Easier Way For Photoshop Purchase?

[PrattGirl85]

Is there at all a way to get Photoshop by itself instead of this monthly payment plan? I do not make enough to do the monthly payment but I am in need of photoshop for my business.

[Moved out of the Community Help Application forum (which was for supporting a now-defunct software Adobe made to help people create their own help documentation) and into a Creative Cloud forum - moderator]

[Szalam · Accepted solution]

If you live in the US, the monthly payment is $10.

When you could purchase Photoshop, brand new, it was $700 just for Photoshop and nothing else.

With the Creative Cloud Photography plan, you can get Photoshop AND Lightroom CC for $10 a month (edit: plus cloud storage and several useful mobile apps).

Are you saying, you have enough money to pay $700, but you also don't have $10 a month?

For $700, you could subscribe to the Photography plan for 70 months (that's nearly six years). And that means you get both Photoshop and Lightroom CC (and mobile apps and cloud storage). AND you get access to the latest version as soon as soon as it releases. Previously, you had to pay $700 outright and you would only get Photoshop and then you had to pay $200 more every year (or so) to upgrade when new versions came out!

[Trevor.Dennis]

Szalam  wrote

If you live in the US, the monthly payment is $10.

And it's not even that if claimed as a business expense against tax.

[beverlybeverly]

Actually I don't think it was quite that expensive and you got upgrades free.

My internet connection is unstable, so CC is not for me.

[D Fosse]

You don't need continuous internet. All Photoshop asks for is to connect once every 90 days to verify that the license is valid.

[Szalam]

beverlybeverly  wrote

Actually I don't think it was quite that expensive and you got upgrades free.

My internet connection is unstable, so CC is not for me.

It was that expensive in the US. I checked to make sure I was giving exact figures. You did not get upgrades free with it either. You got small point updates, but not version upgrades.

And, as D Fosse points out, you don't need an always-on internet connection to use CC. You need it to download it initially, of course, but after that it only needs to do tiny checks every three months.

[John T Smith]

You may buy Photoshop Elements for a one time fee Easy Photo & Video Editing Software | Adobe Elements Family

If you must have the full Photoshop, it is via subscription only

[rayek.elfin]

If paying $10 rent a month is too much, alternatives are Affinity Photo or PhotoLine.

Btw, it is possible to expand Photoshop Elements (almost) up to an "unextended" version with this plugin:

The Plugin Site - Elements XXL for Windows

But it will increase the cost to beyond either Affinity Photo or PhotoLine. So it depends on the work you intend to do with Photoshop whether any of these might provide a viable alternative.

But if you need full Photoshop compatibility in order to work with external clients and Photoshop files, there's no other choice but to rent Photoshop.