These 6 Apple apps just got hit by a subscription bombshell – but users say there’s an even bigger crime

• Apple has just introduced its Creator Studio premium subscription
• The paid membership locks certain app features behind a paywall
• Apple’s new app icons are also causing consternation among users

Apple introduced its Creator Studio app subscription service yesterday, which gets you a suite of creative apps for a monthly or annual fee. But if you don’t feel like stumping up $12.99 / £12.99 / AU$19.99 a month or $129 / £129 / AU$199 per year and would rather pay a one-off fee, there’s an unwelcome catch: you’ll miss out on some features that are only available to subscribers.

As spotted by MacRumors, the Creator Studio press release explains that some “exciting new intelligent features and premium content” will be exclusive to Creator Studio subscribers, meaning you won’t get these add-ons if you opt to pay once and keep the software forever. The affected apps are Final Cut Pro, Pixelmator Pro, Keynote, Numbers, Pages and Freeform.

For example, the Final Cut Pro page notes that “A one-time purchase will still be available, but access to some of the premium content is available only to Apple Creator Studio subscribers.”

That said, Apple says that one-off purchase apps will continue to be updated, just like their subscription equivalents. As well as that, some apps, including Logic Pro and Mainstage, will have feature parity between the subscription and non-subscription editions.

What are these mysterious extra features that a paid membership grants you? We’ve detailed a few of the new updates previously, but it looks like many of them relate to artificial intelligence (AI). That’s hinted at by the fact that Apple describes them as “intelligent features,” and the company often uses similar language when discussing its AI tools.

Not all apps require either a one-time payment or a subscription, as Keynote, Numbers, Pages and Freeform will continue to have free tiers. But as with the aforementioned examples, paid Creator Studio members will gain access to additional features that free users will miss out on.

There’s more bad news

The dual system for Apple’s creative apps is only one aspect of the new announcement that might be cause for concern. A quick scan of social media reveals that many users are unhappy with the new icons that Apple has designed for its apps, with many people lamenting the direction Apple decided to take.

If you’ve not seen the new icons yet, Reddit user Jacksworld101 made a helpful comparison that shows the icon groups side by side. Right now, Apple’s icons are colorful and descriptive. When Creator Studio launches on January 28, however, the icons of every included app will switch to a much darker, more minimalistic aesthetic, making them much harder to differentiate from each other at a glance.

On X, users have described the new icons as “awful”, “blurry”, “unApple” and “genuinely bad.” It follows the poor reception icons received in iOS 26 and macOS 26, where Apple’s clear option gave all icons the same glassy look, which hindered users’ ability to distinguish between icons that all looked extremely similar.

For some, Creator Studio could be a good way to save money on large up-front payments when purchasing a suite of apps. But many users will likely be disappointed to see exclusive features locked behind a paywall on a range of Apple’s most popular apps. The seemingly unpopular icon designs are the icing on the cake.

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