I use Photoshop and Lightroom daily, and have done so for the better part of a decade. In that time, I’ve seen the cost of these programs shoot up; what used to be a one-time license is now a monthly subscription, and just these two tools now cost $19 a month. I also rely on Premiere Pro, Audition, and use Acrobat, so I sprang for the Creative Cloud Pro plan, which costs $69 in the U.S.
With the Creator Studio, Apple now has an alternative aimed squarely at creatives and artists. As an overview, Creator Studio bundles all of Apple’s editing and creative tools into a unified plan, giving you access to Pixelmator Pro, Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro, Motion, MainStage, alongside additional content in Keynote, Pages, Numbers and Freeform. The bundle costs $12.99 a month or $129 yearly, and it’s easy to see that Apple is undercutting Adobe by a significant amount.
It’s easy to assume that Apple is going after Adobe, but I don’t buy that — Adobe is still the go-to choice for most design studios and creative agencies, and that’s not going to change overnight. Adobe’s cross-platform integration also gives it an edge; I use its products on Windows, several Android phones, my iPhone 17 Pro, and iPad Pro M4. Creator Studio, meanwhile, is limited to macOS and iPadOS, and these utilities aren’t available on Android phones or tablets.
Even then, the combination of Pixelmator Pro and Final Cut Pro along with the productivity tools is enough to get me to switch over. While Adobe gets a lot right, its pricing is getting out of hand, and I’ve been looking at alternatives for a while now.
I don’t pay full price for the Creative Cloud Pro plan; I got it during a deal, and I pay around ₹1,199 a month ($13) in India, which will eventually go up to ₹4,405 ($48) monthly. By contrast, Apple’s Creator Studio costs just ₹399 ($4) a month in the country, which is a downright steal. I get that the usability is limited to the Mac and iPad, but the pricing justifies that, and no amount of wishful thinking on my part is going to bring Pixelmator to Android.
Even if it isn’t going after Adobe’s core business, Apple understands its target audience, and the Creator Studio plan is aimed at those willing to shift to a different platform. I agree that not all the tools bundled in the plan are as useful, but that’s the case with Adobe as well, and as a whole, Creative Studio does enough that I’m ready to switch from Adobe — now I just need to get a Mac mini or Mac Studio.
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