All 56 Adobe Apps, Products and Software Packages Explained (2023)

Did you know there are more than 50 Adobe apps, products and software packages available here in 2022?

You gain access to them all when you subscribe to the Adobe Creative Cloud All Apps Plan.

If you’re wondering what all these Adobe software programs actually do (and whether they might be useful to you) read on.

Here’s an up-to-date explanation and list of all the Adobe products, as well as who they’re best suited to.

What are all the Adobe Software Apps?

Anyone who’s ever used a computer has run into at least one of these Adobe apps. We’ve all used Adobe Acrobat to open a PDF document, for example.

And of course, we all know Photoshop. Even if you’re not a photographer, I’m sure you’ve heard about ‘photoshopping’ an image… Yes, it’s so popular that it became a verb.

So you might be thinking, why do I need to know about all of these Adobe software apps?!

Well, you might find out that one of them is exactly what you need and that it can make your life so much simpler. Believe me, it happens.

Fair warning: many Adobe apps have similar functions or overlapping features. This means that you can do one particular thing with several different Adobe Creative Cloud apps, but this doesn’t mean they’re the same.

For example, you can make a 2D illustration with Photoshop, but Illustrator is specially designed for vector art, so you’ll have more tools and the workflow will be easier if you do it there.

(See also: what is Adobe Creative Cloud and do I need it?)

So, without any further ado, here’s an Adobe software list, building on the video above to include new additions and to remove those that have been discontinued, to try and clarify things for you.

I’ve organised all the Adobe software into 4 categories, which you’ll see below.

• For Creatives

This covers the biggest part of Adobe’s offering. All these apps are for visual creators using different media.

You can buy them as a bundle, or singularly according to your needs. Some of them are only available for your desktop and some have a version for mobile devices or browser use.

1. Adobe Aero

This is an app for mobile devices where you can create and share AR (augmented reality) experiences without coding.

2. Adobe After Effects

You can use this tool to create all types of visual effects and motion graphics, from animating movie titles to creating VR (virtual reality) videos.

3. Adobe Air

This app is used by developers to create games and apps for several operating systems.

4. Adobe Animate

Just like the name suggests, this app is used to animate all sorts of designs to use in games, web, e-learning and so much more. It came to existence to replace the very critiqued Flash. With it, you can also export into many more formats like HTML 5.

5. Adobe Audition

This app is specially built to work with audio. It has a professional toolset to record, edit, mix, and restore audio files for videos, podcasts, and sound effects.

6. Adobe Behance

This is a social media site/app dedicated to all creators that want to share and sell their work.

7. Adobe Bridge

This is a media management software program. You can visually see and organize all of your media files to categorize them and edit them in collaboration with other Adobe apps like Camera Raw. It also lets you publish directly to Adobe Stock.

8. Adobe Capture

Capture is a mobile app that allows you to create vectors, fonts, and patterns right on your phone that you can then use in Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere, and other Adobe apps.

9. Adobe Character Animation

This app simplifies the animation of 2D designs. Using your webcam, the software animates your characters with your movements. This way you don’t have to do the work frame by frame.

10. Adobe Content Server

Safely publish and sell your own e-books with this app.

11. Adobe Dimension

If you need to work with 3D models and 2D images in the same file, this is the app you need. It also makes 3D design more accessible.

12. Adobe Dreamweaver

Building websites without the need for coding is a dream come true with this app. Of course, it also supports coding if you know it, or facilitates your learning with code hints.

13/14. Adobe Flash Builder and Flash Professional

You might have run into some websites or online games that require you to install Adobe Flash. This software was used for many years for developing interactive content for the Internet.

For some time it has been severely criticized and has become outdated which is why Adobe announced that they will stop updating and distributing Flash at the end of 2020.

15/16. Adobe Fonts and Adobe Typekit

The Adobe Typekit includes packs of Adobe Fonts that you can use in your designs. These are included in the membership fee for you to use in commercial or personal projects without licensing problems.

17. Adobe Fresco

There are free and premium versions available for this amazing drawing and painting app for the artist on the go.

18. Adobe Fuse

This 3D model creation app is specialized in human models. You can change the physical looks of your model as well as the clothes and many other features.

19/20. Adobe Illustrator and Illustrator Draw

The most famous software for graphic design is Adobe Illustrator (see alternatives). It’s used to create vector art, web design, 2D illustrations, and all sorts of graphic projects. There is a mobile version called Illustrator for iPad where you can sketch and layer images and drawings.

See how to buy Adobe Illustrator.

21. Adobe InCopy

This is a text editor that works together with InDesign. When you’re doing a magazine or any kind of publication, this tool is used by the writers to edit the text part while the designers continue to use InDesign for the graphics and layout.

22. Adobe InDesign

InDesign is publishing software specially developed for multipage layouts. Here, editorial designers can create everything from flyers to books.

23/24/25. Adobe Lightroom

Like Bridge, Adobe Lightroom is a management software – only this time it’s mainly focused on photography. You cannot work with other media files. On the plus side, you can do most of your minor editing adjustments and apply them to large collections.

There’s Lightroomto work mostly in the cloud for the photographers who work on multiple devices and on the go. Lightroom Classic instead is focused on desktop work for creatives who need a more robust set of tools and prefer local storage.

Then there is a Lightroom Mobile version that you can download on your phone for free with limited capabilities, or you can download the full app if you have the membership for the desktop version.

26. Adobe Media Encoder

If you’re a user of Premiere Pro or After Effects then you’ll need to use Media Encoder to render the videos done in those other apps. In other words, it compresses and converts formats of videos for universal use.

27/28/29/30/31. Adobe Photoshop

This one probably doesn’t need much introduction as it’s one of the most famous Adobe products. But you might not know about the various versions.

Adobe Photoshop CC has become an industry standard for photo manipulation from small edits to complex composites.

It includes some tools for graphics and video, therefore covering some of the basic needs that photographers may have in their post-production work without them having to buy or learn other specialized apps.

There are different free versions available for browsers and mobile devices. The most famous is Photoshop Express which you can use online or download to your phone.

Also available for smartphones are Photoshop Camera, Photoshop Fix, and Photoshop Mix.

32. Adobe Portfolio

This application allows photographers to create simple websites to showcase their work without any coding knowledge. See some great Adobe Portfolio examples here.

33. Adobe Prelude

This video editing app works as a first step for editing large amounts of video. You can do some rough cutting and batch editing before sending it to other specific software.

34/35/36. Adobe Premiere

Another professional video editing tool. With Premiere Pro you can cut and edit videos to be arranged later on the timeline where you can add effects like audio or text – it’s what most YouTubers use to edit their videos.

There is an amateur version of this app called Premiere Elements where you can do basic video editing like removing noise or creating a time-lapse video out of a series of photographs.

Another version is the one for mobile devices called Premiere Rush.

37. Adobe Scout

Scout analyses and profiles Adobe Flash content.

38/39/40. Adobe Express (Formerly, Spark)

This app allows you to create multiple designs right on your mobile for easy social sharing. You can find three different apps to meet the needs of every social media creator and manager. Here’s how to use Adobe Express.

41. Adobe Stock

This is Adobe’s stock media platform for the users of the Creative Cloud to buy or sell royalty-free images.

42. Adobe Substance

A toolbox designed specifically for texture creation used in 3D projects.

43. Adobe XD

This allows developers to make prototypes for apps so the interfaces can be tested before they code them.

• For Marketers

Even if Adobe is most famous for all the creative tools they’ve developed over the years, the Creative Cloud is not the only area of expertise. They have some other specializations that cover all the marketing needs from advertising to analytics.

44. Adobe Experience Cloud

Dedicated to customer experience, this app offers a series of tools for online marketing. It came to replace the Adobe Marketing Cloud.

Here you can manage the content of your campaigns as well as automate actions like launching live content or sending emails.

45. Adobe Advertising

Adobe Advertising allows full management of multimedia content from a single platform.

46. Adobe Analytics

This toolkit allows for web traffic analysis.

47. Adobe Target

This tool works together with Adobe Analytics to personalize marketing content.

• For Businesses

48. Adobe Captivate

Ideal for creating e-learning courses, this app allows you to create software demonstrations, quizzes, and more, and later convert your content to MP4 or PowerPoint and other universal formats.

49. Adobe Connect

This is a platform built for video-conferencing, online courses, webinars, etc. that can be used from desktop or mobile.

50. Adobe FrameMaker

This is a word processor but it’s developed specifically for long technical documents.

51. Adobe Presenter

As you can imagine by the name, this app is designed for creating and displaying presentations and slideshows.

52. Adobe RoboHelp

This software is for creating and publishing knowledge databases such as the Help or Policy pages of websites.

53. Adobe Sign

Manage your documents with electronic signing in a reliable and legal way with this app which is also available as a mobile version.

• For Everyone Else

Some tools are useful for anyone – from students to professionals, creators to users – and Adobe has thought of that too.

54. Adobe Acrobat Reader DC

I’m sure you’re familiar with this app because at some point in life you’ve probably received or downloaded a document in PDF format. This free software allows you to view, print, or comment on these types of files.

55. Adobe Acrobat Pro DC

If you want to create a PDF file, then you need the Pro version of Adobe Acrobat.

56. Adobe Scan

This is a mobile application that allows you to scan documents with your phone and save them as PDF or JPEG. It’s free and it has OCR (optical character recognition) which means it automatically detects and reads text.

Adobe Apps FAQs

How many Adobe apps are there?

There are currently 56 Adobe apps.

Are Adobe apps free?

No, most Adobe apps are not free – they require payment via a subscription model. That said, Adobe does have a small number of applications that are free or have free versions – like Adobe Acrobat Reader, Adobe Scan, and the mobile versions of Photoshop and Lightroom.

Is it worth paying for Adobe?

That completely depends on your needs and how much use you’d get out of the apps. For professionals in the fields of design, photography, filmography and others, the Adobe apps are the gold standard and generally considered well worth the price.

All the Adobe Products: Final Words

As you can see from this mammoth Adobe software list, Adobe has a solution for many different profiles and their multiple needs.

It’s no wonder the Adobe Stock price continues to go from strength to strength!

Depending on your profession, it’s likely that more than one of these Adobe software apps would be useful for your work.

Hopefully, you find this guide helpful in the quest to find the right tool that will make your workflow more efficient.