Adobe raises prices and makes unfortunate changes to its Creative Cloud plans

The Adobe Creative Cloud All Apps plan is being discontinued for subscribers, leaving Adobe fans with little choice about where to turn next. The new plans benefit from a big AI feature, with Adobe looking to put even more energy into its AI offerings in the future.

1. Adobe Creative Cloud Express Launched: Software That Supports Extremely Fast and Easy Graphic Creation

Adobe Creative Cloud Pro plan will replace All Apps plan

On May 15, 2025, Adobe announced a new Creative Cloud plan: Creative Cloud Pro. The Pro plan will be available to new and existing Adobe subscribers in North America starting June 17, 2025.

Creative Cloud Pro comes with the benefits of everything Adobe has to offer for creators. All the Adobe apps you can think of, including over 20 desktop apps like Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere Pro, and more. The Pro plan also includes exclusive access to all of Adobe's premium mobile plans and web browser versions of the apps.

This includes recent additions from Adobe, such as the introduction of Photoshop for mobile for the first time in March 2025—which itself comes with dedicated Photoshop packages for mobile and web. It's hard to keep up with all the Adobe packages out there, especially with this new introduction.

The Pro portion of this new plan has a strong focus on Generative AI . Creative Cloud Pro subscribers will get unlimited Generative AI credits across the entire Pro plan. This is up from the current All Apps limit of 1,000 credits/month.

Creative Cloud Pro will replace the current Creative Cloud All Apps plan on June 17, 2025. This change currently only affects current North American subscribers in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, but like other Adobe changes, it will roll out to other countries in the future.

Creative Cloud Pro will cost $69.99/month for an undiscounted personal plan or the Teams plan, a $10/month increase over the current All Apps plan.

All Creative Cloud subscribers affected​​

​​​​​If you currently subscribe to the Adobe Creative Cloud All Apps plan, this new rollout of Creative Cloud Pro will directly impact you.

The All Apps replacement with the Pro plan will happen automatically for current subscribers on June 17, meaning your subscription price will skyrocket—no surprise here from Adobe—unless you do something about it first.

While there's no option to stay on your current All Apps plan, there is an option to switch to the new Creative Cloud Standard plan instead of going Pro. This introductory plan costs $54.99/month—a $5 discount from the All Apps subscription—but it removes some of the features and access from the All Apps plan.

In short, you have 3 options:

1. Allows Adobe to take more money from you with the Pro plan, which offers most of the same features you currently get, but with more AI credits, which only benefits those who use the endless AI features.
2. Drop down to the Standard plan for a slightly lower monthly fee, but you'll lose access to features already included in the All Apps plan, like Premium access to other tools.
3. Completely exit Adobe and switch to another software.

Creative Cloud Standard plan offers fewer features

It might seem like switching to the Creative Cloud Standard plan would keep you where you are and benefit from paying $5 less a month, but of course, Adobe has other ideas.

The Standard plan is only slightly less expensive. However, it can't be said that it's a benefit to choose this option, as it still costs $55/month.

You'll lose access to Premium features in most Adobe Mobile tools, like Adobe Express , Lightroom Mobile, and Photoshop Mobile. However, in some odd perk, Adobe Acrobat is fully available on the web or mobile with this package.

Note : AI features in Acrobat require a separate subscription anyway.

The Creative Cloud Standard plan also quietly removes access to most of the AI ​​features that Adobe has built into its tools. We're seeing too much AI, and it's good to go back to more organic design and creation methods, but some features are still useful. The Standard plan only allows 25 credits per month, down from the 1,000 monthly credits on the All Apps plan.

As a general rule, these credits can only be used in Photoshop and Illustrator. You won't be able to use more advanced AI tools like Firefly features with Generative video or audio - that's reserved for Pro users.

Is the $5 discount worth 975 AI credits per month and losing access to Premium features in your favorite Adobe mobile apps? Probably not.

It's time to switch!

Adobe regularly makes massive overhauls that leave users in a difficult position between affordability and creative exploration. Ditching Adobe can save you a lot of trouble—not to mention, there are plenty of great free creative software that are actually more valuable than sticking with their bloated ecosystem.

In March 2025, GIMP released version 3.0, bringing it closer to Photoshop's capabilities. You can do a lot more with GIMP than you can pay to do in Photoshop. While you don't have to turn to open source tools, there are also great proprietary software that offer many of the same features as Adobe's tools.

Creative tools like Pixelmator Pro for Mac or Affinity are options that fall between Adobe's expensive and frequent overhauls and free or open source software like RawTherapee, Krita, Inkscape, and GIMP.

The removal of old Adobe packages is usually a nightmare, but when big changes happen, it's actually one of those rare moments when you can get away with old options. For now, Creative Cloud Pro and the All Apps plan's demise only affect North America, but if you're elsewhere, you'll have some time to explore alternatives before Adobe's new policy becomes more widespread. Take advantage of that time—don't wait until you're cornered!

Adobe is notorious for its price gouging and monopolization in the creative industries. While you may feel like you have fewer options with Adobe's latest changes, remember that there are always options available. You may even benefit from the changes to the Pro plan and want to adopt them, but it's also an opportunity to ditch Adobe altogether and switch to an open source creative workflow.

Kareem Winters

Update 26 May 2025