Adobe Creative Cloud Review - The Top Pack of Multimedia Tools

Since you’re here, you’ve probably heard about or even used at least one of the Adobe solutions.

What if we told you you could have them all in one place?

The company takes the multimedia world by storm, buying numerous businesses and merging them all, constantly broadening its wide range of apps. This is how Creative Cloud cam~e together—a costly but giant collection of Adobe solutions.

In this Adobe Creative Cloud review, we at Web Tribunal explain how it works and evaluate its capabilities to see whether it’s worth the price.

What Is Adobe Creative Cloud, and Do I Need it?

Creative Cloud is the most extensive collection of Adobe software and services. With more than 20 desktop and mobile applications in one place, this is the biggest Adobe package.

It’s the go-to solution for photography, graphic or web design, video editing, web development, and more.

How Does Adobe Creative Cloud Work?

As the name suggests, this set of applications relies on cloud storage to help you share files and collaborate with other users with ease. This is one of the key Adobe Creative Cloud benefits.

The other features that make the use of this collection of tools possible are its version controls and syncing capabilities.

Since Creative Cloud’s components are installed directly on your computer, it does not fall under SaaS (Software as a Service). For the most part, this is great, as that means that you can also use them offline.

The most notable apps in the package are:

• Acrobat Pro DC
• Photoshop
• Lightroom
• Premiere Rush
• Premiere Pro
• Illustrator
• InDesign
• After Effects
• Animate
• Audition
• Dreamweaver
• XD
• Spark
• InCopy
• Dimension

Adobe CC Features

As you can see, the list of apps in this package is too long to analyze each one in detail. In this Adobe CC review, we focus on the big ones.

Acrobat Pro DC

Starting off with the basics, Adobe Acrobat is probably the most popular PDF file editor on the market. We put an emphasis on “editor,” as it is not your everyday PDF viewer.

With it, you can create and edit PDF files, as well as share them and convert them into other file formats.

The program can be used not just on Windows but also on Mac, Android, and iOS.

Acrobat DC is fast, extremely easy to use, and has an impressive feature list. A particularly useful Adobe CC feature for business is the option to sign PDF forms.

The most common complaints about Acrobat are about occasional glitches and its relatively high price. Luckily, the latter doesn’t apply here, as it’s included in the Creative Cloud package.

Photoshop

This wouldn’t be a complete Creative Cloud review without mentioning Photoshop.

The premier raster graphics editor has it all—you can draw something from scratch, edit photos, make collages, and more. Its unparalleled flexibility even lets you dig a bit into web page design.

Although plenty of alternatives exist, Photoshop is a must for everyone who wants to follow the latest design trends.

Still, it has its disadvantages.

The platform is easy to learn but very difficult to master. Additionally, its user interface can be confusing at times, especially with the constant software upgrades. Some users are also annoyed and overwhelmed by the huge number of features it has.

Purchased separately, it’s rather expensive. But the Adobe CC discount that features Photoshop and Lightroom makes it more affordable. Besides it’s also included in the Creative Cloud package.

In spite of these minor issues, Photoshop is still widely considered the best graphics editor.

Lightroom

Although this isn’t the main focus of this Creative Cloud review, we discuss the Lightroom plans too.

More suitable for a photo rather than graphics editing, Lightroom allows you to organize and process a huge number of photographs with ease. Its main selling point is that it’s relatively simple to use even though it offers a multitude of versions.

The only noticeable downside is that it can strain the hardware with big photo catalogs. That, however, is to be expected from professional software.

You can purchase this program for $9.99/month and get Adobe Spark, Portfolio, and 1TB cloud storage on top of that.

Although the various courses make it accessible for newcomers, Lightroom is primarily intended for professional photographers.

If you fall under the latter category, any Adobe Creative Cloud photography review would recommend purchasing one of the Photography packages.

With them, you can create and transform photos using both Lightroom and Photoshop. You also get Adobe Spark and Portfolio on top of that. The $9.99/month plan comes with 20GB of cloud storage. For $19.99/month, you can upgrade to 1TB.

And since your files are on the cloud, you can easily hop from a computer to your phone and tablet and continue where you left off.

Premiere Rush and Premiere Pro

Even with the popularity of competing video editors such as Vegas, Adobe Premiere has managed to stay relevant after all these years. It is subdivided into Rush and Pro—a more simplified version and a more advanced edition.

While it lacks the advanced features of Premiere Pro, Rush has great cross-platform support and an even simpler interface. Both apps let you work with audio, but with Pro, you can download royalty-free tracks directly from the software too.

Thanks to the Project Sync feature, Premiere Rush and Pro work really well together. You can make quick, small edits with Rush first, then transfer a project to Pro to develop it further.

Just like with Lightroom, the only real issues here are the hardware requirements, but again, this is to be expected - video processing is demanding.

Adobe Illustrator

Adobe Illustrator is to vector graphics what Photoshop is to raster. The reason why dedicated Adobe Illustrator reviews are absolutely crazy about it lies in its flawless execution.

It does exactly what it’s supposed to so well that even graphic designers and artists can and do use it. Of course, it’s most suitable for illustrators, but many features, like the ability to make multiple artboards, are appreciated by everyone.

Other than a rare glitch, it’s nearly impossible to find anything wrong with it. Even the mobile version is great, although not as good as the computer counterpart.

Oh, and did we mention you can use Adobe Fonts with it, downloading typefaces from within the app?

InDesign

The most important design app right after Photoshop and Illustrator, InDesign is a must for multipage layouts. Its main focus is creating brochures, magazines, books, etc.

That said, it excels at editing all pages at once and saving projects as interactive PDF files. Just like Illustrator, Photoshop, and XD, InDesign seamlessly integrates with Adobe Fonts.

The only complaint we have is the use of a separate set of hotkeys instead of one, as with Photoshop or Illustrator.

After Effects

After Effects is by far the biggest software for special effects. It allows you to add effects to existing videos but also create animations from scratch. It’s surprisingly powerful for motion graphics, too, and it’s not too hard to learn.

And it keeps getting better thanks to all the updates, like most other programs mentioned in this Adobe CC review.

You can even set up 3D layers now! If that’s not enough, you can always get specialized plugins, making the program even more powerful.

Similarly to Photoshop, it might even have too many features, but that shouldn’t be as much of a turnoff. It hardly has any other cons.

Dreamweaver

If you’re into web design principles and creating websites, Dreamweaver is right up your alley. With its easy-to-use GUI coupled with stability and power, it’s an excellent tool for a variety of purposes and users.

That said, if you do decide to try Creative Cloud, this is not a good starting place, despite its WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) approach.

You can use it without typing code, but it’s still not very suitable for beginners. Dreamweaver’s integrations with other Adobe CC apps make it worthwhile, but the learning curve is steep.

Although it’s also great for responsive design, it is not the best DIY website builder either. WordPress heavily trumps it, as it offers both website design and hosting options. If you’re used to Adobe’s GUI, though, you’ll probably love Dreamweaver.

XD

Commonly mixed with Dreamweaver, Adobe XD is a UI and UX prototyping tool. It’s pretty new to the scene, yet it is already one of the best.

It is great for responsive and interactive design, fast, and packed with interesting features. The Repeat Grid lets you make copies of various elements, which is specifically useful for prototyping.

While it could have more features, XD has templates and kits that will help you stay up to date with the latest web design trends. Finally, unlike other apps mentioned in this Adobe Creative Cloud review, XD even has a free version—and a pretty good one.

Adobe CC Downsides

The Adobe apps and services only have some minor downsides we already touched on.

In this 2022 Adobe Creative Cloud review, we discuss the shortcomings of the whole package as a service.

Subscription Model

This is both a good and a bad thing, but we’re inclined to lean toward the latter a bit more. The good thing about subscription models is you don’t have to pay for any sort of updates.

However, in the long run, this can prove to be very expensive. That leads us straight to the second and last big downside of this collection.

Expensive for Novice Users

If you’re not completely reliant on several of these apps, this is an unnecessarily expensive suite. Sure, there are some Adobe CC deals here and there, but not all amateur users should purchase it.

Let’s move on to the next section to further break down the plans and pricing.

Adobe CC Price

Considering the high price of this collection, the 7-day trial is particularly useful. During this period, you can technically try each CC program in the package. But given the large number of apps, this time may not be enough.

That said, the prices of the Adobe Creative Cloud solutions, paid individually, are huge and definitely not worth it if you aren’t using more than two or three. Why pay around $10 to $20 per program per month when you can get all of them for a bit more?

Finally, whichever plan you choose, you also get Adobe Stock for free for 30 days. But beware that you have to cancel that subscription in time, or you will be charged after that period expires.

The same stands true for all Adobe CC services after the 7-day free trial.

Adobe CC Support

Adobe has been around for over 30 years, so it comes as no surprise that it has a huge knowledge base. This includes dedicated FAQ sections and community forums for each major program. If that’s not enough, you can always consult the Adobe CC Reddit channel.

Customer support is another story. Our experience with the team was extremely positive—the reps were knowledgeable and kind. But complaints from other users are a common occurrence.

On average, the Adobe Creative Cloud support reviews are negative, but we take this with a grain of salt. There are huge misunderstandings surrounding Adobe’s cancellation fee, although that is clearly explained in the Terms and Conditions.

While we do acknowledge this issue, our final ruling about the quality of customer support is rather positive.

Adobe CC User Reviews

With the exception of the above-mentioned problems with support, customers are generally satisfied with Adobe CC. Nearly every Adobe Creative Cloud review on Reddit will tell you it’s worth the price, especially people using multiple apps.

Apart from the occasional complaint about the cost or the support team, this is one of the most liked products on the market.

When to Use Adobe Creative Cloud

As mentioned many times in this Adobe CC review, this is a multipurpose product and its application depends on the needs of the customer.

If you are a professional in one area looking for a particular solution, there’s no need to purchase the entire collection.

You might be better off buying a single Adobe app or one of its alternatives. For example, if you’re a web designer, you might prefer WordPress or one of the other best do-it-yourself website builders on the market.

But if you’re working with multiple Adobe apps on a daily basis, this is the perfect product for you and your team.

Final Verdict

The pros and cons of Adobe Creative Cloud we outlined above clearly show that each and every one of the apps in the package is worth your while.

If you are a long-time Adobe user or a professional using multiple programs that CC covers, you should definitely give it a try.

If the price of this Adobe Creative suite seems too high and you’re not sure you need more than two or three of the apps in the package, you’re better off with another solution.