Adobe Captivate Moving to Subscription License Model in 2022
I just learned that Adobe will discontinue perpetual licenses of Adobe Captivate as of February 16th, 2022.
Perpetual licenses are a traditional way of buying software. Over the years, I have purchased many perpetual licenses for software dating back to the 90s when I would buy MS-DOS or Windows from my local computer shop. Just thinking about Adobe Captivate, I have personally purchased Captivate 5, 5.5, 7, 8, and 9. In theory, I could install these programs on my computer today. But in all seriousness, why would I at this point? Calling these licenses perpetual might be overstating it. Full disclosure, I haven’t paid for Adobe Captivate 2017 or 2019 at all. More on that at the end of this article.
The hope with SaaS is that you see the benefit of having a lower cost of entry into that software, and you get more capabilities introduced over time. You are also automatically enrolled into the next major release of the software without incurring any additional expenses.
When Adobe Captivate 2019 came out, you could purchase it using either the monthly fee or the perpetual license model. For argument’s sake, let’s say that you started using Adobe Captivate when Adobe released it in August 2018. To buy the perpetual license, you would have paid $1399. However, if one were to sign up back in August of 2018 for Adobe Captivate 2019 monthly, they would merely pay $34 per month. If you add up all those $34 payments until the end of this year, that would be 41 months, times $34 which works out to $1394.
Of course, starting in January, your monthly expense would exceed the cost you would have paid for the perpetual license. But here is where the monthly plan works in your favour. At some point in 2022, we know that the next major release of Adobe Captivate will get released. So the people who are presently paying $34 per month will get to update their copy of Adobe Captivate to that new version for no additional fee. The last time I purchased an upgrade license for Adobe Captivate, it cost me $449. At $34 per month, that $449 would last me for thirteen months. So when you factor in the extra time, I might have to pay a monthly fee versus the cost of upgrading when the time comes; it’s actually about the same.
Now I did mention that I haven’t paid for Captivate 2017 or 2019 at all. Adobe has given me this software for free, which anyone can take advantage of. I and many others participate in the Adobe eLearning Community website (https://elearning.adobe.com). I accumulate points for that participation. Once per quarter, you can “cash in” those points for complimentary benefits from Adobe. If you earn just 150 points per quarter, you can get a 3-month complimentary license of Adobe Captivate. Showcasing your work, writing a blog post, or posting a video tutorial will earn you 100 points. If you wrote just one blog post (like this one) about Adobe Captivate per month, you would easily earn enough points for free Adobe Captivate. Learn more about this program here: https://elearning.adobe.com/levels/
I challenge you to turn this into an opportunity. Write just one article per month until the next major release of Adobe Captivate and see if you can avoid all the fees associated with Adobe Captivate.
Why Would I Waste My Money on Captivate
Most of the comments on my YouTube videos are encouraging, but someone challenges me every once in a while.
Most of the comments on my YouTube videos are encouraging, but someone challenges me every once in a while.
Here is such a statement from Kim:
“Thanks for the video – however, if Adobe Captivate is such a great teaching tool, why are you using a screen recorder and YouTube to teach it? If all I need is a free screen recorder and YouTube to teach my subject, why would I waste my money on Captivate? Does not make sense. Thanks.”
Here was my answer to Kim:
“That’s a good question, and hopefully, you’ll agree that I have the right answer. Like my favourite handyman Mike uses different tools for different jobs, Adobe Captivate is an excellent tool for many other learning solutions. Adobe Captivate is a perfect tool for creating self-directed learning that you would upload to a learning management system. Adobe Captivate projects with a good LMS allows an organization to track and report on the progress of their learners. My YouTube videos don’t do this at all. Sure Google gives me analytics related to how many people watched my videos and for how long, but I have no idea if anyone is learning anything. Besides, the purpose of my YouTube videos is not necessarily to train my students. I prefer to think of my YouTube videos as advertising for my real business, teaching clients Adobe Captivate. My videos are the free sample to find out if you would like to have me teach you for an hour or more on one or more topics about Captivate.
But like Mike the handyman, I use other tools for other tasks. I record and edit my videos for YouTube using a program called Camtasia (there is a link in the description for this). I used to use Adobe Captivate’s Video Demo feature, which performs a similar function. In this case, Camtasia is a more robust solution. If you asked me to create a software simulation or an interactive video that I could report on the learners’ results, Adobe Captivate and a good quality LMS would be my choice.”
Adobe Captivate – Why Pay For It At All?
When I first started using adobe captivate it was purchased for me. I worked as an eLearning designer, developer and of course we used whatever software the company provided. Of course, then the decision isn’t yours to make and you have to use whatever software they give you. But I’ve found myself in different circumstances over the years and perhaps my experience can help you when it comes to making the decision for yourself...
When I first started using adobe captivate it was purchased for me. I worked as an eLearning designer, developer and of course we used whatever software the company provided. Of course, then the decision isn’t yours to make and you have to use whatever software they give you. But I’ve found myself in different circumstances over the years and perhaps my experience can help you when it comes to making the decision for yourself.
Student Teacher Pricing
In between jobs, I decided to go back to school and get my college certificate for teaching and training adults. While enrolled at the college I found out that I was eligible to purchase the Adobe eLearning Suite at a substantial discount. The eLearning Suite is no longer available, but at the time it was a really great value because it included several of the Creative Suite titles for a very reasonable price.
Adobe and other software developers offer student and teacher discounts because if you can get the next generation of future creative people using your software, you will likely get a surge in corporate sales in the next few years because of it.
The downside of student and teacher pricing is that they are not subscriptions and therefore will become obsolete at some point. Technically I could still use my copy of the Adobe eLearning Suite, however, all the software included is well over half a decade old. Many of the features I use today just aren’t included in the old versions.
Perpetual License
Like the student and teacher pricing, a regular perpetual license is what you get when you pay a single lump sum for a software title. When Adobe Captivate 2017 Release came out, I saw many people on the Adobe eLearning Community and the forums complain that they had just purchased Adobe Captivate 9. These folks felt ripped off and I can’t say I blame them. Adobe and other software developers are between a rock and a hard place. On one hand, they don’t want to reveal that new software is in pre-release because they need sales to continue to support their company. On the other hand, it does lead to disappointment. Adobe does offer complimentary upgrades for users who are usually within the 1 month period but if you fall outside that range you may be disappointed. Of course, this is why subscription can be so appealing.
Subscription
If price and obsolescence are your concern, the subscription model is really the best bet. Subscription costs you a monthly fee but requires a commitment of time, usually a year. The individual payment is lower and in the case of Adobe Captivate, less expensive than a perpetual license, assuming you will always upgrade to the latest version. I prefer and of course, require the most up to date version. While many people still watch my tutorials on Adobe Captivate 8, the real demand for me is to teach about the new features in 2017 release.
While many believe that subscription is solely a response to piracy, it also makes it easier for a software developer to support the software. For example, the Creative Cloud software is only available on subscription. What this means is that the support team at Adobe really only needs to support one code base. It is doubtful that many users of the Creative Cloud are running anything other than the CC 2017. Besides, why would you not want all the new features?
The real advantage to Adobe Captivate users is that you will never find yourself in the situation where you are the upset customer who just purchased the previous edition two or three months ago.
Why Pay For It At All?
Yes, you read that right. Why pay for it at all? At the present time, I am not paying for my subscription to Adobe Captivate. No I’m not stealing the software, nor have I installed some other software that tricks the activation servers into thinking I’m a paying customer when I’m not. What I’ve done is no different than what any of you can do. I’ll explain.
By participating in the Adobe eLearning Community, we can all accumulate points. You can exchange these points for complimentary licenses of your favorite eLearning software from Adobe. For example, if you downloaded the trial edition of Adobe Captivate, used it for one month and during that time wrote one blog post about your experience and wrote one testimonial about the product you would qualify for three months of complimentary license usage for Adobe Captivate. If you were like me and continued to post blogs and videos and answered people’s questions you might accumulate 1000 points and further extend your Captivate license for up to a year. In addition, you would also start to see other benefits in the form of being invited to various online and live events, get asked to be a speaker at one of the conferenced held by Adobe, and of course, other software would be provided to you as well.
For all the details on this program check out the page below that explains the badges and incentives, score information, and the rules around yearly points accumulation (yes there are some rules).