Whether you need to make a video, a graphic, or another visual piece, you often need some sort of digital creation studio.
For many creators, Adobe is the go-to choice since it provides tons of creative professional tools.
If you want to use one of Adobe’s products, however, then you’re quickly going to discover that they are quite expensive.
Why Is Adobe Software So Expensive? (10 Reasons)
You can buy most of Adobe’s software with its Creative Cloud All Apps subscription plan which costs $54.99 a month for an individual plan and $84.99 a month for a business plan.
However, if you want to buy Adobe software individually, then you’ll pay anything from $20 a month to $50 a month.
Adobe software is expensive due to its need to recoup its losses from piracy, its status as an industry standard in the market, its focus on businesses, and its various operational costs.
Let’s look at these factors in more detail.
1. Losses Due To Piracy
The high price of using certain Adobe software services has been driving some customers into piracy.
There are some individuals who manage to get their hands on Adobe software, then sell that software at extremely low prices to other people.
Others give it away for free.
Some also give it away for free but with the intention of downloading malware onto the users’ devices.
Because a lot of people end up pirating Adobe’s services, it means Adobe isn’t making as much money as it could be.
For a while, Adobe was struggling to find a way to deal with pirates.
The company was losing money without much of a way to keep people from buying pirated pieces of software.
The company has recently changed how it prevents piracy.
It’s instead chosen to use piracy as a means of understanding customer needs and behavior.
However, despite these changes, it still means Adobe is losing money.
To make the profit it needs, the company maintains high prices on its software.
No matter if people are purchasing directly from the company or through pirates, Adobe’s high prices are both a result of and a response to piracy.
Adobe is expensive because of piracy.
2. Near-Monopoly In The Market
Although there are several photo editors, video editors, and other services available, there’s nothing quite like Adobe.
Adobe offers a professional set of tools.
Whether you want to edit photos, record movies, record audio, or make digital ads, the company has software for everyone.
The tools are professional grade.
This has made them quite popular among both professionals and individuals.
Adobe is the industry standard when it comes to the tools it provides.
The problem with being an industry standard is that it also means that Adobe has a near monopoly on the market.
There are other photo editors out there.
Some of them are even free.
However, the amount of customization you’re able to do with free photo editors is very limited.
With Adobe, you can do practically anything.
There are very few competitors that have developed software that allows you to have full control over every aspect of the creative process.
As such, Adobe can ask whatever price it wants for its software.
It knows that if people want full customization and control over their projects, then they’re going to be willing to pay Adobe’s high prices.
Adobe is expensive because it’s an industry standard with a near monopoly on the market.
3. Several Subscription Plans
Adobe is primarily expensive because of its different subscription plans.
The best way to save money is to subscribe to its Creative Cloud All Apps plan.
It combines several popular software services like Photoshop, Premiere Pro, Illustrator, Adobe Express, and Acrobat Pro.
However, it doesn’t include all of the software services that you might need.
As such, you might find yourself needing to subscribe to Creative Cloud and several other subscription plans.
Instead of paying just $50 a month, you could be paying $100 or more depending on your needs.
Adobe doesn’t always allow you to pay once for the product either.
Instead, it gives you no choice but to pay a monthly subscription fee.
Some of the subscription plans are also more expensive than others.
Depending on your needs, you could face higher prices than someone else simply because you need to use the more expensive software service.
Adobe is expensive because of how it prices its subscription plans.
4. Professional Tools
While a lot of people will use Adobe for personal reasons, Adobe is largely for professionals.
It focuses on producing professional-quality software tools.
This makes Adobe expensive because it means it’s spending more money to make those tools.
Professional tools tend to be more expensive than personal tools because they need to be suited to a professional user’s standards.
There need to be more options, for example, or there need to be more advanced tools available.
Since the cost of producing those tools is a bit more expensive, Adobe has to offset its expenses by having higher prices for its products.
To professionals using the tools to make a profit, they might not think twice about Adobe’s high prices.
To someone who is using Adobe’s software for their own enjoyment, the high price may not be worth it.
Unfortunately, if someone wants to use professional tools, then they’re going to have to pay higher prices for them.
Adobe is expensive due to the costs associated with producing high-quality professional tools.
5. Free Updates
One of the benefits of using Adobe software is that you receive free updates.
You can continue to enjoy free updates as long as Adobe supports your version of the software.
The updates tend to range from bug fixes to new features.
As such, even after you purchase Adobe software, you might still receive new features after your purchase.
This means that you’re essentially receiving those updates for free.
You don’t have to pay extra money for any new features.
This makes Adobe expensive for a few reasons.
The first is that Adobe is still spending money to implement those bug fixes and new features.
Since you’re receiving them for free, it means Adobe isn’t making money by selling them as add-ons.
Instead, Adobe has to receive its money through higher subscription plan pricing.
The expensive subscription plans allow the company to keep funding new bug fixes and features.
Your monthly subscription plan essentially funds new features.
Adobe is expensive because of the costs it takes on by introducing “free” bug fixes and new features.
6. Business-Focused
While Adobe is aware that there are a lot of individuals who use its software, its primary target audience is professionals and businesses.
It’s software contains professional-grade tools for businesses to use.
For example, it expects professional photographers to use Photoshop.
It expects filmmakers to use its Animation studio or its After Effects studio.
Its InDesign software is primarily geared toward document designers, web designers, and copyeditors.
These individuals work for businesses that typically have large budgets.
Paying $20 a month for a subscription is nothing for a business.
Even paying $100 for a suite of Adobe software programs isn’t much of a drain on a business’s budget.
Most businesses consider such subscription plans quite cheap.
However, individuals who are looking to use professional-grade tools for themselves don’t always have high budgets.
As such, to them, Adobe is quite expensive.
Adobe software isn’t intended for personal projects, however.
It’s focused on businesses since it can make the most money from businesses.
As such, it prices its products based on what businesses are willing to pay rather than what private customers are willing to pay.
Adobe is expensive because it’s focused on businesses rather than on private customers.
7. Free Educational Sources
Adobe is also aware that its software isn’t always easy to use.
It knows that people who want to use the software first have to learn about it.
To make using its software easier, Adobe offers several free educational courses on its site.
It allows individuals to watch the videos to understand the basics of using the particular software’s tools.
From there, the individual can start to experiment and learn on their own.
Adobe could charge for this additional service.
For example, it could have a professional set of videos designed to teach the software.
Instead, it offers free educational services.
Adobe has to spend money to offer those educational services.
For example, it needs to pay someone to go through each software offering and create a walkthrough of how to use it.
That takes time and expertise.
Since it’s costing Adobe money to produce such content, it’s going to result in higher costs for the buyers.
Adobe isn’t charging for the educational courses, so it instead has to rely on other funds to offset the costs.
These funds come from its subscription plans.
Adobe is expensive because the cost of providing free educational courses leads to higher subscription plan costs.
8. Expensive Customer Support Costs
Since Adobe caters to businesses, it needs to have customer support available.
It knows that businesses will likely have questions when using its software.
To ensure businesses remain happy, Adobe has to invest in high-quality customer service.
The representatives need to have a thorough understanding of Adobe and its software programs so they can give thorough answers to customer questions.
Otherwise, Adobe runs the risk of making its clients unhappy.
If they are unhappy, clients might leave and choose a less expensive service.
To provide high-quality customer service, Adobe has to pay its customer support personnel quite well.
That results in high labor costs.
To offset those costs, Adobe has higher subscription plan pricing.
Adobe is expensive because of higher labor costs for its high-quality customer support team.
9. Marketing Analysis
Adobe’s software isn’t just for producing content.
It also has software designed to analyze marketing campaigns.
It can give you reports related to different aspects of marketing campaigns or customer behavior.
This information can tell your business where its weak points are and where its strengths are.
This can then help you make decisions about how to better tailor your marketing to your customer base.
You’ll waste less money and instead bring in more customers.
Marketing analysis is extremely helpful.
Adobe knows that.
It also costs Adobe money to provide the sort of software and engineering needed to produce high-quality marketing analysis reports.
All those factors together result in higher costs that Adobe needs to offset somehow.
Adobe software is expensive because of its business-focused services like marketing analysis.
10. Research And Development Costs
A final reason Adobe software is expensive is because of its research and development costs.
Although Adobe is an industry leader, it only takes one bad product to push some clients to another brand.
It also can’t allow itself to relax even if it is doing well.
There are always new companies looking to knock Adobe off its throne.
As such, Adobe has to keep producing new features or new services.
To come up with those, it has to fund its research and development team.
The more funds the team has, the faster and more effectively it can work.
However, those funds need to come from somewhere.
Adobe software is expensive because of the costs needed to fund its research and development team.
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