Item: Adobe Stock
Rating: 9
Author: Jonathan Rockett

Overall Satisfaction with Adobe Stock

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

My agency offers web design, SEO, PPC, email marketing, and social media management, so we use quite a lot of professional stock images and video clips. We know that to cut through the noise we need to have professional creativity that stands out from the ocean of images and video that are obviously 'free' stock images you've seen a million times.

Pros and Cons

Pros

High quality royalty-free images and video
vector art and illustrations
stock audio and music
royalty-free templates for adobe products, like Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, etc,

Cons

I wish their subscription credit system could include video stock as well as images.

Most Important Features

reasonably priced stock images that look better that other 'free' stock resources
rollover of unused credits each month with no maximum
integration with the Adobe design software I use, such as Photoshop, Illustrator, etc.

Return on Investment

The credit subscription pricing model gives me peace of mind that I've always got stock images at my fingertips.
Adobe Stock has saved me tons of time previously spent searching through lots of junk stock images across multiple 'free' stock sources to find usable images that look professional.
Adobe Stock has elevated the professionalism and impact of my design projects.

Alternatives Considered

iStock and Getty Images Enterprise Solutions

The most comparable product I've worked with compared to Adobe Stock is iStock Photos by Getty Images (the main Getty Images stock site is vastly more expensive, with the least expensive, low-res images costing $150/image, requiring a minimum 10-pack purchase at $1,500). Like Adobe Stock, iStock also offers a starting-level subscription of $29/mo for 10 downloads, but does not allow access to the full image library, and does not include audio/music tracks or design templates for Photoshop, Illustrator, etc. Adobe Stock is far and away the best deal for the price. Comparing actual images and assets available, they offer similar numbers of options, but I would rank Adobe's images as better and less generic 'stock'-looking.

Key Insights

Do you think Adobe Stock delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Adobe Stock's feature set?

Yes

Did Adobe Stock live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Adobe Stock go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Adobe Stock again?

Yes

Likelihood to Recommend

Adobe Stock is straightforward, affordable for my needs and easy to use. I can download watermarked test images for client mockups in my web designs and social media content for approval from my clients before I use a credit and license an image. Because I use Adobe software for design (Photoshop, Illustrator, etc.), I especially appreciate how Adobe stock is connected with my adobe products and I can open my licensed images in Photoshop etc. right from the Adobe Stock dashboard. I do wish the subscription credits were more flexible for use with video stock as well as images - It's generally 1 credit per image, so maybe it could be 10 credits for a video, etc... Currently, I have to pay for video stock separately, which can add up, and I often have a reserve of rollover credits that I wish I could redeem for video. This, along with the fact that there are also other great stock solutions available is why gave a recommendation rating of '9' instead of '10'.

Comments

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Adobe Stock is the best source for stock images, illustrations, design templates, video, audio and 3D