Apple Publishes Document to Help Users Tell Creator Studio Apps Apart

Apple yesterday published a support document to help users distinguish Apple Creator Studio versions of its professional creative apps from the standalone editions sold as one-time purchases.

The confusion stems from Apple's decision to ship two parallel variants of Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro, MainStage, Motion, Compressor, and Pixelmator Pro, with one available through the Apple Creator Studio subscription and one sold separately. Both editions share the same name and can be installed on the same Mac at the same time, leaving little to tell them apart at a glance.

Apple's solution is to give the Creator Studio versions of the apps redesigned icons with Liquid Glass. The new support document presents side-by-side icon comparisons for each of the six apps so users can identify which edition they are running or troubleshooting from the Dock or the Applications folder.

Apple does not typically publish a dedicated reference document for telling two of its own apps apart, and the move suggests the dual-version setup has produced enough real-world confusion to warrant public guidance.

Apple Creator Studio launched in January for $12.99 per month or $129 per year, bringing the company's pro creative apps under a single subscription. Apple said that some new features in its creative apps would be available only to subscribers going forward. Pixelmator Pro's inclusion was the first significant sign of how Apple is integrating the Pixelmator team, which it acquired in November 2024.