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“The 10 Most Common Myths About Adobe’s Creative Cloud (CC)”
The 10 Most Frequent Myths About Adobe's Creative Cloud (CC)
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I am interested in creating pdf’s that can be completed by the end-user. I am not clear on whether to buy the program? Subscribe to the program? Can I run it from the cloud? Where do I go to set up the use of this program if I can run it from a cloud?
Thank you.
Hey Dean, for Acrobat XI Pro (Adobe’s PDF editing program), you can choose either to buy it a perpetual license or to subscribe with a far-smaller monthly payment. In both cases, the same software downloads and installs locally on your desktop (it doesn’t run “in the cloud”) – the difference is simply in the type of license and how you pay for it.
Acrobat XI Pro is also included as part of the Creative Cloud – meaning that all complete CC members receive full use of it as well. In other words, you can choose if you want to get just Acrobat by itself (standalone) or the full suite bundle. And again, as stated in Myths #2 and #3, it is not a web-based application.
In either case, you can get started immediately by downloading the free Acrobat Pro trial and see how it works for you.
You should be able to run that at no cost for up to 60 days and then can purchase and convert it to either a perpetual or subscription license without having to reinstall.
UPDATE (April 7th): The next major version – Acrobat DC – has just been released by Adobe, and is automatically included in the Creative Cloud… You can download it here now.
@ProDesignTools
Agree that Adobe may not own your work but essentially they control your work. Once a subscription has ended, all the work an individual did (i.e. the individual’s IP) with the licensed software is not able to be accessed unless there is backward compatability (and this won’t last over time). The CC model is an addiction that is not worth the risk. And please, Adobe is doing CC for the money stream and not just to be nice to people – they are a profit-maximising company after all.
Sure, like every other for-profit company in the world, Adobe hopes for successful products that delight users and will grow its sales and profits over time. But if you’re truly a good customer, then you’ll want to help them in that effort – why?? Because growth (rather than stagnation) will enable them to make even better software and tools for you in the future.
But that’s not the whole story, as you know. Operationally, Creative Cloud is a better and more modern way to deliver software than the old static monolithic releases that didn’t get updated for 18 months and cost a small fortune upfront to buy and then even more to upgrade! CC is regularly improved and kept current at no extra cost – and is more accessible and open to a broader customer base who is voting “yes” with their support.
Just look at all the different positive attributes in this side-by-side comparison chart:
Adobe Creative Cloud (CC) vs. Creative Suite (CS6): The Pros & Cons
Finally, regarding to how to open files after a Creative Cloud paid subscription has expired or been canceled, please see our previous reply to Pete here.
@ProDesignTools
I have no problem with companies making a profit in a competitive market environment. I admire your belief that the company is just doing the business to help us folk have better software in the future – very charitable!
I disagree that CC is a better delivery system for customers. It is certainly better for Adobe as the customer is now hooked ad infinitum as distinct from the customer having no hooks by buying the software bundle outright. If Adobe was REALLY interested in the customer they would offer both the CC and direct software purchasing and let the customer decide. However, that scenario still depends on whether Adobe will price the purchased software fairly. As they obviously favour CC, they would price the purchased software very high to advance their preferred CC solution. Adobe has the market so they can do what they want, so please don’t make out that the customer is king in such an envirionment. There is no soft sentiment in business.
Brad, the purchased (perpetually-licensed) software is already priced very highly – and always has been… It’s $2,600 for CS6 Master Collection (plus over $1,000 per upgrade), which you can still buy from Adobe today – but that actually comprises significantly less that what you receive now with Creative Cloud, in terms of the tools & services included, and many new features since then.
Regarding your other comments: Adobe is definitely in the business to reinvest in innovation and make their software better over time; to argue otherwise is folly. If they didn’t, they’d be out of business in a relatively short period of time against someone who consistently did that. In over 25 years of history, it has never been Adobe’s style to just rest on their laurels. And in the three years since CS6 came out in 2012, Adobe has already added over 1,000 new features, performance improvements, and other enhancements to CC.
Finally, you say you think they should or could offer the new CC platform with both subscription-based and traditional perpetual licenses. While that might be a nice wish, sorry to say that it’s simply not possible, as explained here:
Why Adobe CC (Creative Cloud) Gets Free Upgrades but CS6 Doesn’t
So I may be asking a repeat question, but I am wondering if you purchase the Creative Cloud Subscription do you also have the ability to download the Adobe mobile apps? If I make this purchase am I also able to run the Adobe CC Mobile apps on my iPad when I am meeting with clients?
TIA
Yes! All of the newer Adobe mobile apps are fully-integrated and will work together with the Creative Cloud.
READ THE FINE PRINT
I downloaded Creative Cloud in order to work on a resume in InDesign with intent to cancel my subscription after I found a job. However, when you download the software you sign terms that bind you into paying a fee of 50% of your remaining months of the annual subscription whenever you cancel your subscription. For me that was $80. I got hired after 3 months, and getting charged $20 a month I basically paid about $140 just to make a resume.
I love InDesign but I would not suggest downloading Creative Cloud for a short-term project. Adobe should have made the cancellation fees very clear from the beginning. Looks like pretty shady business if you ask me.
BE CAREFUL
Wrong. They absolutely do make the terms very clear from the beginning – it’s just that you must have ignored them.
As soon as you click «Buy Now» for any Annual (One Year) CC plan, the very first thing that comes up (before payment) – put simply and in a large print:
They also provide the option to switch to a Month-to-Month plan immediately below. So the only thing “shady” is what was covering your eyes… Plus this is also detailed in the Creative Cloud Subscription Terms page.
If you think you’ll only use the software for a short or indefinite period like 3 months, or are doing something that’s project-based with a temporary need, then simply don’t sign up for an Annual plan! Just get the Monthly plan instead, which has no contract and can be cancelled at any time without a fee.
Basically, in exchange for a 12-month commitment, what you get is a lower monthly price. But what you get with the Month-to-Month plan instead is more flexibility.
Adobe should at least offer a perpetual license for those who wish to purchase in that manner. I have been a loyal Adobe user since CS and I, for one, can never find myself to buy into the “vaporware” subscription model. Once I stop paying, it disappears and I can no longer use it. No matter how much money I had been paying, it will cease to work once I stop paying. It is Vaporware and it is toxic. I am highly ticked off by Adobe’s decision to not even offer a perpetual license. People will begin to get ticked off when they realize their software no longer works when they stop sending the checks.
Louie, we direct you to our previous two replies above to Brad already on that.
When you stop paying, it stops working. Period. I don’t need to be sent a reference to Adobe’s terms. If I pay for Creative Suite Master for 4 years at $49.99/mo and then quit after the end of the 4th year, I can no longer use it after shelling out $2,399.52. Screw that. That is ridiculous.
Well Louie, if you want a perpetual license then get CS6 instead – you can still buy it direct from Adobe.
But CC offers a lot more than Creative Suite 6 ever did – many more tools and services added in, plus ongoing upgrades included as soon as they’re available.
Just keep in mind that all technology marches on and no software or system is forever… Adobe has been clear that they will not update CS6 any further, not even for hardware or operating system compatibility – so that means that CS6 may not run and/or will not be supported on the next major releases from Microsoft/Windows or Apple/MacOS.
All software has to be maintained and upgraded to keep it useful and relevant over time. Nothing is really a one-time cost if you want to easily keep your tools running “forever.” Many people couldn’t really afford to pay thousands of dollars upfront anyway.
As we pointed out above, the new model of frequent upgrades and feature updates does not work with perpetual licenses… So in the fast-changing modern world where nobody waits 18 months any more between app versions, this is the only way forward.
It is the only way forward for you and Adobe. Not me. I have CS6 master suite, and that is where I will stay. I have been upgrading since CS, but not any more. My funding to / for Adobe has ended.
Also, I never even implied I wanted forever upgrades for free. I am WILLING to purchase upgrades on my timeline and / or budget allowances. I am sorry you lack the ability to comprehend that.
I am upset because they have alienated a good portion of their user base that will not capitulate and purchase the monthly subscription for software that expires.
It’s Adobe’s call. It’s their property and they did not feel the old model was workable for the long term with allowing the products to grow, nor adaptive and flexible enough for the today’s highly interconnected, fast-paced technology landscape.
And clearly, all indications – including the CC customer adoption numbers & growth plus the subscription renewal rates – point to a successful transition to the Creative Cloud.
And while you say you won’t be signing up, there are countless other customers who are – some of them folks who otherwise would never have been able to afford to use these world-class tools at their previous nosebleed cost of admission.
The train is leaving the station but of course you don’t have to be on it – it’s a personal choice as to whether you wish to remain current and competitive with those who are. So far, the skeptics have been wrong (even us originally!) and Adobe is proving their decision was the right one.
Nice to see some relevant comments on this thread again. It’s been what? Like two years on CC now? I still havent upgraded, nor will I ever pay a subscription for this product, even if CS6 blatantly stopped working tomorrow. To be honest, I would find another way to get it without paying and mail adobe a $2000 check in the mail to clear my conscience before I paid the subscription, but thats just me. Anyway, to the point, I tried the trial of CC, and neither CS6 nor CC scales correctly on 4K resolution. The software isn’t even usable. The QT or whatever they used for their GUI makes the icons so small the software isn’t usable, so at this point I dont even think CS6 nor CC is a reasonable purchase for anyone with a modern computer or planning to get one in the future. Unless Adobe plans to patch CS6 when they release the version of CC (2015? 2016? 2017?) that works correctly on high res monitors, CS6 will be stuck in the completely unusable category, and photoshop will be crossed off the list of software installed on my computer.
We presume you’re talking about the Windows version here. It sounds like you haven’t used CC in a while… Adobe upgrades the software every quarter and the addressed ultra-high-resolution displays in CC 2014 last fall.
I could never understand why pro’s (least of all) would ever go for this. Not only does it stop working and your rental fees are gone…but most importantly, your license to edit your psd’s is also effectively gone. That’s right, can’t even edit your own layered source files. I’ve always predicted that this would come back to bite people a few years down the road.
Well, the numbers are not bearing that out in the 3+ years since Creative Cloud was first launched.
For the rest of your comment regarding how to open your files, see our previous reply to Pete here.
Adobe wanted to balance out their revenue stream. It had nothing to do with innovation. People purchased upgrades when *they* wanted to and it was an unpredictable revenue stream Adobe. Adobe wanted to level that out so they went to a subscription model. Good for them, bad for me. The decision has made me really despise Adobe.
With the subscription model, Adobe can raise the price whenever they want. Sure you can choose not to renew, but, you can never use the product again. Once you choose, for whatever reason, to quit feeding the beast, permanently or temporarily, you can no longer use the program to open the art that you have spent countless hours creating. This is devastating. As time goes by and people have to cut back they will begin to see what evil lurks in Adobe’s subscription model.
I will probably stick with CS6 Master for the next 5 or 10 years or however long I wish to continue graphic design and photography. I see photos being uploaded to popular photo hosting sites that were created this year (2015) with Photoshop CS3. Not everyone is running like lemmings to get stung.
A few years down the road when you stop paying, it stops working. I can never agree to that. That is *MY* call.
I decided to get back into photography after a 2 year hiatus. All I had to do was fire up the computer and load up my images and I was up and running. If I had an expired subscription I would not have been able to do that.
As a software developer I purchase “maintenance contracts” with developer tools. I can choose not to renew my maintenance contract, but the software will continue to work. It will just have a freeze point on the new features, but It will remain fully functional. They do not kill the software when I stop paying. They just stop sending upgrades. Do you see the difference here? I certainly hope so. Adobe software stops working when you stop paying. I cannot deal with that. That is absurd.
Photoshop is an awesome product with no equal and I have been a loyal subscriber for many years. Adobe’s business decision to force users pay indefinitely (or cease to function) is extremely arrogant in my opinion and I hope it bites them in the a**.
Notice how Adobe doesn’t force you to buy a subscription for Adobe Acrobat? The business community would tell Adobe to go fly a kite. So what I see here is sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, business model. Why not offer ME the same opportunity to purchase a desktop version CC same as Adobe Acrobat?
Sorry if it wasn’t clear, but we’ve been over this before. You’ve just rehashed the same comment three times on this thread… Please see this post on why the CC model cannot be done as perpetual – and regarding your fears over Adobe jacking up the pricing, you might also like to read Myth #6 above.
Good article. I was unclear about some this stuff before but learned a lot, thanks
Nothing for Android?
I was all excited until I saw that!
Why not disclose that fully? Before signing up?
I won’t be getting rid of my 12.2″ Note! I’ll be canceling the CC!
Hi Kate, some good news – there are already Android apps available today for some of Adobe’s important CC tools and services such as Behance, Behance Creative Portfolio, Creative Cloud file management, and Lightroom Mobile – and the company just announced this week that they are committed to developing Android support for more of their most popular apps – with the first of these apps coming very soon…
For more details, see:
What about Android? An update on mobile support.
@ProDesignTools
Well, thanks for that information, and confirming that Adobe now officially no longer offers any sort of perpetual license support on high res monitors. At least there was some hope that CS6 might receive the update, but if it came out last fall, guess we just bought CS6 for nothing since it no longer works in a usable fashion on modern machines.
To be honest I’ve severely disappointed in Adobe now that this has become clear. People have been still directed to buy CS6 if they don’t want to pay subscriptions and don’t care about 3D and such other new features, but CS6 is lacking the biggest feature of all – being able to be used.
Time to start seriously investigating alternatives. This is the perfect time for a serious competitor to enter the market.
Well actually CS6 does support Retina displays – it was in fact added as an update for perpetual license customers a while back, though only for Mac OS because that’s where these displays started.
On Windows, CC 2014 introduced HiDPI support to Windows as an experimental feature last year. Realistically speaking, 4K monitors have had only a tiny penetration in the Windows marketplace. For the vast percentage of people, CS6 is still usable. Because of the narrow user impact on Windows, and because rewriting for ultra-high-definition (UHD) displays is not at all a simple fix, the company did not go back and try to retrofit a version from years earlier.
So whenever we mention that Creative Suite 6 is still an option to buy from Adobe, we caution that it is old software from 2012 and will largely be unsupported going forward, especially on future operating systems or hardware. It is also already missing over 1,000 new features and improvements (in functionality and performance) that CC has.
I am an American living/working in Malawi, Africa. Can I buy the Photoshop lightroom photography bundle with my American Amazon account/credit card and download/activate here in Malawi?
Thanks for any help or clarity you may provide.
Greetings Ryan, the location where you’re living isn’t yet on the list of countries where you can buy Creative Cloud from – however if you do have US purchasing credentials (either address or credit card or PayPal account), then you should still be able to buy it – even direct from Adobe:
http://www.BuyCreativeCloud.com
I am a Kenyan working as a freelance graphic designer, i would like to know more about creative cloud, to make my jobs outstanding from the rest.
Its wonderful & amazing ! thanks a lot
@Joseph Kituyi Nang’ole
One thing that is not a myth is that if you want to cancel your subscription, Adobe charges a $200.00 cancellation fee. I work in a studio where we have multiple ‘seats’ where we have the whole creative suite purchased for each person. We have just downsized and it’s going to cost us $600 to remove 3 seats. Not so much of a deal.
I have also had problems with the Creative Cloud desktop app crashing every time I launch it. I’ve had a service ticket open with Adobe for over a month, so if you have an older, non-CC suite of apps, you might want to keep it installed on your drive until more bugs are worked out.
Actually Joe, what you said about a $200 cancellation fee is not true – so it would absolutely be a myth…
There is no set fee to cancel. You can cancel for free and at any time if you purchased a monthly plan. For annual plans where you make a 12-month commitment, there is a cancellation fee (in exchange for paying a lower rate). However, that fee is always waived if you’re upgrading to a different plan. And even if you completely cancel an annual plan outright, the fee is variable and depends on how much time is remaining on your contract (exactly like a cellphone plan).
For more details, see:
Cancel your Creative Cloud membership or subscription
Regarding the second thing you said, we haven’t had any issues with the software at all, but don’t know your situation or particulars of the case. If you’re still having any problem, then feel free to post the details here and we’d be more than happy to look into it.
@ProDesignTools
Seems like Louie really likes Adobe and is just disappointed he can’t have a say in a company’s business decision. I am new to the world of photoshop and editing photos at this level, so I have done a lot of research and spoken to many professionals. I have not heard one negative comment about any of Adobe’s products, usage, or business practices. Now I may eat my words since I a new to all this, but from everything I have learned I feel comfortable clicking agree to terms and agreements.
If you are on a month-to-month plan you can cancel at any time, if you click the wrong box and switch to yearly, or you have a ‘team’ account, the cancellation fee is half of whatever you would have paid for remainder of the year. I just cancelled two seats yesterday and it cost us over $400.00.
I have also had an ongoing problem with the CC desktop app not being able to launch. Adobe’s solution – upgrade my OS and wait for CC 2015 apps to be released.
Hey Joe, Creative Cloud 2015 is here now, and you can download and install any of the new applications without using the CC Desktop App via the CC 2015 direct links instead.
I am currently subscribing to Premiere Pro only. If I upgrade it to 2015, can i still keep my installation of 2014, or will the 2014 projects all open without issue?
Hello Van, good news. Not only can you keep your previous (CC 2014) version of Premiere Pro, you should.
In fact, Adobe keeps all previous versions of all creative tools (going back to CS6) available in a permanent online archive for subscribers to download and use anytime.
You can also have multiple releases of Adobe apps installed on your computer – on the same system side-by-side – and many customers do this.
And generally, newer versions of Adobe applications will open project or data files that you’ve created with older versions of the software – see:
Adobe CC File Compatibility Guide
However, for Premiere Pro in particular, it’s best to continue editing any project in the same original version which created it:
Avoiding issues midway through a Premiere project
Following this practice means keeping previous versions of Premiere Pro on your machine when you install new releases. To do this, you have to change the settings of the CC Desktop App when you install a new major release. How to do that is detailed here:
The Adobe CC 2015 Release Is Here – What You Need to Know
Hope that helps!
Well, Myth # 6 turns out to not be such a myth. Adobe just jacked up the prices for me from $29.99 to $49.99.
Hi Chris, it sounds like your first-year promotional pricing had ended, is all.
Some offers, like the student/teacher education deal or the existing CS customer special, have promotional pricing that bumps up a single time after the first year. After that, there are no further increments.
So no, the overall product pricing did not go up – it’s just that there is a first-year intro discount that was part of your plan. The regular price for Creative Cloud Complete has always been $49.99/month and never gone up.
Sorry if there’s been any confusion or if that wasn’t entirely clear to you before.
I read one by one all comments in this article just to confirm the lack of understanding that regular people have about how the market works. Myth #6 (about pricing) has been shooted over and over along this thread. The first thing to notice is how people truly believe in a static world where everything remains the same throughout the years until the end of times, prices never change, technology never gets improved, business models never adapt to new circumstances and so on.
I hate to point out the obvious, but guys, focus on the main implication of being-in-the-world: everything flows. Plus, since we live under a central system of force against our freedom (also called: government) we’re subjected to the whims of a ruling class which will not hesitate (as it has never done) to mess things up by all kind of regulatory methods, controls, prohibitions, subsidies, subventions, debts, devaluations, licenses, interest rates manipulation, taxation and all the resulting chaos.
Despite that, it seems the target of our frustration and disappointment should be Adobe, Microsoft, Apple, Sony, Google, Facebook, Walmart, MacDonald or any other major company for that matter. There is nothing wrong with looking for profits. That leads to better products, better services, technological advances, life improvements. The new Adobe system responds to such dynamic. They tried it, it worked, it’ll stay. As soon as Adobe starts to screw things around with their own stuff, their competitors will be rubbing their hands (unless they manage to use the government to keep competition out of the picture).
Unlike politics, running a business can’t be done by vagaries. Unlike politics, when running a business, you’re responsible for your actions, and some degree of satisfactory results is expected from you for whatever you’re implementing to keep things going. Like the author of this article marked quiet well, the Adobe suite is now totally affordable. I would say their new business model has also decreased the amount of illegal downloads of their software now that is more accessible to the public. And all that without appealing to crazy intellectual property laws and coercion, but by developing creativity and imagination to find pacific and civilized solutions that help both sides to achieve their goals.
Thank you for reading this and forgive me for any grammar blunder: English isn’t my first language.
Some intelligent ideas Alan, thanks for sharing your thoughts!
I’d rather own the licence rights of the adobe software than making monthly payments. To me there are little differences between CS6 and CC. Adobe is only offering customers ongoing support and updates. I’m sticking with CS6.
That’s fine, but you’re wrong about the differences part. There have been well over a thousand updates made to the major applications (many of them very significant, powerful, time-saving, and performance-boosting) that make the CC 2015 tools far better than the old CS6 versions…
For more details, see:
What Are the Differences Between CC 2015 vs. CS6, CS5, CS4, CS3?
None of us here would ever want to have to go back to CS6. Time = money…
Hie
i want to know if your product MU Adobe Creative Cloud can be updated online?. Some say that if you want to update products with this software you have to do it offline then reload your website again on the internet. Why is it like that.
Surely if you guys are professionals why produce a software that is updated offline. This is just so unprofessional. why can’t you produce a software that is easily updated online just like other software. what i meant was, in case l want to remove certain products from my website and add new products, l have to do this offline then reload my website again.
Kindly assist before i purchase your product.
Franc
Sorry Franc, we have not heard this. As far as we are concerned, you can update the Creative Cloud tools either online using the CC Desktop App, or offline using downloadable updates (Windows or Mac) – whichever is easier/better for you.