How to get Photoshop for Mac

Apple's free Mac apps: Photos and Preview can teach the basics of editing an image or photo, but if you want to do something more advanced, you'll need a dedicated photo editing app. Photoshop by Adobe is the industry standard due to its wide range of features and capabilities.

Here's how to get a copy of Photoshop on your Mac, or failing that, the next best thing.

And because you can't beat free, we also explain your ways to get free Photoshop on Mac.

How to Get Photoshop Free on Mac

Many people will wonder if there is a way to get Photoshop on Mac for free. First a warning: if you find Photoshop on a file sharing site, do not download it. This is because it is very unlikely to be a legitimate version of the app and will almost certainly cause you problems - this is how viruses spread.

There is no such thing as a completely free version of Adobe Photoshop, but there are a few options that can get you a free copy of Photoshop for a limited time or with a short-term subscription.

The first option is a Photoshop trial. There is a 7-day free trial that gives you access to the full program without any limitations.

While Adobe advertises the 7-day free trial, you can actually get 14 days free as you can cancel within 14 days of your initial order and receive a full refund. In fact, you could theoretically get 21 days free if you had the trial and then cancel your subscription after 13 days.

The second option is to sign up for a monthly subscription on a monthly rather than yearly basis. This doesn't get you Photoshop for free, but the option does allow you to temporarily subscribe to Adobe Photoshop and unsubscribe when you no longer need it. We will go through the different subscription options in the following sections.

To explain how it works, we need to explain the difference between Adobe's two monthly subscription packages:

There are two monthly subscription packages: one is cheaper (£19.97 / $20.99 / AU$29.99 per month) as it's part of an annual plan; the other is a more expensive option (£30.34/$31.49/AU$45.99 per month), but you can cancel without having to pay Adobe anything.

Adobe explains the legal terms of the various contracts here. If you sign up for the cheaper "annual contract with monthly payment" and then decide to cancel your subscription, you can basically do that, but if you "cancel" the contract after the first 14 days, you'll be charged a flat total amount of 50% of your remaining contract obligation and your service will continue through the end of that month's billing cycle."

This is a slightly better scenario than paying annually - in this case, your contract runs until the end of the term. You would not get any money back.

Therefore, in this case, it is best to go for the month-to-month contract. In this case, the contract will automatically renew each month, but should you cancel (we explain how to cancel below) you can use Photoshop until the end of that month, then your contract will end.

If you need Photoshop but don't want to commit to a deal with Adobe, this might be the best option for you. Note, however, that after 90 days you will lose access to anything you have stored in Adobe's cloud.

Sign in to Adobe's website.

If these options don't suit you, but you don't want to pay for Photoshop, you need to look for alternatives to Photoshop. We've rounded up the best free and cheap image and photo editors for Mac, including some free options like Seashore and Gimp.

Here's how to get Photoshop on Mac without a subscription

If you've been hoping to buy your own copy of Photoshop since you're not paying on a subscription basis, we've got some bad news for you: Adobe no longer sells what it calls a "perpetual license" for Photoshop and its other apps.

However, there is an option: you can buy Photoshop Elements. Photoshop Elements is designed for amateur rather than professional photographers, but it offers a range of photo editing features that might be enough for your needs.

You can purchase a copy of Photoshop Elements directly from Adobe's website for £86.56/$99.99/AU$145.19: Buy Photoshop Elements 2021 from Adobe.

You can also buy Photoshop Elements from the Mac App Store, but it actually costs more if you buy from Apple (£99 / $99 / AU$159.99).

The advantage of Photoshop Elements is that you can buy it directly and install it on your Mac. Elements gives you access to consumer-level features like masks, layers, coloring, image editing, and other useful effects.

However, if you're a creative pro or are used to the full version of Photoshop, you might find that there are too many tools missing from the box. If you want to take a look, there is also a 7-day free trial so you can test the software.

Understandably, many Mac users are disappointed that Adobe no longer sells the full Photoshop "perpetual license." Many years ago, professional Mac users might have owned a version of Adobe CS and used it for years, but the slow rate at which companies update is likely what prompted Adobe to switch to a subscription model.

If you don't care how current your software is, you might be interested in buying a used copy of Photoshop or an old Mac with Photoshop installed. Note, however, that Adobe does not support all older versions in terms of updates, so the versions you find may not be compatible with later iterations of macOS, and newer Macs will not run old versions of Photoshop.

You will also need to confirm that the software license has not yet been used as these are usually non-transferrable. And in general, we don't recommend buying a used Mac (unless it's certified refurbished).

For more information see: What version of macOS can my Mac run?

If a subscription to Photoshop isn't right for you and Photoshop Elements isn't enough, we recommend checking out our alternatives to Photoshop, many of which have comparable features with the benefit of being available for direct purchase. We look at options like PixelMator Pro, Affinity Photo, and others in the best Photoshop alternatives for Mac.

Is there an educational discount for Photoshop?

Before we move on to the different subscription models, there is another way you can save money while getting a copy of Photoshop for your Mac.

If you are in education, you may qualify for a discount.

However, you can't sign up for a discounted price on the Photoshop-only tier, you have to purchase the entire Creative Cloud collection, which of course includes Photoshop, but you get a pretty hefty discount.

At the time of writing, students and teachers are paying £16.24/US$19.99/AU$21.99 per month, which is about 70% off the regular subscription price.

Photoshop for Mac price

If you've accepted having to pay for a Photoshop subscription, you'll want to know how much it costs. There's really no easy answer to that: it depends on how you want to buy it.

Whether you love the subscription model or hate it, there are a few options to choose from when you want to get a copy of Photoshop:

Photoshop: If you just want the single Photoshop app, you can have it for £19.97 / $20.99 / AU$29.99 a month if you sign up for a year, or £30.34 / 31.49 $ / AU$45.99 per month if you only pay monthly. Sign in to Adobe's website.

Photography plan: However, the photography plan is actually the best deal. These include Photoshop CC, Lightroom CC (for web and mobile), and Lightroom Classic CC (for desktop). This package costs £9.98 / $9.99 / AU$14.29 per month, but you're on a one-year contract. You get 20GB of storage included (there's a 1TB storage option that costs around £10 / $10 / AU$14 more per month). Sign in to Adobe's website.

Shop: If you're a business user, consider signing up for the Business option, which gives you a single Photoshop license for £25.28 (excl. VAT)/$33.99/AU$48.99 per month (incl. VAT) can receive. It's worth noting that all Adobe CC apps including Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Premiere Pro and Acrobat cost £59 (ex VAT) / $79.99 / AU$116 per month. Sign in to Adobe's website.

How to cancel a Photoshop subscription

The ease with which you can end your Photoshop contract is one of the benefits of Adobe's decision to move from selling copies of Photoshop directly to a subscription model.

It also means you only have to pay for Photoshop for as long as you need it. So if it's just a short-term project, you can opt out once the work is done.

To cancel your subscription:

1. Sign in to the Adobe website where plans are managed.
2. Sign in to your Adobe account.
3. On the My Plans tab, find Manage Plan (or View Plan) and click on it.
4. Now click Cancel plan.
5. Enter your reason for termination.
6. Click on Continue.

The Best Alternatives to Photoshop on Mac?

There is a lot of great photo and image editing software for macOS, many of which are cheaper than the Adobe products. One of our favorites is Serif's Affinity Photo, which offers a wide range of powerful tools and an easy-to-use interface, and costs around £50/$50. We've seen several promotions on the Serif website offering the program for half the price, which is an absolute steal.

At the time of writing, you could buy Affinity Photo for £23.99/$32.99 in one such deal, and we recommend you at least take a look if you want a top-notch photo editor.

Another popular choice is GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program), which is completely free and offers an incredible array of tools and features. The user interface can take some getting used to, which isn't uncommon with open-source software, but once you get comfortable with it, you'll be amazed at what you can achieve. There is also a large collection of tutorials for the software on YouTube. So if you're willing to put in the time, it's a powerful suite that won't cost you anything at all.

We also recommend you to read Best Mac for Photo Editing.

By: How to get Photoshop for Mac