(Last updated on November 2nd, 2022)
Are you ready to use Lightroom for your photography edits? Are you wondering what your options are when it comes to buying the software? Check out this article on how to buy Lightroom at the best price.
What is Lightroom?
Lightroom is sometimes referred to as Lightroom CC as it’s sometimes known for being part of the Creative Cloud. It is what is referred to as a non-destructive photo editor. The tools present are only for editing specific aspects of photographs and not for graphical means like drawing or adding text.
Lightroom can be used on both desktop and mobile devices. There’s little difference between the two since both of them use sliders for making edits. It’s also a lot more fun to edit on tablets considering you can use your fingers to push and slide your brightness or contrast quickly.
Lightroom also comes in the form of Lightroom Classic. This app can perform the same duties as Lightroom but with more detailed HDR or panoramic images tools. You’ll want to use that program if you’re a professional photographer or seeking to develop more complex photos.
How much does Lightroom cost?
Lightroom costs a monthly subscription of $9.99 to use through Adobe’s Creative Cloud platform. After purchasing the program, you’ll be instructed to download the Creative Cloud Desktop. Through that program, you can then download and install Lightroom on your computer.
The price of the app not only gives you access to Lightroom. You’ll get one terabyte of cloud storage space for uploading all your photos for convenient access. This can be a handy feature if you want to edit your photographs on multiple devices and need access to them quickly through a cloud storage space.
What is the Photography Plan?
Adobe offers a Photography Plan that is ideal for photographers. This plan will give you access to Lightroom, Lightroom Classic, and even Photoshop for $9.99 a month. Considering that Photoshop costs $20.99 a month on its own to use, that’s a big bargain.
But what about Lightroom Classic? Why would a photographer need that application? Don’t let the name of this application fool you. Lightroom Classic is quite powerful and essential, considering it can perform many things Lightroom CC has yet to feature.
Lightroom Classic does have a few limitations you should know about. For starters, it can only be used on a desktop, so you won’t have the convenience of seamlessly switching from mobile to desktop environments. The interface is also a bit busier and will take some time to learn.
Should you get the Creative Cloud plan?
The more expensive but complete package is the complete Adobe Creative Cloud plan. This package gives you access to every Adobe application housed on the Creative Cloud. This includes Lightroom and Photoshop but also Illustrator, Premiere, and so much more.
If you’re a student or teacher thinking about buying this package, there’s a reduced price. You can pay as little as $19.99 a month for the complete Creative Cloud if you are approved. That’s a considerable discount well worth the cost if you’re seeking to learn a little bit of everything.
There’s also small-to-medium business and enterprise-level pricing. The small business level will cost you a little more but will give you access to business-level support options to keep all your projects organized within your team environment. You’ll have to contact Adobe to get a quote for Enterprise level pricing.
| Product | Regular Price |
|---|---|
| Adobe Creative Cloud | $52.99/month |
| Adobe Photoshop | $20.99/month |
| Adobe Lightroom | $9.99/month |
| Photography Plan | $9.99/month |
Which package is right for you?
Lightroom is such a simple photo editing app that it’s easy to recommend for both hobbyists and professionals. Non-photographers will find the interface simple to use with its robust organizational settings and intuitive sliders. You can quickly fix your photos to have more detail without much effort.
If you’re more of a professional photographer who specializes in high-quality projects, the Photography Plan would be your best option. It comes highly recommended for Lightroom Classic, better suited for editing HDR and panoramic images with ease.
The addition of Photoshop to the Photography Plan also makes it easier to recommend. While Lightroom and Lightroom Classic are great for making photo edits, you can’t make bigger background removal changes or add text. You’ll need to use Photoshop if you want to do any of that.
As for the Complete Creative Cloud package, that’s a package best suited for the jack-of-all-trades creative. If you’re more than just a photographer and you know you’ll be dabbling in other mediums such as video and illustrations, this complete bundle is the one you’ll want to go with.
Does Lightroom sound like the perfect application for editing your photographs? Are you not sure about the price, though? If that’s the case, you should click on our purchase link. Using that link will give you a discount to reduce the cost of your Lightroom subscription.
Frequently Asked Questions
Lightroom can only be bought through the Adobe Creative Cloud platform. Lightroom requires a monthly payment of $9.99 a month to use the application. Your only other options are to purchase Lightroom through the Photography Plan at $9.99 a month or the complete Creative Cloud package at $52.99 a month.
Lightroom Classic now comes bundled with Lightroom CC in the Photography Plan from Adobe. This bundle costs $9.99 a month and comes with Lightroom CC, Lightroom Classic, and Photoshop. The bundle also comes with 20GB of cloud space for storing your photos. That amount can be upgraded to 1TB if you pay $19.99 a month.
Lightroom can be downloaded as a trial version which can be used for seven days. The free trial version will let you use every feature of Lightroom for that week. When that weekend, you’ll have to pay for one of the subscription pricing models. You can either pay for Lightroom on its own ($9.99 monthly), the Photography Plan, which includes Lightroom Classic ($9.99 monthly), or the complete Adobe Creative Cloud package ($52.99 monthly).
Lightroom simplifies a lot of the tools that you might find inside Photoshop. Unlike Photoshop, there’s not a lot of learning required to master its many functions of making alterations to photographs. A simple catalog and sliders for edits make Lightroom an ideal photo editing application for beginners.
Mark McPherson has been working as a video editor and content writer for over ten years. His background started in animation and video editing before shifting into the realm of web development. He also branched out into content writing for various online publications. Mark is an expert in video editing, content writing, and 2D/3D animation.
