Since Adobe has started focusing on Adobe Creative Cloud as its primary product, its pricing models have changed significantly from the old days. Now, you have to sign up for a monthly plan to get access to your favourite Adobe tools.
Adobe has multiple plans available and some of the pricing is actually counter-intuitive. Plus, the plans are not easy to compare on Adobe’s website.
In this post, we’ll go through the Adobe Photography Plan vs Photoshop plan as well as the Adobe Lightroom plan.
On the whole, the 20GB Adobe Photography Plan is the best value because you get both Lightroom and Photoshop for just $9.99 per month. This can take care of your photo editing and sorting.
Key takeaways
- The Adobe photography plan is quite well-rounded except for the cloud storage feature.
- However, you could use another storage app like dropbox if you need the extra space.
Adobe Photography Plans
- 20GB Photography Plan
- 1TB Photography Plan
- 100GB Photoshop Plan
- 1TB Lightroom Plan
The Photography plan and Lightroom Plan give you access to both Photoshop and Lightroom, as well as cloud storage. The last two Photoshop and Lightroom plans only give you access to either of those programs, but they do allow for more cloud storage.
It seems that Adobe is really focusing on Creative Cloud as their main offering rather than Adobe Photoshop or Lightroom itself, since cloud storage is the main differentiating factor between the two.
Cloud storage would be useful if most of your cloud storage is only for your creative workflow and nothing else.
Still, the cloud storage isn’t that much value for money because other providers like Dropbox give you far more space for about the same price.
Adobe Photography Plan vs Photoshop Plan
| Adobe Photography Plan | Adobe Photoshop Plan | |
| Lightroom Basic | Yes | No |
| Lightroom Mobile | Yes | No |
| Lightroom Classic | Yes | No |
| Photoshop Desktop | Yes | Yes |
| Photoshop for iPad | Yes | Yes |
| Adobe Fresco(Drawing) | No | Yes |
| Cloud Storage | 20GB or 1TB | 100GB |
| Price | $9.99/month | $20.99/month |
| Start trial | Start trial |
The Photography Plan gets you to access to both Photoshop and Lightroom for around $10, whereas the Photoshop Plan gets you Photoshop and Adobe Fresco (for drawing) without Lightroom for $20.
You also get more storage in the Photoshop plan.
So if you’re not into photography but do lots of illustration and editing, the Photoshop plan does get you more storage and the added Frecso app.
However, you may already use another drawing app like Procreate and don’t want to pay an extra $10 per month, in which case the Photography Plan is still better valued because you’ll now have a full photography suite at your disposal.
Adobe Lightroom Plan vs Photography Plan
There’s another dedicated Lightroom-only plan with a lot more cloud storage space which costs the same as the Photography plan.
However, this plan only gets you Lightroom, not Lightroom Classic, which is more fully-featured.
| Adobe Lightroom Plan | Adobe Photography Plan | |
| Lightroom Basic | Yes | Yes |
| Lightroom Mobile | Yes | Yes |
| Lightroom Classic | No | Yes |
| Photoshop Desktop | No | Yes |
| Photoshop for iPad | No | Yes |
| Adobe Fresco | No | No |
| Cloud Storage | 1 TB | 20GB or 1 TB |
| Price | $9.99/month | $9.99/month |
| Start Trial | Start Trial |
What else is included in all Creative Cloud plans
- Adobe Fonts: A library of 20,000 fonts that you can use in your creative work
- Adobe Portfolio: A service that lets you easily create your portfolio to show to potential clients and employers
- Creative Cloud Learn: A video library of hundreds of tutorials on how to best use Adobe apps
- Two-system installation: All plans let you install the apps you sign up for on up to two computers
- Options for monthly or yearly subscriptions
Conclusion
Out of all the plans that Adobe offers, the Adobe Photography Plan is the best value because it gets both Photoshop, Lightroom, and a bit of cloud storage.
The only reason to go for any other plan is if you need extra cloud storage.