The events of the past year have changed creative businesses forever. According to the recent State of Creativity survey, 59% of creatives are working remotely and 77% are being asked to develop content more quickly. 84% of those surveyed rely on stock content providers to do their jobs, but 80% of them are seeking more efficient workflows. Meanwhile, two-thirds of respondents are concerned about the use of unlicensed imagery, and nearly 9 in 10 say access to unlimited images would save time and improve productivity.
So now more than ever, creatives need a powerful platform that streamlines content creation, integrates with their most used apps and services, and enables remote teams to work together more effectively. Today, Adobe launched a brand new plan – the Creative Cloud Pro Edition – to help alleviate the challenges of collaboration and content creation. Here’s our review.
What’s In Creative Cloud Pro?
So what is the Creative Cloud Pro Edition? In a nutshell, it’s now the best plan available – giving subscribers access to all Creative Cloud for Teams apps and services, plus unlimited downloads of over 200 million high quality, royalty-free standard assets from Adobe Stock.
With Creative Cloud Pro Edition (CC Pro), customers have access to:
- All apps and services included in Creative Cloud for Teams (previously the top-of-line plan).
- Unlimited downloads of images, illustrations, vectors, photos, graphics, templates, 3D models, audio/music, and more from the Adobe Stock core collection.
- Integrated workflows with Creative Cloud, Microsoft PowerPoint and Google Slides, making it easy to search and license all the assets inside various apps.
- Advanced search powered by Adobe Sensei AI to help find the right asset based on image similarity, aesthetics, color, copy space, and more.
- One price, with no Stock watermarks, no quotas, no limits, no friction. Use full-res images, even for comps and layouts.
- Enhanced licensing for unlimited copies or views of all Adobe Stock assets.
…plus Cloud services and exclusive administrative features:
- 1 TB of cloud storage, Adobe Portfolio, Adobe Fonts, Creative Cloud Express (formerly Adobe Spark) Premium, and access to the latest features and updates as soon as they’re released.
- Admin Console for managing licenses; Advanced 24/7 tech support; Team Projects for collaborative video editing; Unlimited job posts on Adobe Talent.
With creatives under constant pressure to produce more assets, more quickly and for more channels, CC Pro aims to help creatives save time and elevate their work in this ever-changing environment. This new offering is part of Adobe’s larger strategy to unleash creativity for all and give creatives and businesses the power of flexibility and collaboration when creating content.
Creative Cloud Pro Edition Pricing and Availability
The Creative Cloud All Apps Pro Edition plan offers introductory pricing of US$79.99/month per user for the first year and $89.99/month per each user from year two and beyond. The Single App version is US$33.99/month per user for the first year and $39.99/month per user from year two and beyond. Prices are based on annual plans.
Incredibly, the Pro introductory pricing is the same as the current cost of the Creative Cloud for Teams plans, but it’s an even better package. This means that Creative Cloud for Teams existing customers can upgrade their plans to Pro Editions at the same price as their current subscriptions and now get unlimited downloads of Adobe Stock standard assets free for up to one year. (Note: Sounds like a no-brainer!)
Creative Cloud Pro Edition is immediately available worldwide for teams, groups, and businesses with five or more users:
What About for Individuals?
There is no equivalent offering unlimited Stock in the Creative Cloud for Individuals plans. However, the company did just recently launch the Adobe Stock Free Collection, a curated set of over 1,000,000 completely free photos, vectors, illustrations, templates, and videos from talented Stock providers… All assets in the new Free Collection are available for everyone to download at all times, even non-customers. Plus these high-quality assets meet the same standards as the paid collection. Check out the free Stock here:
Regarding overall selection, 1,000,000 can’t compare to 200,000,000 – but still!
Either way, your standard license to use or edit Stock content is royalty-free for commercial use and granted in perpetuity, with no geographical restrictions or expiration dates. And Stock is seamlessly integrated into your workflow, with native support built right in your favorite tools like Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Animate, Premiere Pro, and other Creative Cloud apps – thus streamlining and speeding your work.
Special: Legally download dozens of free Adobe books for a limited time!
Is the Pro Edition a Good Deal?
Is CC Pro worth it? We think the answer is unequivocally yes. There is zero incremental cost over the Teams plans to now get unlimited Stock downloads in the first year, and only an additional $10/month thereafter. Compare that to the current Adobe Stock pricing, which runs $30/mo. for 10 assets, $80/mo. for 40 assets, $170/mo. for 350 assets, and $200/mo. for 750 assets.
So previously, if you wanted a Teams plan plus just 10 assets, you’d pay US$110/month… By contrast, you can now get Teams plus unlimited assets for only $80-90/month! We are actually not quite sure how Adobe is pulling this one off, as they still need to compensate the professional creators and producers of their vast Stock library. Best we can figure is you are essentially paying for the Stock and getting the Creative Cloud subscription for free.
But as we noted above, if you use virtually any level of professional stock content at all, this looks like a no-brainer.
Our Review: The Bottom Line
Adobe’s new Creative Cloud Pro Edition plans provide access to all Creative Cloud apps and services with the added benefit of unlimited downloads of Adobe Stock standard assets (over 200 million and counting), making it the ultimate platform for unrestricted creativity and easy, secure collaboration. The plan’s pricing is attractive – actually groundbreaking compared to what you might have paid previously – and it’s likely to be a big hit.
For more information, download the Pro Edition Buyer’s Guide (11-page PDF).
See Also
- What are the differences between Adobe CC vs. CS6?
- Download free Adobe books (choose over 30 titles)
- How to save 60% with the Adobe education editions
- Download now: The 14 ultimate shortcut cheat sheets
- Don’t need full Cloud? Get PS + LR for $9.99/month
- How to join Adobe’s Creative Cloud for free
Do you have any questions about the new Pro Edition? Just ask them below and we’ll get you answers fast!
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Heck, I could really use this, and the pricing is great. My stock bill alone can be more than the cost of this plan! Plus I have CC fees on top. But I am only one user. Can you get it if you’re just a single subscriber?
Thanks
Hi Warren, thanks for your question. Adobe says, “minimum seat requirements apply” – so it looks like you need a group of at least 5 people to sign up for the Pro edition… In other words, a subscription for just a single person isn’t offered.
Our guess is that by requiring multiple users (with pooled sharing between them), they help offset some of the cost of providing unlimited Stock downloads. Otherwise, it’s probably too expensive for the company to offer.
If you can’t find 4 other people to join you (maybe pool with colleagues or friends?), then we’d suggest checking out their Free Collection, which could possibly help offset some of your costs:
http://www.FreeAdobeStock.com/
The quality of what you’ll find there is truly excellent, even if the quantity is only a small subset of the hundreds of millions of assets available on Stock.
Hope that helps!
Thx for the update. Is there a free trial for the PRO edition ?
Sorry, there is no free trial of CC Pro. Likewise, there is no free trial for Creative Cloud for Teams.
You may know there is a free trial for the Individuals plan. This includes all Creative Cloud apps and most services, but not the services included in Teams-only.
Regarding Adobe Stock, using the Free Collection described above is one way to check out the service. You don’t need to be a customer in order to download or use those assets.
In addition, there is a free 30-day trial of Adobe Stock where you can download any 10 of the many millions of standard assets that you want, normally paid but completely free for one month.
So even though there is no free tryout of the new Pro Edition, hopefully you should still be able to get a sense of what it’s about from those other offers.
It would be fine have an article about those “…vast Stock libraries…” How many are there 100 billions(?), how they are selected by end users …randomly? There is now so much content that we don’t need one more.
Hi Ritchie, not sure what point you’re making. Adobe Stock is high quality, professionally-produced and carefully-curated content which can be safely licensed for any purpose including royalty-free commercial use. It’s also more than photos and is a one-stop-shop which includes illustrations, vectors, video, audio/music, 3D models, templates, and more.
It’s really top-notch stuff and we use it all the time in our own work, including their Free Collection. Further, Adobe Stock is tightly integrated into the Creative Cloud toolset, which is a big productivity boost and timesaver:
How to Work 10X Faster with Adobe Stock and Creative Cloud Libraries
Finally, finding what you need is easy with the advanced search capabilities to quickly select the right asset based on image similarity, aesthetics, color, copy space, and more. So there’s nothing random about it.