Written by A quick update on the latest pricing for Skylum Luminar Neo
It would be remis of us not to comment on the latest “springboard” pricing for Luminar Neo as it approaches astronomical levels for those looking for a perpetual licence.
A month or so ago we wrote an article on Skylum’s outrageous pricing strategy for Luminar Neo. We thought then that it couldn’t really get much worse but it seems that we were wrong.
Today, we checked the pricing on Skylums website and it seems that you’ll need to pay – drum roll please – £378 GBP for a single perpetual licence complete with the pro extension pack which currently includes six extensions. That means – another drum roll please – that the percentage increase in price from when we bought the pre-release version in October 2021, is a staggering 980%.
Let’s put this in perspective
To put this in perspective, here are the current prices for some of the best selling photo editing software on the market today.
- On1 PhotoRAW 2023 – core product £106 GBP, or with the Professional Plug-in Pack £170 GBP
- Capture One Pro – core product £299 GBP
- DxO PhotoLab 6 Elite – core product £199 GBP
- Affinity Photo v2 – core product currently available for just £36 GBP
- Darktable – core product £0 GBP (free)
So, there you have it. It appears that Skylum have now achieved the coveted “most expensive photo editing software” on the market today with this latest price increase. What it will cost you tomorrow or next week is anyone’s guess as the pricing tables on the website seem to be elastic.
What is not in doubt though is that Skylum appear hell bent on pushing you into their subscription model, whether you like it or not. It’s clear that this model better supports their longer term strategic and financial goals! Is that a bad thing? Clearly not if you’re Skylum but we’d love to hear your views in the comment box below.
The key question though has to be, is Luminar Neo Worth the Money?
There’s a lot missing from Luminar Neo that makes it less than attractive if you buy just the core software without the extensions pack. Even so, this option is still more expensive than the extremely capable On1 PhotoRAW 2023. As it stands, Luminar Neo when purchased as a lifetime licence will set you back £129 GBP whereas today, On1 PhotoRAw 2023 will cost you just £106 GBP.
The key difference here is that without the pro extension pack, Luminar Neo simply doesn’t have the range of tools offered by On1 PhotoRAW 2023. Luminar Neo core is basically a shell which needs the extensions pack to compete head-on with other mainstream editors such as On1, Capture One, DxO etc. Don’t miss understand us, Luminar Neo is good, very good at some things. However, it really only hangs together when you add in the extensions and as we’ve seen, these are very expensive. buying the software outright with them included!
So, where does this leave you?
If you are hell bent on using Luminar Neo then the only option that really works is to go with their subscription model. Priced currently at £7/month GBP (paid annually at £89/year) you receive licences for two machines and your subscription does include the pro extensions pack. This is not a bad deal by any means but a subscription is just rental, stop paying it and your software stops working and your edit history is toast. That being said, paying £378 for a perpetual licence really isn’t woth it so you have little choice if you want Luminar Neo in your editing arsenal.
Read more on Slylum Luminar Neo
- Skylum release details of Luminar Neo and their plan to conquer the editing space!
- Luminar Neo has gone from £35 to £268 in less than six months!
- With Luminar Neo 1.1.1 is Skylum finally getting there?
Want to buy Luminar Neo? Visit Skylums website to learn more and buy Luminar Neo either on a perpetual, own it for ever licence or on subscription.
If you are interested in a perpetual licence of Luminar Neo then this deal will make your day!! Just as we were putting this article to bed we received an email from Skylum offering 1 Free Extension plus Luminar Neo Core for just £89 GBP!! Now, that is a good offer given the pricing models discussed above in the article, especially if you don’t want to go down the subscription route. Personally, we’d take the Background Removal extension as everything else is covered in the other software we own. That being said, background removal is now much more easily done given the advent of Mask Ai in practically every editing tool available today. What would you include if you could choose 1 free extension?