In our view, the best deal going in Creative Cloud (if you’re not a student or teacher) is the Photography plan. You get not one, not two, but three core desktop products, plus additional tools and services, for around $10 a month.
The Photography plan was originally created as a one-time special offer in 2013, but it proved so popular that Adobe eventually made it permanent. The low price of the plan has not changed from the initial promotion ten years ago all the way up to today. There was even a rumor in 2019 that Adobe was raising the $9.99 price, but that was not the case.
So what makes it such a great deal? With the US$9.99/£9.98/€11,99/A$14.29 per month Photography Plan, you get the latest versions of Photoshop, Lightroom, Lightroom Classic, and much more in the package. Here’s an overview of everything that’s included:
- The full desktop release of Adobe Photoshop (not a reduced or limited version), the industry-standard image editing tool for over 30 years.
- The latest Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) plugin, the foundational raw imaging engine to import and enhance your photographs.
- Adobe Bridge, Creative Cloud’s flagship desktop media browser and digital asset manager (although it’s true that Bridge is free for everyone).
- Photoshop on iPad – the real deal on iPad, which shares the same underlying code base as its venerable older sibling, PS for desktop.
- Full access to the premium version of the Photoshop Express app to install on mobile, for both iOS and Android.
- New: Photoshop on the Web to edit, review, and share Photoshop cloud documents right in any [Chrome, Firefox or Edge] web browser.
- Adobe Lightroom, Adobe’s powerful cloud-based desktop application to non-destructively edit, organize, and process all your photos.
- Lightroom Classic, the original desktop-focused digital photography solution which uses your local hard drive(s) for photo storage.
- The Lightroom Mobile app for iPad, iPhone, and Android, which shares many features and has connected workflows to the LR desktop apps.
- 20 GB of online Creative Cloud storage (upgradable), including online photo storage on Lightroom Web.
- The complete Adobe Fonts library for desktop and web, with 25,000+ different typefaces for any personal or commercial use.
- Full access to Adobe Portfolio, which allows you to quickly and easily build a website to showcase your creative work.
- 3,000+ design assets included with your subscription – graphics, colors, textures, styles, brushes and more you can download & use in your work.
- Ongoing upgrades and updates for all included applications and services, so long as your subscription remains active.
- Access to hundreds of exclusive video tutorials in Creative Cloud Learn.
- Download and use two previous major versions of your apps, if desired.
- Install all desktop applications on up to two of your computers, and easily move the products between different systems you own.
- The Photography plan is upgradable to the complete Creative Cloud “All Apps” plan at any time, which includes many more tools.
- You can download and run a fully-functional free 7-day trial to try out all the software on your own computer and devices first.
- All direct purchases from Adobe automatically come with a 14-day full Money Back Guarantee, in case you change your mind.
- Get going! Download the free 314-page guide to Photography, Photoshop & Lightroom.
For the $9.99/month price, Adobe only offers an Annual plan – meaning Photography plan subscriptions run for one year at a time. Adobe does offer other flavors of Lightroom / Photoshop plans: one with more storage, one with Lightroom only, one including Fresco and Adobe Express premium, and one available month-to-month at a higher price. You can compare the plans here.
But again, in our view, it’s tough to beat the value offered by the standard Photography plan – as this collection of best-of-breed professional tools previously cost well over $1,000 upfront just to get in the door, which didn’t include upgrades. Heck, Photoshop by itself used to cost $699-$999 upfront for a static copy.
So for our money – with the exception of the Student & Teacher Edition (if you happen to qualify) – the Photography bundle continues to be the best deal Creative Cloud has got going, and its lowest-priced plan.
See Also
- The 10 most common myths about Creative Cloud
- What are the differences between Adobe CC vs. CS6?
- Free Adobe Stock! Download 1,000,000+ top images
- How to save 60% with the Student & Teacher Editions
- Get free guide on Photography, Photoshop, Lightroom
- How to join Adobe’s Creative Cloud for free
Do you have any questions about Creative Cloud? Just ask them below and we’ll get you answers fast!
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Does the PS version in the $9.99 plan work with MacOS 13 High Sierra?
Yes – because while the new CC 2023 release doesn’t support High Sierra, you can still run older versions with your paid subscription plan; Adobe won’t force you to upgrade.
The last release of Creative Cloud to support macOS v. 10.13 was CC 2020.
Alternatively, the CC 2019 direct downloads will also work just fine.
Hope that helps!
Hi — Working on a older Mac, OS 10.10.5. I already have a creative cloud subscription, but the CC Desktop won’t download, and I cannot access Photoshop 2017 (or whatever works w 10.10) — any advice?
Thank you!
Hi Iris,
That’s right, the last version of Photoshop which was supported on Mac OS X version 10.10 (Yosemite) was the Creative Cloud 2017 release.
The good news is that you can still run prior versions with your paid subscription plan, because Adobe won’t force you to upgrade. But how do you get them?
No problem, we can help you access the link to that older, official Adobe installer – see our post here:
How to Get Direct Download Links for All Adobe Software
I only use Photoshop and Illustrator. Is there a hybrid plan that is less expensive?
Hi Tom, that’s a good question. People have asked that for years, but Adobe does not offer any sort of hybrid or “pick-your-own-apps” plan…
In other words, the Photography plan is the best deal available which is not repeated for all the other Creative Cloud apps. So, you cannot match the pricing you get here for the other tools.
However, Adobe does offer “single-app” subscriptions for just one tool like Illustrator, or InDesign, or Premiere Pro, etc. Typically, you can combine this option with the Photography plan for a lower-cost total which doesn’t include the whole “All Apps” package:
Don’t Need Full Cloud? Get Any Single CC Tool for $10-20 a Month
Adding both Photography plus a Single-App plan would come to about $30 a month in the States. By contrast, the All Apps plan is about $50 a month.
I have CS6 and Lightroom 6.14. If I subscribe to the current LR classic & PS package @ $9.99 (10 bucks) a month, will I lose my existing CS6 & LR 6.14 ? I don’t want to give up my CS6 & LR 6.14.
Hey Joe, thanks for the great questions. Technically, you will not lose either. CS6 was originally part of the Creative Cloud (in 2012), and so it was included in the product licensing.
Meaning, your CS6 will stay installed but switch to Creative Cloud licensing. You can however switch it back to “perpetual” by uninstalling the CC version(s) and then reactivating the original CS6 serial number. Then everything with CS6 returns to how it was before.
And yes, you can have both CS6 and CC installed on the same computer.
However, the new .PSD files you create with Photoshop CC will probably not be fully backwards compatible if you try to open them with Photoshop CS6.
For Lightroom Classic, typically people only have one version of Lightroom installed on their computers, because the program manages your photo catalog. However, it is possible to have both LR6 and LR Classic installed on the same system.
When you install the newer release of Lightroom, it will ask if you want to upgrade your existing catalog to the new format. Once your catalog is upgraded, you can’t move it back to a prior release of Lightroom because it would be incompatible.
So your old version of Lightroom 6 would technically still work, but your photo catalog can only ever move forward. The reason is because Adobe is always adding new features to Lightroom and so the catalog format necessarily has to evolve to support that new functionality.
The only way around this would be to start a new/different catalog with your newer version of Lightroom, while keeping your older/previous catalog with Lightroom 6 (and not upgrading it). But you still could never take that newer catalog with your latest photos back to open in LR6.
One final point with Lightroom Classic is that you can continue to start, run, and use the program even after a paid subscription (or free trial) ends… Only the Develop and Map modules are disabled when unsubscribing; all other functions will continue to work.
For more details, see:
What Happens to Adobe Lightroom After My Membership Ends?
Is Adobe Express Premium included with the Photography bundle?
Thx.
Welcome Terry,
The free version of Adobe Express (with reduced features) is available to all – whether you have a paid CC subscription or not – so everyone gets that.
The premium (full) version of Adobe Express is included in the All Apps plan and some Single App plans… It’s not included in the low-priced Photography plans.
Per Adobe:
Adobe Express premium is included in the standalone Photoshop single-app plan, which costs more than the Photography plans. See this guide for a comparison of the different options:
What’s the Difference Between the Photography, Photoshop and Lightroom Plans?
i would like to get photoshop – i don’t care financially if it’s 25$ or 10$ in the subscription. however, this cc software is a no go for me. photoshop without this cloud crap, is not possible – right?
Adobe Photoshop has not been available outside of Creative Cloud since Photoshop CS6 – the last perpetual release – came out in 2013…
But the Photoshop of today runs the same as the Photoshop of ten years ago – the application downloads, installs, and runs on your desktop computer, just like always.
The 10 Most Common Myths About Adobe’s Creative Cloud (CC)
You don’t have to use any of the Cloud features if you don’t want to. So what is it about that which bothers you?