Person Tired Of Adobe Increasing The Prices Of Their Programs Posts List Of Free Alternatives
A lot of Adobe Creative Cloud users have noticed their wallet getting thinner. For example, the Photography plan was the cheapest CC subscription option, offering Lightroom CC, Lightroom Classic CC, Photoshop CC, and 20GB of cloud storage for $10. Now, the new plan offers the same three apps plus 1TB of cloud storage, but double the price.
Earlier this year, Adobe raised its prices
Image credits: burgerdrome
“Since launching Creative Cloud more than five years ago, we have not changed prices for customers in North America (United States, Canada, and Mexico),” the company wrote announcing the news. “As Creative Cloud continues to evolve and improve, we will raise prices for the first time beginning on April 16, 2018. For our All Apps plan customers, we recently released five all-new Creative Cloud apps — Adobe XD CC, Dimension CC, Character Animator CC, Photoshop Lightroom CC, and Spark with premium features. Single App customers also benefited from the addition of Spark with premium features and Adobe Portfolio in their plans.”
Pissed with the new pricing policy, Twitter users started sharing free alternatives to the major CC Programs.
The price bump came as a surprise to many users, so they started sharing free alternatives to the CC programs
Image credits: scaredyghost
One Twitter user, Kaeden “ghost malone” Stears, even put together an extensive list of free alternatives to all the major CC programs. “I made a blog post purely out of spite,” they said. “I actually made a whole blog out of spite, just to make that one blog post. I did it because I was furious about a spike in the price of the Adobe Creative Cloud Suite, which is already stupidly expensive.”
“I hate any company that tries to exploit the already poor-as-shit creator community, as I myself am a member of that group. However, I have a particular case of the ass against Adobe. Adobe, to me, symbolizes everything I hate about both capitalism and Western civilization’s complete disregard of the arts and humanities as not just valuable, but necessary parts of life.”
But the writer said they don’t want to preach or complain. “Instead, I’m taking a more proactive approach to my frustration. Instead, I’ve scoured the internet and rounded up free or cheap alternatives to every major Adobe CC product, many of which I personally use because I … hate Adobe so goddamn much.”
IF YOU DRAW OR DESIGN
Instead of Photoshop, try Gimp
Instead of Lightroom, try paint.net
Instead of Illustrator, try Inkscape
Instead of InDesign, try Canva or Scribus
IF YOU MAKE PICTURES MOVE
Instead of Premiere, try Davinci Resolve
Instead of Animate/Flash, try Opentoonz or Blender
Instead of After Effects, try Wax, Blender, or Fusion
IF YOU BUILD WEBSITES OR SOFTWARE
Instead of Dreamweaver, Spark, or XD alternatives: WIX, Weebly or wordpress.com, or wordpress.org
IF YOU DO STUFF THAT REQUIRES THESE OTHER PROGRAMS
Instead of Audition, try Audacity
Instead of Acrobat Pro, try Foxit Reader or PDF Escape
Instead of INCOPY, try LOVING YOURSELF AND USING LITERALLY ANYTHING ELSE (WHO USES THIS???)
IF YOU NEED STOCK PHOTOS OR FONTS
Instead of Adobe Stock, try Pexels, Unsplash, or Pixabay
Instead of Adobe Fonts, try Google Fonts or Dafont
BONUS: If you need Free music or sound effects, try YouTube Audio Library, Soundbible
Soon, people started sharing their take on the situation, debating if subscription software is really worth the money
Image credits: Scribble_Fix
“I have used Adobe products in the past, mostly InDesign, Premiere, and Photoshop,” Kaeden told Bored Panda. “While I can’t deny that they’re powerful programs with a lot of great features, I personally find them to be a bit clunky. The learning curve is also massive, which I find frustrating.”
Given how powerful the programs are, Kaeden doesn’t think a high price tag is unreasonable. “What really grinds my gears is the subscription. Clip Studio Paint’s full feature version is $220 USD and you only have to pay for it once. I much prefer that to the $50+ per month subscription Adobe forces you into, which is both cost prohibitive to beginners and freelancers and completely unreasonable when you consider that the subscription is for the whole Suite when most people only use one or two programs!”
“They also force you into a year-long contract, which I learned the hard way when I tried to cancel my subscription after six months (since I only needed the Suite for six months) and Adobe told me I’d have to pay my remaining subscription balance in order to cancel early. I would rather pay $200 or even $300 for InDesign once — basically the equivalent of one year of the One App subscription plan — than $600 a year for a suite of programs I’ll never use. Software should be something you pay for once.”
Of all the free alternatives, Kaeden probably likes Autodesk Sketchbook the most. They use it for drawing, and, since art is just a hobby for them, Sketchbook is like a happy medium. “I also use Paint.NET and Canva regularly for photo editing and graphic design. For writing (my actual profession), I mostly stick to Google Docs because it’s what my job requires, but I also use Evernote and I really like the free Grammarly editor, too!”
“Just because something is free doesn’t mean it’s automatically going to suck. Krita is 100% free and I’m amazed by how powerful it is relative to Photoshop. Paint.NET is also free but open-source and highly customizable with the use of plug-ins. Your mileage may vary depending on your job and specific needs, but I personally quit using Adobe after I graduated college and have never looked back. I haven’t needed to. The free and cheap alternatives that exist out there have been more than enough for me.”
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After the huge wave of disappointment, Adobe released an announcement: “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.” They also brought back the famous $10 Photography plan which people can order online, via phone at 1-800-585-0774 or via major retailers.
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Forget GIMP. The layer management is bad and it rasterize fonts after any transformation. If you want a drawing program for free, there is Krita. If you are willing to pay, there is clip studio, or painter (from corel). Photoshop wasn't even made for digital paintings for the first place.
I use GIMP and I've never had a problem with it. But then I do hobby art and photo manips, not professional stuff. I also just find the interface works for me whereas others don't. People shouldn't forget it, just find what works for them. :)
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Affinity Publisher, Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer for me, Adobe can go and Freehand themselves out of existance.
I will absolutely pay for my tools but you should only have to pay once. The monthly payment is brutal especially for those who make a living with their art.
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Unfortunately we're in the era of "Captive Consumerism" where people have been conditioned over the years to just accept what companies do and give in.
Most people pirate them! Look at Xara ad well. Also Corel Draw over Illustrator. Serif Infinity. ON1 for Lightroom. Plenty of better cheaper stuff out there.
Corel Font manager is also (way) better than Adobe Fonts. As for photos... Photo-paint has its strong points but it's overal PS wining here. Ventura doesn't exists anymore so it's InDesign's win and I am not aware any distiller counterpart from Corel.
Load More Replies... irony: Adobe started charging a monthly fee, to make it MORE ACCESSIBLE to people, vs charging the once-off price of over $1,000 (which most new / entry level professionals don't have... let alone Jo Blow Public). (and to stop people stealing from them via pirated software)
My old school supplied us with photoshop. But when I had to give my computer back, since I had used that one more than my personal, I decided to move all my files from my school laptop to my personal. They were both macs, so I used the migration feature. And, lo and behold, when I logged into my personal, photoshop was still there! I'm not sure if it'll kick me out anytime soon, but so far I've had no issues. Woo!
While I truly believe in offering lower prices to maintain a higher audience, I don't quite understand the backlash here, other than the fact that the price has changed with little difference in the software. If you consider the math, it's still a pretty good deal. The CS6 Master Collection cost $2600. At $50/month, it would take 4.33 years to pay off. So if you have to pay close to that amount for the entire CC suite that's updated yearly, I don't really see the issue. Photoshop CS6 alone was $700, at $20/month it would take 2.9 years to pay off, never mind the addition of Lightroom and free storage at that price point. This is again for software that is updated regularly. I do understand people's frustration, but keep in mind, these guys employ hundreds of employees, with a different team for each app, who all work on these on a daily basis. They're people too, and the cost of living isn't getting any cheaper. It sucks that it costs more, but it's probably not baseless.
Problem with that is that I have no need for the master pack so it isn't deal for me. When I use Adobe products I use usually only Photoshop and illustrator, some other programs once or twice because school class. Adobe doesn't really give you choice beyond one program and all witch sucks. I just like every other person totally love paying for stuff I didn't want or use.
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There are freeware programs around for almost any paid software. And admittedly they do have a learning curve. So it's up to the user to either put an effort in learning to handle some new software or let Adobe and their likes rob them.
DaVinci Resolve Studio at productscrack offers some of the unique and unique features that are ideal if you are working in a high-end post-production workflow. If the type of projects you’re working on doesn’t need to be too detailed, you should first download the standard version of Resolve, namely DaVinci Resolve. The free version lacks some features like lens correction, collaboration tools, spatial and temporal noise reduction, VR toolset and some effects, and the maximum resolution is limited to 4K ultr a HD.
If you would like to purchase Adobe CS6 Master Collection which has Photoshop Extended; Lightroom and all the rest of the Adobe software and does not have a monthly Subscription fee for only $151.00 Call (305) 761-7617 BIG BONUS! NOW INCLUDED FREE WITH YOUR ORDER, AUTOMATIC UPGRADE TO ALL NEW ADOBE CC SOFTWARE WHICH ALSO DOES NOT HAVE ANY MONTHLY SUBSCRIPTION FEE. Go here TO ORDER ONLINE: http://directsoftwareconnection.com/adobecs6masterspecialoffer.htm
GIMP is arguably the most popular free software for non-vector digital art and image editing. It is mentioned in many alternative lists as a photoshop alternative, but its development is slow and "gimped" at times. If you are are looking for both a free and open-source editor Krita would a much better option..just my two cents!
I love Audacity, but comparing that to Audition is like comparing apples and oranges. Try Pro Tools First.
For websites: WampServer and Notepad++ (and a database of some kind of course)
Should I do the same or not? I seriously think about... Adobe is too expensive... But I'm happy with... Hmmm... First, I have to try the commentators' #suggestions.
And I hear good things about affinity's offerings, but haven't tried them yet.
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Vaguely related to this post: we live in a leasehold property (we own the flat, some rich corporation owns the land). We wanted to extend the lease 5 years ago and the crooks wanted 15,000 (UK Pounds) for it. Now when we need to sell, they've doubled that - just because they can. They have us over a barrel, nothing we can do if we want to sell the place. Corporations ripping people off is theft, nothing less. That said, nobody is forcing anyone to use Adobe products...
F*ck Adobe. As a semi-professional graphic designer, I survive just fine on Scribus, Gimp, Krita and Inkscape. I have nothing against buying even expensive software, but I will not let myself be milked with a stupid subscription model.
I use Paint dot net after I gave up on Photoshop due to not being able to pay for a program I use about once a week just to edit images, and I can say Paint dot net is actually a really good program, since it has plug-ins made by users. You can turn the program into Photoshop. This is from the viewpoint of a filthy casual user tho 😁
I just cancelled my Lightroom subscription. I hate being locked into a 12 month contract and I, like many others have subscription fatigue. I'm sick of spending hundreds a month on products I use irregularly. Yes Lightroom was good, but I can do much of the same stuff with apps I only pay once for. I am just about to purchase ON1 as a Lightroom replacement (read good things), I use Pixelmator Pro for all my web graphics work (awesome app). I use FCPX which is also pay once, which I did when it came out and I have had free updates since (plus it's way way way faster than Premier and easier to use). I am over Adobe and I now I am going to happier now I am done with them.
F**K Adobe. Hard. With a rusty object. Adobe is basically a monopoly so if you use more than one of their programs they make you shell out for the whole shebang and then tell you what a deal you got. F**k Adobe to hell since their products are dreadful anyway. They don't have to truly improve because they have absolutely no competition whatsoever. No other company comes in the galaxy of being able to replace them. Dickheads.
Pfft if you think that's bad try contacting support... actual support
JCristina on YouTube has been doing videos of him quitting Adobe CC suite cold turkey. You should add his videos to this article too https://youtu.be/ChpPgkmidOE
I think you spelled Kaeden's name wrong. It's Kaeden Stears. Source: I'm Kaeden's mom. I think I know how to spell their name.
Meh, Audacity is mediocre at best. Invest in decent software like Propellerhead Reason...won't break the bank either.
I've not bothered with Photoshop for darn near 2 decades. I still have my copy of Microsoft PictureIt 2006 (had previous editions) and works just fine. Most people do not need the stuff Photoshop does, and do not want to take the time to learn what every button means. And I had a professional copy of PS. Too bad Microsoft no longer makes it.
Back in my day we used good old paper, scissors and glue to make something. Nothing a good old fashioned pie chart and pointer stick can’t solve.
I'm sure Adobe would love for you to subscribe to their scissors for $9.99/month. Pointer stick and scissors for the bundled price of $15.99/month!
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Realistically, the increased cost is being passed on to the client. Of course then we have this-- Clients: Boohoo, it's just a logo, can't you do it for free!
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This isn't about people looking for "free" anything. It's about alternatives to overpriced software... some of which are free.
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Forget GIMP. The layer management is bad and it rasterize fonts after any transformation. If you want a drawing program for free, there is Krita. If you are willing to pay, there is clip studio, or painter (from corel). Photoshop wasn't even made for digital paintings for the first place.
I use GIMP and I've never had a problem with it. But then I do hobby art and photo manips, not professional stuff. I also just find the interface works for me whereas others don't. People shouldn't forget it, just find what works for them. :)
Load More Replies... Affinity Publisher, Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer for me, Adobe can go and Freehand themselves out of existance.
I will absolutely pay for my tools but you should only have to pay once. The monthly payment is brutal especially for those who make a living with their art.
Load More Replies... Unfortunately we're in the era of "Captive Consumerism" where people have been conditioned over the years to just accept what companies do and give in.
Most people pirate them! Look at Xara ad well. Also Corel Draw over Illustrator. Serif Infinity. ON1 for Lightroom. Plenty of better cheaper stuff out there.
Corel Font manager is also (way) better than Adobe Fonts. As for photos... Photo-paint has its strong points but it's overal PS wining here. Ventura doesn't exists anymore so it's InDesign's win and I am not aware any distiller counterpart from Corel.
Load More Replies... irony: Adobe started charging a monthly fee, to make it MORE ACCESSIBLE to people, vs charging the once-off price of over $1,000 (which most new / entry level professionals don't have... let alone Jo Blow Public). (and to stop people stealing from them via pirated software)
My old school supplied us with photoshop. But when I had to give my computer back, since I had used that one more than my personal, I decided to move all my files from my school laptop to my personal. They were both macs, so I used the migration feature. And, lo and behold, when I logged into my personal, photoshop was still there! I'm not sure if it'll kick me out anytime soon, but so far I've had no issues. Woo!
While I truly believe in offering lower prices to maintain a higher audience, I don't quite understand the backlash here, other than the fact that the price has changed with little difference in the software. If you consider the math, it's still a pretty good deal. The CS6 Master Collection cost $2600. At $50/month, it would take 4.33 years to pay off. So if you have to pay close to that amount for the entire CC suite that's updated yearly, I don't really see the issue. Photoshop CS6 alone was $700, at $20/month it would take 2.9 years to pay off, never mind the addition of Lightroom and free storage at that price point. This is again for software that is updated regularly. I do understand people's frustration, but keep in mind, these guys employ hundreds of employees, with a different team for each app, who all work on these on a daily basis. They're people too, and the cost of living isn't getting any cheaper. It sucks that it costs more, but it's probably not baseless.
Problem with that is that I have no need for the master pack so it isn't deal for me. When I use Adobe products I use usually only Photoshop and illustrator, some other programs once or twice because school class. Adobe doesn't really give you choice beyond one program and all witch sucks. I just like every other person totally love paying for stuff I didn't want or use.
Load More Replies... There are freeware programs around for almost any paid software. And admittedly they do have a learning curve. So it's up to the user to either put an effort in learning to handle some new software or let Adobe and their likes rob them.
DaVinci Resolve Studio at productscrack offers some of the unique and unique features that are ideal if you are working in a high-end post-production workflow. If the type of projects you’re working on doesn’t need to be too detailed, you should first download the standard version of Resolve, namely DaVinci Resolve. The free version lacks some features like lens correction, collaboration tools, spatial and temporal noise reduction, VR toolset and some effects, and the maximum resolution is limited to 4K ultr a HD.
If you would like to purchase Adobe CS6 Master Collection which has Photoshop Extended; Lightroom and all the rest of the Adobe software and does not have a monthly Subscription fee for only $151.00 Call (305) 761-7617 BIG BONUS! NOW INCLUDED FREE WITH YOUR ORDER, AUTOMATIC UPGRADE TO ALL NEW ADOBE CC SOFTWARE WHICH ALSO DOES NOT HAVE ANY MONTHLY SUBSCRIPTION FEE. Go here TO ORDER ONLINE: http://directsoftwareconnection.com/adobecs6masterspecialoffer.htm
GIMP is arguably the most popular free software for non-vector digital art and image editing. It is mentioned in many alternative lists as a photoshop alternative, but its development is slow and "gimped" at times. If you are are looking for both a free and open-source editor Krita would a much better option..just my two cents!
I love Audacity, but comparing that to Audition is like comparing apples and oranges. Try Pro Tools First.
For websites: WampServer and Notepad++ (and a database of some kind of course)
Should I do the same or not? I seriously think about... Adobe is too expensive... But I'm happy with... Hmmm... First, I have to try the commentators' #suggestions.
And I hear good things about affinity's offerings, but haven't tried them yet.
Load More Replies... Vaguely related to this post: we live in a leasehold property (we own the flat, some rich corporation owns the land). We wanted to extend the lease 5 years ago and the crooks wanted 15,000 (UK Pounds) for it. Now when we need to sell, they've doubled that - just because they can. They have us over a barrel, nothing we can do if we want to sell the place. Corporations ripping people off is theft, nothing less. That said, nobody is forcing anyone to use Adobe products...
F*ck Adobe. As a semi-professional graphic designer, I survive just fine on Scribus, Gimp, Krita and Inkscape. I have nothing against buying even expensive software, but I will not let myself be milked with a stupid subscription model.
I use Paint dot net after I gave up on Photoshop due to not being able to pay for a program I use about once a week just to edit images, and I can say Paint dot net is actually a really good program, since it has plug-ins made by users. You can turn the program into Photoshop. This is from the viewpoint of a filthy casual user tho 😁
I just cancelled my Lightroom subscription. I hate being locked into a 12 month contract and I, like many others have subscription fatigue. I'm sick of spending hundreds a month on products I use irregularly. Yes Lightroom was good, but I can do much of the same stuff with apps I only pay once for. I am just about to purchase ON1 as a Lightroom replacement (read good things), I use Pixelmator Pro for all my web graphics work (awesome app). I use FCPX which is also pay once, which I did when it came out and I have had free updates since (plus it's way way way faster than Premier and easier to use). I am over Adobe and I now I am going to happier now I am done with them.
F**K Adobe. Hard. With a rusty object. Adobe is basically a monopoly so if you use more than one of their programs they make you shell out for the whole shebang and then tell you what a deal you got. F**k Adobe to hell since their products are dreadful anyway. They don't have to truly improve because they have absolutely no competition whatsoever. No other company comes in the galaxy of being able to replace them. Dickheads.
Pfft if you think that's bad try contacting support... actual support
JCristina on YouTube has been doing videos of him quitting Adobe CC suite cold turkey. You should add his videos to this article too https://youtu.be/ChpPgkmidOE
I think you spelled Kaeden's name wrong. It's Kaeden Stears. Source: I'm Kaeden's mom. I think I know how to spell their name.
Meh, Audacity is mediocre at best. Invest in decent software like Propellerhead Reason...won't break the bank either.
I've not bothered with Photoshop for darn near 2 decades. I still have my copy of Microsoft PictureIt 2006 (had previous editions) and works just fine. Most people do not need the stuff Photoshop does, and do not want to take the time to learn what every button means. And I had a professional copy of PS. Too bad Microsoft no longer makes it.
Back in my day we used good old paper, scissors and glue to make something. Nothing a good old fashioned pie chart and pointer stick can’t solve.
I'm sure Adobe would love for you to subscribe to their scissors for $9.99/month. Pointer stick and scissors for the bundled price of $15.99/month!
Load More Replies... Realistically, the increased cost is being passed on to the client. Of course then we have this-- Clients: Boohoo, it's just a logo, can't you do it for free!
Load More Replies... This isn't about people looking for "free" anything. It's about alternatives to overpriced software... some of which are free.
Load More Replies...
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