Adobe Photoshop, along with all other Creative Suite applications, just made a move to the cloud. Adobe decided to discontinue software you can actually buy so they can force you to rent the applications for a monthly fee. This change comes with a number of problems but also some advantages. Here's what the change means to you.


You Own Nothing, and Creative Cloud May Not Save You Money


When Adobe announced Creative Cloud one year ago, we analyzed the cost of their new service offering to see if it actually saved you money. If you're a new user, we found you'd save a decent amount of money if you opted for cloud services. If you already owned pretty much any version of Creative Suite or an Adobe application, however, paying for an upgrade that you actually get to keep was a better prospect. But even when Creative Cloud costs less, you don't get to keep what you pay for. The moment you discontinue your service you're left with nothing.

While Creative Cloud forces you to rent rather than buy if you want to use Adobe applications, Adobe sweetened the pot with additional cloud services to help make this potential turd easier to swallow. You get 20GB of cloud-based storage, you can sync your work to the web, you can use collaboration tools to track changes and communicate with team members and clients, and a variety of other tools and services. If you use the vast majority of Adobe applications for all your work, Creative Cloud offers a lot of bang for your buck. If you only need a few apps, however, you're not getting a great deal.

So, what will you have to pay? Here's the breakdown:

If you own Creative Suite 3, 4, 5, or 5.5 , you'll pay $30 per month for the first year and $50 per month after that.

, you'll pay $30 per month for the first year and $50 per month after that. If you own Creative Suite 6 , you'll pay $20 per month for the first year and $50 per month after that.

, you'll pay $20 per month for the first year and $50 per month after that. If you don't own Creative Suite or own an older version , you'll pay $50 per month.

, you'll pay $50 per month. If you're a student or educator, you'll pay $20 per month for the first year if you sign up before June 25th. After June 25th, or after your first year, you'll pay $30 per month.

you'll pay $20 per month for the first year if you sign up before June 25th. After June 25th, or after your first year, you'll pay $30 per month. If you just want access to single apps, like Photoshop, you'll pay $20 per month per app.


Current pricing may cause confusion due to the discounts, but in the future (after July 31st, 2013) you'll pay $50 per month as a normal person and $30 per month as a student or educator. (Adobe also offers special business pricing at $60 per seat per month, but you can learn about that on their price chart if you fall under that category.)

You Can't Pay As You Go


If you love cellphone contracts you'll love Creative Cloud's new one-year mandatory commitment! You cannot sign up for Creative Cloud without agreeing to pay for an entire year of service. It doesn't matter if you're a student, an individual, if you already own Adobe software—you have to sign up for one year. Current Adobe customers likely won't mind the commitment too much because they'll want at least a year's worth of access. For many others, however, a commitment means paying as much as $600 for something they may decide they don't want after a few months. Students, for example, may not need access to Creative Cloud for more than a semester but will have to pay for it for an entire year. To make this situation worse, you gain nothing from making a year-long commitment.

The one way out? You don't have to commit for any period of time if you rent single apps through Creative Cloud. You'll pay $20 per app, which comes out to $380 a month if you want the entire suite. So if you want to fool yourself into appreciating the year-long commitment, just pretend you're saving $330 a month. The one very tiny silver lining in this situation? Adobe still offers a 30-day free trial of Creative Cloud. If you're not ready to carve out a chunk of your finances for software rental, you can at least give it a try and see if it suits you.


Creative Cloud Provides Actual Desktop Applications, Not Webapps


The Creative Cloud name initially confused a number of people as a cloud service often implies doing work through the web. Adobe Creative Cloud is not a set of webapps. Creative Cloud provides the same suite of applications Adobe always offered for the desktop, but along with a number of bonus cloud services like only file storage for easy sharing and . The desktop applications do not live in the cloud. You install them like you've always installed them. That said, they need to connect to the internet once a month to verify your membership.

Adobe Creative Cloud's Copy Protection Didn't Get Worse

Software as a service (SaaS)—the philosophy that Creative Cloud embodies—often scares users because it appears to use more restrictive copy protection methods. In some implementations of SaaS, this is true. In the case of Adobe Creative Cloud, the applications function pretty much as they did with Creative Suite. They still require authorization, but instead you authorize through your Adobe account and not with a serial number. One individual license allows you to install and run Creative Cloud on up to two computers simultaneously just like Creative Suite, but now you can have both a Windows and Mac version instead of choosing only a single platform.


Creative Cloud applications must verify your membership via the internet once per month, but otherwise work just fine offline. Some may see this as an additional copy protection mechanism, but Creative Suite has been phoning home to Adobe on a monthly basis for some time now—you probably just haven't noticed. The anti-piracy mechanisms haven't really changed, and now you have the advantage of using multiple platforms without purchasing a separate license.

Updates Come Sooner (But You Can Skip Them)


Because you perpetually pay for Creative Cloud, Adobe doesn't need to hold any features for a year or two and release them with the next version of their software suite. When ready, they can provide an immediate update to Creative Cloud users. That means you'll get feature updates multiple times per year rather than every year or two and those updates won't come at an additional cost. On the other hand, if you don't care about constant updates or new features you still have to pay for them. Adobe won't force you to update your software, but you'll continue paying your monthly fee for the old versions. If you could buy a copy of the software outright, you could stay with an older version for as long as you like without paying extra. Early adopters will like these frequent updates, but those who don't care will find themselves paying for nothing.

When You Should Sign Up Depends on Your Situation

Creative Cloud rolls out in June, but if you upgrade by July 31st, 2013 you get to take advantage of the discount pricing described above. For regular people, that means a savings of $240 for the first year. Students and educators, on the other hand, must sign up by June 25th, 2013 in order to save a total of $120 off their first year.


If you really want the latest version of Adobe's apps, signing up before July 31st will save you a lot of money for your first year. If you don't have any reason to update your Adobe software this year, you won't really save any money if you take advantage of this offer.

Students who sign up in June may end up wasting at least two months of service during the summer while school isn't in session, making it strange for Adobe to set an earlier deadline for this discount. While that may only mean giving up $20 of a $120 discount, students still may want to wait until school starts up again. Adobe tends to offer student promotions around September and it wouldn't surprise us if this discount pops up again—especially if Adobe finds themselves struggling to recruit new users.


Here's the bottom line regardless of your situation: don't upgrade early unless you know you'll need to upgrade this year.

All in all, we do not like Adobe's decision to completely discard software you can purchase. While renting Creative Cloud provides a more affordable path for some people, and we're glad it exists, we find the lack of choice and annual commitment extremely frustrating and not in the interest of the consumer. While we doubt Adobe will return to selling software, we hope to see them at least treat their customers with a little more respect and remove the year-long requirement without an adding cost.


If you want to hear Adobe's argument for the move, read their response to the widespread criticism. And if you're ready to ditch Adobe's products altogether, you can build your own Creative Suite with free and cheap software.

Title image remixed from an original by maga (Shutterstock). One year commitment image remixed from an original by Janfilip (Shutterstock).