Purchasing Adobe software - cheapest (legal) method?

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fleggett

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If you are not a teacher or student, don't work in an eligible industry, and otherwise have zero insider contacts, where is the least expensive place to (legally) purchase Adobe software? I'd like/need CS5.5 Design Premium, but Newegg wants a coronary-inducing $1,800 and Amazon wants $1,600. At those prices, it would almost be cheaper to re-enroll at my local university for a class to quality for student pricing, but given my current work and home situation, that really isn't an option.

I fervently wish Adobe would institute a sane pricing model for home users, but I know that's not likely to happen in the foreseeable future. Thanks in advance.
 
My wife recently took a web design class that required her to have CS5.5. I shopped around, and Amazon seemed like the cheapest from the places I found.

Sad thing is, even though she qualified for the "student edition", it was still $600. And thats a crazy amount of money to pay for software she's going to use for 3 months and never use it again (gotta love electives). Luckily, I pushed her to investigate further, and her school offered the suite through their Citrix servers at no charge, so we didn't have to pay it.
 
Demon10000 said:
My wife recently took a web design class that required her to have CS5.5. I shopped around, and Amazon seemed like the cheapest from the places I found.

Sad thing is, even though she qualified for the "student edition", it was still $600. And thats a crazy amount of money to pay for software she's going to use for 3 months and never use it again (gotta love electives). Luckily, I pushed her to investigate further, and her school offered the suite through their Citrix servers at no charge, so we didn't have to pay it.
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If she is taking a web design class in hopes of a related career then she will be using the Adobe suite for far more than 3 months.
 
The Donut said:
If she is taking a web design class in hopes of a related career then she will be using the Adobe suite for far more than 3 months.
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Her degree focus is in education. As I said, it's software she'll never use again...
 
As of April 2011, Adobe is offering rentals of their flagship products.

http://blogs.adobe.com/conversation...-adobe-creative-suite-5-5-product-family.html

Adobe Design Premium CS5.5 can be rented for $89 per month, which would make sense if you're only going to use it for a few months and don't have options like Demon10000's wife did.

The fact is that Adobe Design Premium is a flagship product, and as such it gets flagship prices.
 
This edition on Amazon is only $400. I'm not sure what limitations it has. If you have kids you could use one of their report cards as proof as a 'student'.
 
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evilsofa said:
It has these limitations. From what the OP says, getting the Student and Teacher edition is not an option.
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He is not a student or teacher. According to that list, you could use a report card. Like I said, if he has kids he could use one of theirs and buy it under their name. By limitations, I meant software features.
 
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I always trashed my report cards. ;)

I COULD obtain the student edition via...well, I'd better not go there. However, I was hoping to find a retail, non-upgrade edition that I could register under my own name at a relatively sane price. I understand this is Adobe's flagship product and all that, but still, $1,800 and $1,600 is far and above what the typical home user can afford.

I knew about the renting option, but even at $89/month, that's still $1,068/year. And I still wouldn't be any closer to owning the suite, which is my ultimate goal.

Sounds like the lowest is Amazon's, which is just not in the cards.
 
bigdogchris said:
He is not a student or teacher. According to that list, you could use a report card. Like I said, if he has kids he could use one of theirs and buy it under their name. By limitations, I meant software features.
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It's exactly the same software. You aren't supposed to use it for commercial purposes or some nonsense.

You just need an education email or proof of enrolement (can't remember which I used, I think it was the edu email). Which you can get from anyone enroled in a school/university (relatives/friends children/friends). Then you save a huge amount.
 
I purchased many Adobe products at educational prices, the only non educational product I bought was Lightroom3 (which is the only sane pricing model they have).

There's a couple of methods to buying Adobe products for cheaper.

1) Buy an old license then upgrade it.

This is basically buying an outdated version on eBay or Craigslist, using the serial key for an upgrade to the latest version. This typically works for like for like, for example it would work upgrading from PS CS2 to CS5, but upgrading from PS CS2 to the CS5 suite might not work. Prices are usually a 1/3 to 1/2 off the retail pricing.

Word of warning, do not buy educational licenses as they are not upgradable.

2) Coupons and cash back.

Just searching for deals and using cash back on the purchase. Good thing is for commercial work this is the cheapest route and really the only legal method allowed.

3) Educational route.

This is the cheapest by far. If you don't have educational status, enroll at the local community college, get a edu e-mail or just a scanned form of your schedule. Then you can submit this to many on-line retailers. Many college bookstores also sell software and often don't check to see who's buying it.

The draw back is if you're using this for commercial work, it's not allowed and in some cases the "educational version" tag can be found in your work. If you're just using it for personal use, and learning from it, I think Adobe wouldn't say anything that it's out of bounds for legal use. You're not making money from it and you're learning the software, which I think is the idea of educational versions.
 
Regarding the educational route, I don't think it's as simple as having an .edu address. According to feedback left on Amazon, Adobe requires things like a current class curriculum, tuition bill, and other assorted proofs. Otherwise, it wouldn't be an issue in my case, as I have an .edu address by virtue of my alumni status through my alma mater university.

My nephew is currently attending and I can get an educational license through him. However, it'll be his name on the license, not mine, and it'll be the educational version, not retail, which is why I haven't pursued this method (I otherwise have little scruples on the matter).

I think you can upgrade educational licenses, at least according to some essays I've seen on Amazon. I purchased CS3 back when I was attending and it looks like it might be upgradeable for around $940. I'm leery about this route, though.

My ultimate goal is to have a personally registered, retail-level license of the product. I've looked through eBay to see if anyone is looking to unload their suite, but didn't see any ads.

The coupon/cash back route sounds interesting, but is it really that much discounted from the MSRP?
 
fleggett said:
Regarding the educational route, I don't think it's as simple as having an .edu address. According to feedback left on Amazon, Adobe requires things like a current class curriculum, tuition bill, and other assorted proofs. Otherwise, it wouldn't be an issue in my case, as I have an .edu address by virtue of my alumni status through my alma mater university.

My nephew is currently attending and I can get an educational license through him. However, it'll be his name on the license, not mine, and it'll be the educational version, not retail, which is why I haven't pursued this method (I otherwise have little scruples on the matter).

...
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Unless Adobe changed their program in the last two years, this is a worst case. In most cases you can buy educational software from a college bookstore without any ID, and if they require ID, have your nephew buy it for you. The activation process usually is them boxing a temp key which you use to activate a final key. Once you buy the software, even if it's educational, I don't think there's any further check that you're a student.

Honestly, for the price, why not register for a Photoshop class then buy the software? My local community college costs $31 per unit, maybe $200 for a class, then buy the software for $400?
 
You should really look into alternative software like Gimp and Paint.net

I am making a big assumption here in thinking that you're not that proficient with the Adobe Suite and you've probably just heard a lot of promo about it. That's all rubbish.

All software is good once you become familiar with it. Gimp is fantastic, and it's 100% free. It may not have all the features of Photoshop, but it comes pretty damn close. Certainly more than you will ever use. Dreamweaver is a completely useless piece of software. There are tons of alternatives to inDesign.

As a matter of fact that only two components on the adobe suite that you can't fully replace with free alternatives are Illustrator and Flash. If you know you will be using heavily one of those, then just buy that ONE program.

Who uses the whole suite anyway? Most of it is just bloat-ware.
 
Well, even at $400, that's a huge gamble if Adobe requires more than just an .edu address. And Amazon apparently doesn't offer a refund if you screw things up. Going the local college bookstore route MIGHT work, as alumni I retain many of my student-based credentials, so that's worth pursuing.

However, it's still just the educational version, which I wanted to originally avoid, if at all possible. I realize that's becoming less and less likely, though.

I'm just not in a position to dedicate myself to even one class right now. Besides, at $200 for the class, then $400 for the suite, that's a $600 monetary investment in addition to the time investment of the class (I'd prefer to have good attendance and not get a poor grade). I might as well just pay the $900+ if I'm eligible for an upgrade.

mastaBlasta, you're actually a bit off, as I am fairly well versed in Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Illustrator, and even InDesign going back to PageMaker (I don't mess with Flash). I'm certainly not a master with any of those, but I'm an old dog who can't learn new tricks very well, so I'd prefer to stick with the Adobe stuff. I do respect and appreciate those who can pursue "the alternatives", though.

God, I just wish Adobe would give us home users a freaking break. At least Microsoft allows various easily pursued alternatives to their high MSRPs.
 
robscomputer said:
The draw back is if you're using this for commercial work, it's not allowed and in some cases the "educational version" tag can be found in your work.
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It can? I'm pretty sure when you output a jpeg/TIF/bmp from photoshop it's just a jpeg. There no watermarks, or meta data thats forced into the file. Even if you allow meta data, the raw/meta data just lists "Adobe Photoshop CS5 Windows" on either version.

But anyway read this page

Specifically:

Can I use my Adobe Student and Teacher Edition software for commercial use?

Yes. You may purchase a Student and Teacher Edition for personal as well as commercial use.
Click to expand...
 
They really changed the rules for educational software. After reading that you could use the software for commercial use, why wouldn't anyone buy the retail version?
 
robscomputer said:
They really changed the rules for educational software. After reading that you could use the software for commercial use, why wouldn't anyone buy the retail version?
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I'm not really sure. It is the exact same software, with all the features. If you really need to upgrade you can reapply for another education version or upgrade to the "professional" one (not sure if you can upgrade from the education CS4 to professional CS5 etc.)

Then again media prodution software is expected to be expensive. Photoshop is pretty reasonable compared to some plugins :(

But it is supposed to be fore people who aren't in education or whatever. Though, it should be noted this is EULA nonsense and doesn't have any real meaning.
 
Well, I think I'm gonna do this - my graduating university is offering Design Premium for a very appealing $350. I'll buy it from the bookstore and attempt to register it with Adobe using just my school .edu address. According to the link DeathPrincess posted, this won't work, as I'll be absent the necessary proofs, but I suppose it's worth a try. If that fails, then I'll get my nephew involved. That's the most economical and temporal option I can see.
 
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