Why I Am Leaving Adobe After 10 Years (And What I Am Switching To)
Why I Am Leaving Adobe After 10 Years (And What I Am Switching To)
There is a version of this article where I tell you I left Adobe because I found something better. The truth is more honest than that. I left because Adobe raised their prices, and living in Hawaii, where the cost of everything runs higher, that decision landed differently than it would have a few years ago.
I have been a photographer and videographer for over 10 years. For most of that time, Adobe was the default. Premiere Pro for video. Lightroom for photos. That was the stack every production company I worked with expected you to know. Television, corporate video, branded content, it did not matter. If you were editing professionally, you were editing in Premiere Pro. So that is what I learned, and that is what I built my workflow around.
Then Adobe changed their pricing structure.
Starting June 2025, Adobe began raising subscription costs across the board. Team plan subscribers saw increases, single-app subscribers received a dramatic cut in AI credits, and the flagship All Apps plan was rebranded and repriced. Livingstone-tech For someone working inside a large company that negotiates volume licensing, this might not matter much. For a solopreneur rebuilding a client base in a new city, it matters a lot.
So I started looking for a way out.
The Fear of Switching
I want to be direct about something, because I think a lot of creative professionals feel this but do not say it out loud.
The fear is not about the software. The fear is about speed.
After years of working inside the same tool, your hands know where everything is. You are not thinking about the interface anymore, you are just editing. The moment you switch to something unfamiliar, you feel slow. And when you are billing clients or competing for work, feeling slow is uncomfortable.
That fear is real. But it is also temporary.
The reality is that necessity is one of the most powerful teachers. When you have no choice but to learn, you learn. I have seen this play out in my own career more than once.
The Case for DaVinci Resolve
If you are getting into videography in 2026 and you are trying to decide where to invest your time, here is the clearest way I can frame it:
DaVinci Resolve Studio costs a flat fee of $295 and provides users with a lifetime of updates. Simon Says AI There is no monthly charge. No annual renewal. No subscription that keeps climbing while your income stays the same. After five years, you will have paid over $1,000 for Premiere Pro, whereas DaVinci Resolve is something you get to keep forever for $295. Simon Says AI
And if $295 still feels like too much to start, there is a free version. DaVinci has literally a free version, and it is jam-packed with so many features you can complete an entire edit and never spend a dollar. Alli and Will
DaVinci Resolve is the world’s only solution that combines editing, color correction, visual effects, motion graphics, audio post-production, and now photo editing, all in one software tool. Blackmagic Design That is not marketing language. That is a genuine description of what the platform does. You are not piecing together five different subscriptions from one company. Everything lives in one application.
Is there a learning curve? Yes. DaVinci Resolve uses a node-based system for all effects, which can be daunting to master but very effective once learned. Boris FX The interface is organized into pages, which feels different if you are used to Premiere’s layout. But the fundamentals of editing are the same. Once your hands adjust, the workflow becomes second nature.
What About Adobe Being Behind on Features?
I have heard this conversation among editors for years, and I want to share my experience honestly, because the full picture is a little more complicated than a simple “Adobe is always late.”
What is true is that nimbler, consumer-first tools like CapCut brought certain features, especially stylish auto-captions and social media templates, to creators much faster than Adobe did. As one Premiere Pro community member put it in 2025, CapCut’s powerful captioning tools have made Premiere feel like it is no longer a one-stop shop for social video making. Adobe Support Community Adobe users have been requesting animated auto-captions as a native feature, and the community is still waiting.
What is also true is that Adobe’s caption accuracy is solid, and their AI tools have improved. The honest framing is not that Adobe is always behind, but that Adobe moves at enterprise speed while the market, especially social and short-form content, moves at a different pace. When your competitors ship a feature in six months and Adobe ships it in two years, you feel the gap, even if the final result is technically comparable.
For professional broadcast, long-form, and corporate work, that gap matters less. For content creators editing reels and short-form videos on a weekly schedule, it matters considerably more.
What I Am Replacing Lightroom With
The Lightroom conversation is a different one, and in some ways simpler.
My photo workflow has always been straightforward. I import raw files, edit them, export, and deliver. I organize by client, event, and shoot, using folders on my computer rather than Lightroom’s catalog system. The star rating feature for selecting favorites is genuinely the main Lightroom tool I use regularly.
When I looked honestly at that workflow, I realized I was paying for a catalog system I barely used.
If your workflow looks anything like mine, there are strong alternatives worth considering. Darktable is free, open-source, available on Windows, Mac, and Linux, and supports RAW files from over 400 cameras. Aftershoot It has batch editing, non-destructive processing, and a layout that will feel familiar to Lightroom Classic users.
If you want something closer to a paid, polished experience without a subscription, CyberLink PhotoDirector offers a perpetual license for around $100, and reviewers find it offers features comparable to Lightroom at a fraction of the ongoing cost. TechRadar ON1 Photo RAW is another solid option, sitting around the same price range with a Lightroom-style interface and strong RAW processing tools.
The catalog feature in Lightroom is genuinely useful for photographers managing libraries of tens of thousands of images across multiple years. If that is your reality, the subscription might justify itself. But if your organization lives on your hard drive and your delivery is project-based, you are likely paying for a feature set you do not fully need.
My Honest Advice If You Are Starting Out in 2026
If you have the budget and you plan to work inside agencies, production companies, or large teams, learning Adobe still makes professional sense. The Premiere Pro and After Effects combination remains the industry standard for motion graphics, and many clients ask you to work within the Adobe suite. Boris FX
But if you are building your own freelance practice, working independently, or simply unwilling to rent your tools indefinitely, DaVinci Resolve is the most credible professional alternative available today. Start with the free version. Learn the platform. When you are ready to unlock the advanced tools, the one-time payment is there.
The switch will slow you down at first. That is normal. Push through it.
Ten years from now, you will not regret owning your tools.