Adobe ripoff subscription model

[Harrison]

I've been using Adobe software since the mid 90's, so 30+ years. I'm a huge fan of Photoshop, Illustrator and After Effects. And since they switched to the monthly subscription (Creative Cloud) 15 years ago I've subscribed as I need a legitimate copy for my work.

I've always used the Teacher and Student discount (due to my wife) so it was ?22 a month for the whole collection of software. But at the start of this year they suddenly charged me ?65 per month and the teacher discount was cancelled. It seems they have removed primary schools from the program.

So I decided to cancel the subscription, but this is where I hit a big issue. I couldn't!

When I went to cancel they said I was in a yearly contract and would have to pay the remainder of the year to the date I took the contract out. I did a monthly contract so it could be cancelled and never remember agreeing to a yearly contract 15 years ago! So if I cancelled I would of had to pay the remaining 6 months but the account and access to the software would instantly be cancelled! Very devious business model! Legal? They get the rest of the money regardless and lock you out.

So I decided to was better to just pay the higher monthly cost until I reached the month when I took the subscription out originally, so at least I had access to what I was paying. This next June payment seemed to be the end, so I tested cancelling again but it still states I would need to pay ?99 which doesn't add up. So I decided to bite the bullet and just pay it to cancel as I was worried they would roll the account over into the next year and start asking for hundreds again and I couldn't be bothered to argue the point.

These monthly subscription models are getting stupid now and the companies are getting over greedy. But Adobe seem to be one of the worst. I used the time I had left on the Adobe subscription to explore alternatives and and test them out. The timing of Canva Affinity being launched at the end of 2025 came just at the right moment as this is more than good enough to replace Photoshop, Illustrator and Indesign. And DaVinci Resolve replaces both Adobe Premiere and After Effects, along with a few other things. And the great thing is all this software is completely free.

I think Adobe's greed will mean the end of their dominance in the next couple of years.

[Stephen Coates]

Obviously I've never been one for using up to date software, but I did rather lose interest in Adobe when they switched to subscriptions.

I do use a copy of CS2 though which I downloaded from the internet . And if the software police are reading this thread, I totally downloaded it because my original purchased version could no longer be activated .