This article was written in various places about Pixelmator, Sketch, etc a few years back. How'd that go?
Less than one hour of freelance time pays for the power and Dozens of apps/services I receive with my Creative Cloud subscription each month.
Adobe is the industry standard and is comparatively cheaper than back when you bought upgrades each year or so for each separate application.
Nobody looks at your resume and says, "Oh, Wow! They use Canva!"
To be fair, from me - a professional photographer - Adobe has extracted more money from subscriptions than they did standalone apps. I never needed to pay to upgrade on every cycle - from v3 on, i have gone 4-5 years between upgrades & even then was typically tied to OS requirements on new hardware.
The subscription has added a great benefit of instant access to other Adobe apps i use a whole lot less often, but can grab when i need to.
This article was written in various places about Pixelmator, Sketch, etc a few years back. How'd that go?
Less than one hour of freelance time pays for the power and Dozens of apps/services I receive with my Creative Cloud subscription each month.
Adobe is the industry standard and is comparatively cheaper than back when you bought upgrades each year or so for each separate application.
Nobody looks at your resume and says, "Oh, Wow! They use Canva!"
The purported reputation of the so-called ‘industry standards’ is exactly what kills competition and permits the likes of Adobe, Microsoft, or AVID to charge the users inane amounts of money without really having to make their products user-friendly.
Windows, Office / 365, Photoshop, and Pro Tools are some fine examples of those ‘standards’. Due to this ridiculous mentality, whenever you bring up Pixelmator, iWork, DaVinci Resolve, Fruity Loops, or even macOS, there’s always a chance ‘standard’ users will get preferential treatment in professional settings, even if the end result is exactly the same or, possibly, better. Ultimately, the tools don’t matter as much as the end result, yet most people fail to understand that.
Meanwhile, the watchdogs rarely investigate the domination of said ‘standards’.
After Adobe, Microsoft, Avid, add Autodesk to the list another creature company........
I wholeheartedly disagree with the author of the article. The author is clearly not a software entrepreneur. Which is fine, but the author seems completely oblivious of economics.
The subscription model was born out of necessity to ensure a more predictable, scalable of income. Running a company is expensive: the vast majority of cost is staffing who are also getting paid on a monthly basis.
You can see the extremes on the App Stores: hundreds of developers who are barely seen by the public, impose upon us a subscription model for something that is completely out of line with their offering. They have to try *something* because initial payments and the rare upgrade pricing is not going to sustain their business. Yes, subscription fatigue ensues, but it’s not what the developers want.
I wonder why Affinity was bought. Was their business model sustainable, were they able to exist independently?
They were probably not in a good spot or hitting any SaaS/PaaS-like metrics. With a low ARR the owners most likely opted for a share swap and ride the Canva wave: a company thriving of, yes, subscriptions!
Canva can absorb the cost of the Affinity staff and will most likely revise their pricing within the next 12 months to push people towards a subscription while offering a perpetual licensing alternative for a much higher price (remember, they said “fair” pricing - that definition is very subjective depending on whether you ask a shareholder or customer).
So, no, this is not great news at all. It confirms you need to have considerable market share and a subscription model to be able to acquire small fish who are trying to avoid the subscription model and offer more value to the customer. I’m just happy the buyer isn’t Adobe.
Adobe Creative Cloud is a relative bargain if one is working professionally, on a full-time basis.
I believe that these developers need to rethink their strategies to serve real-world employment circumstances as they evolve throughout one's lifecycle.
Everything you described applies to the world of cad software Autodesk has a virtual monopoly. EU, DOJ where are you?
OH yeah, CAD software. AutoDesk? That’s like Microsoft.
I use Vectorworks and their pricing has become horrific.
The parent company, Nemetschek started putting the gun to users’ heads when they acquired Vectorworks from the original developer, Diehl Graphsoft.
I pay $1000 per year for a full license upgrade with all the various modules. I don’t use them all, all the time, but when I need them, I’ve got to have them, so I cough up the dough. I do residential interiors, retail and exhibit design. I pay for an Adobe CC license, too.
If I were to skip only ONE upgrade, they’d charge something like 3x the price. Talk about killing off your own user base… It used to be you could skip an upgrade, or even two, which came every 18 months to 2 years.
Now, they’re yearly, introducing lots of new bugs, which they take forever to fix. If they ever fix them.
Not only is it expensive, but incredibly disruptive. EVERY file has to be converted to the “new” format. A total PITA.
Professional freelancers, designers and agencies really don't have reason to opt for the affinity-Canva relationship because while Adobe Creative Cloud might be a little pricey, it offers state-of-the-art resources for them and, besides, it's a tax write-off. As for me, a designer who started with Pagemaker (LOL), I do all my own work for my own publishing business and I am ecstatic over the merge. I cannot wait to say adios, farewell, and good riddance to Adobe.
I began using Illustrator when it was known as Illustrator 88, and Photoshop since before it had layers. So you could say I've been around the block with these Adobe products. After retiring, it no longer made sense for me to pay a monthly subscription to Adobe, so I decided to try the Affinity Photo and Designer software.
Your experience parallels my own, although I am not retired. Nearly everyone on the "let's defend Adobe like mad" bandwagon screams about how much VALUE you get RELATIVE to the past lump sum commitments, all the while ignoring large numbers of people exactly in your shoes, and people who, regardless of reason, can no longer afford that supposedly "more affordable Adobe subscription model." Some people may need access to the tools but simply cannot afford the monthly subscription.
Bash the old lump sum payment scheme as much as you like, Adobe defenders, but there will come a day when you won't be able to afford it either.
In the past, I could buy Adobe Photoshop CS6 and use it basically forever. In fact, some people still do. That's right, they maintain the computers and required OS to keep it running. And when you run it year after year, there comes a time if pays you back. Meaning, there will be a time when you get a return on your initial lump sum investment, and so long as you can maintain your computer and OS, you can keep using it technically forever. Nobody can say that about the current SUBSCRIPTION model, which is rent ware.
No matter how many great tools, fonts, graphics, and AI stuff Adobe concocts to keep their Adobe-Defenders happy and blasting forums like this with glowing reports, the fact remains that every single one of them too will come to a point in their lives with the subscription model is no long viable financially. Most of those folks will try to tell themselves and others that will be okay because when they are retired and can't afford the monthly subscriptions anymore, they won't need the tools either. I laugh at that. Sure, maybe some people, but not nearly all.
No matter what the defenders of Adobe say, a single lump sum payment has a lot of merit.
Honestly, if Adobe offered the same subscription model now but with one big new feature I shall now explain, then I would too be a defender. Allow people who have subscribed for at least a year to keep whatever versions of software they have (with no possibility of upgrades) forever, with no additional fees. That would be the same as the lump sum payment model of the past. You pay until you stop using it, but then what you have is yours to keep using forever, with the understanding your version will be locked in time forever. And of course, any AI or other cloud-based features would no longer work (which currently isn't a deal-breaker at all).
Sure, they'd need a way to keep people from abusing the system, by disallowing people from starting up a new subscription for a short time to only get a version bump and then end their subscription, but smart people could work that out. Goodness knows in this day of AI, you don't even need smart people anymore. ;-) The point is that SOMETHING could be done to improve the situation for retired people like Calvinator and others who can't afford a monthly sub anymore.
I too was active in the Serif forums for a long time trying desperately to get their engineers to perk up their ears and listen to reason about key features they either needed to add or tweak, not only to make the transition from Adobe apps easier for Adobe lovers, but also to make the Affinity suite better overall. There was zero participation by Serif employees in the forums that I could see. Not a single one replied, which is totally different from any other forum tied to software that I have ever participated in. Year after year would tick by, but nothing happened. Loads of Affinity defenders chided me, but in the end, most of them fell away because they could see reason. If my suggestions weren't being implemented after waits of 5 or 7 years, the wait would be forever. When the 2.0 version came out, I didn't buy it because of the reasons I've just explained. Had they participated in their own forum and tried to implement even a fraction of what was suggested, I would have bought version 2.0. But I refused to give them any money when they offered their loyal customer base nothing. They added new features THEY thought were needed but ignored important suggestions in their forums. Who in their right mind would want to support that?
With that said, Affinity apps have so much potential. I know nothing of Canva but I know Serif management were a band of idiots for not having listened to their loyal user base and improved their software in ways that Canva still can. If Canva gets on the ball and just browses through their own forums and starts to implement what was suggested many years ago, it would be a more formidable rival to Adobe. And that remains true even though silly defenders of Adobe scream, "Everybody knows and uses Adobe, but nobody knows Canva." Yeah, well, nobody knew the iPhone when it first came out, and it faced a lock of mockers too, but look at it today. Stop the mocking, consider what I've said, and give ALTERNATIVE SOFTWARE a chance. Because as I've just said, at some point, even the Adobe-worshipper crowd will need alternatives with they can no longer afford that hefty monthly fee. Affinity apps don't completely satisfy me today, but I am thankful they exist and I still hope Canva or some other new owner will do the right thing with them, before Adobe buys the software and kills it.
Comments
To be fair, from me - a professional photographer - Adobe has extracted more money from subscriptions than they did standalone apps.
I never needed to pay to upgrade on every cycle - from v3 on, i have gone 4-5 years between upgrades & even then was typically tied to OS requirements on new hardware.
The subscription has added a great benefit of instant access to other Adobe apps i use a whole lot less often, but can grab when i need to.
So, no, this is not great news at all. It confirms you need to have considerable market share and a subscription model to be able to acquire small fish who are trying to avoid the subscription model and offer more value to the customer.
I’m just happy the buyer isn’t Adobe.
I use Vectorworks and their pricing has become horrific.
If I were to skip only ONE upgrade, they’d charge something like 3x the price. Talk about killing off your own user base…
It used to be you could skip an upgrade, or even two, which came every 18 months to 2 years.
Bash the old lump sum payment scheme as much as you like, Adobe defenders, but there will come a day when you won't be able to afford it either.
In the past, I could buy Adobe Photoshop CS6 and use it basically forever. In fact, some people still do. That's right, they maintain the computers and required OS to keep it running. And when you run it year after year, there comes a time if pays you back. Meaning, there will be a time when you get a return on your initial lump sum investment, and so long as you can maintain your computer and OS, you can keep using it technically forever. Nobody can say that about the current SUBSCRIPTION model, which is rent ware.
No matter how many great tools, fonts, graphics, and AI stuff Adobe concocts to keep their Adobe-Defenders happy and blasting forums like this with glowing reports, the fact remains that every single one of them too will come to a point in their lives with the subscription model is no long viable financially. Most of those folks will try to tell themselves and others that will be okay because when they are retired and can't afford the monthly subscriptions anymore, they won't need the tools either. I laugh at that. Sure, maybe some people, but not nearly all.
No matter what the defenders of Adobe say, a single lump sum payment has a lot of merit.
Honestly, if Adobe offered the same subscription model now but with one big new feature I shall now explain, then I would too be a defender. Allow people who have subscribed for at least a year to keep whatever versions of software they have (with no possibility of upgrades) forever, with no additional fees. That would be the same as the lump sum payment model of the past. You pay until you stop using it, but then what you have is yours to keep using forever, with the understanding your version will be locked in time forever. And of course, any AI or other cloud-based features would no longer work (which currently isn't a deal-breaker at all).
Sure, they'd need a way to keep people from abusing the system, by disallowing people from starting up a new subscription for a short time to only get a version bump and then end their subscription, but smart people could work that out. Goodness knows in this day of AI, you don't even need smart people anymore. ;-) The point is that SOMETHING could be done to improve the situation for retired people like Calvinator and others who can't afford a monthly sub anymore.
I too was active in the Serif forums for a long time trying desperately to get their engineers to perk up their ears and listen to reason about key features they either needed to add or tweak, not only to make the transition from Adobe apps easier for Adobe lovers, but also to make the Affinity suite better overall. There was zero participation by Serif employees in the forums that I could see. Not a single one replied, which is totally different from any other forum tied to software that I have ever participated in. Year after year would tick by, but nothing happened. Loads of Affinity defenders chided me, but in the end, most of them fell away because they could see reason. If my suggestions weren't being implemented after waits of 5 or 7 years, the wait would be forever. When the 2.0 version came out, I didn't buy it because of the reasons I've just explained. Had they participated in their own forum and tried to implement even a fraction of what was suggested, I would have bought version 2.0. But I refused to give them any money when they offered their loyal customer base nothing. They added new features THEY thought were needed but ignored important suggestions in their forums. Who in their right mind would want to support that?
With that said, Affinity apps have so much potential. I know nothing of Canva but I know Serif management were a band of idiots for not having listened to their loyal user base and improved their software in ways that Canva still can. If Canva gets on the ball and just browses through their own forums and starts to implement what was suggested many years ago, it would be a more formidable rival to Adobe. And that remains true even though silly defenders of Adobe scream, "Everybody knows and uses Adobe, but nobody knows Canva." Yeah, well, nobody knew the iPhone when it first came out, and it faced a lock of mockers too, but look at it today. Stop the mocking, consider what I've said, and give ALTERNATIVE SOFTWARE a chance. Because as I've just said, at some point, even the Adobe-worshipper crowd will need alternatives with they can no longer afford that hefty monthly fee. Affinity apps don't completely satisfy me today, but I am thankful they exist and I still hope Canva or some other new owner will do the right thing with them, before Adobe buys the software and kills it.