Life after Photoshop

Adobe Lightroom: what is it, where do you get it, what does it cost in 2025?

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Adobe Lightroom

Adobe Lightroom is not one program but three. You could easily call it an ecosystem. At heart, it’s a tool for both organizing your photos and editing them. So how do you get it, what does it cost, and which version do you need?

It has non-destructive editing tools, so that you can easily go back later and change your mind about the adjustments, and it works with both RAW files and JPEG files, editing either of them seamlessly alongside each other, with no need for any separate RAW processing.

Perhaps the key thing about Adobe Lightroom, though, is its cloud-based ecosystem, which potentially lets you view, edit and share your images everywhere, on any device.

The system and the choices aren’t quite as straightforward as all that, though, so let’s go through the options.

Adobe Lightroom: what is it?

• Adobe Lightroom is Adobe’s ‘web first’ version of Lightroom. It’s a desktop program, but all your images are actually stored in the cloud, on Adobe’s own web servers. This opens the door to other tools in the Lightroom ecosystem.
• Adobe Lightroom mobile is an app for Android and iOS devices that offers most of the same tools and look and feel of the desktop program. Lightroom mobile can access your photos and albums in the cloud and lets you carry on viewing, editing and sharing your photos from a mobile device. Lightroom mobile also has its own Camera mode for capturing photos straight into your photo library.
• Lightroom web is another way to view, organize and edit your photos, this time in a regular web browser. This way, you can view and edit your photos on any computer that doesn’t have Lightroom installed.

• Adobe Lightroom Classic is the ‘old’ Lightroom. It’s a desktop program that stores photos in the traditional way, on your computer, and while it can synchronize with Adobe’s cloud storage, it’s on a more limited basis, and does not actually need the cloud storage to work.

Adobe Lightroom: where do you get it?

Adobe Lightroom is only available on subscription. This applies to Lightroom Classic too. You take out a subscription on the Adobe website, choosing a Plan that best suits your needs and budget.

As of 2025, the most cost-effective plans for photographers are probably the 1TB Photography Plan and the 1TB Lightroom Plan. There’s more detail on costs and what’s included in the next section.

Adobe Photography Plans

• 20GB Photography Plan: now $14.99/month, no longer available to new users
• 1TB Photography Plan: $19.99/month
• 1TB Lightroom Plan: now $11.99/month

A trial version lasting just a few days is available but requires card details and must be cancelled before the trial expires to avoid automatic subscription

Choose a Photography Plan

Adobe Lightroom: what does it cost?

• 20GB Photography Plan ($14.99/month): This legacy plan includes both Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Lightroom Classic, AND Adobe Photoshop. There are other add-ons included, but let’s keep this simple for now. At its original $9.99/£9.98 per month, this plan was extremely good value. It’s now been discontinued, and while existing users can continue with this plan, at an increased monthly subscription, it’s no longer available to new users.

NOTE: While this plan does come with 20GB cloud storage, this will be nowhere near enough for Adobe Lightroom’s cloud-based image storage, except for a quick try-out. If you want to use Adobe Lightroom long-term, you will need the next step up, a plan which includes 1TB storage.

• 1TB Photography Plan ($19.99/month): This is now the default Photography Plan for new users. It’s essentially the same as the old 20GB Photography Plan but with 1TB cloud storage included. This will be necessary if you use Lightroom, which requires cloud storage, but may be an unnecessary expense if you use Lightroom Classic, where image are stored on your own computer.

• 1TB Lightroom Plan (1TB) ($9.99/9.98/month): If you ONLY want Adobe Lightroom, this is the best deal. You simply get Adobe Lightroom and 1TB storage, which should be all you need for quite some time. It includes Lightroom mobile and Lightroom web, but NOT Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Lightroom Classic.

So which is the best option? If all you want is Adobe Lightroom, the Lightroom Plan is a good, affordable start. However, if you need Photoshop too, or Lightroom Classic, then you should consider the more expensive Photography Plan (1TB) option.

• Lightroom mobile can be downloaded free from the Apple App store in iPhone and iPad versions, or Google Play. Lightroom mobile is free, BUT unless it’s connected to an Adobe subscription plan, its features are limited, so realistically it’s simply a different route into an Adobe subscription.

IMPORTANT NOTE: The Adobe Photography and Lightroom Plans are ANNUAL plans paid MONTHLY. Be aware that you are signing up for a whole year, even though you are paying for your subscription month by month. You cannot just drop out at any time. At the time of writing, if you are just two to three months away from the end of your subscription, you can leave without a penalty. If you want to leave earlier, you will be charged a cancellation fee which will be a proportion of your subscription time remaining.