For years, I was a fully paid-up Adobe pro. Not “I dabble now and then” paid-up, but full-fat, all-you-can-eat access to the entire Adobe Creative Cloud Pro suite. Twenty-four apps. Every tool. The lot. And for a long time, I did what many of us do: I rode the wave of discounts, retention deals, and loyalty pricing, convincing myself that I was beating the system.
Then reality landed with a thud!
Come April, when my deal expired, my monthly bill was set to jump to a massive 66.49 a month. That’s 797.88 a year, and at that point, I refused. No software – no matter how industry-standard, clever, or entrenched – gets a free pass at nearly eight hundred a year just because it always has.
Now, I could have gone nuclear. I’ve already started seriously considering Affinity as a long-term alternative for photo editing, and frankly, the value proposition is very hard to ignore. I also briefly considered “acquiring” the software from a corner of the internet populated by people with parrots, eye patches, and questionable morals – but as tempting as that moment was, I do actually like some of the newer features Adobe has been rolling out, and I prefer my karma, and my files intact.
The bigger issue was continuity. I didn’t want to break years of Adobe workflows overnight, or risk mangling countless Photoshop and InDesign files I still rely on. So instead of burning the house down, I did something far more effective: I opened my account and actually looked at what I was paying for. That’s when the penny dropped!
Out of the 24 applications bundled into my Adobe Creative Cloud Pro plan, I was regularly using just three. Photoshop, every single day, across both my laptop and desktop. Lightroom, almost exclusively on my phone for image editing on the move. And InDesign for flyers, posters, birthday cards, and assorted print work – because once a journalist, always a journalist.
Everything else? Untouched. Forgotten. Digital dust. So I clicked “Change Plan,” fully expecting a minor saving. What I didn’t expect was daylight robbery – in my favour. I ditched the all-singing Pro bundle, opted for the Photography Plan (which neatly covers Photoshop and Lightroom), and then added InDesign as a standalone app. That was it.
No phone calls. No arguments. No “Are you sure?” guilt-tripping. And just like that, I’d slashed my Adobe bill by 503 a year – 24.53 a month. Yes, 41.96 a month for three apps is still a chunk of change, and if you want to go fully free or low-cost, there are absolutely other routes you can take. But for my workflow, this was the sweet spot.
The cherry on top? Because I made this change mid-billing cycle, Adobe actually refunded me 22 dollars. So effectively, I got InDesign for free for a month – something I never thought I’d see in my lifetime.
The lesson here isn’t “Ditch Adobe at all costs.” It’s this: stop paying for software out of habit. Subscription creep is real, and Adobe is banking – literally – on you not checking what you actually use. Cull the apps you don’t touch, downgrade without guilt, and take back control of your monthly outgoings.
If you’re looking for a sign to save some serious dosh, this is it. Go and look at your Adobe subscriptions. You might be shocked at just how much money you’re setting fire to every year!
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