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Adobe Creative Cloud vs Steampipe

Adobe Creative Cloud logo

Adobe Creative Cloud

Design

Creativity for all

From
$20.99/month
Free plan
No
Visit Adobe Creative CloudFull review
Steampipe logo

Steampipe

Developer Tools

Query cloud APIs, SaaS tools and code with SQL, with no extract or load step

From
Free
Free plan
Yes
Visit SteampipeFull review

The short version

  • Steampipe has a free plan, then $49/mo; Adobe Creative Cloud starts at $20.99/mo.
  • Only Adobe Creative Cloud lists premiere Pro; only Steampipe lists SQL over live APIs.
  • Prices and features on this page were last checked on 13 November 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Adobe Creative Cloud and Steampipe actually diverge.

Attributes where Adobe Creative Cloud and Steampipe differ
AttributeAdobe Creative CloudSteampipe
Starting price$20.99/monthFree
Pricing modelSubscriptionOpen source, with paid hosting through Turbot Pipes
Free tierNoYes
PlatformsWindows, macOS, iOS, Android, WebmacOS, Linux, Windows, Self-hosted, Web
CategoryDesignDeveloper Tools

Not yet recorded: founded for Steampipe.

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Adobe Creative Cloud

  • Photoshop
  • Illustrator
  • InDesign
  • Premiere Pro
  • After Effects
  • Lightroom
  • XD
  • Creative Cloud Libraries

Only in Steampipe

  • SQL over live APIs
  • Wide plugin set
  • Embedded Postgres
  • Compliance benchmarks
  • Joins across providers
  • Hosted option

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Adobe Creative Cloud

  • Graphic designnot Steampipe
  • Photo editingnot Steampipe
  • Video productionnot Steampipe
  • Web designnot Steampipe
  • Digital artnot Steampipe

Steampipe

  • Security teams answering posture questions against live cloud accounts rather than a nightly exportnot Adobe Creative Cloud
  • Compliance evidence gathering where the answer must reflect the account at the moment it is askednot Adobe Creative Cloud
  • Inventory and drift questions spanning several cloud providers in one querynot Adobe Creative Cloud
  • Engineers who would rather write SQL than learn each provider command line toolnot Adobe Creative Cloud

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Adobe Creative Cloud

  • The vendor's own Plans and Pricing page as captured by the Internet Archive on 1 January 2022 listed, in US dollars per month: Photography (20GB) at $9.99, Photography (1TB) at $19.99, Creative Cloud All Apps at $52.99, Acrobat Pro at $14.99, and single apps such as Photoshop, Premiere Pro, Illustrator, and InDesign each at $20.99, all with a 30 day free trial and a separate Adobe Stock add-on

Steampipe

  • AGPL-3.0 across all four engines is a procurement blocker at organisations that ban the licence outright, and the network clause reaches any internal portal or service that puts a web interface in front of it
  • Dashboards, benchmarks and mods were removed from Steampipe entirely at version 1.0 in October 2024 and now live in a separate product, so pre-2024 documentation and tutorials describe commands that no longer exist
  • Live querying is bound by cloud provider API rate limits and keeps no persistent store by default, which is why a separate DuckDB-backed product exists for log volumes and why large accounts return slowly
  • The company is fifteen people and bootstrapped, maintaining four command line tools plus a hosted service plus two further products, and the newer tools have thin community traction relative to that surface area
  • Hosted tiers include only three users regardless of tier, with additional Enterprise users charged separately, so a team of thirty costs an order of magnitude more than the headline figure before compute and storage are counted

Pricing, plan by plan

Adobe Creative Cloud

$20.99/month
  • Photography$20.99/mo
    • Lightroom
    • Lightroom Classic
    • Photoshop
  • Single App$22.99/mo
    • One app of your choice
    • 100GB cloud storage
    • Portfolio website
  • All Apps$59.99/mo
    • 20+ Creative Cloud apps
    • 100GB cloud storage
    • Portfolio website
  • Teams$89.99/mo
    • Everything in All Apps
    • 1TB cloud storage
    • Advanced admin console

Steampipe

Free
  • Steampipe CLIFree
    • AGPL-3.0
    • All plugins
    • No user or query limits
  • Pipes DeveloperFree
    • One user
    • 400 compute minutes
    • 3GB storage
  • Pipes Team$49/mo
    • Three users
    • 2,000 compute minutes
    • 20GB storage
  • Pipes Enterprise$249/mo
    • Three users
    • 10,000 compute minutes
    • 100GB storage

Which should you pick?

Choose Adobe Creative Cloud if

  • You need photoshop.
  • You work on Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, Web.
  • You also want illustrator.
Adobe Creative Cloud review

Choose Steampipe if

  • You need sql over live apis.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on macOS, Linux, Windows, Self-hosted, Web.
  • You also want wide plugin set.
Steampipe review

Questions people ask

Is Adobe Creative Cloud or Steampipe better?
Neither clearly leads. Adobe Creative Cloud starts at $20.99/month and Steampipe at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Adobe Creative Cloud or Steampipe?
Steampipe has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at $20.99/month for Adobe Creative Cloud and Free for Steampipe.
Does Adobe Creative Cloud or Steampipe run on more platforms?
Adobe Creative Cloud runs on Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, Web. Steampipe runs on macOS, Linux, Windows, Self-hosted, Web.
Can I use Steampipe for free?
Yes. Steampipe has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Adobe Creative Cloud starts at $20.99/month.
What is Adobe Creative Cloud best used for?
Adobe Creative Cloud is most often used for graphic design, photo editing, video production, web design. Of those, graphic design and photo editing are not what Steampipe is typically brought in for.
What can Adobe Creative Cloud do that Steampipe cannot?
Adobe Creative Cloud covers Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Premiere Pro. Steampipe covers SQL over live APIs, Wide plugin set, Embedded Postgres, Compliance benchmarks.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Steampipe: When did Steampipe become AGPL?

May 2021, about four months after the project went public. It is a settled licence rather than a recent change, and predates the Business Source Licence wave it is often confused with.

Steampipe: Where did the dashboards and benchmarks go?

Into Powerpipe. They were deprecated in March 2024 and removed from Steampipe at version 1.0 in October 2024, so the check, dashboard, mod and variable commands are gone.

Steampipe: Is it fast on a large cloud estate?

Not always. Queries call provider APIs at request time, so rate limits rather than query planning set the pace, and there is no persistent store by default.

Steampipe: Does the AGPL affect internal use?

Running it internally for your own analysis is fine. Putting a web interface in front of it that other people use is where the network clause becomes a question for your legal team.

Steampipe: Is a bootstrapped vendor a risk?

It cuts both ways. There is no investor pressure toward a licence change or an exit, and there are also fifteen people supporting a large product surface.

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