Adobe Photography Plan vs Photoshop Plan Comparison

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In short, the difference between the Adobe photography plan vs Photoshop plan is that the Adobe photography plan contains Lightroom in addition to Photoshop, and is a cheaper way to get access to Photoshop.

Adobe offer various plans suited to photographers, but they do not make it easy to compare all of them on their site.

There are four main photography plans from Adobe. I will cover the pros and cons of each in this article, including the Lightroom plan vs photography plan and Photoshop vs the photography plan, so that you can be sure that you are getting the plan that is right for you.

If you don’t want to delve into the details of each plan, then I recommend going for the Adobe Photography plan (20GB), which is the plan I use to create these photos, and which offers both Lightroom and Photoshop along with being the best value for money plan.


Adobe photography plan vs Photoshop

What are the Adobe Photography Plans?

There are four Adobe plans aimed at photographers:

These all vary in price and in the applications that they give you access to. The first two give you both Photoshop and Lightroom, along with the specified amount of cloud storage, while the latter two either give you only Photoshop or Lightroom respectively.

Prices range from $9.99 per month to $20.99 per month, although counter-intuitively the most fully featured plan is also the cheapest.


Adobe Photography Plan vs Photoshop Plan Comparison

The only difference between the 20GB photography plan and the 1TB photography plan is in the amount of cloud storage you receive. This upgrade in storage doubles the price of the plan, so is not good value for money, particularly when cloud storage is cheaper from other providers.

Therefore, I will only compare the main features of Photoshop vs the photography plan (20GB) in the table below, which are the two most popular plans that Adobe offers for photographers.

Adobe Photography Plan vs Photoshop
Adobe Photography plan (20GB)
Adobe Photoshop plan
Lightroom (Basic Version)
  • Included
  • Not included
Lightroom Mobile (syncs with basic version)
  • Included
  • Not included
Lightroom Classic (the most advanced Lightroom version)
  • Included
  • Not included
Photoshop Desktop (the most advanced version of Photoshop)
  • Included
  • Included
Photoshop iPad
  • Included
  • Included
Fresco (Drawing & Painting)
  • Not included
  • Included
Cloud Storage
  • 100GB
Current Price $9.99 / £9.98 $20.99 / £19.97

You can see from the table above that the photography plan contains more programs than the Photoshop plan overall.

The two most important programs are Lightroom Classic and Photoshop Desktop.

If you are at all interested in photo editing, then both Lightroom and Photoshop combined make the best photo editing package, meaning that the photography plan is the best plan for you.

The only situation where the Photoshop plan is preferably is if you need Adobe Fresco for drawing. But as the cost is much higher than the combined cost of Lightroom and Photoshop, this is not recommended for most.

If you simply want extra cloud storage, then the photography plan (1TB) offers this, still at a slightly cheaper price than the Photoshop only plan.


Lightroom Plan vs Photography Plan

There is also a Lightroom plan that Adobe offers, so comparing the photography plan vs Lightroom plan is also worthwhile. As with the comparison to the Photoshop plan though, the photography plan again comes out on top.

Adobe Lightroom Plan vs Photography Plan
Adobe Photography plan (20GB)
Adobe Lightroom plan (1TB)
Lightroom (Basic Version)
  • Included
  • Included
Lightroom Mobile (syncs with basic version)
  • Included
  • Included
Lightroom Classic (the most advanced Lightroom version)
  • Included
  • Not included
Photoshop Desktop (the most advanced version of Photoshop)
  • Included
  • Not included
Photoshop iPad
  • Included
  • Not included
Fresco (Drawing & Painting)
  • Not included
  • Not included
Cloud Storage
  • 1TB
Current Price $9.99 / £9.98 $9.99 / £9.98

The Lightroom plan is probably Adobe’s worst value for money plan for photographers. Despite the name, it does not include Lightroom Classic, which is the most powerful and fully featured version of Lightroom.

As this plan is the same price as the 20GB photography plan, there is no real reason to choose the Lightroom plan over the photography plan.

Read More:

Lightroom Plan vs Photography Plan Full Comparison


Final Thoughts: Photoshop vs Photography Plan

With the various plan options for photographers, it’s not clear to those new to photo editing which plan they should be on.

Hopefully this article has made it clear that the best Adobe plan for photographers is the Adobe Photography plan (20GB). This is the plan that I have been subscribed to for years, and I can highly recommend it.

The fact that it is both the most full featured and cheapest plan makes it excellent value for money – this is the reason that so many use Adobe’s programs.


See the Top Lightroom & Photoshop Tutorials

If you’re new to photo editing, then check out some of my top free tutorials, which all use Lightroom and Photoshop to create the final image. Most contain a free download of the photo to follow along, and text and video instruction.

The Digital Blending Workflow Tutorial

The Landscapes Masterclass: No HDR, No Plugins

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Lightroom Tutorial - Adding Color Depth with White Balance

Using targeted white balance adjustments, you can enhance sunrises, paint in new sunsets, make stormy skies pop, create stylised effects, and much more, all with very little time and effort. Learn how to do this entirely in Lightroom

Photoshop Tutorial - Blend Any Two Photos

This tutorial covers methods of blending in five common landscape situations: Multiple Exposure Blending; Time Blending; Object Blending; Double-Process Blending; Blending Skies. These powerful methods will help you blend photos in any situation.

Color Control in Your Photography Tutorial

“I’ve blended my exposures, but my photo still doesn’t look like how I want it to look. Now what?” Learn a two-and-a-half minute, Photoshop based workflow to fix both colour and tone in this long form tutorial and video series.

Northern Lights Photography Tutorial

This guide covers how to see the Northern Lights – when, & where, the ideal camera equipment you should use, the camera settings you need to get perfect photos, and how to process your photos to get something you can be proud of, along with much more…
Follow Tim Daniels:

Hi, I'm Tim Daniels, photographer and photo trainer, founder of Lapse of the Shutter and creator of the totally free Lightroom Develop System. I've travelled to (probably) 30 countries over the last few years, taking photos and licensing them around the world, and creating lots of free photography learning resources. Read More ...

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