Is Adobe InDesign Free? Short answer is no but…

The short answer is no… and kind of?

There are several ways you can get Adobe InDesign for cheap or for free entirely outlined in this article below. The catch of course is that some versions have special requirements, which I’ll outline below, and one is pretty unconventional.

Adobe InDesign for Free

The easiest way to get Adobe InDesign for Free is to sign up for a free 7-day trial by clicking here.

However this doesn’t work too well if you have signed up for one in the past – and Adobe’s been around a long time. And since it’s based off your user id (i.e. your email address), it’s possible you signed up for Adobe Photoshop eons ago and that could preclude you from a free trial on InDesign now.

Be forewarned though, if you do sign up for the free trial you can bet that Adobe is going to be charging that card you signed up with the second those 7 days are up (and that can go fast). So make darn sure you mark your calendar if you don’t want to get charged the $20.99.

Leverage Your Student ID – Buy Adobe InDesign As A Student or A Teacher

This option DOES require a valid (i.e. current) Student ID or Teacher’s ID in order to get the education discount.

Still with me? OK so if you fall into this category (nice!) you can get not just Adobe InDesign, but the ENTIRE CREATIVE SUITE for a staggering low price of $19.99. That’s less than Adobe InDesign by itself.

Adobe doesn’t even try to sell you InDesign, they want you using their entire suite. And with good reason. They know if you get trained up on their software, you can take those skills into a new job. At the new job they too will have to buy Adobe Creative Suite, and the trend continues.

I go into this in detail later on in this article, but just as with the regular full priced subscription, be 100% sure you want to buy either the monthly or yearly. They are both commitments. Getting out of either has fees and hassle associated with either.

I also want you to be aware that the price jumps after the first year from $19.99 to $29.99. To be sure that’s still $20ish less dollars than if you were paying full price, but again, it’s a commitment. Your window to cancel is very short. For example, today is February 13th, and my window to cancel this is March 6th.

If you miss this window, they do charge you an early termination fee of 50% of your remaining months. If you have 10 months left, your fee is $99.95.

Adobe, the community, the software… all fantastic. But as I talk about below, they are here to make money, so just be sure you are cool with the way they’ve set things up before you commit.

Student Purchase Screen:

Adobe InDesign for Students

Screen Shot from Adobe.com

Get Your Boss To Buy It

Not so helpful when YOU’RE the boss, but this is a legitimate tax write off. It’s a very real expense and a required tool in our industry.

If your business buys it, it’s an expense. If you buy it, it can be harder to justify it at tax time.

What Adobe InDesign Comes With

Adobe has spiced up their offerings so they can charge what they charge, and at least two of these I think are phenomenal.

Screen Shot from Adobe.com

  1. Adobe Fonts. This used to be called TypeKit and is an amazing resource for finding JUST the right font for your Adobe InDesign projects.
  2. Behance is like a Facebook for creators, and while it’s cool seeing all the different portfolios and getting inspiration, the tab you need to check out is the “Livestreams” tab. I have learned more from watching other creators working on their craft in the moment (and being able to answer chat questions!?) than YouTube could ever provide. 10000% recommend.
  3. It also comes with element libraries, such as graphics, icons, vectors, but I have personally found paid options like Deposit Photos to be better resources. But if you don’t have a subscription to a service like them then an included graphics library is helpful.

You Can Buy Adobe InDesign By Itself

Adobe tries to sell you on a year’s subscription to the entire Adobe Creative Cloud Suite – all their software. Which, is a phenomenal deal for $52.99/mo, IF you use at least 2 or 3 of them.

Adobe InDesign is $20.99/month by itself, but let’s say you also use Adobe Photoshop ($20.99/mo) to edit photos, and Premiere Pro ($20.99) to edit your YouTube videos. This is a very real and common combo, that also now puts you over the whole suite price of $52.99.

But if that’s not you, you can just buy Adobe InDesign and call it a day for just the $20.99. You’ll still get the Fonts, Cloud Storage, and Behance access either way, and then just upgrade to the larger package if and WHEN you find out later on you have a need for it.

How to Buy An Adobe InDesign Subscription

So here’s the kicker with Adobe Subscriptions. You just need to be sure. They don’t mess around with their subscriptions.

If you’re not sure if you’re going to keep Adobe InDesign for a year, like this isn’t a normal part of your job, then go with the green monthly option.

The red Annual subscription (monthly) is a good option if you are certain this is going to be a part of your life for awhile. The reason I say this is because they can be pushy if you fall behind. You’re agreeing to pay them every month for a year, so just be 100% sure you’re OK with that. Like I said, Adobe doesn’t mess around with their subscriptions.

So if you’re even a little on the fence, go with the green option here. Yes it’s $10.50 more, but you’re not committed… and it’s ONLY $10.50 more. Make the jump after you’ve had the software for a minute and know you’re going to keep it. There’s no fee to cancel with the green monthly option.

The red option is good  if you know you’re going to commit to paying this every month. You can still get out of this contract, but they will charge you a fee for it to the tune of 50% of the remaining months. If you’re only 2 months into a year long contract, that can be some serious change.

I would only go with the gold (year) option if you’re a seasoned vet. These are your tools and you know you’ll use them. Again. No refund after 14 days. No. Refund. No 50% early termination fee. That’s it. They have your money… you just gotta be sure.

Adobe products are phenomenal, but they are 100% a business and are incredibly strict about their billing. So bottom line, choose which plan you’re going to be happy with in 6 months.

Adobe InDesign Pricing 2022

Screen Shot from Adobe.com

Affiliate Links:
Some of these are affiliate links. They don’t cost you anything additional to use, the companies just give me a kickback for promoting them should you decide to buy something. Thanks for clicking the link and checking it out! Those kickbacks from the companies really help support us!

Super Simple Social Media Template

Coming up with social media content every day sucks.

It takes too much of your time,

This mini-ebook will make it so you only have to schedule your social media posts 4x/year. Yep. Once a quarter.

  • Inspire your audience with the kind of content that gets a lot of likes
  • Educate your audience so they see you as a resource
  • Personalize your posts so your personality so you build that community
  • And drive traffic to a product or service to help boost sales

I have a 9-5 job [...]

Links Mentioned Super Simple Social [...]

First up, I'll show you how something as simple [...]

Title

Go to Top