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Subscription-based software tools may soon become a thing of the past. Exploitative pricing and practices from Adobe have led software developers to generate vibe-coded, open-source imitations of the company’s creative software. Other companies’ software may be next in line.
What has been created?
Software developer Brandon Thomas used “AI-powered reverse engineering to mimic the look, feel and functionality of Adobe’s well-known software,” said Ars Technica. ArtCraft, made using Claude, is a suite of open-source tools “recreating the user interface and tools found in Adobe’s Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere, Lightroom, After Effects, InDesign and Acrobat Pro.”
While the tools are still in a development phase, “we were shocked by how well they actually worked internally, so decided to open source them,” ArtCraft co-founder Michael Caffrey said to Futurism. There have been other free alternatives to the Adobe products, but many have a learning curve with different layouts and workflows.
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ArtCraft does have some “caveats,” said Futurism. Namely, the apps are “packed with various AI offerings, so anybody seeking the manual Creative Suite experience of yesteryear will probably have to dodge some prompt windows.”
Is open source the future?
The open-source alternative is a form of “cosmic karma,” as the tech industry has “relied on the open-source community for decades to keep their companies running,” Caffrey said to Futurism. “Adobe has been notoriously scummy in the past.”
Adobe’s Creative Cloud “has long dogged creatives with its incredibly high subscription fees, representing an ironclad grip on the world of artists,” said Futurism. Thomas himself admitted to creating ArtCraft after “feeling the sting of Adobe’s predatory cancellation fees one too many times,” said Vice.
Despite fatigue with Adobe’s practices, the project has garnered “mixed reactions,” with “some saying it is stealing from Adobe and warning the developer of a lawsuit,” said Tom’s Hardware, a sister site of The Week. But vibe-coded, open-source resources are not going away just yet. Thomas recently announced apps to replace Microsoft Office tools, including Excel, PowerPoint and Word. Microsoft has also been criticized for its business practices and pricing.
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Devika Rao has worked as a staff writer at The Week since 2022, covering science, the environment, climate and business. She previously worked as a policy associate for a nonprofit organization advocating for environmental action from a business perspective.
