Capture One price to increase x3.5 for some users

Capture One users may be feeling a little ‘hung out to dry’ recently, as the popular post-processing and tethering software is accused of price gouging. The multi-user license has now been replaced by the Capture One Studio for Teams, and with it, a massive price increase.

Sure, users will get an improved user experience, but enough to justify the 344% price increase?

According to Capture Integration (link removed), any studio with more than one person will be forced to purchase a new annual subscription. However, it Capture One assures DIYP that it is not an enforced update at all.

Massive price increase

Capture Integration reports that a team of 10 users could last week purchase an annual user license for $1,598. This week, that price has jumped to a whopping $5,500, a price increase of 3.5 times the previous price.

Capture One is selling updates as part of the “improved user experience” to justify the increase. These include AI cropping, faster AI in general, and a tethering boost particularly geared towards Sony and Fujifilm shooters. Other upgrades include Guides tool and Tool locks, Next Capture Metadata, Keywords, and Backup, Enhanced Capture One Live with local collaboration (Live for Studio), Multi-viewer capabilities (Client Multi-Viewer), Capture One Essentials training, Priority support, and New product/feature update live streams.

Truthfully, all that does sound like a considerable upgrade. It’s also worth noting that the single-user Capture One Pro licenses haven’t increased in price and remain at $299. However, some larger studios and commercial photographers will almost certainly be upgrading to the Teams subscription.

Capture One has stated that anyone who wants to buy Capture One Pro for ten users can simply visit captureone.com and buy ten subscriptions for $1,790 (10 x $179) or ten licenses for $2,990 (10 x $299). for larger teams of people if they wish. These prices haven’t changed, in fact they’ve remained unchanged for more than 5 years.

More subscriptions

Can they afford to do this? Of course, the larger studios and commercial photographers who work on big campaigns should be able to manage it. However, that being said, it’s yet another subscription that needs to be paid.

With the number of subscriptions out there these days, Creatives are beginning to feel like a bank to software companies. It’s important to keep track; otherwise, these small monthly or annual costs can really sap your profits.

Walking away from Capture One

Studios with just two or three employees who want all the advantages of Capture One Studio for Teams will have to pay for the higher subscription. Many of these medium and smaller photography businesses are running (rightly or wrongly) on incredibly tight margins. This could be enough to throw some of them over the edge and cause them to vote with their feet. They might be better off sticking with the other option of Capture One Pro.

“This price increase is unprecedented and will cause some serious budget issues with the majority of our corporate customers. After speaking to a few today, they have expressed the desire to move to a competitive product themselves,” says Dave Gallagher from Capture Integration.

It’s worth noting that Capture One is now almost entirely separate from Phase One, although both are still owned by the same umbrella investment group. This move by Capture One is in line with several decisions over the past year to be more money-goal-orientated.

That’s too bad because Capture One was always a superior product for “serious” photographers. However, there does come a point where you need to ask, ” Do I need these extra features?”

Update 23/05/24: Following an email exchange with CaptureOne, the article has been updated to reflect the difference between the standard and studio packages.

[via Petapixel]