When I first heard about the Adobe Creative Suite’s move to the cloud, I thought it was a terrible idea, especially when the price was set at $50 per month. Now that some time has passed, and I’ve had a chance to work with it first hand, I can see the advantages it brings.
For starters, there are no longer separate Mac OS X and Windows licenses, and it’s possible to activate the software on two computers at a time. This makes it much easier to switch between the two platforms. This is something they should have done years ago.
The pricing isn’t quite as bad as it seems. There is a single-app plan, which is $20 per month ($10 per month for upgrading from CS6 until the end of August). Doing the math, without upgrade pricing, it takes about two-and-a-half years before hitting the $600 price-point of Photoshop CS6 alone. In the long term, this plan does cost less, assuming one were to buy the version upgrades each year.
Which brings us to a disadvantage.
Photoshop is no longer a product, but a service. It’s no longer possible to pay once and run the same program on the same old computer for 5+ years.
I still can’t help but feel at least a little concerned. What if everything I installed on my computer became subscription-based? Microsoft already seems to be heading in this direction with Office 365. What if I had to subscribe to use Manga Studio or Paint Tool Sai? I’d certainly have to put more effort into budgeting each month, instead of choosing to buy things when I need them.
For all I know, that could be the point.
