All 20+ Adobe Creative Cloud Apps Explained (With Links)

Trevor Marshall
by Trevor Marshall
Last updated: October 21, 2024

You’re forgiven if you are confused by all the Adobe Creative Cloud apps. After all, we’ve all heard of Photoshop and Acrobat. But what are the other apps in the Creative Cloud? Well, you’ve come to the right place to find out. Join us as we explore them all, as well as explain the best way to purchase them.

What Is the Adobe Creative Cloud?

Adobe Creative Cloud All Apps
Adobe Creative Cloud
Annual Subscription
599.88
Annual Subscription Paid Monthly
$54.99
Monthly Subscription
$82.49
Education Monthly Subscription
$19.99
Best For
Saving money on three or more apps

Adobe has gathered the apps that are most used by artists of all types and assigned them to their Creative Cloud. It’s a way of seeing and marketing their products, especially in their subscription-only model of software sales. Adobe has been selling their software this way for 10 years now. It has benefitted their revenue, reduced piracy, and lowered the bar for access to their products.

This doesn’t mean that the programs are cheap by any means. But offering monthly payments makes legitimate software more accessible to users. It also means that updates are easily available, and users know there are no unexpected bills for upgrading to a new version.

The best value is available to students and teachers in accredited academic institutions. Although there are no discounts for individual apps, the whole of the Creative Cloud can be subscribed to for less than the cost of most of the big programs. This is great news for teachers, but perhaps still pricey for some students.

In most other cases, the All Apps subscription will save you money if you use three or more of the apps. And will then open up access to all the others in the cloud.

So, let’s take a look at what you can find in the Creative Cloud. We’ll give you a quick summary of all the apps and how to purchase a subscription.

Adobe Photoshop

Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Photoshop
Annual Subscription
$239.88
Annual Subscription Paid Monthly
$20.99
Monthly Subscription
$31.49
Best For
Anyone looking for a powerful image manipulation tool

Adobe Photoshop is a graphics editor used for photo retouching, image manipulation, and graphic design. It offers tools to create, edit, and enhance raster-based images. There is even some basic vector art.

The name Photoshop is used as a verb to describe any photo manipulation, even when a different app has been used. Another sign of its preeminence is the number of articles you’ll find if you search for the “best Photoshop alternatives.” It’s the industry standard for comparing other software.

So, let’s take a look at what Photoshop offers the user.

You can buy a subscription for Adobe Photoshop on its own or as part of the Photography Plan. Alternatively, you can buy it as part of the Adobe Creative Cloud All Apps subscription.

Adobe Photoshop Express is an iOS and Android app. It is free but has a $34.99 annual subscription for premium features.

Adobe Express

Adobe Express
Adobe Express
Basic Version
Free forever
Premium Annual Subscription
$99.99
Premium Monthly Subscription
$9.99
Best For
Anyone looking for a cross-platform design assistant

Anyone who is familiar with Canva, will feel very at home with Adobe Express Link needed. They are very similar to look at, and they offer many of the same things. It’s unusual, given Adobe’s strong stable of desktop applications, that Express is web and mobile only. It’s also unusual in the Creative Cloud in that there is a free-to-use version.

Adobe Express is designed to help you create appealing media. It comes with lots of templates you can use straight away. They cover pretty much every type of digital and print medium you can think of, from TikTok videos and Instagram stories to invoices and presentations.

So let’s have a quick look at what Adobe Express can do.

A premium plan adds extra capability to the free service. There are more AI generative credits, for instance. And paid users have the full library of Adobe’s royalty-free images, photos, and videos. And there are more than 195 million of them!

You can purchase Adobe Express on its own. Or it comes as part of an Adobe Creative Cloud All Apps subscription.

Adobe InDesign

Adobe InDesign
Adobe InDesign
Annual Subscription
$239.88
Annual Subscription Paid Monthly
$20.99
Monthly Subscription
$31.49
Best For
Anyone looking for a powerful desktop publisher

Adobe InDesign is a powerful desktop publishing (DTP) solution. As well as the long-established features of DTP, it has developed to meet the needs of digital content. A printed PDF, for instance, can be very different from an online one. And InDesign helps you to create whatever you need.

Here is a brief rundown of InDesign’s features.

You can purchase Adobe InDesign as a standalone product. Or you can buy it as part of the Adobe Creative Cloud All Apps package.

Premiere Pro

Adobe Premiere Pro
Adobe Premiere Pro
Annual Subscription
$239.88
Annual Subscription Paid Monthly
$20.99
Monthly Subscription
$31.49
Best For
Anyone looking for a pro-level video editor

Adobe Premiere Pro is a fully featured video editing application. Along with DaVinci Resolve and Apple’s Final Cut Pro, it is probably the best-known video editor. It integrates nicely with other apps like Adobe After Effects, allowing you to produce videos of the highest quality.

This is a brief rundown of what Premiere Pro offers.

You can purchase Adobe Premiere Pro on its own, as well as being part of the Adobe Creative Cloud.

Adobe Lightroom CC and Lightroom Classic

Adobe Lightroom
Adobe Lightroom
Annual Subscription
$119.88
Annual Subscription Paid Monthly
$9.99
Creative Cloud Photography Annual Subscription
$239.98
Creative Cloud Photography Annual Subscription Billed Monthly
$19.99
Best For
Anyone looking for a top-level photo management app

It can be a little confusing working out what’s what with Adobe Lightroom. That’s because Adobe has changed the name and features as the move to the Creative Cloud has become more popular. There are two main versions of Lightroom, and they are called Lightroom Classic and Lightroom CC. But Adobe isn’t always careful about using these terms, and Lightroom is often used on its own.

The main difference is in where your photos are stored and how you access them. Lightroom Classic is a legacy app that expects you to store and work on your photos locally on your hard drive. For this, you need large and fast hard drives like these SSDs or NAS storage options.

Lightroom CC stores your photos in the cloud and doesn’t rely on your local storage. You can purchase either version on their own with the Photography Plan subscription or the Creative Cloud All apps.

There’s no confusion about what Lightroom is or does. It is a photo management and editing app that is the standard by which others are judged. And it is probably unmatched in terms of available presets for speeding up your editing.

So let’s look at what Lightroom offers you.

Like all of Adobe’s Creative Cloud apps, you can try Adobe Lightroom for free to see if it is right for you.

Adobe Illustrator

Adobe Illustrator
Adobe Illustrator
Annual Subscription
$239.88
Annual Subscription Paid Monthly
$20.99
Monthly Subscription
$31.49
Best For
Anyone looking for a powerful vector graphics package

Adobe Illustrator has led the field of graphic design for a long time. It’s a hugely powerful application for illustration of all sorts. From designing your own fonts to linking your creations with other Creative Cloud apps, Illustrator is a popular solution.

Here is a summary of some of Illustrator’s capabilities.

You can buy Adobe Illustrator on its own or as part of the Creative Cloud. 

Adobe Fresco

Adobe Fresco
Adobe Fresco
Price
Free forever
Best For
Creating images on the go

Adobe Fresco is a relative newcomer to the Adobe Creative Cloud. Released in 2019, it brings drawing, painting, and illustration tools to iOS devices operating iOS 15 or later. Your work is cloud-based, so you can start on the iPad and finish on the desktop. As you’d expect, it links seamlessly with Photoshop on the iPad.

Let’s look at some of its features.

Adobe Fresco is free to use on the iPad and iPhone.

Adobe Dreamweaver

Adobe Dreamweaver
Adobe Dreamweaver
Annual Subscription
$239.88
Annual Subscription Paid Monthly
$20.99
Monthly Subscription
$31.49
Best For
Anyone looking for a sophisticated web design app

Adobe Dreamweaver is a sophisticated website creation app that supports HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, amongst other web standards. This isn’t a web creation tool like Wix or SquareSpace. Those offer drag-and-drop creation. Dreamweaver is for you if you want to code your website. It offers templates and coding hints. But it’s not for the complete beginner unless you want to get your hands dirty and learn.

Adobe Dreamweaver can be purchased separately on an annual or monthly plan. It’s also part of the Creative Cloud subscription.

Adobe Acrobat Pro

Adobe Acrobat Pro
Adobe Acrobat Pro
Annual Subscription
$239.88
Annual Subscription Paid Monthly
$20.99
Monthly Subscription
$31.49
Best For
Anyone needing to create and edit PDFs

It’s likely that we have all used Adobe Acrobat at some point in our lives. The Reader app allows easy access to PDFs. If you want to create and edit PDFs, then Adobe Acrobat Pro is one option. Here’s a quick rundown of what it can do.

is available as an individual product as well as being part of the Creative Cloud.

Adobe Media Encoder

Adobe Media Encoder
Adobe Media Encoder
Price
Not available on its own
Best For
Sending video to varied platforms

You can’t buy Adobe Media Encoder on its own. It’s a tool that helps you take your other Creative Cloud creations and send them to a number of devices and platforms. Let’s take a quick look at what it can do.

You can download a free trial of Adobe Media Encoder to see if you want to upgrade your Adobe subscription to include it.

Adobe Bridge

Adobe Bridge
Adobe Bridge
Price
Not available on its own
Best For
Managing digital assets in creative teams

Adobe Bridge is ideal if you are working in a creative team and sharing digital resources. It helps organize and distribute files quickly and efficiently. Here’s a rundown of what it can do.

Adobe Bridge isn’t available to buy on its own but comes as part of the Creative Cloud.

Adobe Character Animator

Adobe Character Animator
Adobe Character Animator
Price
Not available on its own
Best For
Creating exciting animations

Adobe Character Animator is another app that can’t be purchased on its own. In a way, it makes sense, as it integrates with other Creative Cloud apps. You can take your Illustrator creations, animate them in Character Animator, and export them to Dreamweaver or Premiere Pro. It has some pretty interesting features, so let’s look at them here.

You can try Adobe Character Animator for free by downloading a trial copy.

Adobe Audition

Adobe Audition
Adobe Audition
Annual Subscription
$239.88
Annual Subscription Paid Monthly
$20.99
Monthly Subscription
$31.49
Best For
Editing audio and recording podcasts

Adobe Audition is a very competent resource for recording, mixing, and repairing audio. It probably isn’t the best choice as a full-fledged DAW for musicians. But for videographers and podcasters, it has many strengths. Here’s some of what it can do.

You can subscribe to Adobe Audition, but it probably makes more sense as a part of the Creative Cloud.

Adobe Dimension

Adobe Dimension
Adobe Dimension
Annual Subscription
$239.88
Annual Subscription Paid Monthly
$20.99
Monthly Subscription
$31.49
Best For
Designers creating 3D objects

Adobe Dimension is a standalone app that brings 3D creativity to your desktop. It can be used to visualize how packaging will look. Or you can use it to create 3D assets to use in other Creative Cloud apps.

Let’s see some of its main features.

You can buy Adobe Dimension on its own or with a Creative Cloud subscription.

Adobe Animate

Adobe Animate
Adobe Animate
Annual Subscription
$239.88
Annual Subscription Paid Monthly
$20.99
Monthly Subscription
$31.49
Best For
Designers creating 2D animations

Adobe Animate lives in a simpler 2D world than its Dimension sibling. It brings a simple animation process to your drawings. It fits in nicely with assets you create in Illustrator or Express. And you can then easily export them to your Dreamweaver or Acrobat Pro creations.

Let’s take a quick tour of what it offers.

You can use Adobe Animate on its own or as part of a Creative Cloud subscription. 

Adobe Aero

Adobe Aero
Adobe Aero
Price
Free on mobile
Best For
Creating augmented reality assets

Adobe Aero is a mobile app for creating and viewing virtual reality assets. There are also beta versions for MacOS and Windows. Once you create the assets, you don’t need any special equipment to view them.

Adobe Aero is a free download for iOS and Android.

Adobe After Effects

Adobe After Effects
Adobe After Effects
Annual Subscription
$239.88
Annual Subscription Paid Monthly
$20.99
Monthly Subscription
$31.49
Best For
Adding sophisticated effects to your videos

Adobe After Effects is a fully featured special effects app for adding some real spice to your videos. It can be bought as a standalone app, but it makes perfect sense to use it in conjunction with Premiere Pro. And even more so if you incorporate the graphics you designed in Illustrator, for example.

Here’s a short summary of some of its features.

You can take Adobe After Effects for a test drive with a free trial.

Adobe InCopy

Adobe InCopy
Adobe InCopy
Annual Subscription
$59.88
Annual Subscription Paid Monthly
$4.99
Monthly Subscription
$7.49
Best For
Collaborating with documents across a team

Working in a team on the same document can cause confusion and conflict. Adobe InCopy is designed to prevent this. It allows writers, editors, and designers to work on a document simultaneously without interrupting or destroying each other’s work.

Here’s an outline of what it does.

It’s pretty cheap to purchase Adobe InCopy on its own. But of course, it also makes sense as part of a Creative Cloud subscription.

Conclusion: Adobe Creative Cloud

There’s no doubt that subscribing to Adobe’s software can take a sizeable chunk of money. And it’s never going to be a one-time investment. But it’s also the case that monthly subscriptions mean that class-leading software is available to you even if you don’t have much starting capital. And you know that the software will be updated in the future.

For many creatives, the All Apps subscription makes a lot of sense. You might pay it because you need three of the major apps. But then you find your kids want to do a podcast, and you have just the app for that. Or you want to make and send an amusing animation. You wouldn’t pay for the app just for that, but if you have it anyway, why not?

Other benefits include access to more than 20,000 Adobe fonts and fully licensed images, textures, and patterns. Once you belong, you get to play with a lot of fun stuff.