Adobe’s Creative Cloud suite of applications is ubiquitous amongst the photography and video industries. For many of us, it’s a simple $10/mo (or whatever the equivalent is where you live) for the photography package containing just Lightroom and Photoshop. But for companies like the Linus Media Group, that subscription bill can cost $10,000 a year or more.
It’s a lot of money, compared to buying software that offers a perpetual license. And some of us, have found alternatives that fit into our workflows beautifully. But what about the team behind Linus Tech Tips? In this video, they explore some of the alternatives to the Adobe Creative Cloud software they use on a daily basis, although I think it’s going to be a cold day in hell before they’ll ever pull Taran away from Premiere Pro.
There are a lot of alternatives out there now for Adobe software. Software that still offers a perpetual non-subscription license. For video editing, you’ve got DaVinci Resolve, Vegas, Final Cut Pro X and plenty more besides that hold up extremely well against Premiere Pro and even beat it in many aspects. Same goes for After Effects, with Nuke and Fusion. And there are a lot of alternatives out there for Audition. Even for things like Photoshop, Lightroom and Illustrator you’ve got alternatives like Affinity Photo, Capture One and Affinity Designer.
So why do so many companies stick with Adobe, when it may ultimately cost them a lot more money with a lifetime subscription model, especially when each new version seems to come with a whole host of new bugs?
For some, it’s simply what they’re used to. For others, it’s the whole integrated ecosystem with the dynamic link that lets all of the applications communicate with each other and live-embed each other’s files into your projects. Perhaps the cost to train your team in new software to get them up to speed exceeds the savings benefit of switching. For LTT… well, you’ll have to watch the video and find out.
Personally, I’ve managed to find suitable alternatives with perpetual licenses for Adobe’s applications in much of my workflow in my own work. Although, I don’t think I’ll be ditching Photoshop any time soon. And I still have to use Adobe’s software when working with some clients. It seems that whether I want Adobe there or not, they’re embedded into so many workflows that it will continue to be a part of my life for the foreseeable future.
How about you? Have you stuck with the Adobe subscription model? Or have you replaced Adobe’s software in your workflow? What do you use instead?
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