I Replaced ALL my ADOBE APPS with these [free or cheaper] Alternatives!

Okay .

So , let's have a moment of silence for the last Adobe apps that I removed from my computer yesterday .

A moment of silence , please .

Okay .

That's more than enough because I also wanna celebrate the fact that I found some awesome alternatives .

Let's open this thing .

There we go .

Adobe .

Adobe .

I have to clean up first .

It was a fun idea , but maybe not the best idea .

Also , it's like 9 in the morning right now , so maybe I'll put this in the fridge for later .

Yeah ?

I mean Okay .

But , where was I ?

Yeah .

So , I started years ago with the full Adobe Creative Suite , all apps .

Because , you know , I studied photography , I've worked as a photographer for as long as I can remember .

I've also worked as a graphic designer by the way , and now I'm into videography and filmmaking and making videos here on YouTube .

So , I'm a content creator now .

So , the Adobe Creative Suite is it's made for people like me , but I found some better alternatives .

Free alternatives .

One time payment instead of subscription alternatives .

So let me give you a list of Adobe alternatives that I'm using everyday now .

But first , let me tell you why I wanted to get rid of Adobe and all the Adobe apps .

Look , let me start by saying that I don't think Adobe apps are bad at all .

And I loved working in Photoshop , Illustrator , Premiere Pro , not so much because it didn't run on my computer back when I installed it the first time 5 years ago .

But that doesn't mean that it's a bad program .

You know what it is ?

It's just that Adobe is getting so huge and they suck you in with that subscription which for small creators is quite expensive , especially if creating is just a hobby , and they also suck you into their ecosystem and then you're basically trapped .

And if then they start changing their terms of use and their terms of service and the conditions and everything .

And things like this , when you try to cancel .

Early cancellation fee .

Really ?

I mean , I probably agree to it but still .

And then here , you can't edit these files anymore .

That's what it says when you try to cancel .

But it's lies because I can still edit these files perfectly fine in another program .

No problem .

Or this .

It says here edit PDFs with a free online PDF editor .

Well , tough luck because it's only free if you're already paying for an Adobe plan .

So I don't know , it's all starting to feel a bit slimy , if you know what I mean .

And I feel like we have to fight back a little bit .

And look , I'm still giving money to big companies .

I work on a Mac Studio , but , yeah , I can only take on one big company at a time , right ?

Maybe with your help , we can do more , but for now it's just Adobe .

But , if you're happy with Adobe , I also want to say this : that's fine .

The apps are great , keep using them .

What you're creating with those apps , the results are a lot more important than the apps themselves , right ?

And the company .

But if you are looking for alternatives , here's a list of the ones that I'm using right now .

If you want to be Adobe free , here it is .

I used Photoshop for photo editing , obviously , and my thumbnails .

And there are a lot of alternatives , actually .

The first one I tried was Gimp , which is free .

And I like it , but I feel like it's more for beginners or people who don't do a lot of photo editing or not as as deep , if you know what I mean ?

If you don't need a lot of tools , so it's great , but limited .

But it's also free , so you can just try it out and see if it works for you .

But then , there are 2 other alternatives that I also tried .

Luminar Neo and Affinity Photo .

I kinda like both , but I feel like Luminar focuses more on AI and Affinity Photo , for what I use it , feels more like an actual Photoshop replacement .

Thumbnails , no problem .

Editing photos , it all feels very familiar .

And I can still open my old raw files from almost 10 years ago , no problem .

So switching from Photoshop to Affinity Photo , to me , feels effortless and smooth .

Now both of these options are one time payment and then you get all the updates for free , right ?

Well , kind of actually .

Because Affinity Photo for example , you get all the updates for free until there's a new version .

So first there was Affinity Photo 1 , now there's Affinity Photo 2 since 2022 I think .

And if you wanna upgrade from version 1 to 2 , there's an upgrade fee .

But I think there was like 7 years between version 12 so that's a long time with free updates .

And also , if you're still using version 1 , you won't get locked out of it .

You can still keep using it .

And for Luminar Neo , it's similar .

It says here that big updates might also require an update fee .

And then one last thing about affinity photo maybe , it's not really a replacement for Lightroom .

But I don't need a program that can handle large amounts of photos .

I almost never used Lightroom .

But if you do , remember , Affinity Photo is not a replacement for Lightroom .

You're gonna have to look at something like Darktable , I think it's called , and it's free I think also .

Something like that .

Or other Lightroom alternatives of course .

But there's another reason why I went for Affinity Photo .

And that's because unlike Luminar , they also offer an illustrator and InDesign alternative .

And look , I don't use them as much as the photo editor but it's nice that for a one time payment I get these 3 programs .

So for me as a content creator , that's a great deal .

But if you don't need the graphic design side , I mean Luminar looks great too .

And you know what's also great ?

Audio , the sponsor of this video .

And they also offer a one time payment option if that's what you're looking for .

So if you need music or sound effects for your videos , go check them out .

They make it super easy for you to find the perfect song , filters , playlists and even a bunch of AI features .

And new music gets added all the time .

Cinematic , rock , soul , vintage , jazz , you name it , they have it .

And their latest cool AI feature is AI Playlists , which allows you to create playlists based on your favorite songs or based on a song you heard on Spotify or in another video .

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If you use my link and code in the description , you get 70% off of a pro subscription .

So that's a pro subscription for just $59 .

Not too bad for great music , right ?

Which , like I've said many times before , is the foundation for Gear video .

Okay , back on topic now .

Okay , look , if you want a free alternative for Premiere Pro , DaVinci Resolve is the only option in my opinion .

They have a free version and the studio version for a one time payment , but the free version is packed with so many features it's actually ridiculous .

But the downside of course is that there's a learning curve .

You're actually gonna have to learn how to use a professional editing tool .

Unlike Capcut for example , which is a lot easier to use because its target audience is not professional video editors .

CapCut also has a free version and you know , I really like it but I don't know , they're slowly changing some things .

Some features that used to be free are not free anymore .

The cloud storage , you know , it's not gonna be free anymore even if you're paying for a pro subscription .

So , I don't know , it's changing and I don't like it .

It starts to feel , you know , slimy .

Canva also looks good , but it's also subscription based if you want the extra pro features .

So I feel like the free version of DaVinci Resolve is the only real free editor that gives you professional tools .

Because what you get in the free version , like I said , it's ridiculous .

It's more than what you get in Capcut Pro or Canva Pro .

Video editing , color grading , everything .

I did everything in the free version for more than 2 years until I decided to buy Studio .

And if you decide to buy DaVinci Resolve Studio for that one time payment , unlimited updates in the future included , well , if you're a content creator , that's gonna be all you ever need , I promise .

Because it's not just video editing .

In my opinion , it also replaces Adobe Audition for audio editing and Adobe After Effects .

You know , visual effects and motion graphics .

You actually get all of that in one program .

See down here , this is for video editing then this tab is for color grading , Fusion is for visual effects and motion graphics and Fairlight for audio .

Now , how everything really compares to those Adobe equivalents , honestly I don't know because I haven't used them .

Adobe Audition , no idea .

Adobe After Effects , no idea .

I mean , I'm sure that is great but if you're a content creator like me and you do a little bit of everything , well everything in one program , it's like a dream .

But I love Resolve and no , this video is absolutely not sponsored by Blackmagic Design .

I just love DaVinci Resolve .

What are you gonna do ?

Sue me .

But , yeah , you know , if you're working with or in a team with people who are using Adobe apps , if you're the only one using DaVinci Resolve and you have to , you know , work on each other's projects , it's not gonna work probably .

But that's also why I don't want to say that DaVinci Resolve is better than Adobe or Adobe is better than DaVinci Resolve .

It's just for what I needed , you know , DaVinci Resolve is better .

I like it better .

But then , one thing I'm still looking for is something to edit my PDFs .

Edit and compress .

And that's actually it .

A tool to just do some basic edits and compress PDFs because that's what I was doing with the what is it ?

Adobe Acrobat .

I don't need all the , you know , the fancy tools , just some editing , some compressing .

And it seems like there are a lot of free options , but I don't know which is the best one .

So if you can help me here , let me know in the comments what's the best free tool to edit and compress PDFs .

That's all I want to know .

Okay .

Thank you so much for watching and see you in the next one .