There did use to be a version of InDesign – InDesign CS – that you could buy as a one-off permanent purchase, however, the only way to buy InDesign now is through one of these subscription options. It’s always worth bookmarking our Adobe Creative Cloud discount page to see if there are any deals on offer at any given time, and note that Adobe also offers a discount for students and teachers (see below), as well as separate pricing for businesses, schools and universities. If you're tempted by the latter option but put off by the cost, keep an eye out for discounts.

(If you’re not sure which CC apps would benefit you, see our Adobe software list). Obviously, that's more expensive, but it gives you access to Adobe's whole range of creative apps, along with a range of other benefits.

However, if you think you're going to want to use more than one Adobe app, it might make more sense to go for the Adobe Creative Cloud All Apps subscription. That subscription also gives you Adobe Portfolio, Adobe Fonts, and Adobe Spark. The cheapest is to subscribe to InDesign alone (see the first of the two links above). Once you've decided the software is definitely for you, the only way to buy InDesign is through a Creative Cloud subscription, for which you pay either monthly or annually.

Adobe indesign monthly cost