How to Get Adobe InDesign for Free and/or Cheap

Adobe InDesign is no longer available as a one-time purchase. It now requires a $23/month subscription to use. Not cheap. In fact, for most would-be users, the program is too expensive to even consider at full-price. 

But, there are ways to get the price down, as well ways to fund the subscription. And if all else fails, there are free alternatives that are worth considering. Here are my suggestions as one editor to another. 

Use the free trial, and extend it with the money-back guarantee 

Yes, I can hear you now, "how obvious, everyone knows about the free trial", but a small tip: You can extend the 7-day trial to three weeks.

By paying once, but cancelling before day 21, you can get a full refund:

Of course, this is not a long-term solution, but you can at least get three weeks of use for free. 

Use the Student Discount 

Adobe are not as good as for instance Amazon, who offer discounted memberships to anyone young or on government-assistance, but they do at least offer a discount to students and educators.

To be precise, there is no student discount specifically for Adobe InDesign, but there is a discount on the Adobe Creative Cloud bundle (which include InDesign). Students and Educators can get access to the Creative Cloud bundle for $19.99 a month.

Even if you only want to use one app, InDesign, this is still a better deal than the standalone subscription price.

The discount is available to anyone over 13 who is enrolled at one of the following: 

If you are eligible, you can sign up for Adobe Creative Cloud for Students here. 

Fund the Adobe InDesign subscription with Freecash 

I want to include a suggestion for those of you that are not eligible for discounts but still want to save money on Adobe InDesign. Use an earning site like Freecash to get Amazon gift cards, then subscribe via Adobe's official Amazon store. 

By spending just a few hours each month on Freecash, you will earn enough Amazon gift cards to fund InDesign. A great solution for anyone on a budget. 

And if you're wondering, you earn money on Freecash by completing simple tasks online, like answering surveys and testing new games. The tasks can be completed from your mobile, and provide one of the best side hustles for people who want to work remotely.

But check out what other users are saying about Freecash on Trustpilot if you are not sure. 

Buy a license to use Adobe InDesign from a 3rd-party seller 

Whether you pay yourself or use the tip above to fund your subscription, you might be able to save up to 50% by going through a third-party seller. 

How much of a saving you can make will depend on your region, but for me in the US, for example, I could get a year of pre-paid InDesign from Adobe for $264, or I could go to an authorized reseller and buy a year of Creative Cloud (includes InDesign) for only $150. 

Using resellers allows you to look around for deals and beat the RRP, but of course, you will not have as much support with your purchase. If you are interested, simply search "Buy Adobe InDesign", and look for offers from authorized resellers. 

Use a free alternative to Adobe InDesign like Scribus 

Lastly, I want to recommend Scribus, a free alternative to InDesign. Naturally, it looks less polished and has fewer features than InDesign, but for a many users it provides enough to get the job done. And, importantly, it's free. 

Scribus optimized for book layouts, but you can adapt it to achieve 70-80% of the same functionality: 

You can download Scribus for free here, and I suggest watching this video series to get started.