On May 6, Adobe announced that they are eliminating their retail-purchasing model for the Creative Suite applications in favor of a new subscription based model. As this may make the applications more affordable for people that are new users to the software, it’s an expensive disaster for anyone that already has any of the Creative Suite software or bundles.

I did the math

Based on the original information from Adobe about their upgrading model of full releases in even numbered years and half-upgrades in odd numbered years, the pricing for the four different Creative Suite editions would be the following cost each year:

• Master Collection upgrade – $525
• Design & Web premium upgrade – $375
• Production Premium upgrade – $375
• Design Standard upgrade – $275

Adobe’s pricing on a single application through the Creative Cloud for each year is $239.88. The cost to jump up to the next tier, which gives you access to all the Creative Cloud applications, is $599.88. This cost per year is $74.88 higher than what the Master Collection upgrade would be if you kept purchasing the upgrades each year. If you’re already a user of any of the other Creative Suite bundles then the cost per year is going to be significantly higher now than if you were able to just purchase the bundle of applications you actually use.

For users that don’t have any of the creative applications the single application cost for the year is actually reasonable at $239.88 as the full cost of a single application ranges from $300 to $1000. For users that already have an application, the cost is more per year than if you only wanted the yearly upgrade depending on the application you already have. Most of the applications come under the Creative Cloud single application subscription with only Photoshop Extended priced for more at $399 and Illustrator at $249.

The only statement from Adobe about why the Complete tier of the Creative Cloud is awesome is because you get all the Creative Suite applications. This is really only good for new users or users of a single application. The Master Collection, which is all of the Creative Cloud applications, has been a worthwhile purchase for monkeylogic as we use a majority of the applications. We use all of the print applications, most of the video applications, and half of the web design programs. In order to meet our needs we had to get the Master Collection. For service providers that only use the print production applications, the Creative Cloud is going to cost them extras every year.

What you get in the Creative Cloud

What makes the Creative Cloud difficult to compare with the Creative Suite are the additional components that the Creative Cloud offers. The Creative Cloud offers all the same software you get in with the Creative Suite but it also includes Lightroom, four Edge applications used for web designers, Story for screenwriting, Business Catalyst used as a web hosting platform, a subscription to TypeKit which is a web fonts service, and Creative Cloud Files which is just another cloud storage solution.

Subscriptions shouldn’t be required for desktop apps

The move to a subscription-based model only makes sense as a way to ensure a steady stream of money. There are many businesses that state, “we’re ensuring that you’re receiving the best service possible,” but when it comes to software, especially software as expensive as the Creative Suite is, a monthly subscription model doesn’t make sound logic. The only two logical reasons for doing so are to prevent piracy and to keep money coming in. By only making your applications available and activated via a cloud based service, you’re greatly limiting the ability for people to share the software without paying for it. Programs like Photoshop are notoriously shared on the web so a cloud installation and activation service, where the activation is tied directly to a user ID, makes sense but Adobe has already said that the Creative Cloud wasn’t developed with this as major factor. The other reason is financial.

I’m not opposed to businesses doing what they have to do in order to stay afloat. The high price of the Creative Suite Master Collection was one way that Adobe could theoretically make up for any money lost as a result of pirated versions, but to require a monthly subscription to a desktop application doesn’t seem like the best way to approach software.

The argument is being made that subscription based software is going to start increasing, thus Adobe is just ahead of the curve. A few of the most common companies that people mention already doing this are Amazon, Microsoft, and Audible, but with most subscription based companies you’re subscribing to a web-only service. In this regard, it makes sense as your utilizing web space and servers.  Even though Microsoft is now offering Office 365, which is a subscription for Office applications, they are still making available the traditional stand-alone purchase of Office without a subscription.

With the Adobe Creative Cloud applications, you’re leasing software, much in the same way you lease a car. After a certain amount of time, you’re able to trade in the car you’re currently driving for a newer car as long as you keep up your payments. The downside is that you can never apply the amount of money you’ve spent leasing the car towards an actual purchase of the vehicle. The upfront costs of leasing may be more cost friendly, but you never get anything for your money in the end.

The new feature argument

When I first learned of the Creative Cloud, the only aspect that I liked about it was that subscribers get new features installed as soon as they’re released. With a standard retail version of an application you may get some patches, or even the occasional new feature that you can download and install yourself, but within the first few months of the Creative Cloud, Illustrator users received quite a few new features. Those of us that had purchased the Creative Suite would have had to wait until the release of CS6.5 before we would get those features but we would eventually be able to get them if we waited.

Adobe keeps mentioning that one of the benefits of the Creative Cloud is that you’ll always get a new feature installed as soon as they release it. I can understand that in relation to how the Creative Cloud functions, but why these features can’t be rolled out to the retail purchased version of the applications doesn’t. When you install CS6, you have to enter your Adobe ID so that the serial number is tied to your Adobe account. Installation also now includes the Adobe application manager that shows you a list of all the Adobe applications you have installed on your computer or have available to be installed. It’s through the application manager that Creative Cloud users are notified of new available features. Since both Creative Cloud and retail users are required to enter an Adobe ID when installing the applications and both type of installations utilize the application manager, why couldn’t retail versions of the software have the same ability to have new features pushed out as well? The process of installing new features or updates is identical to both types of licenses, so why is Adobe making it sound like it’s only through the Creative Cloud service that making new features available are possible?

Forcing the service provider’s hand

Output service providers that take a client’s file(s) and output it/them on a press are going to be forced into the Creative Cloud if they want to retain clients that are Creative Cloud subscribers. Outputting a file for print can technically be easy to do via a PDF as long as the person knows what they’re doing. Even though InDesign can collect a document’s content, users still manage to have major issues with the files they send to service providers as it’s easy to ignore any of the warnings you get before the process starts.

Even PDFs are dependent upon having the source file setup correctly. A file that’s supposed to print using two spot colors can have source files containing a combination of CMYK and RGB images, no bleeds, and without any trapped graphic elements. For this reason service providers will need the original source files so they can correct and preflight files to ensure that everything is setup correctly. If the client is using Illustrator CC or InDesign CC and you still only have Illustrator CS6 and InDesign CS6, you won’t be able to open their files.

The only options for a service provider are to get a Creative Cloud subscription or turn away the client. If they want to keep the client, they’ll have to sign up for a subscription to the Creative Cloud in which they’ll have to remain a subscriber for at least a year or pay a hefty fine for leaving early.

It’s not small business friendly

The switch to subscription software is a huge shock for the entire graphic design industry. I’ve spoken to a number of small businesses about the change and the feedback has not been positive. The shift to subscription software doesn’t coincide well for them as they don’t have the ability to pay for a software subscription for years to come. They do have the initial sticker price associated with upgrading every few years, but this wasn’t so bad when they were upgrading from a CS2 to a CS5 application. When Adobe announced last year that the CS6 upgrade would be the last version to allow you to upgrade from a version prior to a full release number, it left an initial bad impression on the minds of many people. NOTE: This upgrade from CS4 and CS3 software to CS6 is no longer available and Adobe is now only offering a CS6 upgrade if you have CS5 or CS5.5.

In the end, small businesses are going to end up spending a lot more money through the Creative Cloud than to just purchase the software outright. Of the small businesses I’ve spoken to, they use the Design Standard edition of the Creative Suite. At $275 a year it’s something they could afford each year. Being forced into an annual contract to stay current with software for their clients and increased productivity at a cost that’s double what they currently pay each year isn’t sitting well with them.

No word on regularly scheduled releases

When Adobe first bundled all their creative apps into the Creative Suite, they began releasing all the apps contained in the suite at the same time. Prior to this all the apps were on a fairly standard 1.5 year release cycle but they rarely came out around the same time. You could have Photoshop released in August of one year while Illustrator was released in March of the next. With the Creative Suite, you were finally guaranteed that you would get an upgrade for all your apps at the same time. With the Creative Cloud, that uniform release cycle no longer has to be adhered to. It’s not that Adobe has said they won’t be maintaining a release schedule, but they haven’t come out to say that they even have a release schedule now.

When CS6 was announced they directly addressed their every-other-year release schedule for full and half released versions with full releases in even numbered years and half releases in odd numbered years. They didn’t give an exact month for the releases but at least they were committing to something. With the Creative Cloud, the most they’ve said is “Adobe plans to add new applications, features, and updates to Creative Cloud on an ongoing basis. As these features become available, notifications are sent to users through their activity stream in the Creative Cloud desktop app.” The aspect of this that’s lacking is a timeline that says how frequently they’ll be making updates available. The verbiage is vague enough that as long as they release some form of an update or new feature occasionally they’re adhering to what they’ve said.

The non-subscription based option

Adobe actually does have one Creative Cloud option that doesn’t include a subscription, but not surprisingly they haven’t mentioned it. On the main Creative Cloud page under the pricing options is a listing of the plans for individuals, Get Started which gives you a 30 day trial of any of the apps, a Single app license, and the Complete license for all the applications. At the bottom of the Complete license is a drop down box that you can change from “Requires annual commitment” to “Cancel at any time.” Doing so reveals a new pricing option of $74.99 per month. So I guess if you really wanted to have access to at least two of the applications but didn’t want to be locked into a year-long subscription you do have this option. The cost of doing so comes to $899.88 per year. As long as you canceled by the end of the seventh month then you could have access to the applications for the same cost as the annual subscription cost but without the cancellation penalty.

In the end

The downside of the Creative Cloud subscription is that monkeylogic design is built on Adobe applications. Proficiency in them allows us to deliver high quality design work for clients. Almost every release of the Creative Suite has had new features that either reduce the amount of time it takes to work on a project or has opened up new design possibilities. We’re not pleased at all with the change to software releases even though we purchase the Master Collection which is just under the cost of a yearly Creative Cloud membership. It isn’t so much that it’s the additional $75 per year breakdown but that once we start a membership we can’t even stop it should we have wanted to skip any upgrades that we felt didn’t offer us enough new features to make it worthy investment. We would much rather prefer to bypass any upgrades at the time and pay a slightly higher upgrade cost when a release becomes available that we feel has the features we can take advantage of.

As it stands, the new features in the Creative Cloud apps don’t really appear to be that beneficial to us which is why we’re holding off on moving to a Cloud subscription. Hopefully by the time the new versions of the Creative Cloud apps become available in June, Adobe will have changed their minds about this new subscription service and will go back to their original purchasing model.

 

NOTE: There are discounts for the first year of subscription if you own previous versions of the Creative Suite, but this article is only examining the cost of a non-discounted membership. There are also higher upgrade costs associated with upgrading from Creative Suite versions prior to CS5.5, but as Adobe had stated they were only going to allow upgrades from a full version prior to the new release, the costs would be relatively the same as this article mentions. The upgrade from one full version to another is roughly double the cost of an upgrade from one half version to another.