Review Creative Software - Corel, CSP Recent Experiences

[betterphotos]

Writing to document my recent with Corel and CSP (Clip Studio Paint). These are two of the creative software packages used by professional and amateur artists.

Background
I work as an artist, and have used Corel products since 2012. I've used CSP for a few years, also. Like many artists, Adobe spurred me towards these products after they went sub-only. When Adobe went sub-only, they pulled CS6 from the shelf before its EOL. It caused a shift in art software, with folks scattering every which way. Different companies leapt in.

CorelDraw Suite
It's felt like Corel has felt the sub-only push the last two years. This is their latest advert for their "sub or buy" 2024 edition...check out the feature comparison. It scrolls, but doesn't get much better.

The pricing, seen below, also doesn't mention an upgrade discount (I have 2023, so there should be an upgrade option for 2024 if it existed). After checking both the in-software ad (I can disable this) and their website, no upgrade price was visible. Instead, they pushed the subscription.

I eventually found a page with "Looking to Upgrade?" and it, again, led me to the subscription.

Corel used to have a generous upgrade policy, where you'd get the upgrade price regardless of the year of the previous edition. Once that ended, it was only for the previous year, but the price was still around 50% of the new version. Over the phone, and I've also had this conversation via email, their reps told me that 15% was the maximum they could do.

In addition, on contacting the company directly, it appears they ended upgrade pricing entirely over the previous two years. That is, if you purchase 2023, then 2024 will be full price for you. If you purchase 2024, then 2025 will be full price, and so on.

So, Corel is for sure feeling the subscription-only push. Be aware of this if you're looking to purchase their software: new editions come with restricted features, and it is not cost-effective to upgrade even bi-annually. However, it may be worth getting in on a sale in order to secure a copy before stand-alone goes away, if that is interesting to you.

Onto CSP...

 

[rgd1101]

there are open source alternative.

 

[betterphotos]

Clip Studio Paint
Clip Studio Paint took off in the last few years. Its previous version, 1.0, offered a lifetime of upgrades for a single price as well as a second "assistant's license" under the purchase.

The last few years have seen it push towards the subscription model, as well. Purchasers of 2.0 receive no software updates or new features.

Users who upgrade from 1.0 to 2.0 will find the secondary license removed. Since was not advertised or mentioned in the FAQ at launch, it caused an upset and resentment. They have since edited the FAQ.

It was not possible to run these programs side-by-side. I believe it is possible to downgrade from 2.0 to 1.0 by contacting the company directly, but am uncertain. This section could use an update.

It is somewhat possible to still use 2.0 on different computers (for most, a laptop and a work desktop), but the software warns that deactivating and then reactivating between 2 machines can only be done a limited number of times. It does nor provide the number of times available to users.

Conclusion
More a summary of the growth of subscription models in the artosphere, and what is available and what risks to be aware of. FireAlpaca has seen growth, as well as software such as ProCreate. I haven't used ProCreate, so cannot offer any information on it at this time, except that it seems difficult to export brushes.

It is still possible to purchase full versions of these softwares. However, both are feeling the pressure of subscriptions.

 

[betterphotos]

there are open source alternative.

There are, and I promote them! InkScape would crash often on my machine, which is why I never used it much.