Adobe Creative Cloud Software Licensing & Pricing

With Adobe's move to a subscription-only model, we have received lots of questions regarding the new licensing. We understand your frustration, and are equally unhappy with the licensing change. As the agreement works currently, there are no options to purchase a persistant(non-expiring) license for any of the software in the Creative Cloud Complete software suite. 

 

Free or Lower Cost Alternatives:

Before we get into the details of the Adobe Creative Cloud licensing, let's discuss a few alternatives that are available. Persistent licenses(non-expiring) are still available for the following Adobe products:

• Photoshop Elements
• Premiere Elements

Additionally, the following open-source products are available at no cost:

• GIMP is an open-source photoshop "clone". If you're a daily user of Photoshop, this probably isn't the best solution. It will open and save most native photoshop file formats as well as various other image file formats
• Inkscape is a free, open-source professional vector graphics application. It can open and save Illustrator files as well as SVG,EPS and many more vector graphics filetypes.

*The 2 programs listed above run on Windows, Linux and Mac operating systems. For many users of Linux these are the primary applications in the desktop graphics editing realm.

 

With these changes, there are currently 2 type of licenses that can be purchased: named-users or device licenses. 

 

Named-User: A named-user license is license for an individual user. This license allows you to install the software on up to 2 computers. It must be linked to an Adobe ID account, and will require that the end-user sign in with this account periodically. Due to the increased flexibility of installing the software on more than one computer, the cost of this license is more expensive than a device license.

 

With the increased price, a few benefits are included that are not available for device licenses. Here is a list of these benefits:

• File sharing and syncing (100GB per user)
• All the latest mobile apps, including Capture CC and Photoshop Mix
• Behance profile
• Advanced 24/7 tech support plus 1:1 access to product experts

 

Device: A device license can only be installed on a single computer. It does allow all users of the computer to use the software. This license is less expensive than a named-user license. Overwhelmingly, this license tends to the preferred option for most users.

 

More information about Adobe licensing can be found on their website.

 

Pricing: The pricing listed below is for a 1-year subscription. All purchases through our VIP agreement with Adobe are relative to our anniversary date of February 17. What does this mean? This means that if you purchase an Adobe Creative Cloud product in mid-July, that your initial cost will be pro-rated for a 6-month subscription. This pro-rating will be determined only once a quote has been requested and generated by our software supplier, CDW-G. If you would like to request a quote, send a request to siohelp@ucsd.edu. Please provide the following:

1. The index# you intend to use for the purchase
2. The type of license you would like: device license or named-user license.
3. Your fund manager's name and email address
4. The specific product name(i.e. Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, or Creative Cloud Complete for the entire suite of products)

Below is the list of Adobe VIP prices for our agreement with CDW-G

Pricing is listed in the tables below, and may be subject to change. Please keep in mind that these prices may change, and should only be used for initial estimates. Generally, CDWG will provide any promotional pricing that they currently have, and that usually the pricing is below these listed prices.

 

Note: It should also be mentioned that the purchase of (2) or more individual applications will cost more than the entire suite(Creative Cloud Complete).

 

 

 Device License