Adobe announced new Adobe Elements 2025 Family releases this week. The two products, Adobe Photoshop Elements 2025 and Adobe Premiere Elements 2025, come with "Ai magic" according to Adobe and several other improvements.

The beginner-friendly products differ in functionality and also license when compared to Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Premiere.

Adobe announced a license change for products of the Elements 2025 family of applications. Each product on its own costs $99.99, but Adobe is giving customers who buy both a $50 discount.

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So far so good. Problem is, the license is valid for three years. It is non-renewing according to Adobe and the purchased product will expire automatically after three years. Adobe says that customers may no longer access the application, except for Organizer.

Here is the Adobe's answer to "How does the 3-year term license work": " The license is for a full 3-year term, with no monthly or annual recurring subscription fees required. The license is non-renewing — it expires 3 years after redemption at which time the Editor will no longer be accessible, but the Organizer will continue to be accessible indefinitely".

The only way out is to purchase a new version of the Adobe elements product or subscribe to one of Adobe's other products that offer access to the files and tools in question.

In other words: Elements 2025 is sold with a kill switch. It resembles some form of shareware licenses. These supported a specific version of a product only. When a new major version was released, you had to purchase a new license to upgrade your existing copy.

The main difference to Elements 2025 is that the purchased copies usually did not stop working altogether.

Shorter trial period

Adobe has reduced the trial period from 30-days to 7-days. Customers may purchase the license from the trial software directly. Adobe did not mention why it shortened the trial period.

Closing Words

Are Adobe Elements 2025 products sold as a subscription with a very-long usage period? Customers pay $99.99 for three years. If they want to continue using the Elements product, they need to purchase another license. The upgrade is a bit cheaper, at $79.99 to Adobe Elements 2025, but that is the only difference.

The kill-switch is different from how the majority, or all (?) software company handle this. If you buy a product, you expect it to work indefinitely. Upgrades may cost extra, which is fine for many users, as that ensures that the developer or company remains in business.

Still, the general consensus is that you may run the purchased product even after it is no longer supported by the developer.

What is your take on this decision? Would you buy Adobe Elements 2025? Feel free to leave a comment below.