Apple Launches Creator Studio: A Big Win for Students, a Tough Sell for iPad Pros

Apple officially launched Apple Creator Studio today, bundling all of its creative apps in a single package for both Mac and iPad for $12.99 monthly or $129 per year.

The new suite of apps follows persistent rumors that Apple was considering putting together a bundle of creative apps to compete with Adobe’s Creative Cloud offering, which gained steam following its 2024 acquisition of Pixelmator Pro — a tool that added the missing puzzle piece of photo editing to Apple’s longstanding video and audio production apps.

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While today’s launch wasn’t accompanied by much fanfare (and no sign of the expected M5 Pro/Max MacBook Pro models), that’s partly because Apple already announced the new suite earlier this month, so there’s not too much more to say about the details. Instead, it shared a newsroom post on how creator Kyle Hanagami uses Final Cut Pro to create viral dance creations as a way of showing these tools aren’t just for high-end “pro” studios.

The ‘Bundle’ Reality

Available now on the App Store, Apple Creator Studio is literally a “bundle” that groups nine individual apps together in the same way third-party developers have long been able to. There’s no “Creator Studio” app; that’s merely the name of the subscription that unlocks all the individual ones. However, the bundle here may also be overselling things a bit.

Of the nine apps listed (Freeform is considered a tenth, but comes preinstalled on macOS and iPadOS), three are still completely free and do not require a subscription. Pages, Numbers, and Keynote have all received updates today, and Creator Studio subscribers will get some additional content and access to some AI features that are still in beta, but the apps themselves remain as functional as they always were — no subscription required.

The Core: iPad vs. Mac

The big three “core” apps in Apple Creator Studio — Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro, and Pixelmator Pro — remain available as separate purchases for the Mac, but iPad users will now need to pay the full Creator Studio subscription to use them, even if they only want one of the three.

There’s a significant hidden shift here, as Apple has quietly retired the individual $4.99 monthly subscriptions for Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro for iPad; as of today, the only subscription option is the full Creator Studio subscription for $12.99 monthly or $129 per year. That’s effectively a 160% price hike for iPad-only creators who only need one of these tools.

There’s a massive win here for students, though, as Apple is offering Creator Studio at only $2.99 per month or $29.99 per year, dropping the entry price to a level below that of the former individual subscriptions, and undercutting Adobe’s student plan significantly.

Interestingly, the purchased Mac versions of these three apps — Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro, and Pixelmator Pro — remain on the App Store as separate entries. That could be good or bad news, depending on how you look at it, as it might suggest that Apple could move to more exclusive updates for the subscription versions that the paid ones are left out of. However, it also means those of us who bought the apps get to keep the original icons with all the same new features that Creative Studio users get — for now, at least.

This may simply be because these apps are sold outright, not as in-app subscriptions. The App Store provides no practical way to bypass that $300 “Buy” button for those who want to start paying monthly or annually. However, Apple has notably done the same thing with the free apps, Pages, Numbers, and Keynote, so it’s not entirely about splitting between paid and subscription tiers.

What’s New in Today’s Updates

The new Apple Creator Studio versions of Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro, Pages, Numbers, and Keynote are accompanied by updates for those who have already downloaded or purchased the standalone versions. However, only the first two of those — the pro apps — offer anything meaningful.

• Final Cut Pro 12.0 adds Transcript Search, which works on Apple silicon Macs to find spoken words or phrases in footage by using exact matches or even fuzzier natural language descriptions, plus a new Visual Search to do much the same for finding a specific moment. Beat Detection will also analyze a song to help align your video edits to its rhythm.
• Logic Pro 12.0 brings an all-new Synth Player to the collection of AI Season Players, plus a Chord ID to help identify specific parts of the song to prompt the Session Players to follow along.
• Pixelmator Pro hasn’t yet been updated for Mac in its standalone form. The Creative Studio version adds a new Warp tool, so current owners are being left out of that for now. The iPad version is also entirely new, and like its video and audio editing counterparts, can’t be used on Apple’s tablet without a subscription.
  

However, while those are the same core features in the Creator Studio versions of Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro, the free updates to Pages, Numbers, and Keynote list only “bug fixes and performance improvements.” For those, subscribers will get extra perks, including not only a “Content Hub” library full of professionally-designed templates, photos, graphics, and illustrations, but also new AI tools, plus new AI-powered “Draft Presentation” and “Magic Fill” features in Keynote and Numbers.

The other four apps that round out Creator Studio are MainStage for Logic Pro, Motion and Compressor for Final Cut Pro, and Freeform, which already comes preinstalled on the Mac and iPad, and will mostly just get access to the new Content Hub for now, although Apple is leaning on more “intelligent features” to come later this year.

Is Apple Creator Studio Worth It?

Considering that Final Cut Pro sells for $300 on its own, and Logic Pro will set you back another $200, Creator Studio is a great deal for anyone who is dipping their toes into Apple’s pro apps for the first time, and that’s even more true for students, who can subscribe for only $2.99 per month or $29.99 yearly for the entire bundle. While the $200 “Pro Apps Bundle for Education” still exists on the Mac, the subscription price works out to 40% less for most students on a four-year term.

The full subscription (not the student plan) also supports Family Sharing, allowing up to six people to access the full suite. For a household of creators, that $12.99 monthly fee starts looking like one of the best values in the Apple ecosystem.

Still, it’s far less compelling for anyone who already owns the standalone apps. For now, at least, Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro are in lockstep with the Creator Studio versions, and we’re hoping Pixelmator Pro will catch up. You’ll still need to opt for Creator Studio if you want to use the iPad versions of these apps, but $129 a year may be a hard sell for anyone who has already paid $500+ for perpetual licenses.

Apple is giving away a one-month free trial of Apple Creator Studio to new subscribers, and three months for anyone purchasing a Mac or an iPad that meets the requirements to run the apps — at least an A16 chip or M-series chip and 6 GB of memory. Some users have reported receiving the three month trial offer on Macs they purchased several months ago, but it’s unclear how far back the cutoff goes, so your mileage may vary.