How to Join Adobe’s Creative Cloud for Free

[UPDATE (May 6th) – Major news out: Adobe Unveils New “CC” Release (CS7)...  Everyone with a free level of membership as described below will receive free trials of these new CC tools.]

So you’ve heard of Adobe’s Creative Cloud offering, maybe wondered what it is, and perhaps have considered subscribing vs. the traditional route of buying a CS6 license…

But did you know that no matter what you do, you can sign up right now for a zero-cost class of membership that never expires and provides free benefits for life?  Anyone can have this in 57 countries worldwide, even if you use the perpetual products instead, or even if you use no other Adobe tools or services at all.

Here is all of what you get completely free, permanently:

1. Two gigabytes of cloud space for storing, syncing, and sharing your files online (same as Dropbox).  When displayed online, your files will be viewable in application-specific ways.
2. A full non-expiring desktop license for Adobe Edge Animate 1.5 – download a new brand tool for creating interactive and animated web content with HTML5 technology.
3. Full lifetime access to Edge Code, an in-context code editor for web developers.
4. Unrestricted use of Edge Web Fonts, a collection of 500 online fonts served forever to any websites of your choosing.
5. Game Developer Tools to build, optimize, and deliver web and mobile games – including free Adobe Scout and Adobe Flash C++ Compiler.
6. Free for one mobile device: Edge Inspect (formerly Adobe Shadow) to easily preview your work live on your device from the desktop in fast, remote-controlled fashion.
7. Free PhoneGap Build capability to create a mobile app with HTML, CSS and JavaScript, and then deploy it to a wide range of devices.
8. No charge get started with Typekit commercial fonts: choose two online professional font faces from nearly 1,000 available to use on a single website.
9. Unlimited access to free Adobe Story screenwriting software to turn your ideas into screenplays and scripts.
10. Now, integration of Behance’s community and portfolio capabilities, allowing you to seamlessly create content, seek feedback, showcase and distribute your work.
11. Plus… fast and easy access to 30-day free trials of all CS6 applications and other Adobe applications, such as Muse and Business Catalyst for creating websites.



How to get all this?  Well if you already have an Adobe ID then all it takes is confirming the free signup. If you don’t have an Adobe ID yet, then it’s just six fields to fill out and no credit card needed.

If you later decide to join the Creative Cloud as a full paying sub­scriber, then you’ll keep all of the above – plus add the following:

• Full access to the complete Adobe CS6 Master Collection, Lightroom 4, Acrobat XI, Typekit, Edge Inspect, and more.
• Use of the latest creative technology from Adobe with exclusive upgrades included as soon as they become available – product versions become irrelevant.
• Enablement of the latest exclusive features and updates for Photoshop, for Illustrator, and for Dreamweaver.
• Access to 20 GB of online storage and other services from Adobe such as free Creative Cloud Training produced by industry-leading partners.
• Full access to new and additional products that are not available through traditional perpetual licenses, such as Adobe Muse, Behance ProSite, and Story Plus.
• Create and submit an unlimited number of iPad apps using the Digital Publishing Suite Single Edition.
• Receive five free hosted websites that you can easily create using Adobe’s Business Catalyst hosting platform.
• Flexible and modest payments through monthly and yearly subscription options.

And if you ever stop or cancel your paid subscription, you will retain all benefits of the free membership for life.

Creative Cloud: Compare Free vs. Paid Memberships

Here’s a chart that should help illustrate – click for more details:



Do you have any further questions on what Creative Cloud is about, or on what the free membership means versus the paid/complete membership?  Check out our extensive Creative Cloud FAQ, or just ask them below and we’ll get you answers fast!

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See Also



• The 10 most common myths about Creative Cloud
• What are the differences between CS6 vs. CS5, 4, 3?
• Download free CS6 e-books (over 1,000 pages)
• Free Adobe CS6 Tutorials – 30 hours of video training
• How to save 75% with the Adobe education editions
• Adobe CS6 vs. Creative Cloud: Which is best for you?
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