A subscription to Adobe Creative Cloud can be costly, but with a little knowledge, you can find and use many Adobe tools without paying a dime. There are more than a handful of tools for smartphones, desktops, and browsers that let you leverage Adobe's features to transform your work for free, while still offering familiar interfaces compared to other free Adobe alternatives. You'll usually need a free Adobe account, and some tools require subscriptions to access premium features, but otherwise all are available for free.
10 Adobe Premiere Rush
Mobile video editing
Although Adobe offers a comprehensive video editing tool with Premiere Pro, sometimes you need a mobile version that isn't quite as complicated. That's where Adobe Premiere Rush comes in – this video editor is available for free on iOS and Android, as well as desktops running Windows 10 or later and macOS Catalina v10.15 or later.
The Premiere Rush app allows you to import photos, videos, files and audio into your projects. Even from a smartphone, you have a video timeline with a scrubber that allows you to easily edit the video and you will find common tools such as text, graphics, effects, color, speed, transform, audio and more. You can change the timeline and menu views and also record raw footage to add to your project.
9 Lightroom photo editor
Edit your photos on the go
This is the mobile app version of Adobe Lightroom, but you don't need an expensive subscription to access it. It's available for iOS, iPadOS, and Android platforms. Lightroom has some great AI features that are also included in the Lightroom Photo Editor app, but the AI ​​tools are only available to subscribers.
Lightroom Mobile's free tools offer great photo editing options. If you shoot your smartphone photos in RAW format, you can edit them for free in the Lightroom mobile app. However, you'll need a premium subscription to edit imported RAW images.
You can edit your photos with sliders for lighting, presets, color, blur, effects, details, optics, and profiles – all with free options as well as some premium options. Some users can use the premium options for free at times, but this is not guaranteed.
8 Adobe Acrobat Reader
Read and fill out your PDFs
While the free Acrobat Reader doesn't offer as many sophisticated tools as Adobe Acrobat (the full version), you can do a lot with it for free. Acrobat Reader lets you open, save, and share PDFs online or locally. This includes sharing the document for feedback and comments using the Share feature and the Comment feature for direct annotations.
Although you can't edit PDFs in Acrobat Reader, you can actively fill out and sign documents. This is useful when you receive PDFs that require information to be filled in, and saves you from having to print and fill in manually or add mismatched typography in poorly aligned areas.
7 Adobe Firefly
AI tools without AI prices
Adobe Firefly is the internal AI model used in most Adobe products – alongside Adobe Sensei machine learning – but you can also access Adobe Firefly as a standalone tool through the browser.
If you use Firefly via the browser, you don't need to be an Adobe subscriber. You just need to have an Adobe account and be signed in.
You have access to the generative AI text-to-image tool that Firefly Image 3 uses, which allows you to simultaneously generate four image variations with a variety of different style, composition, and reference options to achieve the desired result.
The other features in Adobe Firefly's free offerings seem to change on a rotation basis. Sometimes you can test upcoming beta tools before they're included in Adobe's software, but often they're removed from the free Firefly tool after approval. This is a fun tool to test upcoming AI features before they become part of the subscription-only software.
6 Adobe Color
Navigate project colors effortlessly
Although Adobe Color is implemented in Adobe Express, it is also its own independent tool that can be accessed through the browser.
It is mainly used for creating color palettes and themes. It has a built-in accessibility checker that ensures your color palettes are accessible and work well for people with visual impairments. You can create new color themes, explore existing palettes in the library, view trending color themes from different categories, and use the lab to recolor your SVG graphics with new color palettes.
Just for fun, Adobe Color even offers a color game. You have to remember the color sequences and reproduce them correctly. Whoever gets the highest score wins.
5 Adobe Acrobat
Create AR in the palm of your hand
This phone app is fun for someone who doesn't know much about augmented reality (AR), but it's equally a serious handheld app for those who are comfortable with AR creations. You don't even need to know how to code to use it.
You can import your own 3D elements that you've created with other software or downloaded from third-party sites, but you can also use the 3D models provided in the Aero app (although these are simple elements like 3D letters). You can also turn your PSD files or 2D illustrations into 3D masterpieces, including adding audio.
You can easily share your AR creations by sending a QR code. Your interactive AR elements will be visible without the recipient having to download the app.
Adobe Aero is available as a smartphone app for iOS users and is currently in public beta for macOS and Windows desktop users.
4 Adobe Photoshop Express
Photo editing in your pocket
Adobe Photoshop Express is like a mobile version of Photoshop. Photoshop Express is implemented in Huawei phones, but as an app, you can easily download it for both iOS and Android devices. It is also available for tablets.
While you can get Photoshop for the iPad, Photoshop Express has slightly different tools. Designed for mobile editing and social media sharing, it lets you quickly edit and export your images, collages, or photo manipulations. There's a premium upgrade, but free users can access presets and effects, text and graphics tools, and photo editing tools before easily sharing your images online directly from the app.
3 Adobe Capture
Capture the world around you for your art
Adobe Capture is a lesser-known smartphone app that is free to use but easily connects to an existing Creative Cloud account for seamless integration into your projects.
Capture lets you use colors, textures, and images from the world around you and turn them directly into artistic assets or inspiration boards. Just take a photo of something you like, for example a flower, and Adobe Capture does the rest. It turns an image into several creative options such as a color palette, multiple texture types, patterns, brushes, and other creative assets.
You can share your new creative assets through Creative Cloud if you subscribe, or you can save them individually for use elsewhere if you use other creative software.
2 Adobe Photoshop
Direct competition to Procreate
Adobe Fresco is a drawing app for tablets that rivals Procreate. Not only is it a free tool, but it also runs on Android tablets as well as the iPad (while Procreate is only available for the iPad). In addition, you can also draw with vectors for scalability, which is not possible in Procreate.
Fresco offers a similar interface to most other Adobe tools and allows you to use the layers and blend modes you know and love. Not only can you draw with the vector brushes, but it also offers raster art brushes and other features, so the possibilities are endless.
1 Adobe Express
The all-rounder app from Adobe
You can find Adobe Express as a browser-based tool or as an app for mobile devices and tablets. While you don't need an expensive Adobe subscription, you do need an Adobe account to use Express. You can create an account with Adobe for free. The tool offers some premium features that are tied to a subscription, but the free offerings are great.
Adobe Express has built-in AI tools like Generative Fill, 3D text effects, text to image generators, animation with audio video tools, and even more. With Express, you can create anything from static images to animated social media posts or short videos. Even with the free tools here, you can create so much.
To access Premium, you can upgrade for $10 per month. If you already have a Creative Cloud subscription, Adobe Express is included in most plans.
Using Adobe doesn’t have to cost anything
Although many of Adobe's free tools work better or offer more options in the premium packages, you can still create and edit a lot without the expensive Creative Cloud subscription. Some lesser-known tools like Adobe Capture, Adobe Color, and Adobe Aero allow you to work dynamically. For creating large projects, you may still need access to Creative Cloud or free alternatives, but for small hobby creations, Adobe's free tools offer even more than most people need.