I’ve subscribed to Adobe Creative Cloud for over ten years. Before that, I had Photoshop and Lightroom installed via disks. It was a simpler time back then, and if I had the choice, I’d stick to the disk installs. If I had known what I was getting into when subscribing to Creative Cloud, I might have reconsidered getting a subscription and used other tools. After a decade of learning, there are a handful of things I wish I’d known before jumping into an Adobe subscription plan, but hopefully I can share my thoughts with someone else before they blindly sign up too.
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The variety of Adobe plan types
There’s more than one option
Adobe plans aren’t all the same. Rather than subscribing to all Adobe apps, you can opt for specific plans tailored to your needs. If you’re a photographer, a videographer, or a designer, you may only need select tools for your needs rather than all apps.
I’ve always subscribed to the All Apps plan, consisting of all of Adobe’s apps in the Creative Cloud offering. This plan doesn’t include the Substance 3D tools (which have their own subscription bundle), nor any enterprise tools.
While you can subscribe to individual Adobe apps, like a sole Photoshop or sole Premiere Pro plan, if you need two or more Adobe tools, it often isn’t cost-efficient to get two sole-app plans.
The Photography Plan bundles both Lightroom and Photoshop in one subscription. This includes all versions of both apps, including mobile premium plans. There’s also a Photoshop Web and Mobile plan, which offers access to Photoshop but only via the Photoshop browser version and the mobile app, which was announced in 2025. It doesn’t include the desktop version of Photoshop.
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How strict Adobe subscriptions are
There’s no pausing, and it’s difficult to cancel
It can be very difficult to cancel or pause an Adobe subscription. When I began my subscription, I never envisioned a time when I might not want to continue being subscribed to Adobe Creative Cloud in the future.
Adobe subscriptions feel like a lifelong tax for digital creatives ever since Adobe moved from disk-based software to a cloud-based version. The only way to use its software is by paying for the subscription. If you cancel, you’ll lose editing access to your files.
To avoid hefty cancellation fees, you need to time your cancellation perfectly as well. This is something I’ve had difficulty with over the years; I’ve often let the subscription roll over. You can’t pause for a few months, and if you incorrectly time your cancellation, it can be a costly choice, as you often have to pay for the remainder of your subscription length.
It’s hard to move to new software now
Since Adobe tools are considered the industry standard software for use in most digital design and video situations, it can feel like peer pressure to use Adobe from the beginning.
After so long working with Adobe tools, I have become attuned to their inner workings. As a result, I find it very difficult using non-Adobe tools in my workflow, and usually revert to Adobe instead of spending extra time learning a new tool.
Adobe products feature a consistent interface, with the same tool icons, names, and shortcuts throughout the suite. It’s difficult to use other software because the small differences, like tool placement or shortcut keys, add a bunch of time and frustration to what is usually a quick, simple task in an Adobe product.
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You constantly need to learn more
Your learning is never complete
Once you think you’ve cracked Adobe tools and learned all there is to learn, Adobe releases a new update, and you have to start the process again.
Since Creative Cloud became standard, Adobe pushes new updates more frequently than when using disk-installed software. And the updates often occur at the worst time or when I’m in a rush.
New tool pop-ups get in the way and slow me down. Sometimes, menus have changed slightly. Figuring out new ways to do things with updated features makes me feel a little on edge, as it takes away the familiarity of what I know.
While it’s a good thing to keep learning, I’d rather use that learning power to educate myself on design principles or trends and research, rather than learning how to use the latest AI feature or the new way to select a subject in an image.
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The software will crash
Control/Command + S is your best friend
Anyone working in computers will have experienced the despair of realizing you didn’t save the project you’ve been working on for hours just as your computer crashes or the power cuts out. For Adobe users, frequent saving is a skill we learn from the beginning.
Big files, multiple layers, too many complex tasks, it’s a Tuesday: these can all be reasons Adobe might crash. Sometimes there’s logic, but often there’s none.
Although some causes of Adobe crashes might be local to your system, it’s well-known among Adobe users that it often crashes. I wish I knew this early on in my Adobe journey — but it didn’t take me long to learn. Save after every action.
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Adobe adds bloatware
You get more than the programs you install
Adobe programs are big once installed on your system. Creative Cloud users benefit because you only need to install the apps you use, so you’re not overfilling your system with all the apps for no purpose. There are over 20 available if you subscribe to the All Apps plan.
I keep around eight installed on my desktop at any one time. However, those eight apps also require additional extras to be installed, resulting in a total of 21 apps in my Launchpad.
This includes beta versions of apps for testing new features, render engines, media encoders, distiller apps, and more that don’t appear on the Launchpad of my Mac.
Using an open-source alternative to Adobe is often better if you’re trying to run a machine with less bloatware. Most open-source tools are smaller in size, typically have only one installable program, and don’t require any additional software to run.
Now I know more about Adobe
After a decade of subscribing to the lucrative Adobe Creative Cloud, there are many things I’ve learned about its subscription service. Had I known all these things before signing up, I might have reconsidered — especially knowing now how difficult it is to cancel the subscription at any point and learning how much bloatware is added to my computer just for wanting to access Adobe tools. From subscribing to Creative Cloud, I have benefited from a whole host of creative tools, but I wish I’d done a little more research first.