Apple’s free Mac apps: Photos and Preview can get the basics of editing an image or photograph, but if you want to do anything more advanced you’ll need a dedicated image editing app. Adobe’s Photoshop is the industry standard, due to its wide range of features and capabilities.

Here’s how to get a copy of Photoshop on your Mac, or, failing that, the next best thing. Plus, because you can’t beat free, we’ll also explain your options for getting Photoshop on Mac for free. We have also rounded up the Best Mac free image and photo editors if you just want a free photo editor and it doesn’t have to be Photoshop.

If you’d like to get the same software on your tablet, read How to get Photoshop on iPad.

How to get Photoshop free on a Mac

A lot of people will be wondering if there is a way to get Photoshop for free on a Mac. First a warning: if you find Photoshop on a file-sharing site don’t download it. This is because it’s very unlikely to be a legitimate version of the app and will almost definitely cause you problems – this is how viruses spread.

Back in June 2022 Adobe started a trial of a free web-based version of Photoshop in Canada. That version of Photoshop is available globally now, but it is in beta and only works on the Chrome browser or Microsoft’s Edge, with support for Firefox in the works. As yet there’s no news on when it will come to Safari.

Photoshop on the web

Best Prices Today:


$0 at Adobe

It doesn’t include all the features of Photoshop, but there are lots of quick and easy editing tools available. For example, there are Quick Actions for lighting effects or removing the background from an image

The main editing page looks similar to the desktop version of Photoshop, with a set of editing tools running down the left-hand side of the window, including Selection tools, Paint Brush, Adjustments for color and lighting, and a Type tool for adding text. If you are unfamiliar with the tools each has a quick video tutorial.

On the right of the editing window, you’ll find a detailed set of tool palettes for working with layers, masks and effects. There’s also a palette that allows people to collaborate online by adding comments to their projects as well–which is unique to this version of Photoshop.

This free version of Photoshop only requires that you register for a free Adobe ID account. We wonder if it may become part of Adobe’s Creative Cloud subscription plan in the future, but for now, it’s a way to get Photoshop for free.

Adobe Express

Best Prices Today:


$0 at Adobe Express Free

Another option that will give you access to some of the Photoshop tools for free is Adobe Express (there’s also a Premium subscription version for $9.99/£9.98 per month that includes some additional editing tools.) This online web app also includes a number of useful photo-editing tools that are available for free through any web browser. If you want to do some photo-editing you can easily import photos of your own or use some of the free stock photos that are included with Express.

When you import a photo, Express allows you to quickly resize it or pan around in order to focus on a particular part of the image. You then enter the main Express workspace, which includes a selection of simple filter effects, as well as slider controls that allow you to quickly adjust brightness, contrast and other settings. You can import additional photos and superimpose them in order to create a collage, and you can also add text and graphics, including a number of ready-made logos and artwork for creating posters, fliers and other documents. Express even has simple layer controls, which allow you to edit photos, text and graphics elements individually.

How to get full Photoshop for free

Those free versions of Adobe Photoshop don’t include all the features. If you want to use the full version of Photoshop there are a few options that could get you a copy of Photoshop free for a limited time, or on a short-term subscription.

Trial: The first option is a Photoshop trial. There is a 7-day free trial that gives you access to the full program, with no restrictions.

Adobe Photoshop

Best Prices Today:


$239.88 at Adorama |
$239.99 at Best Buy

While Adobe advertises the free 7-day trial, you can actually get 14 days free, because you can cancel within 14 days of your initial order and get fully refunded. In fact, you could, theoretically, get 21 days free if you had the trial and then canceled your subscription after 13 days.

Monthly cancel any-time subscription: The second option is signing up for a monthly subscription on a monthly rather than an annual basis. This won’t give you Photoshop for free, but the option will allow you to subscribe to Adobe Photoshop on a temporary basis and cancel when you no longer need it. We’ll run through the various subscription options in the sections below.

To explain how it works we need to explain the difference between Adobe’s two monthly subscription packages:

There are two monthly subscription packages: one is cheaper ($20.99/£19.97 a month) because it is part of an annual plan; the other is a more expensive option ($31.49/£30.34 a month), but you can cancel without having to pay Adobe anything.

Adobe explains the legal terms of the various contracts here. Basically, if you sign up for the cheaper ‘annual contract, paid monthly’ and then choose to end your subscription you will be able to do so, but if you end the contract after the first 14 days “you’ll be charged a lump sum amount of 50% of your remaining contract obligation and your service will continue until the end of that month’s billing period.”

This is a slightly better scenario than if you were paying annually – in that case, your contract will continue to the end of the term. You wouldn’t get any money back.

This is why the best option, in this case, is to sign up for a month-to-month contract. In this case, the contract will automatically renew every month, but should you choose to cancel (we explain how to cancel below) you will be able to use Photoshop until the end of that month, at which point your contract will cease.

If you need Photoshop, but you don’t want to tie yourself into a contract with Adobe, this could be the best option for you. However, you should note that you will lose access to anything you have saved in Adobe’s cloud after 90 days.

If these options aren’t right for you, but you don’t want to pay for Photoshop you will need to look for alternatives to Photoshop. We have a round-up of the Best Mac free image and photo editors, which includes some free options such as Seashore and Gimp.

How to get Photoshop on a Mac without a subscription

If you were hoping to buy a copy of Photoshop to own, as in not paying on a subscription basis, we have some bad news for you: Adobe no longer sells what is known as a ‘perpetual license’ for Photoshop and its other apps.

Adobe Photoshop Elements

Read our review

Best Prices Today:


$99.99 at Amazon

There is one option though: you can buy Photoshop Elements. Photoshop Elements is designed for amateur rather than pro photographers, but it does offer a number of photo editing features that might be sufficient for your needs.

You can buy a copy of Photoshop Elements directly from Adobe’s website for $99.99/£86.56. Buy Photoshop Elements from Adobe. See our review of Photoshop Elements for more information.

You can also buy Photoshop Elements on the Mac App Store, where the price is actually less than Adobe’s price at $79.99/£79.99.

The benefit of Photoshop Elements is that you can buy it outright and install it on your Mac. You will have access to features like masks, layers, colorisation, image manipulation and other useful, more consumer-level effects with Elements.

If you’re a creative professional though, or are used to the full-blown version of Photoshop, then you may find too many tools missing from the box. If you want to take a look there’s also a 7-day free trial of Photoshop Elements so you can take the software for a test run.

Understandably there are lots of Mac users who are disappointed that Adobe doesn’t sell a ‘perpetual license’ for the full version of Photoshop anymore. Many years ago professional Mac users might have owned a version of Adobe CS and used it for years, but the slow rate at which companies updated probably lead Adobe to switch to a subscription model.

If you don’t care about how up-to-date your software is you might be interested in buying a secondhand copy of Photoshop, or an old Mac with Photoshop installed. Just be aware that Adobe doesn’t support all older versions in terms of updates, so the ones you find might not be compatible with later iterations of macOS, plus newer Macs won’t run old versions of Photoshop.

You’ll also need to confirm that the software license hasn’t already been used, as usually these are non-transferable. And generally, we would advise against buying a used Mac (unless it’s certified refurbished).

For more information read: What version of macOS can my Mac run?

If a subscription to Photoshop isn’t for you, and Photoshop Elements isn’t enough, we recommend you look at alternatives to Photoshop, many of which have comparable features with the benefit of being available to buy outright. The best options include PixelMator Pro, Affinity Photo and others. See: Best Photoshop alternatives for Mac.

Is there an education discount for Photoshop?

There is one other way you can save money while getting a copy of Photoshop for your Mac.

If you are in education then you may qualify for a discount. However, you can’t sign up for a reduced price on the Photoshop-only tier, you have to get the entire Creative Cloud collection, which includes Photoshop and a large collection of other Adobe apps. The student and teacher deal for Creative Cloud does represent quite a hefty reduction.

At the time of writing, Students and Teachers pay $19.99/£16.24 a month, which is around 70% less than the normal subscription rate.

Photoshop for Mac price

If you have accepted that you need to pay for a subscription to Photoshop you will want to know how much it costs. There’s not actually a straightforward answer: it depends on how you want to buy it.

Whether you love or hate the subscription model, there are a few options to choose from if you want to get a copy of Photoshop:

Photoshop: If you just want the single Photoshop app you can have that for $20.99/£19.97 a month if you sign up for a year, or $31.49/£30.34 a month if you just pay on a monthly basis. Sign up on Adobe’s website.

Photography Plan: However, the Photography Plan is actually the best deal. It includes Photoshop, Lightroom (for web and mobile), and Lightroom Classic (for desktop). That bundle costs $9.99/£9.98 a month, but you will be on a contract for a year. You get 20GB storage included (there’s a 1TB storage option that costs about $10/£10 more a month). Sign up on Adobe’s website.

Business: If you are a business user you ought to sign up for the Business option where you can get a single Photoshop license for $35.99/£26.49 ex VAT a month per license. It’s worth noting that all the Adobe CC apps, including Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Premiere Pro, and Acrobat, cost $84.99/£61.99 (ex VAT) per license a month. Sign up on Adobe’s website. 

How to cancel a Photoshop subscription

The ease with which you can end your Photoshop contract is one of the benefits of Adobe’s decision to switch from selling copies of Photoshop outright to a subscription model.

It also means that you only need to pay for Photoshop for as long as you need it. So if it’s just for a short-term project you can unsubscribe as soon as the work is done.

Here’s how to cancel your subscription:

1. Sign in to the Adobe web page where plans are managed.
2. Sign in to your Adobe account.
3. Under the My Plans tab find Manage Plan (or View plan) and click on that.
4. Now click on Cancel plan.
5. Give your reason for cancellation.
6. Click on Continue.

Best alternatives to Photoshop on Mac?

There is plenty of great photo and image editing software available on macOS, many of which come with lower price tags than Adobe products. One of our favorites is Affinity Photo from Serif, which boasts a wide range of powerful tools, a friendly interface and costs $69.99/£67.99 as a one-off payment, and also offers a 30-day free trial.

Serif Affinity Photo

Read our review

Best Prices Today:


$69.99 at Serif

Another popular choice is GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program), which is completely free and comes with an incredible range of tools and features. The interface can take a little getting used to, which is not uncommon with open-source software, but once you get to know your way around, you’ll be amazed at what you can achieve. There’s also a large collection of tutorials for the software on YouTube, so if you’re willing to put in the time then it’s a powerful suite that will cost you nothing at all.

We also recommend you read Best Mac for photo editing.

You may also be interested in: How to get Adobe Illustrator on a Mac and How to get InDesign on a Mac.

Personal Software, Professional Software

Apple’s free Mac apps: Photos and Preview can get the basics of editing an image or photograph, but if you want to do anything more advanced you’ll need a dedicated image editing app. Adobe’s Photoshop is the industry standard, due to its wide range of features and capabilities.

Here’s how to get a copy of Photoshop on your Mac, or, failing that, the next best thing. Plus, because you can’t beat free, we’ll also explain your options for getting Photoshop on Mac for free. We have also rounded up the Best Mac free image and photo editors if you just want a free photo editor and it doesn’t have to be Photoshop.

If you’d like to get the same software on your tablet, read How to get Photoshop on iPad.

How to get Photoshop free on a Mac

A lot of people will be wondering if there is a way to get Photoshop for free on a Mac. First a warning: if you find Photoshop on a file-sharing site don’t download it. This is because it’s very unlikely to be a legitimate version of the app and will almost definitely cause you problems – this is how viruses spread.

Back in June 2022 Adobe started a trial of a free web-based version of Photoshop in Canada. That version of Photoshop is available globally now, but it is in beta and only works on the Chrome browser or Microsoft’s Edge, with support for Firefox in the works. As yet there’s no news on when it will come to Safari.

Photoshop on the web

Best Prices Today:


$0 at Adobe

It doesn’t include all the features of Photoshop, but there are lots of quick and easy editing tools available. For example, there are Quick Actions for lighting effects or removing the background from an image

The main editing page looks similar to the desktop version of Photoshop, with a set of editing tools running down the left-hand side of the window, including Selection tools, Paint Brush, Adjustments for color and lighting, and a Type tool for adding text. If you are unfamiliar with the tools each has a quick video tutorial.

On the right of the editing window, you’ll find a detailed set of tool palettes for working with layers, masks and effects. There’s also a palette that allows people to collaborate online by adding comments to their projects as well–which is unique to this version of Photoshop.

This free version of Photoshop only requires that you register for a free Adobe ID account. We wonder if it may become part of Adobe’s Creative Cloud subscription plan in the future, but for now, it’s a way to get Photoshop for free.

Adobe Express

Best Prices Today:


$0 at Adobe Express Free

Another option that will give you access to some of the Photoshop tools for free is Adobe Express (there’s also a Premium subscription version for $9.99/£9.98 per month that includes some additional editing tools.) This online web app also includes a number of useful photo-editing tools that are available for free through any web browser. If you want to do some photo-editing you can easily import photos of your own or use some of the free stock photos that are included with Express.

When you import a photo, Express allows you to quickly resize it or pan around in order to focus on a particular part of the image. You then enter the main Express workspace, which includes a selection of simple filter effects, as well as slider controls that allow you to quickly adjust brightness, contrast and other settings. You can import additional photos and superimpose them in order to create a collage, and you can also add text and graphics, including a number of ready-made logos and artwork for creating posters, fliers and other documents. Express even has simple layer controls, which allow you to edit photos, text and graphics elements individually.

How to get full Photoshop for free

Those free versions of Adobe Photoshop don’t include all the features. If you want to use the full version of Photoshop there are a few options that could get you a copy of Photoshop free for a limited time, or on a short-term subscription.

Trial: The first option is a Photoshop trial. There is a 7-day free trial that gives you access to the full program, with no restrictions.

Adobe Photoshop

Best Prices Today:


$239.99 at Best Buy

While Adobe advertises the free 7-day trial, you can actually get 14 days free, because you can cancel within 14 days of your initial order and get fully refunded. In fact, you could, theoretically, get 21 days free if you had the trial and then canceled your subscription after 13 days.

Monthly cancel any-time subscription: The second option is signing up for a monthly subscription on a monthly rather than an annual basis. This won’t give you Photoshop for free, but the option will allow you to subscribe to Adobe Photoshop on a temporary basis and cancel when you no longer need it. We’ll run through the various subscription options in the sections below.

To explain how it works we need to explain the difference between Adobe’s two monthly subscription packages:

There are two monthly subscription packages: one is cheaper ($20.99/£19.97 a month) because it is part of an annual plan; the other is a more expensive option ($31.49/£30.34 a month), but you can cancel without having to pay Adobe anything.

Adobe explains the legal terms of the various contracts here. Basically, if you sign up for the cheaper ‘annual contract, paid monthly’ and then choose to end your subscription you will be able to do so, but if you end the contract after the first 14 days “you’ll be charged a lump sum amount of 50% of your remaining contract obligation and your service will continue until the end of that month’s billing period.”

This is a slightly better scenario than if you were paying annually – in that case, your contract will continue to the end of the term. You wouldn’t get any money back.

This is why the best option, in this case, is to sign up for a month-to-month contract. In this case, the contract will automatically renew every month, but should you choose to cancel (we explain how to cancel below) you will be able to use Photoshop until the end of that month, at which point your contract will cease.

If you need Photoshop, but you don’t want to tie yourself into a contract with Adobe, this could be the best option for you. However, you should note that you will lose access to anything you have saved in Adobe’s cloud after 90 days.

If these options aren’t right for you, but you don’t want to pay for Photoshop you will need to look for alternatives to Photoshop. We have a round-up of the Best Mac free image and photo editors, which includes some free options such as Seashore and Gimp.

How to get Photoshop on a Mac without a subscription

If you were hoping to buy a copy of Photoshop to own, as in not paying on a subscription basis, we have some bad news for you: Adobe no longer sells what is known as a ‘perpetual license’ for Photoshop and its other apps.

Adobe Photoshop Elements

Read our review

Best Prices Today:


$99.99 at Amazon

There is one option though: you can buy Photoshop Elements. Photoshop Elements is designed for amateur rather than pro photographers, but it does offer a number of photo editing features that might be sufficient for your needs.

You can buy a copy of Photoshop Elements directly from Adobe’s website for $99.99/£86.56. Buy Photoshop Elements from Adobe. See our review of Photoshop Elements for more information.

You can also buy Photoshop Elements on the Mac App Store, where the price is actually less than Adobe’s price at $79.99/£79.99.

The benefit of Photoshop Elements is that you can buy it outright and install it on your Mac. You will have access to features like masks, layers, colorisation, image manipulation and other useful, more consumer-level effects with Elements.

If you’re a creative professional though, or are used to the full-blown version of Photoshop, then you may find too many tools missing from the box. If you want to take a look there’s also a 7-day free trial of Photoshop Elements so you can take the software for a test run.

Understandably there are lots of Mac users who are disappointed that Adobe doesn’t sell a ‘perpetual license’ for the full version of Photoshop anymore. Many years ago professional Mac users might have owned a version of Adobe CS and used it for years, but the slow rate at which companies updated probably lead Adobe to switch to a subscription model.

If you don’t care about how up-to-date your software is you might be interested in buying a secondhand copy of Photoshop, or an old Mac with Photoshop installed. Just be aware that Adobe doesn’t support all older versions in terms of updates, so the ones you find might not be compatible with later iterations of macOS, plus newer Macs won’t run old versions of Photoshop.

You’ll also need to confirm that the software license hasn’t already been used, as usually these are non-transferable. And generally, we would advise against buying a used Mac (unless it’s certified refurbished).

For more information read: What version of macOS can my Mac run?

If a subscription to Photoshop isn’t for you, and Photoshop Elements isn’t enough, we recommend you look at alternatives to Photoshop, many of which have comparable features with the benefit of being available to buy outright. The best options include PixelMator Pro, Affinity Photo and others. See: Best Photoshop alternatives for Mac.

Is there an education discount for Photoshop?

There is one other way you can save money while getting a copy of Photoshop for your Mac.

If you are in education then you may qualify for a discount. However, you can’t sign up for a reduced price on the Photoshop-only tier, you have to get the entire Creative Cloud collection, which includes Photoshop and a large collection of other Adobe apps. The student and teacher deal for Creative Cloud does represent quite a hefty reduction.

At the time of writing, Students and Teachers pay $19.99/£16.24 a month, which is around 70% less than the normal subscription rate.

Photoshop for Mac price

If you have accepted that you need to pay for a subscription to Photoshop you will want to know how much it costs. There’s not actually a straightforward answer: it depends on how you want to buy it.

Whether you love or hate the subscription model, there are a few options to choose from if you want to get a copy of Photoshop:

Photoshop: If you just want the single Photoshop app you can have that for $20.99/£19.97 a month if you sign up for a year, or $31.49/£30.34 a month if you just pay on a monthly basis. Sign up on Adobe’s website.

Photography Plan: However, the Photography Plan is actually the best deal. It includes Photoshop, Lightroom (for web and mobile), and Lightroom Classic (for desktop). That bundle costs $9.99/£9.98 a month, but you will be on a contract for a year. You get 20GB storage included (there’s a 1TB storage option that costs about $10/£10 more a month). Sign up on Adobe’s website.

Business: If you are a business user you ought to sign up for the Business option where you can get a single Photoshop license for $35.99/£26.49 ex VAT a month per license. It’s worth noting that all the Adobe CC apps, including Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Premiere Pro, and Acrobat, cost $84.99/£61.99 (ex VAT) per license a month. Sign up on Adobe’s website. 

How to cancel a Photoshop subscription

The ease with which you can end your Photoshop contract is one of the benefits of Adobe’s decision to switch from selling copies of Photoshop outright to a subscription model.

It also means that you only need to pay for Photoshop for as long as you need it. So if it’s just for a short-term project you can unsubscribe as soon as the work is done.

Here’s how to cancel your subscription:

1. Sign in to the Adobe web page where plans are managed.
2. Sign in to your Adobe account.
3. Under the My Plans tab find Manage Plan (or View plan) and click on that.
4. Now click on Cancel plan.
5. Give your reason for cancellation.
6. Click on Continue.

Best alternatives to Photoshop on Mac?

There is plenty of great photo and image editing software available on macOS, many of which come with lower price tags than Adobe products. One of our favorites is Affinity Photo from Serif, which boasts a wide range of powerful tools, a friendly interface and costs $69.99/£67.99 as a one-off payment, and also offers a 30-day free trial.

Serif Affinity Photo

Read our review

Best Prices Today:


$69.99 at Serif

Another popular choice is GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program), which is completely free and comes with an incredible range of tools and features. The interface can take a little getting used to, which is not uncommon with open-source software, but once you get to know your way around, you’ll be amazed at what you can achieve. There’s also a large collection of tutorials for the software on YouTube, so if you’re willing to put in the time then it’s a powerful suite that will cost you nothing at all.

We also recommend you read Best Mac for photo editing.

You may also be interested in: How to get Adobe Illustrator on a Mac and How to get InDesign on a Mac.

Personal Software, Professional Software

Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Premiere Pro, and Acrobat are well known apps used by creative professionals. There was once a time when all these apps, known collectively as Adobe Creative Suite, were purchased on disc and installed on Macs throughout the creative and publishing industries, but this eventually evolved into the subscription based Adobe Creative Cloud.

In this guide we will explain all the ways you can now buy Adobe’s apps. We’ll explain how much Adobe Creative Cloud costs, what the best way to purchase it is (monthly, annually, or another way), whether you can get it for free, and what happens if you cancel your subscription.

We’ll also include the best ways to save money, how you can use Adobe CC apps without committing to a subscription, and how you can buy the apps, such as Photoshop and Acrobat, separately.

So, if you are looking for Photoshop or Premiere Pro, wondering whether you need Creative Cloud to run Acrobat Pro, or even wondering whether you can cancel your Adobe CC subscription, you have come to the right place.

Between May 9 and May 18 there’s a great deal to be had if you are based in the U.K. or in Europe–you can save 50% for 6 months–unfortunately Adobe isn’t running the same deal in the U.S. More information below.

During Black Friday 2022 Adobe discounted the upfront price as well as monthly subscription prices of Creative Cloud for students, individuals and business users. That deal ran until November 25 2022. Read about Adobe’s Black Friday deal here: Adobe’s Black Friday deal slashes Creative Cloud subscription.

Best Adobe CC deals right now

Adobe CC costs $599.88 / £596.33 a year if bought directly from Adobe (on the annual prepaid plan).

Customers can take advantage of the following deals:

In the U.S. customers can save 30% if they pay for a year up front.

Get deal: Adobe Creative Cloud For $599.888

In the U.K. customers can save 50% off for 6 months if they sign up by May 18, 2023. Sign up for the deal and get all the Creative Cloud apps for £25.99 a month (usually £51.98 a month) for 6 months. The offer is available to first-time eligible subscribers of Adobe Creative Cloud All Apps for Individuals. At the end of your offer term, your subscription will be automatically billed at the standard subscription rate unless you elect to change or cancel your subscription. A 12-month commitment is required.

Get deal: Adobe Creative Cloud For £25.99 a month for 6 months

The best Adobe CC deals prices, if you pay up front, will appear below. From time to time we have seen significant discounts at Amazon:

Adobe Creative Cloud, usually $599.88 / £596.33 a year, $54.99/£51.99 a month:

What is Adobe Creative Cloud?

The first iteration of Adobe Creative Cloud arrived back in 2011, offering subscribers the option to pay an annual or monthly subscription for access to the most up to date version of the Creative Suite apps. At first Adobe ran this option alongside Creative Suite, with CS6 launching in 2013, but Adobe eventually discontinued CS6 leaving creative pros with no other option than to subscribe to the software.

There are benefits to both Adobe and its customers with the subscription model: Adobe’s customers will always have the most recent version of Adobe’s software, and Adobe won’t find that most of its customers are still using four-year old versions of its software with no motivation to update to a new version of the expensive software (as was no doubt the case in most offices and studios).

The problem with the subscription model is that pricing can be very complex, added to that is the fact that there are multiple apps to choose from – some of which may not be required by every customer. The Adobe Creative Cloud offering needs some clarification and in this article we will seek to do that.

If you are looking for the
best Mac for designers,
best Mac for photo editing, or the
best Mac for video editing, be sure to read our guides.

Adobe Creative Cloud pricing

There are various ways to buy Creative Cloud. You can subscribe to All Apps, Photography Plans with 20GB cloud space and another with 1TB cloud, a Lightroom Plan, as well as options for subscribing to single apps. These different packages will suit different types of users. For example, you may only need Photoshop, in which case you won’t want to pay for all the other apps too.

Once you have decided what software you want, the next choice is how you are going to pay for it. In most cases Adobe offers three different ways to pay. Monthly on-contract, monthly off-contract, or in advance for the year.

The best deals are usually for an annual subscription paid monthly, but this does tie you into a contract and if you cancel you may have to pay 50% of the remaining contract. If you would prefer to be able to cancel at any time then the monthly deal where you pay a bit more, but if you no longer need the software you can cancel, may appeal. This could be a great way to get an app that you don’t need long-term.

Alternatively you may be purchasing licences for a design studio, and therefore will be looking for the best deal for multiple seats. Ib that case you will be looking at the Business contracts, which are offered on a per-seat basis. There is also education pricing that should help if you are studying and specific pricing for education institutions.

When it comes to subscribing to single apps the pricing is usually as follows:

But the best deals are on the bundles, if you need two Adobe apps you might as well subscribe to All Apps as the price is:

We’ll look in more detail at each of the Adobe Creative Cloud purchase options below.

Can I get Adobe CC apps for free?

Adobe might be planning a free version of Photoshop for Mac. The company is currently testing a limited, web-only version in Canada. The free web version that is missing several features but the core features are accessible. Unfortunately, Photoshop on the web works only on the Chrome or Microsoft Edge browsers, if you try to use it on Safari you will only be able to view and comment on existing documents. See: Free version of Photoshop in Canada.

That will be great news if you want a free version of Photoshop, live in Canada, and don’t mind having to use Chrome. For everyone else hoping to get the Adobe app you need for free, there is a free seven day trial, details here.

In addition to this, you can cancel your subscription within 14 days of your order and be refunded. So theoretically you could have a seven day trial, then sign up for Adobe CC, and after two weeks cancel. Which would effectively give you three weeks.

As we said above, if you don’t fancy committing to a year-long contract with Adobe then you can sign up for the more expensive monthly plan that allows you to cancel without having to pay your way out of the contract.

If you do need Adobe’s apps on a long-term basis though, your best bet is to wait for Adobe to do a special offer – which it does from time to time.

For example, on June 22, 2021 it was possible to save an amazing 40% on the All Apps Adobe CC subscription via Amazon. This was the cheapest Adobe Creative Cloud offer we had ever seen. Prime membership was required to get the deal.

We’ve also seen Adobe take 20% off the price of Creative Cloud.

How to get a student discount for Adobe CC

Students don’t get Adobe Creative Cloud for free, but they can get some good discounts – which are better at some times than others.

Adobe offers a student discount across its range of products, you will see some of the options below. For example, students can get all apps on an annual plan for $239.88/£196.30 for the first year, rising to $359.88/£298.92 after, which is a large discount on the usual $599.88/£596.33.

However, at certain times of the year Adobe offers a Back To School deal where the discounts are even larger.

On August 16, 2022 Adobe introduced a promotion in the U.S. and Canada where students and teachers can get 60% off the usual monthly subscription price, and the first month free for the Creative Cloud All Apps bundle. That means that students can pay $19.99 a month, rather than the usual $29.99. This deal will run until September 5.

Adobe

A similar deal is running in the U.K. and Europe where students and teachers can get 65% off for a monthly subscription for £16.24 a month, rather than the usual £24.96 a month.

Unfortunately the student saving drops after the first 12 months, but the student discount after that time is still good compared to the full price.

Visit this page on the Adobe website to verify your student status. All you need it a school-issued email address to be verified. You also need to be 13 or older and be enrolled in an education institution, a school or university, or be home schooled.

If you are buying as a student, or as an education institution, the pricing is as follows. You can also see pricing during the Back to School (B2S) buying period (until mid/early September) and Black Friday (BF).

How to buy Adobe apps

We’ll run through each of the Adobe apps and explain how you can purchase them below.

If it’s just you looking to use one or all of the Adobe Creative Cloud apps there are individual plans, while if you are a business or education institutial there are plans that are based on how many computers the software is installed on. There is also a discounted student plan. Read on for all the info.

How to buy all the Adobe CC apps

If you want to buy three or more Adobe Creative Cloud apps the All Apps bundle offered by Adobe is your best value option. Where individual apps cost you $19.99/£19.97 a month on the annual plan, the All Apps deal gives you every one of Adobe’s CC apps for £51.99/$54.99 a month.

But, if you only need the software temporarily, the best option for you might be to sign up for the more expensive of the two monthly plans since you can cancel at any time.

Adobe’s All Apps plan includes the following apps: Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Adobe XD, Lightroom, Acrobat Pro, Animate, Dreamweaver, Premiere Pro, Premiere Rush, After Effects, Dimension, Audition, InCopy, Lightroom Classic, Media Encoder, Character Animator, Prelude, Fuse, Bridge, plus 100GB of cloud storage, Adobe Portfolio, Adobe Fonts, and Adobe Spark.

If you are buying for a business the pricing is different:

How to buy Photoshop

Photoshop is arguably Adobe’s most famous app, or at least one of them. Indeed, the phrase to have “Photoshopped” something is a frequently used verb in this modern age of faked photos.

Adobe’s Photoshop software is primarily used for editing photos, allowing users to adapt colour and light, apply effects, remove objects, and refine the image.

If you want to buy the Adobe Photoshop permanently or temporarily there are a number of options. Two include Lightroom, Lightroom Classic and Photoshop, on desktop and iPad, and either 20GB or 1TB cloud storage. You can also buy Photoshop alone.

Option 1:

Option 2:

Option 3:

The best Adobe Photography Plan deals will appear below:

If you want a cheaper option, we also have advice about the
best Photoshop alternatives.

How to buy Lightroom

If you are a photographer then the Lightroom app may be of interest. Lightroom offers some image editing features and presets you can use to add filters to your photos, but it also offers organisation tools to help you store and locate your images.

Lightroom is available as part of the two Photography Plans detailed above, but if all you need is Lightroom then you can purchase the Lightroom Plan.

The best Adobe Lightroom deals will appear below:

How to buy Acrobat Pro DC

Acrobat is another Adobe app that’s pretty well known. There are actually three Acrobat apps though, which can be a cause of confusion with people wondering whether they need to pay for Actobat, and even if they need to buy Adobe Creative Cloud to get Acrobat.

While we say there are three apps, that’s not true for us Mac users. Adobe offers the free Acrobat Reader, Adobe Acrobat Standard DC and Adobe Acrobat Pro DC. But Acrobat Standard DC is not available for Mac. (DC stands for Document Cloud, if you were wondering.)

If you are just looking for an app to allow you to read and fill in PDFs, then Adobe Reader should be enough (although you could use Apple’s Preview software to do exactly this). Read:
How to edit a PDF on Mac.

If you need to create PDFs you could just create a document on your Mac and choose Print > PDF. But assuming that you need to create a PDF with a little more finesse, Acrobat Pro DC will offer you the features you need.

PC users get the Acrobat Standard DC version, which is cheaper than Acrobat Pro DC, but lacks some of the features. Both make it possible to create and edit a PDF, but you need the Pro version if you want to do things like convert scanned documents into searchable and editable PDFs, or add audio, video, and interactive objects. Acrobat Pro also works on iPad and iPhone.

Acrobat Reader is free and you can
download it here.

If you need Acrobat Pro DC, here’s how the pricing is structured:

If it doesn’t have to be Adobe there are plenty of alternative PDF apps available. Read
Best free PDF editors for Mac.

How much do Illustrator, InDesign, Premiere Pro, After Effects cost?

Most of the other apps Adobe groups together under the Creative Cloud umbrella are available separately for a fixed price.

In addition to those we’ve mentioned above, you can get each of the following apps on either a monthly or an annual plan:

• Illustrator
• InDesign
• Premiere Pro
• After Effects
• Dreamweaver
• Animate
• Audition

Prices start at £19.97 / $20.99 for the monthly plan if you sign up for the whole year.

Also read: How to get InDesign on a Mac.

As we said above, if you don’t want to sign up for a one-year contract, the best option is to choose the monthly plan that you can cancel at any time. Alternatively, if a week is all you need then the seven-day trial might be an option,
details here.

Adobe also offers a few apps at a lower price, these include InCopy and Premiere Rush.

If you hoping to get Premiere Pro for free you can’t, but Premiere Rush might be able to do what you need – it’s offers basic features and functions. Alternatively, have a look at our
round up of free and cheap Mac video editors.

There are also various Substance 3D options, that combine 3D and AR apps 3D Painter, Designer, Stager and Sampler in a bundle.

Plus you can get Adobe’s user experience design tool Adobe XD for £9.98 / $9.99 a month, and Adobe Spark for creating sociak graphics, videos and webpages for £10.10 / $9.99 a month.
Buy them here.

Finally, you can also sign up for Adobe Stock, which is Adobe’s royalty-free image, graphics, 3D assets and video library.

How many computers can you use a licence on

Once you have subscribed you can install the software on two computers. So, if you have Photoshop in the office you are able to also have it on your computer at home. 

What you can’t do is run the software on both computers at the same time – but you can, at least, still be signed in on your work computer. 

In fact, you can install the software on more than two computers, but if will only work on the third computer if you aren’t signed in on one of the others.

If you are unable to sign out of one of these computers you can go to the
account management page and sign out there.

Where can I download the Adobe CC software?

Once you are subscribed to Adobe CC – or the individual apps, you will be able to download them from
Adobe’s website here.

How to cancel Adobe Creative Cloud subscription

There is a 14 day period after purchasing your Creative Cloud subscription when you can cancel and be refunded.

As we explained above, if you are likely to want to cancel your subscription within a year then you would be wise to choose the monthly payment plan that doesn’t mean you will be locked into a contract for a year. The price is more, but you won’t have to pay Adobe anything to break the contract. 

If you choose a monthly plan that is based on an annual contract then you may have to pay 50% of what you still have left to pay Adobe on cancellation of the contract. So, if you were to cancel after four months you would potentially have to pay half of what you would owe for the next eight months.

To cancel contact Adobe Customer Support here.

Black Friday 2022 deals

These were the deals for Black Friday 2022:

In the U.S. customers could save $120 on the usual annual price of $599.88 a year, paid up front.

Get deal: Adobe Creative Cloud For $479.88

In the U.K. customers could save £234.12 on the usual annual price of £596.33 a year, paid up front.

Get deal: Adobe Creative Cloud For £362.21

U.S. customers wishing to pay monthly could take advantage of the following deal until November 25:

Get deal: Individuals Pay $39.99 a month (was $54.99 a month)

U.K customers wishing to pay monthly could take advantage of the following deal until November 25:

Get deal: Individuals Pay £30.34 a month (was £51.98 a month)

If you are a student, Adobe already discounts the CC bundle, but at certain times of the year it offers even bigger discounts. For example prices were slashed for Back To School in August and Black Friday in November. More on these deals below.

U.S. Students and teachers could take advantage of the following deal until November 25:

Get deal: Students Pay $15.99 a month (was $29.99 a month)

U.K. Students and teachers could take advantage of the following deal until November 25:

Get deal: Students Pay £13.15 a month (was £24.96 a month)

There are have also been discounts for Business users:

In the U.S.:

Get deal: Businesses Pay $59.99 a month (was $84.99 a month, per license)

In the U.K.:

Get deal: Businesses Pay £42.14 a month (was £61.99 a month, per license)

Personal Software, Professional Software