It seems only yesterday, that Adobe's Creative Suite 6 heralded a new age for software companies. The age of the subscription-based license for major industry-standard software. No longer could you buy the software and reasonably expect to use it until your computer finally got replaced, and the new software had to be bought again. In short, you paid for the time you'd be allowed to use the software, not the software itself, and as soon as that time is up, you're done.
Why companies have adopted the subscription model:
Software companies think it's great because it nearly eliminates software piracy when you need a valid and current account on their servers. Even though the software might be installed on a user's computer, regular checks with the license server through the Internet is required to maintain functionality. Subscription-based licenses also ensure the software companies get nice, regular income to (in theory) continually improve their products. This leads to faster development cycles and more amazing software.
What are the benefits for users, and which users benefit most from a subscription model?
Users, instead of paying hundreds or even thousands of dollars "up-front" for stand-alone licenses that usually work for a specific version of that software, spread their costs over time. The user can pay a monthly amount, and be eligible for all updates as they occur. Very heavy users will benefit most from a time-based license, as they can install it on multiple machines, and update them to the current version. If there's a time saving feature added, professional users will gain more efficiency with minimal delay, further adding value to the subscription license.
Subscriptions also allow people who want to try the full functioning software for a one-off task for a much more affordable price. However, this assumes they cancel the subscription when they're done.
Who doesn't benefit from a subscription model?
However, subscriptions do not suit people who are light ongoing users, or intermittent users who can't justify regularly subscribing and canceling. They're paying for the time, but much of that time is unused. This is a common complaint about Adobe products since the subscription model puts them out of the reach of potential users. It's not just Adobe though...
What else is on a subscription-based system?
Microsoft has also followed suit with Office 365, most anti-virus programs have long-used subscription-based licensing arrangements to fund the ongoing battle with those who do evil computery things. Taking it even further, domain licensing, and web hosting along with a whole host of other Cloud-based services, are usually subscription based by their very nature.
Are subscription so bad?
Now, I'm not saying that there is no situation in which subscriptions have brought about amazing deals, flexible arrangements, and dulling the pain of initial financial outlays. However, they need to be closely managed and regularly re-assessed. With "direct debits", mortgages, streaming services, mobile and Internet plans, it seems that an ever-increasing amount of products and services are helping themselves to your bank account on a monthly basis, it can seem a lot like "the death of a thousand paper cuts". Sure they might individually be small, but collectively, they add up. With subscriptions, you also lose a degree of freedom, and there is no sympathy if your child gets hit by a car, and the medical bills have drained your savings when those subscription payments are due. So when you really can't afford to lose the ability to work, you just might do so. Some subscriptions allow you to pay for a year in advance, but that brings it back up toward the old standalone prices. That said....
There is a dark side to subscriptions.
Let's look a the "app" phenomenon for mobile devices. It's not uncommon to "buy" an app (even when it's free) for your particular mobile device. Despite "purchasing" the app, there might be an underlying subscription attached as well. That's a scary thought, because this is done through "In app, purchases" which again, is a misleading title.
For example, I was reviewing a Dyson air purifier for ProductReview.com.au in December 2019, and used a sound pressure level (SPL) app on my phone to measure the noise levels at various fan speeds. The app itself was "free" and had a free trial (for a trivial 3 day period only) and from there would charge me $10 per month. Ok, it did tell me, but if I was in the habit of just clicking "next" in a "free" app, to get to the usable bits, I would have been paying for it without knowing.
Honestly, it's easy to get caught out with this sort of arrangement. If an app has "in app purchases" which really aren't optional extras, and will start being charged automatically on an ongoing bases.. I actually feel that the "free" designation is intentionally misleading. As such, I used the software for my review for just a few hours, cancelled the subscription with prejudice, then deleted the app just to be sure. (Note that deleting the app does NOT necessarily cancel your subscription). I don't care if the software is amazing, this kind of Trojan horse (free app, with ongoing payment plan later) really seems predatory to me, and banks on people's inattention to catch them off guard.
While it is true that subscriptions may offer flexibility, but they also are an ongoing consideration that requires thought and attention. With so much going on in everyone's life, who wants to think about whether they're still benefiting from each and every subscription they have? (This of course, assumes that they are aware of every subscription) Are people going to do this on a regular basis? Probably not. If you're "old school" and just want to buy something once... you're not alone.
The "Anti Subscription" movement:
Now Microsoft Office, and Adobe aren't alone in using subscriptions. With many other programs are now operating on subscription, it can be hard when the industry-standard software subscriptions aren't suited to you and thus ends up being unavailable to you.
Photographers unite against subscriptions:
Photographers around the world (particularly those in the hobbyist levels) may not take photos all the time, nor would they make the most of a subscription license even if they had one. So Photographers have been searching for some time now, for viable free or non-subscription alternatives to both Lightroom and Photoshop.
If you like free, try the GNU Image Manipulation Program (a.k.a: "Gimp") found at:
G.I.M.P. is amazing at simple edits, but is admittedly closer to a very old version of Photoshop. However, the strength here is the free price tag and the fact that it is compatible with Windows, Mac OS, and Linux. So there's a lot of flexibility there.
However, if you want something commercial-grade with old-school "stand alone" licenses, most of these will work on BOTH Mac and Windows machines:
- Affinity https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/photo/ This is an alternative to Lightroom, and I have to say that it works very well.
- DXO's Photolab https://www.dxo.com/ and DXO's Nik Collection: https://nikcollection.dxo.com The Nik collection is a suite of stand-alone applications and plug-ins that are really useful, easy to use, and have incredible results. I really love DXOs camera+lens profile system, automatically compensating for the combination of both lens issues and camera. The ViewPoint plug-in is incredible for correcting point of view (POV) issues, making parallel lines, parallel and square again. Perfect adjusting architectural and real estate images.
- If you do HDR there are a few options. Consider trying Photomatix, Aurora HDR, Nik collection again, specifically HDR Efex)
- Do extreme macro work? Or use focus stacking? Try Zerene Stacker with lifetime licenses, including ALL updates! Zerene, I love you for life, literally! http://zerenesystems.com/cms/stacker
- Capture One https://www.captureone.com/en/ Not the cheapest by any means, however please note that this software blows Adobe out of the water for raw processing, and it's what medium and large format shooters (the people who shoot cameras capable of doing 100 megapixels and beyond use. You gotta understand, 150MP cameras requires nothing but the best, and most exacting controls, and efficient code (not always Adobe's strong suit).
Subscription-free alternatives to Microsoft Office:
LibreOffice
Those who know me, have probably heard my spiel about free alternatives to Microsoft Office. I did most of my essays, assignments, lab reports, and data analysis during university degrees using OpenOffice. However, a new and substantially better spin-off from that is "LibreOffice" found at:
The great thing about LibreOffice is that it works on Windows, Mac OS, and Linux. It's free (but you can make a donation if you wish) and it opens up all Microsoft Office files... even some corrupt ones that Microsoft Office can't. It has a robust document recovery feature, and has the equivalents of Word (called Writer), Excel (called Calc), Access (called Base), and PowerPoint (called Impress). It also has a drawing program, and a formula editor as well.
I heartily recommend that you install this on any computer, even if you already have Microsoft Office on there. It's useful as a backup document editor/creator.
Pages, Numbers & Keynote (Mac Users Only):
If you've been considering making the switch from Windows to Mac (perhaps because you already have an iPhone, iPad, iPod, or you have Mac-obsessed friends) or if you have already bought a Mac sometime since 2016, you either have these apps preinstalled on your Mac, or you're entitled to download it from the Apple "App Store" for free. Don't assume you need Office! Try these programs because you have nothing to lose from it.
Pages is the closest equivalent to Word. It is very pretty, has a ton of pre-made templates, or you can just create a new blank file. It's up to you. If you have kids at school who need to do homework, or you want to make flyers, dash off a recipe, or write your manifesto, this is more than enough for most people. It may not have all the features of Word, but I don't find it lacking at all for general use. If you're looking to do scientific papers... embed a ton of formulas, and use a ton of special characters.. this probably isn't for you. (I'd also argue that Word isn't the best choice either with it's semi-functional "formula editor").
Numbers is Apple's equivalent of Excel, it works pretty well, and the interface is clean. I found that it doesn't have some of the more exotic formula functions like cubed root, but it's more than enough for everyday folks.
Keynote is a much, much better alternative to PowerPoint. It honestly is the crown jewel of presentation software. PowerPoint users will know how painful PowerPoint can be, despite it being the global industry standard. Add media, and half the time, it won't work when you're in front of hundreds of people. <Cue frantic request to tech support and make apologies here>. Keynote is light years ahead of PowerPoint. It just works, and does not need additional plugins for every other action you want to do. Simply drag a video file onto your presentation. It puts a little window with the video file there or allows full-screen playback from the outset. It allows you to automatically play, or manually start playing the file. It allows you to choose the start and stop point on the file (keeping your presentation short and relevant), play once, or loop it (if you'd like). It handles the majority of media file formats, and it it does it all seamlessly. Want a sound file? It offers the same thing.. just without the video-related bits. Keynote users can plug their Mac, iPad, and even iPhone these days into the lecture theatre's system, and smugly be confident that their presentation will work flawlessly, and they probably spent 2-3 hours less making the presentation itself... leaving more time for "upstaging PowerPoint users", or just enjoying life in general. So why isn't it the industry standard? Because Apple doesn't make it for Windows. That's it.
Is there any way to be completely free from subscription software?
Yes, but it's not going to suit everyone, and it will greatly depend on the type of software you want to use. If you want a completely subscription free software experience.. with absolutely zero requirements for credit card/PayPal/direct deposit information... then you're probably going to need to consider running Linux.
Linux has a bit of reputation for being a difficult operating system to use, fit for only the nerdiest of computer nerds. However, while it's going to be different from Windows and Mac (less so for Mac, since Mac was based on a similar heritage to Linux) there are versions which are very easy to use, offer compatibility with a huge number of computers, and is free. However, Linux's Achilles heel is that most commercial-grade software isn't compatible. So computer programmers around the world wrote a whole bunch of software, which you can download and install (again for free) from their equivalent of the App store (software manager/software centre).
Linux comes in a multitude of flavours, (called "distributions") If I had to suggest one, all-rounder, beginner-friendly, highly capable, and well supported distribution, it would be Ubuntu. You can get Ubuntu completely free from:
If you're going to give it a try, I'd recommend downloading the Desktop version. Now the best part, you can "Try" Ubuntu before you install it onto your computer by effectively running it from a USB stick, an external hard disk, or even a "burned" DVD. Instructions on how to do that can be found here:
https://tutorials.ubuntu.com/tutorial/try-ubuntu-before-you-install#0
Want to know something cool. This DVD/USB can run your computer, even if you REMOVE your hard disk... so if you've got an old machine around with a dead drive, pop a Ubuntu DVD/USB into the machine, boot from aforementioned device, and you're now able to browse the web (maybe to order a new hard disk). GIMP, LibreOffice, web browsers, email clients, media players, and thousands of other programs are at available at no charge. However, don't expect anything made by Adobe, Autodesk, Microsoft, and many of the commercial software mentioned above to work. So there's going to be a trade off.
My final thoughts on subscriptions:
Honestly, I think subscriptions have a place. However, they're certainly not for everyone. Some software companies offer both subscription-based and stand alone licensing for the same product. Others... not so much.
Because I am loath to relinquish any control over my finances, I have to use software a lot for me to justify an ongoing payment plan. If I can get the job done without all that hassle, I'll generally choose to do so. However, the harsh reality is that there isn't always a viable alternative, particularly if you want cross-platform (Windows, Mac, Linux) compatibility.
I can't tell you what is, and isn't appropriate for your situation, preferred operating system, or your routine software use. However, I don't think there's any harm in looking at both the mainstream, industry-standard applications and the alternatives (many offer trials..or are free). At least you've looked at your options and that should help you to make an informed decision from there.
I hope this helps. Take care, stay safe, and have fun!
Ham.