6 discontinued Adobe tools and their modern day alternatives
Software comes, and software goes - but when that favourite Adobe app has been put on the scrap heap, what are the alternatives?
Published on 9th April 2025
Adobe has offered the world many great software tools. Tools like Adobe Photoshop will likely reign in the creative industry until the end of time, but there are loads of discontinued or unsupported Adobe tools. It’s a sad day when your favourite app gets removed from support listings. Despite Adobe discontinuing dozens of software over the years, there are still​​​​​​​ great alternatives offering better results, so you can continue to create.
Adobe Flash Player
Web animation viewer
Adobe announced the demise of Adobe Flash Player in 2017, giving users three years before it lost support in 2020 and ultimately discontinued the tool in 2021. The extended time between announcement and end of life allowed web developers, designers, or businesses to ensure they removed Flash-based products from their designs and websites.
Unlike regular creative software for which you can find alternatives easily, the loss of Flash Player affected the viewing output of videos placed on public and private sites, impacting how everyone uses the internet. The discontinuation prevented any video using Flash Player from working.
You can embed video or audio tags using HTML5 rather than Adobe Flash Player, and developers can instead use Adobe Animate CC for games and 2D animations for the web. For open-source alternatives, users could use Blender or even Krita, which both offer frame-by-frame animation and more.
Adobe XD
It’s not discontinued yet, but it’s close
Adobe XD is a UX/UI design tool. While it hasn’t been officially discontinued at the time of writing — April 2025—it is in maintenance mode on the Adobe website. Adobe XD was released in 2016, so it barely made a decade before its downward demise. Adobe continues to offer support and bug fixes for users, but Adobe XD is not a tool you need to start using now.
Alternatively, many UX/UI designers exclusively use Figma for web and app design. Adobe nearly acquired Figma back in 2022, but the acquisition deal was dropped in 2023, so Figma remains its own entity.
If you’d prefer an open-source UX/UI design tool, PenPot is your best alternative to Adobe XD and Figma.​​​​​​​ You can self-host PenPot or use its own host. It features many similar design tools and a better pricing structure than Figma does.
Adobe Dreamweaver
Web design made harder for designer-developer relations
Adobe acquired Dreamweaver in 2005 from Macromedia, which released it in 1997. Dreamweaver allowed designers to design and develop websites with both code and design elements. It was a handy tool, but its reliance on coding knowledge pushed out some designers. With improvements to dynamic web design and CSS support, Dreamweaver became obsolete for modern-day web designers.
Dreamweaver lost popularity due to designers needing to code. When Adobe XD came along in 2016, it was much easier for designers who couldn’t code to benefit and handover to developers.
Both Dreamweaver and Adobe XD are still available to use. They are not technically discontinued; however, both are no longer receiving new updates from Adobe, and neither of them is — or has ever been — considered the industry standard for web design and development.
Figma is typically the industry standard for web and UX/UI design and development. However, it’s harder for designers to work directly with developers through Figma. PenPot is an open-source tool that allows designers and developers to work hand-in-hand on one project for a much smoother handover process.
FreeHand MX
Unparalleled creative design tools are no more
Adobe Photoshop Mix
The original Photoshop mobile app
Although Adobe announced the official first Photoshop for Mobile app in February 2025, it isn’t really the first time we’ve seen Photoshop mobile apps from Adobe.
Adobe Photoshop Mix was one of many mobile Photoshop-adjacent apps. Although many others are still in circulation, Photoshop Mix unfortunately met its demise in June 2024.
Adobe Photoshop Mix combined the power of Photoshop desktop with the convenience of a smartphone app — the exact same intention was behind Photoshop for Mobile, released in 2025.
Although the apps and costs differ slightly, this makes for the best modern-day alternative. Photoshop for Mobile can be downloaded for free — currently only for iPhones, but with Android support by the end of 2025 — with a premium upgrade via the Photoshop Mobile and Web subscription plan from $8 per month.
To avoid Adobe, if you want image-editing apps for your phone, then Snapseed is a great free option for photo editing, and it’s similar to Lightroom with its tool offerings.
Adobe Spark
The originator of Adobe Express
Adobe Express started initially as Adobe Spark in 2015 before eventually being merged into Adobe Express by 2022. Unlike Adobe Express, which is one tool accessible by multiple platforms, Adobe Spark was split across three tools: Spark Page, Spark Post, and Spark Video.
Even before Spark, these programs were known as Adobe Post, Adobe Slate, and Adobe Voice, offering similar but different attributes. Adobe Spark underwent multiple name changes, and two of the Spark programs were removed in their entirety, resulting in what we now know as Adobe Express.
Adobe Spark’s three tools combined allowed users to create videos, layout designs, and graphic designs — all of which can now be done conveniently from Adobe Express.
Although Adobe Spark was free, you can access Adobe Express for free or subscribe to a premium plan offering more templates, image and video stock, and AI features. For comparison,​​​​​​​ Canva is also very similar to Adobe Express and makes a great alternative too.
Don’t put all your creative eggs in one basket
It can be hard to predict how long our favorite creative software will be available for, but it’s always a good idea to test and learn other similar software, especially Adobe alternatives. Adobe is the standard for many creative outputs, but when its tools get discontinued, lose support, or simply get overtaken by a better tool, it’s a great idea to hit the ground running with a replacement software to ensure you don’t get left behind.
