Hi,
I am a very small player in the design world. I basically do edits and some small projects for clients as part of a much larger suite of services I offer. Unfortunately, I am no longer able to open new files (CS6 or CC) with InDesign CS5, and I'd like to upgrade. However, Adobe's switch to subscription fees is making this very difficult. The $50 / month that it costs to subscribe to Creative Cloud costs much more than the $250 I would spend to upgrade InDesign every few years (I upgraded to CS5 in 2010, which works out to $7/mo.), and it's hard to justify the subscription fee on a monthly basis since I don't make the majority of my living with Adobe products.
Is it worth paying $250 to upgrade to CS6 (the final non-subscription option)? This doesn't give me the ability to open CC files, so it seems pretty futile.
My current options are:
- Continue using CS5 ($0 forever)
- Upgrade to CS6 ($250 one-time)
- Upgrade to CC ($50 / month forever)
At this point, I'm not sure I can justify the $50 / month. Adobe seems to be geared to people who use their products for full-time work, and is working diligently to push us small players out of the market. This is very disappointing for me, as I'd like to keep doing what I love to do.