I have been an ON1 Photo RAW Pro Subscriber Pro since 2018 and like many I switched from Adobe Products because their Subscription Prices are simply unrealistic and border on extortion.
ON1 Photo RAW fills a need. It is far from a perfect product; but, the cost is well within reason. I will be honest though, I have never been offered a Military Discount by ON1 in the entire time that I have used them. It will be something that I will be checking into since I am a retiree.
ON1 Photo RAW, now on the 2022.1 version, isn't for the faint at heart. It has a heck of a learning curve associated with it and the video tutorials do somewhat help to slay the beast a bit. You will still spend hours learning it regardless. The iPadOS version is very crippled in comparison and in general I do not recommend it since there is an added cloud cost to be able to move pre-work to your PC or Mac for final editing. It has never been worth the additional cost.
ON1 relies heavily on the sale of video tutorials, filters, presets, LUTs, and textures which in and of themselves can be very expensive even during short sales periods. Member subscribers at the Pro level do not receive any discounts towards these. The Pro Level supposedly just provides preferential support (practically non-existent) upgrades to the next annual upgrade of Photo RAW without cost, and an open library of resources including textures, LUTs, Filters, Brushes, etc that are offered on a monthly basis. Sometimes these are just pared down versions of new tutorial offerings; but, a benefit is always a benefit if you are not charged for them. They have been helpful.
As indicated by other reviewers, ON1 itself has terrible support and customer service. They do not even publish a corporate customer service or technical support phone number on their website, nor their physical address; but rest assured, the are headquartered in Portland, OR and they do have a number [(503) 968-1468]. Support is just about 100% through a ZenDesk support environment so you wind up sending mail via their web presentation that creates a support ticket. They have responded in a short period of time to my questions; but, their replies definitely have a tendency to demonstrate corporate arrogance and little respect towards their customers.
My last bout with them was over the fact that I had purchased four of their AI tools in July 2020 and was expecting under the pro subscription that not only Photo RAW would be upgraded; but, the independent AI packages as well. I was blatantly told that the Pro Plan does not include these other packages despite the fact that their spiel on the advantages of a Pro Membership do elude to them also covering the add-ons. After investigating it a bit more by myself, it turns out that some of these are now incorporated in the Photo RAW 2022 product, but, there is still one elusive one hat I have not found.
The user should also be prepared to invest in reader/cheater glasses as well. The toolbars along the sides and bottoms of the work window are way too small so it takes a while to learn where you need to navigate to at least on a Mac even at 2K resolution. I cannot imagine trying to use it at 4K, 5K, or 8K.
If you are in the "window shopping" mode, you may also wish to checkout Serif's Affinity Photo, Designer, and Publishers. Like ON1, the Affinity Photo and Designer also run on iPadOS devices. I have found that they are a bit more usable than ON1 Photo RAW on an iPad Pro 12.9 inch. Moving work back and forth to a Mac is also easy and the user interfaces are about the same. Affinity Phot and Designer are much more realistic in pricing and their Video Workshops can be supported by separate Workbooks offered through Serif or Amazon.com. They are very handy. In most cases, I recommend Affinity Photo as a starting point for new users who desire to have more control over editing photos. It is cheaper, you own the software, it is updated through both the Mac and iPad/iPhone App Stores on a regular basis unlike ON1 Photo RAW. Then if a person feel confident ; but, still wants to delve more into editing do I recommend ON1 Photo RAW. my last recommendation is always Adobe products because of the exorbitant annual/monthly subscription cost and the bundling they do with their apps. I like Adobe; but, they like they always have, price themselves way into the commercial market and out of reach of us commoners.
I hope this review helps in your decision process. read more