Apple Creator Studio

[jasongill]

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

[jasoneckert]

The 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).

[thecupisblue]

That's actually surprisingly cheap compared to other subscriptions in the industry, especially for such a high powered suite.

[btown]

As 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... 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.

[Forgeties79]

Not 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

[dangoodmanUT]

Thank 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

[g947o]

I thought they basically gave away Keynote/Pages etc to anyone with an Apple device?

[ksec]

>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.

[drcongo]

That's actually a hell of a deal considering I already pay $5 a month just for Logic on the iPad.

[xattt]

> 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 …

[sleepybrett]

Meanwhile the subscription for Adobe Premiere ALONE is 22.99/mo

[prodigycorp]

time to dust off that 20 year old edu email address. with these discounts, college has paid for itself!

[benterix]

Make 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.

[simjnd]

But Keynote, Pages and Numbers are already free

[butterisgood]

I thought Keynote, Pages, and Numbers were complimentary. Or part of an iCloud subscription or something. Is that changing?

[cultofmetatron]

the 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.

[kolanos]

Does this mean Keynote and Pages are now paid products? Aren't they included with Mac OS?

[deafpolygon]

My 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?

[lemonlime227]

The individual one time purchase versions are still available for all the apps. Final Cut, Logic, Motion, Compressor, and MainStage are offered in a bundle for education by Apple as a $199.99 one time purchase (no education status is verified) [1]. Pixelmator Pro is available as a one time purchase as well for $49.99 [2]. Not included in the Creator Studio is the Lightroom alternative Photomator, which is available as a one time purchase of $119.99. You could recreate just the Creator Studio as a one time $250 purchase, or the entire suite (including Photomator) for $370.

Not available for one time purchase are the AI features and templates available for the free apps (Keynote, Pages, Numbers, Freeform).

Personally, I'm glad that one time purchases are still options for the core pro suite: long term they do hold value compared to paying Adobe a subscription (or dealing with the high seas on macOS). However, I don't see things like the education bundle sticking around much longer, so purchase it sooner rather than later.

[1]: https://www.apple.com/us-edu/shop/product/bmge2z/a/pro-apps-...

[2]: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/pixelmator-pro/id1289583905

[lemonlime227]

Additional info: Final Cut Pro is going to keep getting updates, but certain features (presumably AI related) are not going to be included with the one time purchase and are gated to the subscription [1].

[1]: https://www.apple.com/final-cut-pro/#:~:text=A%20one%2Dtime%...

[no_wizard]

The inclusion of Pixelmator Pro is simply so they no longer have a hole in the software lineup as a competitor vs Affinity (I think the real competitor to this bundle) and Adobe

I think they view Photos as a viable replacement for Lightroom and equivalents.

[silveira]

Thanks for the info, I was looking for this. I have the "Pro Apps Bundle for Education" that I bought years ago and it is an fantastic deal.

[LoganDark]

Did Photomator increase in price? I seem to remember buying a lifetime license for $79.99.

[jwr]

After Apple suddenly discontinued Aperture, which left users like me with huge complex photo archives hanging, I will never trust any professional software tool from Apple again. It is a disaster that I still haven't fully recovered from.

I've learned my lesson — all my archives will now be maintained by me, in file structures, with metadata in text files.

[incanus77]

Me too, with Aperture. Huge misstep and insult to the user base.

This is a useful tool: https://github.com/cormiertyshawn895/Retroactive

However, you still need to run an older OS. I've still got on my todo list the process of fixing all of this.

[redundantly]

It's been a decade and it still hurts that it was discontinued.

[dgxyz]

Learned that lesson too. Then got into Lightroom. Now getting out of that by exporting stuff slowly. Moving to files on disk and edits in Darktable now. No "library".

[fidotron]

> These apps will continue receiving updates, with the latest versions adopting the beautiful new visual design language with Liquid Glass on all platforms

Are the Apple people really this oblivious, or is someone in PR trolling us?

[geerlingguy]

I still miss Aperture. Photos is a far cry still, many years later.

Lightroom never matched Aperture's organizational abilities for libraries with tens of thousands of RAW photos.

[ksec]

This is Off Topic, but the first thing I notice on that page were those icons for apps with Apple Creator Studio.

They look AWEFUL.

[andsoitis]

> Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro, Pixelmator Pro, Motion, Compressor, and MainStage — plus new AI features and premium content in Keynote, Pages, and Numbers — come together in a single subscription

So Apple is copying Adobe's business model?

[tomovo]

It's a pity Apple didn't choose to acquire Affinity when there was a chance. Pixelmator Pro looks like a toy app compared to Logic or Final Cut. I don't see how it could ever catch up to Photoshop. Even at such small scale it's always been very buggy in my experience and development seems to have stalled (apart from some obligatory AI features).

I am glad the standalone purchases are still available and I assume they will stay updated in sync with the subscription-based ones. I would hate my copy of Logic getting slowly obsolete..

[H1Supreme]

Seems like a pretty solid deal, if you need everything. I don't know who that person is though. The intersection between Final Cut Pro and Logic users is pretty small, I'd imagine.

[pjmlp]

I am still waiting for "XCode for iPadOS", where we can have a Smalltalk like approach to development, beyond what Swift Playgrounds allows for.

[bpavuk]

Apple hit all the buzzwords from Apple Bingo Card in the very first paragraph announcing their $13/mo creative suite subscription:

> Apple today unveiled Apple Creator Studio, a groundbreaking collection of powerful creative apps designed to put studio-grade power into the hands of everyone, building on the essential role Mac, iPad, and iPhone play in the lives of millions of creators around the world. The apps included with Apple Creator Studio for video editing, music making, creative imaging, and visual productivity give modern creators the features and capabilities they need to experience the joy of editing and tailoring their content while realizing their artistic vision. Exciting new intelligent features and premium content build on familiar experiences of Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro, Pixelmator Pro, Keynote, Pages, Numbers, and later Freeform to make Apple Creator Studio an exciting subscription suite to empower creators of all disciplines while protecting their privacy.

Count with me:

1. Groundbreaking

2. Powerful

3. Studio-grade

4. Power into the hands of everyone

5. Essential role of <INSERT APPLE PRODUCT(S)>

6. Exciting new

7. Familiar experiences

8. Empower

9. Privacy

---

P.S. is HN frontend open-source? I'd like to submit a fix for Markdown list rendering

[al_borland]

Too bad they killed Aperture.

[hbbio]

Now they acquired Photomator with Pixelmator, but it's still an independent subscription... not even included in this bundle. Maybe they just forgot.

[qubex]

The only apps from Apple I give a sizeable fraction of a dam about are Pages and Numbers, and hopefully they’ll emerge from the scourge of AI largely unscathed.

[thenaturalist]

I'm sorry to break it to you, but they certainly won't.

It's in the announcement and look at what Microslop and Google have done to their versions.

[Kye]

I'm keeping an eye on Graphite (https://graphite.art/) as something to move to from Affinity's stuff, but it's good there's a new option for people who need more.

[krm01]

It’s actually a pretty big deal. I always wondered why they didnt compete with Adobe. Even when Steve Jobs was still around. 90%+ of Adobe users are on Macs.

Why though isn’t such a significant announcement on the Apple.com homepage?

[pentagrama]

Here is a quick side by side comparison between Apple Creator Studio and the Adobe Creative Cloud suite. Each app may be stronger or weaker depending on the use case, workflow, and specific user needs, so this is only a rough equivalence.

    Function            | Apple                | Adobe               | Adobe price / month
    --------------------|----------------------|---------------------|--------------------
    Image editing       | Pixelmator Pro       | Photoshop           | ~USD 20
    Video editing       | Final Cut Pro        | Premiere Pro        | ~USD 23
    Motion graphics     | Motion               | After Effects       | ~USD 23
    Audio production    | Logic Pro            | Audition            | ~USD 23
    Video encoding      | Compressor           | Media Encoder       | Included with Premiere Pro
    Live audio          | MainStage            | No direct equivalent| N/A
    Docs/presentations  | Keynote/Pages/Numbers| Express/Acrobat     | ~USD 10 to 24
    --------------------|----------------------|---------------------|--------------------
    TOTAL               | USD 12.99 / month    | ~USD 100+ / month   |
                        | (7 apps bundle)      | (5 apps separately)|
                        |                      | USD 69.99 / month  |
                        |                      | (bundle 20+ apps)  |

Disclaimer: table formatting assisted by ChatGPT (hope it works on HN).

[mesh]

What this misses is that Creative Cloud is much more than a bundle of apps. It includes everything you need around the apps for pro workflows (i.e. fonts, AI, stock, collaboration, etc...).

(I work for Adobe)

[Svoka]

Pixelmator probably is Lightroom. And adobe has "Photography Bundle" with Lightroom and Photoshop for $20/mo.

[dormento]

Wow, RIP the icons I guess :/

[andsoitis]

Excited to see whether the new Apple boss will lead to software innovation, which has been pretty stagnant the last few years.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/08/technology/apple-ceo-tim-...

[kurishutofu]

When was the last time Apple made some significant update to its professional desktop apps?

[tarentel]

Logic Pro gets regular updates. I believe most of it is AI driven nonsense but they are making changes. Flashback capture was a nice fairly recent addition and surprising this wasn't implemented sooner. There are also regular bug fixes and performance improvements. I can't speak for the other apps.

https://support.apple.com/en-afri/109503

[joezydeco]

Forget that. TikTokers are the revenue stream now.

[reactordev]

Apple CC

Like Adobe CC

I love Logic and all but really?

I can’t help but notice Apple in the last decade has kind of been spinning in circles software wise while their hardware division makes breakthroughs with M-series chips.

2026, the year of the Linux Desktop…