Last year we all racked up a lot of subscriptions. From Netflix and HBO MAX, to Disney+ and SkyShowtime or Amazon Prime Video. But we are not here to talk about free time and series. (For that, we can meet for coffee.) We wrote this article to share with you the subscriptions that are worth our money this year, because they make our work easier and help us deliver quality and always a wow product to our customers.
1. Figma Professional.
We have been using, appreciating and recommending Figma for a long time. For our designers it’s a great app that allows the team to collaborate and interact much more easily on different projects.
But when many projects accumulate in Figma and several designers work simultaneously on a project, the free version is no longer sufficient. Figma Professional offers advantages such as unlimited files, pages and projects, access to the whole version history and to shareable libraries. And in our field of work, the efficiency and speed with which you create a design can matter a lot. So, it’s really worth the money.
And speaking of Figma, FigJam might be one of the coolest ways to keep your work organized at the moment.
2. Envato Elements.
OK. So hear us out. There are several apps where you can get free creative resources. Just as an example, Pexels is one of our favorites. However, with a subscription to Envato Elements you get unlimited access to over 17 million assets. You can download without limits from a large collection of photo-video materials, audio, graphics, fonts, 3D elements, and even graphic, video or web templates. Using Envato you will definitely not be able to complain about the lack of materials. Now, we can’t imagine doing our work without Envato Elements. We’re curious if you’ll soon be saying the same.
3. Chat GPT-4.
As 2023 has already proven, AI has not replaced copywriters, but has become their friend. We enjoy its existence the most when we have to do research or process multiple, repetitive or difficult to understand information. But mostly for research. And not only copywriters, but also social media managers and even designers ask the little friendly robot questions from time to time.
But it often happens that when you’ve put all your hope in Chat GPT`s help with a task, the server is too busy and you can’t interact with it. And then the disappointment can reach unimaginable thresholds. For this reason, the Ghat GPT-4 version may be worth the money paid for the subscription. This gives you access to the new model, prioritizes paying users when the chat is busy and even allows you to use additional tools like DALL·E.
But, at Subsign we like to experiment and test as many tools as possible and at the moment we can say that Google’s Bard has become more and more accurate and can be used as a quite effective free alternative.
4. Medium.
We have a rule: research before anything. And we don’t always rely on Chat GPT to do that for us. So we like to read various articles, studies and specialized opinions on topics relevant to our work or that just help us position ourselves in a general current context as accurately as possible.
And then we read articles on Medium, among many others. But often, some of the most useful articles are restricted to non-paying users, and when the first few paragraphs really tell a useful piece of information, it’s a shame not to read the article to the end. And because we like to dive deep into topics that interest us and find as many answers to our questions as possible, we think an upgrade to the paid version of Medium is worth the investment.
5. Canva (haha, just kidding)
Actually, no. 5. The Adobe products.
Yes, we stand firm: an expert shouldn’t work on all projects in Canva, no matter how against the grain he wants to be. What we want to say is that Canva is a great tool, but for projects that don’t require a wow finished product. If you are a person with no experience in graphic design or you want to make quick and simple designs, go for it. But if you work in the field, you should use Illustrator or Photoshop. No offense.
And yes, Adobe subscriptions can be quite expensive, but for the quality of the end result they can make a huge difference. And we know most designers already pay subscriptions for Photoshop, but last year we met so many marketing people who swear by Canva that we decided Adobe had to be on our 2024 recommendation list. That’s because we like things done right, and we want to see ads, social media posts, and posters that make us say “Oh no, not Canva again!” as rarely as possible.
Bonus not related to marketing: Headspace.
Because we know that our work can be stressful at times and that sleep is not the strong point of people in the creative industries, we wanted to add a recommendation that is less relevant to the article, but which we think can be useful. The Headspace meditation app is really nice and we think it’s worth a subscription, because nothing is more important than inner peace and balance. Not even Photoshop.
A final thought.
We don’t always have the financial resources to subscribe to everything we would like. Between Youtube, Spotify, Netflix and everything else, the costs can add up. But, subscriptions contribute to the sustainability of app development. By subscribing, you’re supporting the creators, enabling them to continue refining and expanding the app for a better user experience. So if you have that option, we encourage you to consider a paid subscription for the things that really matter to you, whether it’s a work app, a content creator, or a media publication.
And in case you are wondering about some of the apps we have developed, you can check them all here.
