Amazon was the big winner from 2021’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales

If you bought something on Black Friday or Cyber Monday, maybe a little Christmas present, you definitely weren't alone in 2021. Millions of people took advantage of the sales bonanza this year, receiving big deals on loads of things in return. 

To help make sense of how huge the occasions are, TechRadar Pro commissioned a survey one OnePulse, which asked 500 respondents some questions about the festivities. 

Amazon is the winner and it's not even close

According to our survey, carried out by OnePulse, of the 500 respondents a whopping 34.6% bought items from Amazon, the largest group, followed by those who did not participate (33.4%), bought from a high street retailer (14.6%), or bought from Wish, Aliexpress, Shein, or elsewhere (17.4%). 

In terms of sourcing the deals, respondents were more divided: 29% went straight to the store (on or offline); 22.6% used Google; 11% used promotional emails; 8.4% used WhatsApp; 6.4% used Facebook and/or Twitter; and the remaining 22.4% did something else entirely. 

But were all of the deals worth it? 30.6% were either very or somewhat happy; 30.4% were ambivalent; 22.4% were either very or somewhat unhappy; and 16.6% had no opinion at all. 

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Which Adobe Black Friday deal should I get in 2021?

When it comes to Adobe, Black Friday is a great time to look for a deal if you want to finally try out Photoshop or another of the Creative Cloud apps.

With a push from the company this year to make sure all of its apps work with Apple’s M1 Macs, there’s no better moment to see what offers Adobe may bring out.

In previous years, there’s been deals up to 40% off the Creative Cloud subscription. When you factor in $ 599 / £508 / AU$ 871 for a yearly subscription, it could be a significant discount for Cyber Monday as well, especially if you’re looking to use the suite for a project or a student assignment.

But there could be a bunch of deals that you may be interested in but not sure which one to go for. With this in mind, here’s a few deals we’ve come across in recent years, and which ones to look out for, just in case.

Which deals usually appear?

Adobe Photoshop running on MacBook Pro 2021

(Image credit: TechRadar)

Being able to save on the following plans can make a big difference in the long run, especially if you’ve decided to add Photoshop, Lightroom, or other Adobe apps into your workflow.

With Adobe’s improvements to Apple’s new MacBooks, alongside Photoshop coming to the web, it looks to make that subscription more justified if you’re still wavering.

Adobe Student Plan

While there’s a Student deal that saves users over 65% for a Creative Cloud subscription, in the past there’s been Black Friday deals that have offered monthly discounts of up to 30%, and yearly discounts of up to 45%.

The yearly subscription of $ 599 / £508 / AU$ 871 could be a big dent in your bank account, while a monthly charge of $ 52.88 / £49.99 / AU$ 76.88 can be as much as an iPhone 13 Pro contract for three years.

Adobe Photography Plan

This plan offers Photoshop, Lightroom and 20GB of cloud storage for $ 9.99 / £9.99 / AU$ 9.99 a month.

If you want to only edit photos and only photos, it's an ideal plan for this.

Last year for Black Friday, this plan was 16% off the above pricing, so we may see something similar appear in the coming weeks from Adobe.

Adobe Creative Cloud Plan

The most common plan that many go for, where every essential app from Adobe is included in the plan.

Priced at $ 52.99 / £49.99 / AU$ 76.99 a month, you'll be able to use the apps on your Mac, your PC, and your iPad if you wish.

All of the apps can be downloaded and updated from the main Creative Cloud app, so you can pick and choose which apps you want to install at certain times.


Are subscription plans the new normal?

There was a time where you could buy Photoshop for a one-off fee, and you could use it as many times as you wanted for that specific version before a new one would be announced.

However, as devices became more powerful and the alluring choice of having more than one device, there was a reason for Adobe to replace one-off payments with subscriptions.

Microsoft was one of the first to do this with Office 365, and now it’s a common trait. Apple with iCloud and other services, alongside Microsoft and Game Pass, and much more.

But Adobe doesn't just offer one plan, several are offered to better help your needs. Some that you’ll most likely go for may be the Photography plan that offers Photoshop, Lightroom and 20GB of cloud storage for $ 9.99 / £9.99 / AU$ 9.99, to the Dreamweaver plan for $ 19.99 / £19.99 / AU$ 19.99.

We aren’t far from seeing what Adobe will offer for Black Friday weekend. But if you’ve recently upgraded your PC or Mac, and you want to get the best out of Adobe’s apps, you’re going to be in a great position once the deals are announced to help save you a significant chunk of change.

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EE’s Black Friday SIM only deal returns – 60GB of data for just £20 a month

Is it a coincidence that EE brought back one of its best ever SIM only deals on Valentine's Day…? No. No it's not and we cannot stress this enough…SIM plans aren't romantic.

However, while this doesn't scream love, it does at least quietly chant bargain as this marks the return of one of EE's best SIM plans. Offering up 60GB of data for just £20 a month, the last time we saw this promotion from EE was over Black Friday.

Considering EE isn't exactly the cheapest network around, usually costing more than its three main competitors – Three, Vodafone and O2 – anytime we spot the big name retailer going big on its deals, it's always worth jumping on.

For you or for a gift for your partner – you can't say we didn't try and deter you – we've listed everything you need to know about this EE SIM only deal down below. You'll also find details of the closest competing offers.

EE's big data SIM only deal:

What other SIM only deals are available right now?

One deal EE will have difficulty beating comes from Three. Offering an unlimited data cap for just £18 a month, Three currently has the market beat. 

Or, on the cheaper side, Smarty Mobile is rocking a 50GB data plan at a price of just £15 a month. And with this deal, you'll be on a 1-month rolling contract meaning you can stay for as long as you want and leave when you like.

Just want something cheap and cheerful? iD Mobile's 2GB of data for £6 option could be ideal.

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