Who the Hell Still Uses Adobe?
And why
My Medium friends can read this story over there as well.
Who still uses Adobe products? Letâs be honest, way too many people, still đ.
To me, Adobe Creative Cloud is a bloated, expensive, subscription-heavy relic. And I think people are looking for lighter tools, free options, and more specific apps.
My first Adobe encounter wasnât even with any of that Creative Suite mess, not Photoshop or Illustrator.
It was with Adobe Flash Player, back when Flash sites and animations were a big thing on the web. The early 2000s. To Adobeâs credit, Flash wasnât developed by them. It came from Macromedia, which Adobe bought.
I still remember the Flash pop-ups, the browser prompts, the âupdate now or nothing works.â That is about as unglamorous a first impression of Adobe as you could imagine.
But back then, there wasnât much else than Adobe in many of their product spaces. Now, though, free, open source, Mac-native, casual-user friendly apps are everywhere, and they can kill about 80% of what Adobe offers.
So who still uses Adobe?
Adobe Products
Adobe has a lot of products. These are a few of the biggies:
Photoshop
Lightroom
Illustrator
InDesign
Premiere Pro
After Effects
Audition
XD
Acrobat Pro
Substance 3D
Media Encoder
Adobe Timeline
1982
Adobe is founded by John Warnock and Charles Geschke. And in 1985, Adobe PostScript hits the market. Printers suddenly speak a new language, and Adobe becomes a darling of publishing.
1987â1988
Photoshop is created by the Knoll brothers. Adobe licenses it in 1988.
1990s
Photoshop 1.0 launches 1990.
Illustrator hits the early 90s
Premiere appears around 1991
Acrobat arrives in 1993 and brings PDFs into the world
After Effects shows up in 1993
InDesign launches in 1999
2003
Creative Suite 1 bundles the apps for the first time.
2005
Adobe acquires Macromedia. Flash, Fireworks, Dreamweaver and more join the family, and one of the biggest competitors went away.
2007â2010
Lightroom arrives, and photographers rejoice. Adobe AIR appears. Flash continues its slow decline as mobile takes over. Thanks to iPhone.
2012â2013
Creative Cloud launches, the subscription model takes over, and the old buy-once license disappears.
2015â2020
XD launches to replace Fireworks as a UI/UX tool. Character Animator gets attention. Premiere becomes big in the casual and online editing space. Substance 3D is acquired.
2021â2025
Adobe bets heavily on AI, neural filters and Firefly. Some apps get sunset, some get renamed, and pricing continues to rise.
Thatâs the gist. Adobe has been everywhere, all the time.
Competitors for Each Adobe Product
The competitors are getting bigger, though. Letâs match the big Adobe tools with realistic competitors.
Photoshop
Affinity Photo
GIMP
Krita
Photomator (Mac)
Pixelmator Pro (Mac)
Lightroom / Lightroom Classic
Capture One
Darktable (free)
RawTherapee (free)
Photomator (Mac)
Illustrator
Affinity Designer
Inkscape
Linearity Curve
InDesign
Affinity Publisher
Scribus (free)
Canva (for simpler layout tasks)
Premiere Pro
DaVinci Resolve
Final Cut Pro (Mac)
Vegas Pro
After Effects
Blackmagic Fusion
Apple Motion (Mac)
Audition
Audacity (free)
Reaper
Logic Pro (Mac)
Acrobat Pro
PDF Expert (Mac)
Foxit PDF Editor
Nitro PDF
XD
Figma
Sketch
Penpot (free)
Substance 3D
Blender
Quixel Mixer
3D Coat
Many competitors are out there. But a few really stand out right now.
Canva + Affinity
Canva is massive. Since its launch in 2013, itâs become the #1 tool for casual designer with over 200 millions users.
Last year, Canva bought Serif, the makers behind Affinity Photo, Designer and Publisher, which were already major Adobe competitors in the field of photo editing and design.
But now, Canva turned the Affinity suite into a single, unified app, and they made it free forever!!
Affinity used to cost maybe 70 bucks per app, one time. That was a good deal already. Now it costs nothing if you do basic, intermediate, and advanced stuff. Only AI integration will cost a subscription.
Canva + Affinity works and beats Adobe, because:
Costs way less, in most cases nothing
Faster, lighter apps (and web apps)
Cleaner, more modern interfaces
Works great for casual users and pros
Canvaâs templates and AI tools handle everyday design faster than Photoshop or Illustrator.
Affinity has pro-level precision without the typical Adobe overhead.
Simpler learning curve
This move merged two competitors and made them bigger than any of the open source tools.
Then thereâs Figma.
Adobes Biggest Loss
Adobe tried to buy it for 20 billion, regulators killed the deal, and Figma went right back to eating Adobe XD for breakfast.
Figma isnât a Photoshop competitor. It isnât a Lightroom competitor.
Itâs specialized. Laser-focused on UI, UX, prototyping and design systems. And in that world, it absolutely replaced Adobe XD for almost everyone.
Figma is the best example of a competitor that didnât try to replace the whole Adobe empire. It picked one slice, UI and product design, and took all of it.
A few reasons why it worked so well:
It runs in the browser, so no heavy installs
Real-time collaboration that feels natural
Easy handoff to developers
Plugins and community files that exploded the ecosystem
Perfect for remote teams
Fast updates, small footprint, no bloat
Adobe never caught up. XD fell behind quickly.
Figma is basically the modern standard for UI and UX, and itâs one of the clearest cases of a single tool wiping out an Adobe product category almost entirely.
Thank God, Adobe didnât get this deal done.
Why People Donât Use Adobe Anymore
Cost
The biggest one. Money matters. Freelancers, hobbyists, small creators, students, anyone trying to spend wisely, all feel the subscription pain.
Overkill
Many Adobe apps feel too heavy for simple tasks. Canva, Affinity, Photomator, Figma and others feel a lot snappier.
Better UX in other tools
Some Mac apps feel more native. Some open source apps feel more customizable. Adobe can feel old, even when itâs new.
Alternatives got good
Really good. The gap used to be huge. Now it isnât.
All of this adds up.
Why Many Still Use It
Adobe is still the standard in many industries. That matters.
Big studios rely on Adobe
In film, advertising, design agencies, publishers. Workflows are built around it.
Advanced features
Some effects, tools or export settings simply exist only in Adobe software.
File compatibility
.psd, .ai, .indd, .prproj are still everywhere. People donât want to break compatibility.
Ecosystem integration
Photoshop to Lightroom to Premiere to After Effects to Audition to Media Encoder to Illustrator to InDesign. It all links.
Education and jobs
People learn Adobe first because companies expect Adobe skills. For now.
The Bottom Line
Adobe shaped the creative world for decades. Give them credit for that. The tools are great tools.
But its grip is loosening because prices went up, competitors got better, and Canvaâs Affinity move is truly huge.
Some of us grew up clicking Flash updates, some of us built careers in Photoshop, and some of us are now exploring tools that feel lighter and more fun to use.
Adobe still matters, but for how long?