Adobe Illustrator Pricing 2023

Adobe Illustrator Pricing 2022

Innovative and eye-catching art is one of the more creative ways businesses connect with consumers. Almost all industries need to project an image of their company and services. Your logo, product design, or infographics alone can make someone choose you over competitors.

Adobe software is well-known for the most widely used content creation tools out there. Adobe Illustrator is an effective product for creating vector art in diverse formats. Companies can use them for unique social media campaigns, flyers, and infographics. Here we have a short video to give anyone unfamiliar with valuable background information.

In the next section, we explain more about Adobe Illustrator. Those interested in pricing can skip over.

How Does Adobe Illustrator Work?

Adobe Illustrator is a digital art software that allows you to create images with vector graphics. Vector graphics are the preferred format for scalable art such as logos, or print content. This is because you can manipulate the size of vector graphics but can’t with raster graphics. Vectors have this ability because they are not saved as a drawing, but rather as mathematical instructions that recreate the drawing.

On the other side of the coin is raster images. These are photos or very complex drawings. They are overall much more detailed creations than vector graphics because they are composed of thousands of pixels.

When you save a raster image you save all the pixels creating your drawing. This leaves you with a large file size that unfortunately cannot be scaled for print and digital mediums. You will not be able to manipulate the size of the raster image without it becoming blurry. Here we have included a video showing the differences between vector and raster images.

If you don’t need to make scalable print and digital images, then you can look at raster creation software. This would be relevant if you needed to draw complex sketches, digitally paint, create game characters, etc. Raster software can also be cheaper than Illustrator by far, one amazing free one is GIMP.

Adobe Illustrator is compatible with macOS, Windows, and iOS mobile devices. The software has multiple file formats like png, ai, doc, jpg, rtf, pxr, and many more. With the software you can do image editing, sizing, and creating graphics. You can easily export your files into other Adobe Creative Cloud applications and edit or use them for bigger projects. This can be creating stationery logos, and then exporting them to InDesign, and creating a template for your annual newsletter.

Something Adobe users know and loathe is that the software can crash and lose everything after your last save. The software is complex with many capabilities, and sometimes it can’t run if you don’t have enough RAM or are running other software.

Adobe Illustrator is less prone to crashing and operates very well on even a 4GB laptop. This does not mean it will never crash, so one piece of advice is to save constantly and save to the Creative Cloud. If you only save to your computer that will guarantee loss of work after a crash.

With all this in mind, you cost of Ilustrator is worth it. Below we go over several different subscription options that include Adobe Illustrator.

Adobe Illustrator Pricing Model

Adobe products are bought in subscriptions. They offer the ability to buy Adobe Illustrator with the annual plan commitment, yearly cost upfront, or monthly with no commitment. Either way, you rent your access to the software.

Adobe Illustrator costs vary depending on which subscription and payment plan you decide. With Annual upfront being the most discounted and month to month the most expensive choice. There is no free version of Illustrator, but they do offer a free trial.

Adobe Illustrator Single App

For the Single App paid month to month, the cost is $31.49, but the yearly commitment is discounted to $20.99 per month. If you choose to be charged upfront, you pay $239.88.

This plan is worth it if all you need is graphic design software for vector graphics. It’s ideal for sketching print and digital ads, typography, and logos. Individuals in web design, graphic design, advertising, publishing, and other fields will benefit from this design tool.

This wouldn’t be the right plan for education or business. Students and teachers receive a hefty discount on a bundle of Creative Cloud Apps. It’s far more worth it to get the bundle instead of paying more for one single app. Adobe also offers a separate subscription for businesses, for a bundle of apps with exclusive features.

Adobe Creative Cloud All Apps

If you’re not shopping for education or business, then you might consider the Creative Cloud All Apps subscription. The subscription comes with over 20 applications and 100GB of Cloud storage.

The lowest upfront cost is$599.88 for the year and is good for anyone confident that Adobe is right for them. With the month-to-month plan for $79.49, you can cancel anytime with no worries. The committed monthly plan of $52.99 will have a cheaper monthly cost in comparison but has an early termination fee.

This plan comes with all the major and new features, including industry-standard apps: Photoshop, InDesign, Premiere Pro, and of course Illustrator. It’s perfect for freelancers, professionals, or anyone who wants experience with these powerful tools.

Adobe Photoshop is one of the most popular combinations with Illustrator for photo editing and access to Adobe Stock. The added advantage of Premiere Pro is a great bonus for anyone that also needs video editing.

Adobe Student and Teachers Plan

Adobe has a 62% discount for teachers and student users in the first year of their Creative Cloud subscription. After one year the $19.99 monthly cost increases to $29.99. The plan comes with all apps so students can learn the software for their classes. Teachers, one of the more underpaid professions, can also access the discount.

As a result, those with graphic design, web design, or similar degrees can graduate with the experience to land their first job. They will also be able to upload portfolios to Behance so future companies can find them. By making their services more accessible, Adobe effectively ingrained themselves into the content creation industry, which made them an industry staple. For this plan, you need to register with your school email account.

Adobe Business Plan

The Adobe Business plan is structured differently than the others. For this, you would purchase the Adobe CC, or all plans individually, per license. With the purchase, you will have access to an Admin Console, and unlimited technical support.

The structure of this plan allows businesses to purchase multiple licenses for their employees. The regular Creative Cloud All Apps plan limits the account to 2 devices, meaning you would need employees to sign up for personal accounts. This structure will also benefit companies that don’t actually need all the Creative Cloud apps. Some companies may only need Adobe Illustrator and InDesign for graphics publications.

Many of you may want to see other potential software available. In the next section, we talk about one of Adobe Illustrators’ best competitors.

Adobe Illustrator vs CorelDRAW

One major reason some may not want to go through with Adobe Illustrator CC is that Adobe software crashes, and is very pricey. Adobe Illustrator requires less RAM compared and has fewer bugs, but many would rather own software instead of renting it.

A great alternative to Adobe Illustrator is CorelDRAW Graphics Suite. Corel is a vector creation software that offers more buying options. You can rent the software monthly or annual plan. You could also buy the most version for a one-time purchase that you own. The only downside is that you won’t get automatic updates as you would with a subscription.

If you want to see our comparison of reviews between Illustrator and Corel, go here.

More Resources

If you find Adobe Illustrator is a worthwhile investment, you’ll definitely want to see more. Adobe Illustrator has a slight learning curve. Luckily there are plenty of free courses online. Some are full-length tutorials, several hours long. Here is a less than a 30-minute crash course for beginners. It will give you a good idea of the tools and help you navigate the interface.

For those that want to see more alternatives to Illustrator, we have similar products on our website. On our alternatives page, you can find a number of drawing, painting, and graphics creation software.

If any of you have used some of the software in the article, please consider leaving a review to help other buyers make informed decisions.