Are you using Adobe Creative Cloud, or any of Adobe’s products like Photoshop, Premiere Pro, Affecter Effects? Are you also using a VPN and later find out that your VPN is causing problems with any of the Adobe Product? Problems like Photoshop would not load or freeze. Or you can’t connect to Creative Cloud over a VPN. Well, I was in a similar situation a few months ago. There is a solution to fix this problem. But it would require that you contact your VPN’s customer support; and/or make some additional configuration or settings with your VPN client or network setup. I don’t want to mess with those, and luckily I found an easier solution. And that solution is to switch to a VPN that will work with Adobe products without any additional tweaking. Read more about it below.
Two VPNs That will Work with Adobe Creative Cloud Smoothly
Adobe Photoshop and Premiere Pro are part of my everyday work. VPN is also an essential service, especially if you are always using the internet. And while I use these products almost every day, I don’t usually use VPN together with Adobe Photoshop/Premiere Pro. So, I was not aware of this particular issue, until a few months ago.
I was using ExpressVPN, and I noticed that whenever I open Photoshop or Premiere Pro, it would not load properly and freeze. The Adobe Creative Cloud doesn’t seem to work too. I search the web for a solution, but it seems each VPN service is different and it would require you to contact customer support. You also need to change and configure additional settings.
I like ExpressVPN since they have a split tunneling feature and the user interface is quite easy to use. Not to mention, their VPN connection is fast as well. But I can’t use ExpressVPN together with Adobe Photoshop or Premiere Pro.
I also have NordVPN and it was great timing that around that time, they rolled out NordLynx, a protocol built around WireGuard VPN. So I switch back to NordVPN to test if it will work together with Adobe CC without any problem. In NordVPN’s dashboard, I simply switched the VPN protocol to NordLynx (it was also the recommended protocol), fired up Adobe Photoshop, and BAM! It opened without any freezing or issues. I opened Adobe Premiere Pro next and it also ran without any freezing issues.
You can check out our NordVPN review here.
Surfshark VPN Works Too!
There is another VPN that I was able to test recently and it’s Surfshark. Surfshark VPN also makes use of WireGuard protocol, aside from the usual IKEv2 and OpenVPN. They also have Shadowsocks protocol.
Whenever I use Surfshark VPN together with Adobe Photoshop and/or Premiere Pro, I just connect using the WireGuard protocol. And so far I have not encountered any issues with this VPN as well.
The good thing about Surfshark is that you can use their services on an unlimited number of devices, has 15 Netflix libraries, comes with Ad blocker and their plans are also priced competitively. Obviously, there are other features, but that would be a topic for our review. Or you can check them here.
What About Other VPNs?
So far, these are the only two VPNs that I have tried and tested to work flawlessly with Adobe Creative Cloud, Photoshop, and Premiere Pro; of course the rest of the suite too. There might be others, but I haven’t tried them yet. I’m not sure if ExpressVPN will have a fix soon as well. I hope so since they are one of the best VPNs in the market.
NordVPN and Surfshak VPN Pricing
NordVPN offers a monthly, yearly, and 2-year plan. Their monthly price is $11.95 and their yearly plan is (currently) $59 for the first year. You can get a better deal with their 2-year plan, for as low as $89 for the first 2 years. However, there are times NordVPN offers a 3-year plan too. And sometimes these prices change, especially if they have an ongoing deal.
You can check out the latest pricing/plan of NordVPN here.
As for Surshark VPN, their monthly plan is $12.95, a 6-month plan for $38.94, and a yearly plan for $59.76. Currently, their yearly plan comes with additional 3 months free. This is the current promotion at the time I wrote this article. And there is a chance that their pricing and promotion will change in the (near) future.
For the latest pricing/plan of Surfshark VPN, check it here.
TL;DR – What VPN Works with Adobe Creative Cloud / Suite?
The two VPN that I can recommend that works with Adobe products are NordVPN and Surfshark VPN. You can connect to the internet via Nordlynx / WireGuard protocol and you can open any Adobe software without any problems, at least based on my experience.
