Since 2022, the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana has provided students access to Adobe Creative Cloud. This privilege extended to Uni students, which allowed them to use Adobe products for free on their personal machines. However, due to rising costs and budget constraints, the University is ending the free access to Adobe Creative Cloud, effective starting Dec. 31, 2025.
Uni students will still have the ability to access the Adobe Creative Cloud for free through computers in the WAC Lab. Personal licenses for Jan. 1, 2026 to June 30, 2026 can be purchased through the University Webstore for a discounted price of $40. A license for the full 2026-2027 academic year can be purchased for $80 through the Webstore in May of 2026.
Although Adobe products can not be accessed from personal machines, plenty of free alternatives exist online and come with detailed user guides that make learning the software simple and accessible for beginners.
For an alternative to Adobe Premiere Pro, which is a video editing software, here are 3 options:
- Blender: A free open source software that goes beyond just video editing. Blender can be used for animation, modeling, visual effects, and much more.
- Lightworks: An all in one for video editing. With the free version, users are able to edit videos using a variety of tools.
- DaVinci Resolve: Allows users to edit videos, use visual effects, color correction, and even audio editing all within a free version of the software.
For an alternative to Adobe Photoshop, which is a photo editing software, here are 3 options: