Adobe Creative Cloud

I must admit, when I first heard about the Adobe Creative Cloud I was skeptical. The thought of “renting or leasing” software just didn’t sound like a good idea. The more I thought about it the more I kept returning to Adobe to read more. Then, it dawned on me to do the math.

Because I am an existing customer with CS5 (the deal is good for CS3 and CS4 as well) I can get the Creative Cloud (which includes ALL Adobe CS6 products) for 29.99 a month. That means I get access to 2500.00 worth of software for approximately 360.00 a year. The down side is that I don’t own the software right?

Well, think about this. Adobe refreshes their software every two years. At the rate of 29.99 a month in two years time I will have spent 720.00. If I had bought the software for 2500.00 then I would be upgrading for 1049.00 for a new version. That means I save 2829.00 by going the Creative Cloud route. That is no small chunk of change (you could buy a Nikon D800 for that!)

So, how does this work?

You pay Adobe 29.99 per month if you are an existing customer, student, or teacher and you have access to the entire line of CS6 products. Otherwise it is 49.99 per month which is still a great deal. You will download all the products to your computer just like always and they will run natively on your machine. Once per month the software will connect to the Adobe site to ensure that you are still subscribed. A full time internet connection is not required.

All in all it sounds like a great deal and I am going to be going this route. There are several of the Adobe products that I have always wanted access too but couldn’t afford outright. I am a little bummed about not having the physical software to keep forever but then again, I can’t remember the last time I used Photoshop 7…. So what am I really missing out on?

You can check out more about the Adobe Creative Cloud here: http://www.adobe.com/products/creativecloud.edu.html?promoid=ITKJK

Adobe has not changed their standard upgrades if that is what you would rather do.  Good job Adobe for giving us different options!

As always, if you have any questions just ask away!