Buy Flexi Program or pay monthly?

[Fake]

I didn't want to get involved in this thread, but since Adobe was mentioned, Adobe's model is actually the opposite for me.

I did the math for Design Premium (I actually only needed Design Standard, but I did it with Premium C/B of it anyway). This is when they still had the option for both types of licenses.

Buying CS6 outright (Design Premium) and upgraded every iteration from then on (in other words keeping up to date), in 7 yrs (which I hope to still be involved in my trade beyond that time period) you would be spending more for subscription then buying outright. Year 6 is the break even year. Now this assumes steady pricing throughout those years, if that changes, the model may or may not change. Just depends on the rate of change.

Subscription works if you need one program or you need all of them, but if you fall somewhere in between, your spending more for subscription over time and yes, that's upgrading your perpetual license every new version. In Adobe's case.



Now it's been said, you don't want subscription use perpetual, if you don't want perpetual use subscription. That's fine and good as long as that option is maintained. I doubt it will be. It certainly wasn't with Adobe and the writing is on the wall that most companies are pushing this.



I know I've had this discussion in another thread, but I agree with the habit of exporting more universal file formats, so "you" only don't have the proprietary file format. That may mean you have to do extra notes somewhere, may have to change your work flow a little bit. Over time, that new work flow will become habit as well. I find taking a few more notes beats having to rebuild the file form scratch in a new file format. To me, this isn't any different then creating backups.

Agreed if you use only some programs, but the break even on Adobe MC is 10 years Vs. the monthly subscription cost. As long as any subscription service leaves me with the actual native files on my drives, Im happy as you can always re-new a subscription if you d cease using the program.

 

[WildWestDesigns]

Agreed if you use only some programs, but the break even on Adobe MC is 10 years Vs. the monthly subscription cost. As long as any subscription service leaves me with the actual native files on my drives, Im happy as you can always re-new a subscription if you d cease using the program.

Strange, my calculations has the Master Collection higher then 10 yrs. 10 yrs is still doable depending on how long you plan on being in whatever industry that requires their use. But 10 yrs could be so far out that "you" may not care. Just depends on the person.

Due to Win 10, I've gone to a more VM workflow, so I'm able to continue to use older products, while still keeping current with the latest hardware (and other OSs). Plus, I have the luxury of 90% of the files that I get are at best PDFs, but more often raster files. The vast majority of my vector files are ones that I've created, so I'm able to keep with the version of Ai, Ps, and Id that I currently use.

Ironically, once I found out that Adobe was doing subscription only, I went out and bought the Master Collection of CS6. I thought might as well as it would be the last version that I would more then likely get.