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Why are Adobe products so expensive?

• Thread starter Benzychenz
• Start date May 29, 2020

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• EtcetEra Forum

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Benzychenz

One Winged Slayer

Member Nov 1, 2017 16,182 Australia I did inDesign work today for my employer, and found out that my Adobe CS6 programs I got back in school (so with student discounts) were not compatible with pages created with the current versions. No big deal, downloaded the free 7 day trial for the new version. Problem is, I found out my updated Adobe Acrobat has run past its trial period. I use Acrobat for everything, so thought I'd buy the newer version. $22 a month? For a pdf viewer? I see underneath you can do a one time purchase for a 2017 version, that might work. AU $731 What The Fuck This is straight up highway robbery. How is this a thing?? I'm scared to even check how much Photoshop and inDesign cost.

Zenkuso

Member Jan 28, 2019 765 Money

Akira86

Member Oct 25, 2017 22,549 market manipulation and lack of competition

Iamcenok

Member Oct 27, 2017 449 Little to no competition for a long time. Even with more robust products that compete for the same power user, Adobe is considered an industry standard.

BLEEN

Member Oct 27, 2017 23,076 There are a million better PDF readers rather than Acrobat, which honestly is archaic compared to others.

johan

Member Oct 29, 2017 1,554 Because they can lmao Serif makes great alternatives though. I use Affinity Photo instead of Photoshop

Gallows Bat

Banned Nov 3, 2017 343 Adobe acrobat is free, you don't need the paid version just for reading pdfs. Download the Affinity suite, better in many ways than adobe and I think they still have a 90 day trial?

Deleted member 28038

Oct 30, 2017 18,236 They're professional tools, and they're priced like it. Unlike consumers, businesses don't bat an eye at paying for software if it helps them make money. You don't need to spend money for a "PDF viewer." Acrobat Reader is free. macOS can display them out of the box with Preview, too. OP OP

Benzychenz

One Winged Slayer

Member Nov 1, 2017 16,182 Australia

jaggies said: They're professional tools, and they're priced like it. Unlike consumers, businesses don't bat an eye at paying for software if it makes them money. Click to expand... Click to shrink...

But these are the individual license prices. There's a whole other section for business licenses.

Dreaver

Member Oct 27, 2017 722 The worst is you pay a lot of money for the software, but it's not even stable and quite buggy (Premiere).

Marcus Aurelius

Banned Apr 25, 2020 3,418 This is what a true monopoly looks like.

KartuneDX

Banned Jan 12, 2018 2,381

Gallows Bat said: Adobe acrobat is free, you don't need the paid version just for reading pdfs. Download the Affinity suite, better in many ways than adobe and I think they still have a 90 day trial? Click to expand... Click to shrink...

is there any alternative for editing PDFs?

RastaMentality

Member Oct 25, 2017 13,450 An extreme monopoly. Captive audience.

Deleted member 28038

Oct 30, 2017 18,236

Benzychenz said: But these are the individual license prices. There's a whole other section for business licenses. Click to expand... Click to shrink...

And? It's still software aimed at business use. You asked, and I gave you the most correct answer. Adobe products are expensive because their target market, professionals, is willing to pay.

ninpomcoop

ONE THOUSAND DOLLARYDOOS

Member Oct 25, 2017 9,853 Western Australia Fun fact: Adobe's AU pricing was once so awful that you could save hundreds of dollars by flying to the US to buy the full CS suite versus purchasing it locally.

m_shortpants

Member Oct 25, 2017 18,067

jaggies said: And? It's still software aimed at business use. You asked, and I gave you the most correct answer. Adobe products are expensive because their target market, professionals, is willing to pay. Click to expand... Click to shrink...

This. It's enterprise software. The value of the software in the context of the entire business's operations is greater than its cost.

HotAndTender

Member Dec 6, 2017 856 You can get the whole Creative Cloud suite for £30ish pounds a month, if you use it daily it'll pay for itself. OP ask your employer to pay for a subscription.

Deleted member 41502

User requested account closure

Banned Mar 28, 2018 1,177

KartuneDX said: is there any alternative for editing PDFs? Click to expand... Click to shrink...

Its an awful awful hack, but if you're desperate you can open (one page of) a PDF in Inkscape and edit it, then save back (that one page of course). I'm sure someone makes a much better non-free app that does it though. The format isn't secret.

Deleted member 2328

User requested account closure

Banned Oct 25, 2017 1,354

KartuneDX said: is there any alternative for editing PDFs? Click to expand... Click to shrink...

Foxit is actually pretty good.

Gallows Bat

Banned Nov 3, 2017 343

KartuneDX said: is there any alternative for editing PDFs? Click to expand... Click to shrink...

Nothing as powerful as DC but smallpdf will do 90% of the same thing and it's free to use in your web browser.

Dreaver said: The worst is you pay a lot of money for the software, but it's not even stable and quite buggy (Premiere). Click to expand... Click to shrink...

Premiere is a joke, I genuinely don't know how it's used in so many things. Spend more time trying to fix crashes and troubleshooting than bloody video editing sometimes. Thank god for XML and Resolve/Final Cut.

Dreaver

Member Oct 27, 2017 722

Gallows Bat said: Nothing as powerful as DC but smallpdf will do 90% of the same thing and it's free to use in your web browser. Premiere is a joke, I genuinely don't know how it's used in so many things. Spend more time trying to fix crashes and troubleshooting than bloody video editing sometimes. Thank god for XML and Resolve/Final Cut. Click to expand... Click to shrink...

I use it for my work daily. It's a really nice program in a lot of ways, especially in how it integrates with other Adobe programs. But that's also the whole problem... As you said, EVERYONE uses it, including our clients and partners. This combined with the integration with other Adobe programs (which are the standard: After Effects, Illustrator, Photoshop) makes it really hard to switch. We tried Davinci Resolve for a while. It's much more stable and in a lot of ways a superior program (though the learning curve is way higher). However, because of above reasons the switch was too much of a hassle. Still use it for grading though. I just can't believe Premiere is such a mess. Take captions for example... Nothing works decently, so much frustration and lost time.

PickledCucumber

Member Sep 14, 2019 3,791 A lot of their stuff is the industry standard, from my understanding 🤷🏽‍♂️

HommePomme

Member Oct 30, 2017 1,144 Drop in the bucket for any business that relies on their software to make any kind of money. Incredibly badly optimized shit considering they're the industry standard

nsilvias

Member Oct 25, 2017 33,329 they have entire industries by the balls

lazygecko

Member Oct 25, 2017 3,628 Adobe seems to be part of that special clique of legacy software companies from the 80's/90's whose business model revolved around catering to a smaller customer base of professional clients with the means to pay a hefty sum, and in spite of their product becoming vastly popular among hobbyists (who more often than not just resort to pirating due to the prohibitive costs) they've never had the vision to properly expand their model for a much wider consumer base. I remember years ago reading an anecdote from Gabe Newell talking to Adobe leadership about exactly this topic and how they just seemed aloof and dumbfounded over the concept. There's always been a handful of big old companies acting this way in the visual design and audio industry in particular who seem to have no interest to adapt to a much more diverse market compared to 25-30 years ago. In spite of their products being some of the most pirated out there they have no real interest in trying to convert hobbyist pirates into paying customers.

OffbrandGoblinShark

Avenger Oct 28, 2017 2,053 You couldn't pay me to use photoshop on the ipad.. I can't believe how bad it is and bewildered that it hasn't been updated. I pay a £9 sub on desktop as it does a few things I really need. If Affinity is as bad on desktop as it is on the ipad i'm not surprised Adobe hasn't felt the need to abandon it's extortionate business model. Procreate remains the best £9/10 I ever spent, all for the price of a one month photoshop sub.

KentP

Member Oct 28, 2017 817 We use Nitro Pro at work which is much cheaper than Acrobat (though still not 'cheap' per se)

BlackGoku03

Member Oct 25, 2017 7,439

Benzychenz said: But these are the individual license prices. There's a whole other section for business licenses. Click to expand... Click to shrink...

I believe theres a section for individual licenses and another for multiple licenses. It's easier to buy a package of 500 at once. Probably makes it easier for whatever software they use to image workstations. Businesses don't bat an eye at paying it either. That's typically how software manufacturers like to license stuff, anyway.

ItchyTasty

Member Feb 3, 2019 5,912 I use Illustrator a lot, but I would love a cheaper alternative that's on the same level. Any recommendations?

RestEerie

Banned Aug 20, 2018 13,618 supply/demand + lack of competition. there isn't an alternative of reasonable quality for professionals. No, before anyone mentioned Gimp, that's only suitable for home use. Macromedia used to be Adobe's competitor in the early 2000s............until Adobe bought them

Crispy75

Member Oct 25, 2017 2,407 Autodesk is even worse

Sec0nd

The Fallen Oct 27, 2017 7,569 Enterprise products and arguably the best software out there. And honestly, the monthly fee for the entire suite isn't all that bad. I use Premiere, Audition, After Effects, and InDesign pretty regularly. I'm just glad you don't have to purchase the software anymore because that would've been crazy and would've limited my software usage to 1 program max.

show me your skeleton

#1 Bugsnax Fan

Member Oct 28, 2017 16,849 skeleton land

ItchyTasty said: I use Illustrator a lot, but I would love a cheaper alternative that's on the same level. Any recommendations? Click to expand... Click to shrink...

https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/ might be worth a look? very good price right now though i can't speak to its quality etc as i'm highly confused by vector drawing

DiipuSurotu

Banned Oct 25, 2017 53,148 I wish Gimp weren't so stubborn. When you criticize their UI their response is basically "Our UI is good, you just don't want to take the time to familiarize yourself with it". Yeah no, it's a shitty UI and that's because the developers working on Gimp are not actual graphists/designers.

Vector

Member Feb 28, 2018 8,163 They have monopolized large swaths of the creative market and have little competition. I sometimes do graphic/web design - ditched Illustrator and Photoshop for Affinity Designer + Photo, and although I don't think they're as good yet (in fact I'd say they still have a long way to go) I find them to be good enough and the adjustments to my workflow were minimal. Try to escape the Adobe bubble if you can - the more competition there is, the better.

Rocket Schnauzer

Member Nov 7, 2017 1,765 Creative Cloud is amazing value. Maybe not for one-offs but what you get for the sub is insane.

Deleted member 20361

Banned Oct 28, 2017 850

jaggies said: They're professional tools, and they're priced like it. Click to expand... Click to shrink...

They are. Industry standard and all that. I've been rocking their shit for quite a while. There's a really high wall for me to jump to another suite or set of programs. The leasing side of the license is frustrating but "modern" and maybe undestandable. You don't really own the programs anymore. But maybe the most baffling thing is the usability is all over the place. The shortcuts differ across the board and rules might not apply. And there are things you can't customize. Well maybe with plugins you can but it shouldn't be like that. I've been let down multiple times by the bad integration between programs and the overall optimatization.

supernormal

The Fallen Oct 28, 2017 3,650 I pay for the whole suite but honestly, there should be more competition and alternatives. Like actual big-name competition. They do in some categories, like video, and audio but that's not nearly enough.

Deleted member 16908

Oct 27, 2017 9,377

BLEEN said: There are a million better PDF readers rather than Acrobat, which honestly is archaic compared to others. Click to expand... Click to shrink...

which would you recommend?

degauss

Banned Oct 28, 2017 4,631 Affinity suite is probably good enough for most people now.

Dark Ninja

Member Oct 27, 2017 8,456 They cornered the software market also they buy up companies that threaten them. There is such an over-saturation when it comes to small programs trying to find their footing they die shortly after their release due to monetary reason and lack of support.

Jakten

Member Oct 25, 2017 2,140 Devil World, Toronto Greed. I always think about how the current CEO (I think it was) of Adobe was surprised to find out that people use photoshop to draw. These greedy assholes continue to make the program worse because they don't even know why people usethem in the first place and they expect you to pay for it yearly now too. There are so many free alternatives that can do just as good of a job. I've managed to work in the games Industry for like 12 years using almost exclusively free programs like Paint Tool SAI, Krita or Blender.

Fatoy

Member Mar 13, 2019 8,555 Standards, in a word. If you work in graphic design, you need to be able to open and export to PSD. If you work in publishing, you're going to need to be able to work with native INDD files, since the markup language they added "for compatibility" is pretty crap. If you download a vector file, odds are it's coming in AI format. Luckily, other creative applications - most notably the Affinity suite - are catching up to Adobe's equivalents in terms of functionality, and they also support all those Adobe file formats. Publisher was the last domino to fall there, when they added support for InDesign files a couple of months ago. This is the same approach that's happening with the Substance suite, but it's going to be worse there. Adobe are promoting a rich standard format - SBSAR - that works across the major real-time engines and offline renderers, and obviously you need to subscribe to use Substance Designer and Substance Painter. But in this case, they're ahead of the game in terms of digital materials with the Substance Source library / storefront, so they're poised to corner a market very early. This is unlike Adobe Stock, which came way after penetration of PhotoShop and InDesign was near-total. Substance Source is already there.

NotLiquid

One Winged Slayer

Member Oct 25, 2017 39,702

ItchyTasty said: I use Illustrator a lot, but I would love a cheaper alternative that's on the same level. Any recommendations? Click to expand... Click to shrink...

Clip Studio Paint. The standard Pro version is available for $49 while the much more feature rich EX version goes for $219, though it semi-often goes on sale. It's arguably the best Photoshop/Illustrator competitor as far as illustration software is concerned and is chock full of materials (3D models, tools for animation, tools for making comics, vector layers, asset store with bunch of free brushes/materials, etc.) There's a free trial available as well so it's worth giving a shot.

ItchyTasty

Member Feb 3, 2019 5,912

show me your skeleton said: https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/ might be worth a look? very good price right now though i can't speak to its quality etc as i'm highly confused by vector drawing Click to expand... Click to shrink...

NotLiquid said: Clip Studio Paint. The standard Pro version is available for $49 while the much more feature rich EX version goes for $219, though it semi-often goes on sale. It's arguably the best Photoshop/Illustrator competitor as far as illustration software is concerned and is chock full of materials (3D models, tools for animation, tools for making comics, vector layers, asset store with bunch of free brushes/materials, etc.) There's a free trial available as well so it's worth giving a shot. Click to expand... Click to shrink...

Thank you both! I'll check them out.

Pororoka

Member Nov 1, 2017 1,210 I just want a PDF viewer with good preflight capabilities. Acrobat is the only one that does it as far as I'm concerned

Rassilon

Member Oct 27, 2017 11,464 UK

Fatoy said: Standards, in a word. If you work in graphic design, you need to be able to open and export to PSD. If you work in publishing, you're going to need to be able to work with native INDD files, since the markup language they added "for compatibility" is pretty crap. If you download a vector file, odds are it's coming in AI format. Click to expand... Click to shrink...

aye, as an illustrator that is frequently required and expected to use formats in PS, AI, ID and AE it's hard to escape the CC zone i expect that if i only drew pictures, i could get away with an alternative, but at the moment I can't quite figure out another way to manage drawing, animation, book design, (my publisher only uses ID), pdf management & vectors etc.

Herr Starr

Member Oct 26, 2017 3,990 Norway The simplest answer is that they're priced this high because people will pay this much. I say that as someone who has subscribed to the full Creative Cloud suite for over two years.

Deleted member 3673

Oct 25, 2017 3,176 I bought CS5.5 Master Collection a long time ago when I was a student. Creative Cloud is just far too expensive for me when I just use it as a hobby now. What sucks is that Adobe no longer offer the installer, so if my drive ever dies or when I want to build a new pc I'm not sure how I'll be able to reinstall. Oh and yes, we Australians get ripped off hard.

Platy

Banned Oct 25, 2017 32,397 Brazil

ItchyTasty said: I use Illustrator a lot, but I would love a cheaper alternative that's on the same level. Any recommendations? Click to expand... Click to shrink...

Everblue [Commissions CLOSED for Now] on Twitter

“An updated version of my Adobe software alternatives post! Added some suggested alternatives, thanks! Also, changed the dots to be easier to see for people with colorblindness. There's a free for all post on my Patreon with links to all the programs: https://t.co/qF5z6YCUbk” twitter.com

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