abandoned Abobe's piss-poor speed performance and complete lack of engineering focus in releasing quality new products years ago. If Adobe had worked out all the bugs with what they currently produce and did updates WHEN THEY SAY THEY ARE, MAYBE I would give them a chance. But all they are focused on now is making their shareholders money.
I have a software engineer friend who was contacted by Adobe's head hunters (job search) and they asked him if he was interested in software engineering. He told the recruiter- "only if I'm the CTO, you people need a complete overhaul.".
Fine, but spend the money on more testers, I don't want the constant bugs on every release.
Why spend money on testers when people are paying to test
That's just them trying to grab more money from us to pay for them trying to steal from others. They love to show stakeholders how they can just turn the money knob when they want.
"Dolby sues Adobe for dodging license fees
Copyright case puts royalty model under the microscope"
Now if only they would use that money to hire more developers to speed up bug and performance fixes so that their subscription plan is actually worth the high cost they rake us for each month.
I ditched the cloud last year. Photoshop cs6 is still doing great for stills, and Hitfilm has been fine so far for the minor amount of video I produce. The hip pocket is happier for it.
before you know it the cost of this subscription will plan will be too high to justify the limited value of their products. Especially considering there are so many good alternatives out these days.
They need to fix the performance issues on their before they can justify the price increase. They always add new features, which is great, until you realize the software still crawls to a crash on even the latest, most specced out systems.
so far all the latest "updates" haven't really amounted to much (still lots of bugs and performance issues). I've been using Capture One alongside professionally for 13 years. Unfortunately still have a strong need/use for PS as part of post (just many things that Capture One is not meant/designed to do as a Raw converter) - but moment I can ditch (and Affinity does a pretty good job - look forward to seeing where it can go) I'd dumb Adobe in a heartbeat.
Like many, I prefer Capture One. I also began playing w/ Affinity Photo in its early days and it has grown in to a favorite app. I also dislike the ball and chain feeling of subscriptions.
Adobe is Capture One's marketing plan.
No changes to Photo plan "at this time". Hmmm
To clarify, those are my words and not Adobe’s. But I can assume the current price isn’t going to stay the same until the end of time.
I'd still like to see those mythical "alternatives" to the combination of Photoshop and Lightroom. There may be good raw workflows, but in terms of semi-integrated library management or general-purpose image manipulation, there still is no real competition.
Plenty of folks in this thread raving about their experience with Affinity/Capture1.
As a Capture1/Affinity user myself, AND with Lightroom and Photoshop stand-alone products still on my spec'd out Mac to compare them with ... Affinity/Capture1 do everything (and more) that Lightroom/Photoshop does.
So "yeah" ... there's plenty of real competition. I dropped Lightroom/Photoshop like a hot rock, and haven't discovered anything I could do with Adobe that I can't do with Capture1/Affinity.
Hmm, I'd like to hear from the C1 folks around here to know if that is true or not.
I'm running C1.v10 on a Mac running OS10.13.3, and I can also upgrade to C1.v11 no problem.
C1 .v10 and .v11 will run on MacOS 10.11, 10.12, and 10.13 ... no upgrade of any sort required.
C1 versions 9, 10, and 11 will all run on MacOS10.11
So upgrading your MacOS from .v10, to .v11, to .v12, to .v13 would allow you to continue to use your Capture1 .v9 software throughout without any issues at all.
Where you might see an issue is if you're running an older operating system version, and an older C1 version ... if you suddenly updated your operating system (jumping a few versions), you may also suddenly have to upgrade C1.
That's pretty typical of complex, high-end software though, as that software usually makes use of very specific operating system functions. I know the same is true of the VectorWorks CAD software I use.
I certainly don't expect to be able to run a 6 year old version of Capture1 on the very latest version of MacOS.
But unlike Adobe and their subscription model, I have multiple options to leave my functioning Capture1 system as it is, bought and paid for ... and with a dedicated computer for all photographic needs, I don't update my MacOS by rote with each release, I only update if (and when) I see features specific to photography that I require. That "requirement" when viewed specifically though the photography lens, is certainly not every single MacOS system increment.
Indeed I more often upgrade MacOS when I change my hardware platform, which is about once every 5 years.
You can extrapolate from the above that indeed Phase1 has NO policy of bug fixes and OS updates requiring the immediate replacement of your existing C1 application with any sort of paid update.
Additionally, Capture1 blows Lightroom out of the water, and I'd gladly pay for such quality even if it meant a $99.00 version upgrade every few years (which it doesn't UNLESS you upgrade your hardware platform such that you're obliged to run the very latest OS on your "new" platform, and you happen to be a few versions back on C1).
I tried Capture1 a good while back, and general library management was sitting somewhere between painful and useless to the point that Windows Explorer provided a better experience. It may be great for studio sessions where you just drop in a bunch of copyright and release tags, but if you are dealing with a more consumer-like bucket of photos that are better managed with a mix of tags (emphasis on that), collections, and general metadata, it just plain sucks. I have not seen much of an improvement in the update ads for C1 since.
On top of that, there's P1's clear "no medium format support" line in that piece of software that, while not a technical issue for me, is still objectionable.
The feature page of Affinity does not show anything remotely relevant either.
I'd be interested in your comments if you'd actually tried the current version of the software out rather than commented based on reading an ad, and looking at a "feature page".
Not shooting medium format, I don't care what C1 does or doesn't support in that particular format.
Still on my hard drive, I've got Lightroom cataloging the same photos as C1 (referenced), and after working at length with both, I won't delete Lightroom from my hard drive just yet, but I know I'll never use it again.
That's fair, so I tried C1 11, and management has indeed been improved to the point of being working and useful. I'm still missing (or overseeing) some features I'd miss, like keyword synonyms (which I use, e.g., to automatically add German and English colloquial names to Latin bird names) or a way to mark keywords "private" and conveniently exclude them from exports.
I was also quite set back at how something simple like gradient masks work, for a demonstration draw one and try to move it. It feels a bit (or in case of the gradient fill a lot) like comparing PaintShop Pro to Photoshop where some tasks that I've become used to seem needlessly complex.
I see the charm, but it's still not a "replacement" for me. The next big hope is Luminar once they get their management features out the door. I'll also be having a look at Zoner Photo Studio in the next weeks for slightly different needs, maybe that's the secret miracle product.
More reason to say bye bye to Photoshop and make a jump to Affinity Photo and Exposure X3. No more Adobe for me.
I'll live lol.
$3 a month increase for the entire Creative Cloud offerings? It never ceases to amaze me why so many think hardware and software should be next to free. $36 more dollars annually? Given the capabilities of what Adobe supplies the increase is meaningless. The dollars are nothing for a business and as close to nothing as you're going to get for an individual.
Is the Cloud perfect? Of course not! But you do end up with incredible product in my opinion. I would gladly pay even more if they moved support back to the United States.
Moving to the subscription model was disruptive for sure, but I've grown to love it. My post-processing costs remain relatively constant from year-to-year, my software is always at the leading edge of the industry and my workflow between devices is relatively seamless.
Spending hundreds to purchase an app and sticking with it for five years (while new versions add new functionality) before purchasing the latest iteration seems almost quaint at this point.
I have a limited budget, So I am looking hard at On1, capture!, etc. The bad? I have invested 10 years in learning photo shop. I still feel like a “dummy”. UGG Adobe, I love you and hate you in one breath Does anyone know a better software for composite projects? Adobe still seems to have the best “cut out” one.
First problem I see with articles similar to this is the word "subscription" in the title. Adobe has a SRM: Software Rental Model.
That was Adobe's marketing genius, to redefine the word "subscription." Do I expect too much for writers to be a bit more savvy, and call a spade a spade?
"Rental Price Increase for Adobe Creative Cloud Imminent" is a more accurate way to describe what will soon occur.
When I subscribe to a magazine, I still have a resource available to me when I cancel, if I deem the information contained within valuable enough to keep. You don't subscribe to a car, a hammer drill, diamond saw, appliances, or furniture. I submit that you don't "subscribe" to Adobe products either. You rent, just like those physical items folks have rented for years.
I'm thankful that every Pentax body I've owned since 2008 has the option to save in DNG format. That allows Photoshop CS6 & LR6, (combined with Raw Therapee for Pixel Shift motion correction) do all that I currently need.
Unless there is a major DNG specification change, I am good for future Pentax bodies, or bodies for other brands that save DNG. Adobe has yet to come out with that "killer app" that would entice me to even consider their Software Rental Model for Photoshop products.
I stopped using Adobe products a long time ago because I liked the other options better. There are a lot of options that are less expensive, faster, and more user friendly. And play better with other applications on top of that.