Paul Murray
Ultimate Member
And of course the £45 monthly subscription charge for their new cloud service makes no distinction between a new business or an established one. It's a major disincentive to smaller less experienced businesses with greater financial risks. I think it would be far better if they included two options here-
1. The £45 monthly subscription fee and your profits are yours, or
2. £10-£15 per month for new businesses (in the first year maybe) and you pay then a % of all your profits gained from any work using their software, maybe up to three years. Something like 5-20% maybe, I don't know.
That way it would be less of an incentive for people to use illegal versions and they might even make more money. As it stands though, for smaller businesses it's just a kick in the teeth as far as initial set up costs go.
I understand the need to keep start-up costs down, but paying monthly is much easier on the wallet than having to fork out for everything in one go. Plus, £45 a month is really not a great expenditure for a business. I like the incentive of a flat reduced rate for start-ups/freelancers in their first year, but the declaring of profits made through the packages is hard to calculate or enforce. But, don't forget that a company with 10 designers will need to purchase 10 licenses (though they can get a reduced cost through buying in volume), where as a sole-trader can get by with just one.
The point I'm making is Adobe produce a set of powerful, high-end tools intended for businesses and their pricing reflects that. It's the same with 3D modelling an animation packages – they are intended to be used by professionals who make a lot of money through the software. Consumers and sole-traders aren't really their target market, hence the price-tag.