7 ms·
It's $12.99/mo or $129/yr for a subscription that includes Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro, Pixelmator Pro, Motion, Compressor, MainStage, Keynote, Pages, and Numbers
by jasongill 9mo ago
It's $12.99/mo or $129/yr for a subscription that includes Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro, Pixelmator Pro, Motion, Compressor, MainStage, Keynote, Pages, and Numbers
Educational discount with verification required drops the price to $2.99/mo / $29.99/yr.
The regular-price subscription includes family sharing, education price does not.
One-time purchase versions remain available: Final Cut Pro ($299.99), Logic Pro ($199.99), Pixelmator Pro ($49.99), Motion ($49.99), Compressor ($49.99), and MainStage ($29.99).
Comes out January 28th
- thecupisblue 9mo agoThat's actually surprisingly cheap compared to other subscriptions in the industry, especially for such a high powered suite.
- Towaway69 9mo agoUndercut the competition until there is no competition, then raise prices or have I missed something? Ah, yes - cross finance your loses by selling compute in your own data centres / hosting service because you can.
- crazygringo 9mo agoSomehow I don't think Apple is going to put Adobe out of business.
- echelon 9mo agoThey don't need to. They want marketshare to enhance their other market positions and give them optionality for future strategy. They'd love the whole market, but they don't need it and they won't employ too many resources chasing that. They're a powerful giant with hands in so many places. Each enforcing other endeavors. This encourages people to stay in the Apple hardware ecosystem, for instance. It dog foods their silicon. It keeps people thinking of Apple as the creative brand and operating system. More creatives buying Apple -> more being produced and consumed for and on Apple. Also the strategy of getting kids young has always been genius. They started that in the eighties, I think.
- twoodfin 9mo agoWell put. Best framing I’ve seen of the answer to, “Why is Apple in the streaming service business?”
- sleepybrett 9mo agoThey don't need to, but they do lose a bunch more of the 'feeder' market. If need to edit video to a semi professional standard I'd pick this bundle at 12.99/month (and get extra tools i might need) vs adobe premiere for 22.99/month. As someone who came up along side adobe, the only reason photoshop is as entrenched as it is is simply because of piracy. Ditto for premiere. It created the market that they then locked down with subscriptions. I think you are going to see shops that are smaller, doing their own design stuff internally, increasingly moving away from adobe subscriptions.
- beernet 9mo agoNot an Apple fan at all, but damn, in the views of some of the HN community, one can only do wrong. Pathetic.
- embedding-shape 9mo agoPretty spot on. I think what's new is that Apple is employing this tactic, before they always went with "Our stuff is more expensive because it's better", but as they seem to slightly pivot into other directions now, this choice also seems to align with the new direction.
- exitb 9mo agoApple doesn't ever need to make much money on this software, when they make money on hardware needed to use it.
- sofixa 9mo agoApple hardware has "only" a 36% margin, while their software and services have a 75% margin. They definitely want to make more money on software with absurd margins.
- bombcar 9mo agoA huge portion of that margin is from the 33% App Store cut which is infinite margin for them, effectively. "software and services" really should be broken out from the App Store cut.
- bee_rider 9mo agoIs margin profit/revenue or profit/costs? I think it is the former, so it should be “effectively 100%” right? Anyway, this isn’t really a meaningful quibble argument-wise, it is obvious what you mean!
- thecupisblue 9mo agoI would assume it's because younger generations of creatives are using their software less and less, increasing the risk of losing the market completely on the software side. At this pricing, more of them will turn to paying Apple rather than paying for multiple services, keeping them tied into the ecosystem. Also so many people are paying for Canva, Capcut etc that taking a piece of that cake is quite a low hanging fruit if you have a distribution platform.
- no_wizard 9mo agoThe acquisition of the Affinity software by Canva I imagine motivated this. It’s even a similar pricing model, though technically with Pages / Numbers / Keynote covers a little more ground but I think the main intent is to get creatives using Apple’s creative software again Pixelmator being the only 3rd party software because Apple never made a competitor to Photoshop Though since Canva went full on toward more robust tools I imagine they have started capturing the entire editing chain more than they did 2-3 years ago, hence the Affinity acquisition
- Someone 9mo ago> Pixelmator being the only 3rd party software because Apple never made a competitor to Photoshop Pixelmator isn’t third party. https://www.pixelmator.com/blog/2024/11/01/a-new-home-for-pixelmator/ https://www.pixelmator.com/blog/2024/11/01/a-new-home-for-pi...: “November 1, 2024 A new home for Pixelmator Today we have some important news to share: the Pixelmator Team plans to join Apple” That deal completed almost a year ago.
- nozzlegear 9mo agoWhat data centers? Does Apple even have data centers? Can people purchase compute on Apple's data centers?
- darrenf 9mo ago> What data centers? Does Apple even have data centers? Apple absolutely has data centres. Where do you think Apple TV, Apple Music, iCloud, Maps, etc compute happens? Here's a press release straight from the horse's mouth about one in Denmark, in late 2020: https://www.apple.com/uk/newsroom/2020/09/apple-expands-renewable-energy-footprint-in-europe/ https://www.apple.com/uk/newsroom/2020/09/apple-expands-rene... > Can people purchase compute on Apple's data centers? Not to my knowledge, but that's not saying much.
- nozzlegear 9mo ago> Not to my knowledge, but that's not saying much. But that's the entire crux of their comment: undercut the competition, and make them pay for compute on Apple's data centers.
- Towaway69 9mo agoMost of the comments here demonstrates the lack of abstraction abilities here at HN. My comments weren’t related to whether apple has data centres or not (afaik they don’t and actually use google hardware). My comments were related to a business model used by amazon to destroy local shops in our neighbourhoods: offer products at vastly reduced prices, making a loss but covering those losses by profiting on aws. Once there is no competition left, prices rise and shareholder profits are made. Hence my conjecture that apple was doing the same and hence they were offering this product at undercut price. As was the OP was wondering about. I was actually criticising the business model increasingly used by big tech. Which has the consequences that are neighbourhoods are emptied out and left with stores that act as amazon package pickup stores or stores where packages are returned to be sent back to amazon.
- rchaud 9mo agoGet them in the door now and jack up the price later.
- jonwinstanley 9mo agoAs long as you buy a macbook to use it on, they are happy
- dylan604 9mo agoThey'd be even happier if you bought one of the Mac Studios or Mac Pro. Please, someone, anyone.
- kergonath 9mo agoI don’t think they have any trouble selling Studios. Pros, on the other hand…
- sleepybrett 9mo agoYeah studios are pretty boss machines, I know at least two companies that offer studios instead of macbooks to WFH employees if they want.
- brk 9mo agoThat was my thinking. I already use several of these apps, the $130/mo. is a no brainer to pick up the others.
- philistine 9mo agoThe competition for the Creator Studio is not exactly Adobe. Of course Apple will be happy to build on their offerings to be able to really take on Adobe, but this subscription is priced to compete with the online services popping up from nowhere that have stolen the ease of use market away from Adobe. The real competition in this market in 2026 is Canva.
- tln 9mo agoCanva, really? Is this looking forward at what is coming? I see the rise of and have to deal with Canva-generated PDFs instead of Adobe Illustrator. So the low end market of video / animation, I could absolutely see Canva dominating. Doubt we'll see audio tools though. Final Cut Pro -- Professional non-linear video editing * Canva? Partial: Best for social clips; lacks FCP’s RAW, multicam, and AI transcript tools. Logic Pro -- Professional music production and MIDI sequencing * Canva? No: No DAW capabilities, plugin hosting, or live mixing. Pixelmator Pro -- Advanced image editing and graphic design * Canva? Partial: Good for templates; lacks Pixelmator’s precision layers and AI retouching. Motion -- 2D/3D motion graphics and cinematic effects * Canva? No: Canva uses presets; Motion offers granular keyframing and VFX creation. Compressor -- Advanced media encoding and batch exporting * Canva? No: No control over specific codecs, bitrates, or pro output formats. MainStage -- Live performance audio rig for stage use * Canva? No: No live audio processing or MIDI instrument hosting. Keynote -- Cinematic presentations and slide decks * Canva? Yes: Canva’s primary competitor for collaborative, template-based slides. Pages -- Word processing and page layout * Canva? Yes: Canva Docs is a direct alternative for visual/marketing documents. Numbers -- Spreadsheets and data visualization * Canva? Yes: Canva Sheets handles basic data viz, though lacks Numbers' complex formulas.
- girvo 9mo agoWith Canva’s ownership of Affinity, yeah I see Canva as being a big competitor in parts of this space now. Or will be as those tools become more widespread across Canva’s users.
- philistine 9mo agoYou're making your argument backward. The fact Apple can offer a bundle that includes a ton of features that Canva does not have right now does not mean that Canva is not a competitor! Canva just bought the whole Affinity suite and dumped it on the laps of its subscribers for no extra charge. They're on the warpath against Adobe. They want to dethrone them. Apple sees this battle and saw an opportunity to participate. They bought Pixelmator and bundled all their Pro apps together, making a very versatile bundle that is very different from the image editing heavy bundle of Adobe and Canva. Apple can't take the market from professionals; they need the easel they learned at school. But they can definitely compete with Canva, whose market are untrained artists who need something done easily.
- prodigycorp 9mo agotime to dust off that 20 year old edu email address. with these discounts, college has paid for itself!
- yardie 9mo agoI finally had to give mine up. Needed to reset the password which required a trip to 4HELP office and I live halfway around the globe now. But the kiddo will be starting college soon so I can mooch off their edu email address.
- qingcharles 9mo agoAh, I've been mooching off an old library card for years to rent books for my Kindle. Finally got an email saying "Just pop into your local branch to renew this year." Ah...
- bookofjoe 9mo agoYES! I was a happy Kanopy movie viewer until last year I got a message that my library card no longer worked on Kanopy and I had to physically go in to the library to get a new one. Maybe someday....
- yardie 9mo agoYou have to renew them? I've been using the same card since '03. I went in a 2 years ago to pay my fine for a book lost in the couch cushion for a few months. Librarian thought it was quaint that I still have my old tattered library card.
- qingcharles 9mo agoThis was Chicago. I believe a lot of people had managed to get online cards without physically being in the city and they decided to call it in and get everyone to renew in person to see who was still legit.
- WmWsjA6B29B4nfk 9mo ago
- jasoneckert 9mo agoThe most important benefits in my opinion are choice and price - people like me who prefer to buy software outright can still do so at a reasonable cost, while others who opt for a subscription can also do so (again, at a reasonable cost).
- embedding-shape 9mo agoIt's pretty clever that they keep the "pay one time" option still alive while announcing the availability of subscription, so anyone who says "Boo, not you too Apple" can easily be shut down with "You still have the option to buy it!" instead of leaving those critics without answers. Of course, they'll eventually remove the option to buy the software by paying once, I think everyone can see the writing on the wall, but still clever of them to choose to do it later for PR purposes. 1-0 to Apple :)
- raw_anon_1111 9mo agoOffice 365 - the subscription version of Office - was released in 2011. Microsoft still offers a one time purchase of Office. There is precedent for Bigcorp keeping a one time purchase version and offer a prescription.
- Plasmoid2000ad 9mo agoYes - but perpetual purchases have an interesting gotcha that Microsoft didn't realise at first. To encourage subscription over perpetual, ongoing or evergreen updates are limited to subscription version. Office 2024 has every feature that was added since Office 2021 to the subscription version - while a chunk of loyal customers are unaware of them. Back when Google was competing hard with Google Suite, a big perception problem formed with the perpetual customers believing and convincing others that Google were far ahead, with collab editing and other features - after Office had added equivalent. So for me, If there's a subscription and one-time option - I wonder if the one-time gets all updates going forward. If it doesn't, I realise that they'll regret that if competition picks up, and try to fix it later. If it does include updates... I worry it will be like many other lifetime updates one-time purchases - when competition is low they'll renege on that promise.
- Forgeties79 9mo agoNot related to your comment exactly but I feel like I need to get this out in this thread somewhere: As someone who defended FCPX and used it professionally for years even when it was at its most hated (2011 or so), it’s been woefully supported the last few years and no one should be on it anymore. Resolve Studio outclasses it top to bottom for the same one-time cost and runs great on both MacOS and Windows. Linux it’s bumpy unfortunately but it does technically run lol
- embedding-shape 9mo ago> Resolve Studio outclasses it top to bottom for the same one-time cost and runs great on both MacOS and Windows Best 200-300 EUR I spent some years ago, and still receives free updates, Blackmagic Design is a really nice company. And, not only does Resolve run great on macOS and Windows, they have Linux native builds that run even better than it does with the same hardware using Windows, which is REALLY nice.
- Forgeties79 9mo agoOh interesting re: Linux. My understanding was it was rougher but maybe I should try myself!
- embedding-shape 9mo agoRuns like a dream for me, albeit on workstation-hardware so YMMV. It runs better under X than Wayland, at least the version I'm still stuck on, but otherwise the performance is top notch and easily worth a try :)
- Forgeties79 9mo ago9800x3d + 9070 + 32gb ram so I’ve got horsepower. Though I’ve seen people have issues with the 9070 specifically
- embedding-shape 9mo ago
- dangoodmanUT 9mo agoThank god they preserved the one time purchase. I bought all of these apps back in like ~2013 and have been using them for literally 13 years with all updates (fcp, compressor, motion) good on them
- bombcar 9mo agoIt's rare for a company to not only offer one-time purchases, and keep updating them, but also not rebranding/renaming/version cut-off charging at some point.
- tarentel 9mo agoIt helps that you have to continue to buy their hardware to keep running said software. I guess they could be greedy and keep making me pay for Logic every few years so I'm happy they don't do that but they're still making money off my initial purchase of logic just in a different way.
- drcongo 9mo agoThat's actually a hell of a deal considering I already pay $5 a month just for Logic on the iPad.
- apercu 9mo agoI bought Logic maybe 8-9 years ago, and get free upgrades.... If I had paid $5/mo it would already have cost me ~$280.00 more than I paid. Even if I had to purchase an occasional update (assuming they were reasonably priced), I'd still be coming out ahead. I hate "renting" software.
- drcongo 9mo agoOh yeah, my Logic for Mac is probably about that age too, but there's no choice to buy it outright on iPad sadly.
- Fnoord 9mo agoI bought a license for Pixelmator Pro a couple of years ago. IIRC it cost 30 or 40 EUR. I don't use it much, but it is unlikely you're going to need all of that software.
- apercu 9mo agoOh, didn't know that. That's lame. I could see using an iPad for automation, triggered by midi, but I use an Air for that (and even if I used an my Pro, I still have to use a USB C hub because for some reason Apple things 1 (or 2) USB ports is enough. Sigh.
- g947o 9mo agoI thought they basically gave away Keynote/Pages etc to anyone with an Apple device?
- hmbakhsh 9mo agoPotentially AI slop features coming to both that they'll charge for?
- yohannparis 9mo agoIt's literally in the introduction of the page. > plus new AI features and premium content in Keynote, Pages, and Numbers
- g947o 9mo agoSo it's the GP comment that is inaccurate.
- ksec 9mo ago>Comes out January 28th I wonder why? Why not today but 28th of Jan? Part of me thinks M5 MacBook Air and M5 Pro MacBook Pro will also be released on January 28th.
- ExoticPearTree 9mo agoI would like this to be very true. Can’t wait to get the new Air.
- systemtest 9mo agoCould be related to billing cycles
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- fckgw 9mo agoMac Studio is still on M4 Max and M3 Ultra chips. I could see a press release refresh on that day to M5 chips.
- ksec 9mo agoWell I guess either Great Mind thinks alike or they just read my HN comment https://9to5mac.com/2026/01/14/apple-may-have-hinted-at-a-high-end-macbook-pro-launch-on-january-28/ https://9to5mac.com/2026/01/14/apple-may-have-hinted-at-a-hi...
- simjnd 9mo agoBut Keynote, Pages and Numbers are already free
- Rebelgecko 9mo agoSeems like a great "opportunity" for Apple to pump up their Services revenue
- aobdev 9mo agoFrom the subheading: “plus new AI features and premium content in Keynote, Pages, and Numbers”
- butterisgood 9mo agoHopefully staying as such. I like Numbers, but I suspect I could totally replace my use of it with Emacs org-mode.
- cultofmetatron 9mo agothe other benefit is that subs can be a sort of extended trial. Ive been wanting to try out final cut pro but I don't want to do a full video project if i'm going to be evaluating it. better to have 1-3 months to really know before I plunk down 299 bucks.
- tarentel 9mo agoThey offer a 3 month trial already.
- btown 9mo agoAs someone who's loved Logic Pro since the days before Apple bought Emagic, this is amazing that it will be accessible to a broader audience. There are many discussions e.g. https://gearspace.com/board/music-computers/1433515-why-does-logic-pro-x-seems-most-popular-daw-mainstream-corporate-pop-music-producers.html https://gearspace.com/board/music-computers/1433515-why-does... about the reasons for its popularity, but one stands out to me - its event data model. There are far too many tools out there (from FL Studio on one end, to MuseScore on the other) that present piano-roll-based rapid prototyping and traditional western score notation as diametric opposites. From day 1, Logic challenged itself "what if we can use the same event-based data model to render both." None of this complexity is hidden - you can edit the raw event stream directly. If you're a developer familiar with, say, React, it makes music creation quite intuitive - everything from visual to audio output is a function of a transparently formatted data store. And while that has its challenges, and some of the UX innovations of e.g. MuseScore have been slower to arrive in Logic, because of this "dual life" it's unmatched as a pedogogical tool, and a professional creative tool as well.
- jmsgwd 9mo agoHow else could you represent piano roll data than as a stream of events? I thought that was ubiquitous since the invention of MIDI. Are you saying other sequencers are unable to render the same data as piano roll and score?
- btown 9mo agoAmong professional-ready DAWs, as far as I know, it's unique in its approach. Pro Tools and FL Studio still don't have score rendering or even MusicXML export! Reaper has limited score rendering/engraving support, but minimal customizability. And on the notation-oriented side, you have things like MuseScore, Finale, etc. where there is an event model, but the UI itself doesn't have mature (or any) support for tracking mixer/knob automation (outside of what can be derived automatically from dynamic symbols). Years ago, I used Logic in a musical theater context where I could build a constantly-updated demo for pitching/rehearsals/live-iteration and edit the final orchestration to be printed for the pit orchestra, both from the same living document. Could I have duplicated my changes in a DAW and notation software separately, and kept them in sync manually? Absolutely, and many creators do. But there's something special about having that holy grail at your fingertips.
- deafpolygon 9mo agoMy concern here is are they going to start locking features for Pages, Numbers, and Keynote behind a paywall? Yes, it’s free—but will they still have all of the newer features without a subscription?
- mrkstu 9mo agoI’m assuming that they’re going to (fairly) lock AI generative features behind the subscription since they’ll be incurring ongoing costs.
- apparent 9mo agoThey'll be pressured by gdocs and other similar products to not keep too much of this behind a paywall. I already don't know anyone who loves using Pages (every time I share a document I have to export it to .docx, which is annoying), so they're already starting off behind by a bit.
- deafpolygon 9mo agoI really enjoy Pages, but if they’re going to lock stuff behind a paywall — it might be time to look at other things. I can’t afford to add a whole bunch of new subscriptions.
- flenserboy 9mo agoI think many more would be on to Pages if they realized it was more than a simple WP. It's especially great for personal use, where there's no non-Mac sharing needed — there's no simpler layout program out there, & the typographic options are nice to have. If I have something longer/more detailed to put together, that's what ()LaTeX, Inkscape, etc., is for. We need alternate app ecosystems out there, & it's nice that Apple hasn't left these apps to rot like they did back in the 2010s.
- seec 9mo agoIt's OK but way too limited for proper layouts and doesn't have enough features for long/complex documents like books. As it is, it's barely better than GDocs but less convenient, and since people rarely need to print stuff, layout isn't that important.
- kolanos 9mo agoDoes this mean Keynote and Pages are now paid products? Aren't they included with Mac OS?
- aobdev 9mo agoFrom the subheading: “plus new AI features and premium content in Keynote, Pages, and Numbers”
- xattt 9mo ago> Educational discount with verification required drops the price to $2.99/mo / $29.99/yr. Guess it’s time to take some online self-paced courses at a university for no reason in particular …
- benterix 9mo agoMake the one-time purchase while you still can. The educational version is a great value, and the license allows the software to be used for commercial purposes.
- sleepybrett 9mo agoMeanwhile the subscription for Adobe Premiere ALONE is 22.99/mo
- FireBeyond 9mo agoYeah, I'm pissed that the Photography plan (Lightroom/Photoshop) has gone from 9.99/mo to 24.99/mo in the last 18 months.
- butterisgood 9mo agoI thought Keynote, Pages, and Numbers were complimentary. Or part of an iCloud subscription or something. Is that changing?