Increasingly software devlopers are charging a monthly/yearly subscription for there software.

With this you get continued updates but can the costs be justfied by the person who is using the software even if they use it to earn money as a profession.

ADOBE in particular have cornered the graphic design market with popular products that go back years but unfortunately they are now excessively expensive - supplied in the ever evolving Creative Cloud.


For the last 9 years I have been using the Adobe Creative Suite 5 Design Premium on a Windows 10 platform of which I use Photoshop, InDesign, Flash, Dreamweaver Illustrator and Adobe Acrobat. I bought it some years ago as an outright purchase as an upgrade to having purchased Adobe Creative Suite 4 outright.

After that it continued evolve and is now more advanced but only available now as a subscription purchase per month or per year.

I have made a decision to avoid renting it for as long as possible which could mean I actually might have to reject a client or work done on the new platforms... anyway... so far so good.

It is dissappointing though as I am a senior designer within the Sydney Graphic Industry,

Its nothing to do with affording it... its a principal thing... why should I keep buying it when so little changes from one year to the next and I dont want to use the extra stuff they want to put with it. I do however feel lucky to have a version of it that is working after 11 years.

Initially I bought my Creative Suite 4 for around $1800 upgrading it to 5 for $360 and have used it for perhaps 11 years at a cost of around $200 per year inc gst. 



The following costs are now the current creative cloud costs if you bundle all there products around 20 (15 of which I wouldn't be using). 

$84 month inc gst
as a bundled monthly cost if you buy it for the year (you get all there apps - though stock library is additional)

or $115 per month inc gst
per month if you dont buy it for a year

or $872 inc gst prepaid per year