Adobe Creative Cloud’s launch in 2011 ushered the company’s shift towards becoming a cloud-based software-as-service provider, which means you can no longer install standalone versions of the program like Photoshop CS5 or CS6.
There are a few ways you can get Photoshop running on your machine, however – including a free trial.
You can also get a discount if you’re a student or affiliated with an educational institution. Adobe has Black Friday deals on now which makes its generally steep prices much cheaper. We’re looking at all the ways you can get Photoshop on your Mac or PC right now.
Photoshop Black Friday 2020 deals
Adobe Currently has 20% off its All Apps plan (25% in the US) which drops the price to £39.95 from £49.94 per month or £476.98 (from £596.33) if you pay for a year upfront. The offer ends on Black Friday itself, 27 November. Shop Adobe’s 20% off Black Friday sale now
Amazon, which is also running Black Friday promotions, has the entire Adobe CC available for £548.79, which saves you £47.54 from the standard price.
Amazon also has £52 off Photoshop and Premier Elements 2021 bundle that reduces the price to £78.99.
Photoshop student and teacher – Black Friday discount
While Adobe doesn’t offer a student discount on Photoshop alone, students and teachers can get a 65% discount on the full Creative Cloud bundle (60% in the US).
Typically for UK customers, the student discount makes the entire suite’s price cheaper than the 1TB Photography Plan and the Single App Photoshop subscription plan by £68.20, annually. Students and teachers can choose from two annual payment plans:
Annual prepaid: £196.30 per year (VAT included) or US$239.88 per year
Annual, paid monthly: £16.24 per month (VAT included) or US$19.99 per month
Black Friday reduces prices even further. Paid monthly, the rate becomes £13.15 for the first year, while the upfront annual rate becomes £157.03.
You will have to show your student eligibility or institutional affiliation to get this discount however. You can find all the eligibility requirements here.
This not only gets you Photoshop CC, but an army of other powerful apps such as Illustrator, Lightroom, InDesign, Premier Pro, Acrobat Pro, Spark and Adobe XD – all at a significantly reduced rate. See all the apps included with the full Creative Cloud bundle here.
Get the Adobe student discount here.
Also see our round up to the best free and cheap photo editing software and our full guide on how to get Adobe InDesign.
Photoshop CC Photography Plan
If you prefer Adobe Photoshop CC on its own, you can subscribe to it separately.
A Creative Cloud subscription means you can either pay an amount every month or a lump sum cost for a year. This promises ongoing access to updates at no additional cost.
Adobe’s Photography Plan has a few options (we’ve outlined these below) depending on how much cloud storage you need.
Photography Plan (20GB storage)
The 20GB Photography Plan includes Lightroom CC, Lightroom Classic CC and of course Photoshop CC with 20GB of cloud storage. There are a couple of pricing plans available:
You can either subscribe to an annual plan for £9.98 per month/US$9.99 per month. Or, you can pay a lump sum of £119.21/US$119.88 for a year’s service.
Photography Plan (1TB storage)
If you need more storage, you can opt for the 1TB Photography Plan which costs £19.97/month for a year, or a prepaid lump sump of £238.42 for the year. In the US, that translates to $19.99/month or $239.88 for a year, respectively. It comes with the Lightroom apps as well.
See all Adobe CC pricing plan details here.
Single App subscription
If you prefer just getting Photoshop CC on its own without Lightroom in the bundle, you can opt for the Single App plan from Adobe CC. The Single App includes the latest version of Photoshop, 100GB of cloud storage, access to premium fonts, as well as Adobe Spark (a social media graphics creation tool) and Adobe Portfolio.
There are three payment plans to get Photoshop CC on its own.
Annual monthly: £19.97/$20.99 per month
Annual, pre-paid: £238.42/$239.88 (lump sum)
On-going monthly: £30.34/$31.49 per month
See all these plans and details here.
Photoshop free trial
You can also download a free 7-day trial of Photoshop CC. The download provides you the entire version of the software.
PC users will need Windows 7 or later and at least 2GB RAM (though 8GB is recommended). Mac users will need macOS version 10.14 (Mojave) or later though macOS 11.0 (Big Sur) and macOS 10.15 (Catalina) are recommended. See more details on both Mac and PC system requirements over at Adobe.
We’d also advise your to take a look at Adobe FAQs about the free trial. Of course, if you’ve already made up your mind, you can just go ahead and download the free 7-day trial of Photoshop CC now.
