Having initially launched nine years ago, by now you’ve heard about Adobe’s fast-growing Creative Cloud, you’ve dispelled the common myths about it, and perhaps are considering subscribing to CC now that over 22 million of your colleagues already have…
You may also know that since Adobe stopped development of the older “CS” releases back in 2012, there have been thousands of new product features, enhancements, and performance improvements added to CC since Creative Suite ended, as well as integral new online services.
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 free level currently in 94 countries worldwide, even if you still use the older tools instead, or even if you use no other Adobe products or services at all.
Here is all of what you get completely free (on Windows or macOS), permanently:
- Two gigabytes of cloud space for storing, syncing, and sharing your files online (same as Dropbox). The content of your Adobe project/data files (like PSD, AI, INDD, or PDF) can be intelligently viewed in any browser, in application-specific ways… Viewers (incl. clients and non-Cloud members) can easily turn layers on and off, display relevant metadata, make comments, optionally download the files, and more – all without needing any other tools.
- Completely free download and use of the full desktop version of Adobe XD for Windows or Mac. XD stands for “Experience Design,” and is Adobe’s popular all-in-one UX/UI solution to quickly design websites, mobile apps, and more. With the new Starter Plan, you absolutely get Adobe XD for free – and not a temporary trial version, but a permanently-working version.
- Similarly, you get the all-new Premiere Rush Starter Plan: Available for free, the Starter Plan gives customers access to all Premiere Rush features, use of desktop and mobile apps, and the ability to create an unlimited number of projects and export up to three projects.
- More free apps: You get access to the full version of Adobe Aero to build, view, and share immersive augmented reality (AR) projects, as well as a free Starter Plan for Adobe Fresco, which combines a variety of vector and raster brushes plus exclusive new live brushes to deliver a completely natural painting and drawing experience.
- A lifetime license for Adobe Bridge, their flagship desktop media browser and powerful digital asset manager that allows you to efficiently locate, organize, manage, preview, and batch process your content files – including most image, vector, audio and video files. Easily view and manage Photoshop PSD, Camera RAW, Illustrator AI, InDesign INDD, Adobe XD, Acrobat PDF, Flash SWF, and many other types of files and documents, all without paid programs. (Yes, it’s totally free!)
- Full integrated use of Adobe’s family of mobile apps (over a dozen strong!), enabling you to sketch, draw, paint, create layouts, edit photos and make videos on your tablet or smartphone. Powered by CreativeSync technology, your assets and apps are connected across your desktop computers and mobile devices, so you can do great work anywhere.
- Get ongoing access to Adobe Acrobat Online Services. Use these handy web tools to convert Microsoft Office files to PDF or vice versa, compress PDF documents, fill and sign forms and agreements, and share and store your documents.
- No charge get started with professional Adobe Fonts: choose unlimited online fonts from nearly 1,000 available to use on your websites. You can also sync 1,300+ great fonts to use in your favorite desktop programs – including CC trial apps, older versions of the Creative Suite, non-Adobe applications, or even on iOS/iPadOS.
- Full access to over 3,000 free design assets via Creative Cloud Public Libraries. From colors to graphics, and fonts and character styles to brushes, you can download, incorporate and use anything in this vast design toolkit in all of your work, across your favorite Adobe apps, or entirely separately.
- Free use of Adobe Spark, an integrated web and mobile solution that allows you to easily produce and share impactful visual content. You can create posts for social media, creative graphics, web pages, and animated videos in no time.
- Valuable access to a brand new curated collection of over 500,000 completely free Adobe Stock photos, vectors, illustrations, templates, 3D models, and videos from talented creators – plus the opportunity to receive 10 additional paid assets of your choice at no cost.
- Integration of Behance’s community and portfolio capabilities, allowing you to seamlessly create content, seek feedback, showcase and distribute your work. Behance now has over 24 million members receiving 70+ million project views per month, and is a terrific way to get exposure from like-minded creatives. There’s even a job list for creatives and freelancers, with over 1,000 employment opportunities.
- Plus… access to the free trials of all the new Creative Cloud 2021 tools and services. Even if you previously ran an Adobe trial in previous years, you still receive a fresh new 7-day tryout period with the latest CC release. And every time Adobe does a major upgrade to the software going forward (expected to be annually), you’ll get another new free trial.
How to get all this? Well if you already have an Adobe ID, then all it takes is confirming the free signup. And if you don’t have an Adobe ID yet, then it’s just six fields to fill out:
Creative Cloud: Compare Free vs. Paid Memberships
If you later decide to join the Creative Cloud as a full paying subscriber (All Apps), then you’ll keep all of the benefits of the Free level of membership above – plus add all of the following:
- Full access to the complete Adobe CC 2021 toolset, including Photoshop, Illustrator, Lightroom, Lightroom Classic, InDesign, Acrobat DC Pro, Dreamweaver, Animate, After Effects, Premiere Pro, Audition, Character Animator, Dimension, and much more.
- Use of the latest creative technology from Adobe with ongoing upgrades included as soon as they become available – you can always run the most recent product version.
- 18,000+ Adobe Fonts (formerly Typekit Portfolio) that you can search, browse, and use everywhere you need them. With Adobe Fonts, you don’t have to worry about installation, licensing, or limits. All personal and commercial use is covered.
- New: Adobe Fresco with Premium Features, a unique iPad app that brings together the world’s largest brush collection with revolutionary new technology to deliver a natural “live” painting and drawing experience… See what you can do in Fresco.
- Also included for all paid CC subscribers is Adobe Portfolio, which gives you a quick and intuitive way to create a beautiful portfolio website to show off your work, without having to write a single line of code.
- Access to 100 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 were never available through traditional perpetual licenses, including Dimension, Experience Design (XD), Character Animator, and Premiere Rush, as well as new iPad versions of Photoshop and Illustrator.
- An upgrade to Adobe Spark with Premium Features, which lets you create and share branded stories using your own logo, fonts, colors, templates, themes, and more. This product alone is a US$9.99/month value.
- You can install all the desktop programs on up to two of your computers, and easily move the software between different systems as needed.
- Flexible and budget-friendly payments through monthly or yearly subscription options.
And if you ever stop or cancel your paid subscription, you will still retain all benefits of the Free membership for life.
Special: Legally download dozens of free Adobe books for a limited time!
What is Adobe Creative Cloud? (In Under Five Minutes:)
Do you have any further questions on what Creative Cloud is about, or how the free membership compares versus the paid/complete membership? Check out our extensive Creative Cloud FAQ, or just ask them below and we’ll get you answers fast!
See Also
- The 10 most common myths about Creative Cloud
- 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
- Free Adobe Stock! Download 500K premium images
- Don’t need full Cloud? Get PS + LR for $9.99/month
Keep up with the latest on Adobe software — follow us on Facebook or Twitter, or subscribe to our RSS feed… You can also enter your email and have new articles sent directly to your Inbox. We are reader-supported; when you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.
Son is a student at local university and needs to take Photoshop, then Premier Pro and After Effects as a few of many required classes in computer animation degree. I can’t afford $19.99 per month as a student “discount”. What options do I have?
Well, the regular price of the entire suite for all other customers is US$49.99/month – so it is definitely a significant (60% off) discount.
The other option for students & teachers who only need Photoshop CC and Lightroom CC would be to get the Creative Cloud Photography Plan, which is US$9.99 a month.
I have the Creative Cloud Photography Plan for 9.99 per month. Does that include free fonts with typekit? I am particularly interested in bicham script pro, but when I try to download, it tells me I have to buy it. Can you please tell me what my membership includes? Thank you
Hi Ronda,
The Creative Cloud Photography Plan is the lowest-available CC tier, and do you get the latest versions of Photoshop CC and Lightroom CC with that –
but it only includes the Typekit Free plan (the same as the Free level of Creative Cloud membership as described above), and not the much larger Typekit Portfolio plan. The reason is because the Typekit Portfolio plan alone costs $49.99/year.Customers do receive the Typekit Portfolio plan with all
highertiers of CC membership, including any Single-App subscription or All Apps plan.UPDATE (October 2018): The complete font library (Adobe Fonts, formerly known as Typekit) is now included with all paid Creative Cloud subscriptions. If you have a Creative Cloud Photography plan or an Adobe Acrobat single-application subscription, you now get the full font library as well.
For more details on your options for buying Photoshop, see this comparison page on the differences between:
Creative Cloud Photography Plan vs. Photoshop CC Single-App Subscription
Hope that helps!
Hey, great post! I hope it’s all right that I shared it on my Facebook.
If not, no problem – just tell me and I’ll delete it.
Regardless, keep up the good work.
Totally fine and welcomed – thanks!
What does Adobe have for creating on-line exams (quizzes) please?
Thank You,
Sharon
Hi Sharon, Adobe’s flagship e-learning product is called Captivate, and you can download & run a free trial of it here.
I’m using OSX (10.9.5) along with CS4. Have been holding off on upgrades because of conflicts/compatibility with software. I was hoping to move to CS6, but feel now it may not even be available. I require Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign, Acrobat Pro and others. Will be starting video editing. I’m ready to make a change, got to keep up, and am wondering whether to upgrade the OS first, then sign up for CC, or get the cloud first and see if it will work with Mavericks. I cannot afford any hiccups in my schedule right now.
With these app requirements, what will the charge be for CC?
Hey Barbara, there are three things you should check out. First is the minimum system requirements:
Adobe Creative Cloud Official System Requirements, for Windows and Mac
Note that if the current release CC 2018 is not supported on your operating system, then you as a subscriber have the right to download & use any of the previous CC versions (which may work on older macOS’s) or even go back to install & use CS6 instead.
The next thing to consider is an upgrade to your version of macOS, which is always free from Apple:
https://www.apple.com/macos/how-to-upgrade/
Finally, regardless of what you do with your Mac or with the subscription, you probably want to try downloading & installing the Creative Cloud free trial versions to see how they work on your computer:
http://www.TryCreativeCloud.com/
If you have any further or follow-up questions, then just post back!
i think this will make things a lot easier for us graphic/web artists.
good place to learn adobe, great – thank you for sharing
I’m learning so much about adobe through your blog. Keep up the amazing posts.
é possível utilizar o adobe portfólio sem custo algum e sem a necessidade de comprar o domínio ou pagar mensalidades? utilizando como “username.myportfolio.com”?
Hello Lucas, Adobe Portfolio comes included with any paid Creative Cloud plan, including the lowest-cost bundles (US$9.99/month) such as the CC Photography plan…
Adobe Portfolio is not included in the free level of Creative Cloud, nor has it previously been made available at no cost elsewhere. However, starting this past October, Portfolio is now free for contributors to Adobe Stock… This is a new bonus for contributors.
For more details, see:
More Ways to Showcase Your Work with Adobe Stock
and:
Introducing Our Five Newest Features on Adobe Portfolio
Hello, I am curious about the following: When I was in school, we migrated from CS6 to CC. Once I graduated, my CC membership expired, and I had no access to my CC files anymore. The CC files that I tried to open after my CC membership expired seemed not to be backwards-compatible, and so I could no longer could open up those files, even in CS6. What a headache!!! Now, years later, I need to get back to using CC. How do I ensure that, if I stop paying for an Adobe CC membership, I don’t lose access to hours worth of hard work, and that I will still be able to open up my files? And if, say, all of those files were to be saved to the cloud, would I even have access to them anymore? Thank you in advance.
Greetings Diane, answering your second question first… Please see Myths #7 & #8 here:
The 10 Most Frequent Myths About Adobe’s Creative Cloud
Regarding your first question, check out our CC Compatibility Guide here:
Are Adobe Creative Cloud (CC) Files Backwards Compatible w/ CS6?
Hope that helps.
I have been using Illustrator since version 88. I am now in my late 50s and will retire someday soon. If I go to CC, I’ll have to pay $50 a month just to dink around. That’s too much. There needs to be a senior plan for people over a certain age.
Greetings, thanks for your question. Unfortunately there is no senior citizen price reduction on Adobe software that we are aware of… However, you can give your feedback to the company directly with their Feature Request / Bug Report Submission.
If you’re interested in getting CC for less, note that if you’re a student or teacher (or could become one), then you may be eligible for an education discount on Adobe products of up to 70% depending on the software.
If you wanted to get active in teaching – or even being a student – at your local community college or similar institution, then you could well qualify to buy these products at the much lower prices.
Also, if you only need Illustrator, then you can just get Illustrator (for a lot less than $50/month):
Don’t Want Full Creative Cloud? Get Any Single CC App for $10-20/Mo.
As of June 2019 the Creative Cloud app is not accessible – even for a seven-day trial – without submitting credit card details. My free subscription has since been terminated and, like anon above, find the £50 monthly (in the UK) far too much to pay (£600 a year subscription, you must be joking Adobe!).
I had a glorious graphic design career in my old life, but now as a stay-at-home mama of four, I don’t have the financial allowance to pay for a subscription service. I am running on CS5 (ancient, I know!) and love using InDesign, Photoshop and Illustrator to create things for my family and my kids. I love these programs and wish I could upgrade, but the cost and requirement to permanently continue in a subscription service will never be within reach for me. In the past, I could ask for birthday and Christmas money to pay for an upgraded software version and be able to make that purchase. But with the new CC annual subscription, I’m not guaranteed to be able to continue and am afraid to lose everything the next year when the time is up. I understand the benefits of the subscription for businesses and those needing the full range of products and constant updates, but what about those of us who just love to play for personal creative needs? I could scrimp and save to purchase a new software, but would need it to last 5-10 years before I would or should be able to upgrade again. What is available for those of us not working in a full-time design world?
How to open your files at some point in the future if you no longer have a CC subscription? Well, as noted in the article above (in #1 and #5), Adobe Bridge and the Cloud storage itself – both of which are permanently free for life – can open, preview, display, and manipulate files for your Adobe projects (such as .PSD, .AI, .INDD, etc), if your subscription has ended.
There also exist third-party tools & utilities (including open source) like XnView (free), which will read and write Photoshop .PSD files, and also opens Adobe Illustrator .AI files. ID Util (also free) will read and display any InDesign or InCopy file. Like Photoshop’s published .PSD format, Adobe PDF is another publicly-documented specification, and various programs can read and write those files. So those could be an alternative for you either with without a subscription.
Adobe will also be resetting a new round of free CC trials at least once every year that will work fully and open your files for 7 days. So if your paid membership has expired, then short-term opening or editing your files down the road could be as simple as just grabbing the latest free trial and firing it up.
And then there’s always a Creative Cloud month-to-month membership available if you want to do more intensive work, for as long or as short as that is. You would pay only for the months you needed to.
Bottom line, there should never a case where you are denied access to open your work or files – it’s just that it may not necessarily be 100% free guaranteed, depending on what you want to do with them. But obviously the maintenance of all professional software in working order (to be supported and be able to run on modern operating systems, for example) has costs and tradeoffs, even for standalone perpetual tools.
thank you
Is this a full version of adobe creative cloud
The complete differences between the free version of Creative Cloud vs. the full version of Creative Cloud are exactly described in the article above.
Hi,
I have downloaded Illustrator for Mojave. It is requesting a subscription after the trial period. pls help me to sort out this matter. I cannot access the software.
Thank you
Adobe’s download links are for both the free trials as well as the full versions, depending on which plan you choose.
In other words, the downloads can be activated for ongoing use without having to reinstall the software.
Do I have to pay to use it after the trial?
Yes, if you want the full version. But the free version described in the article above is free forever.
It says the free trial ended and I can’t access the software
As we wrote above, even after the free trial ends for apps like Photoshop, you can continue to access & use the free level of Creative Cloud for life.
So when you say you can’t access the software, what software exactly do you mean?