jamesl Loc: Pennsylvania

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If you haven't already, check the price at B&H Photo. I have bough several version there for aroud $45 when Adobe was only offering a discounted price of $79 for the same version.

Bill_de Loc: US

It took two clicks to see it's $99.99 at B&H.

Of course that could change tomorrow.

Flyerace Loc: Mt Pleasant, WI

I have Elements 15 and love it. I haven't switched to Windows 10, so the latest PSE won't work on 7. It's ok. I like what I have. I used to have the full program before it switched to subscription and found that I didn't really use most of what is offered. Try it out and see if it fills your needs. You don't need to replace it every year. Maybe try replacing every 4 or 5 years. Ask what is new. If it doesn't seem to be what you want, don't get it. I'm sure if working in layers is an important part, well, this program will work just fine.

topcat Loc: Alameda, CA

With Elements, Elements+ ($12) and NIK (free version), I think that would take care of almost everything a photographer could want. Not everything, but almost everything.
If you need to upgrade Elements every couple of years, you can for a very modest amount. But I find that the upgrades every year are not necessary, every 2 or 3 years is often enough.

Elements does a lot of what a photographer wants, the full Photoshop has enough for a graphic designer or a professional. I think that Elements fills my needs, and there are enough instructions on the internet to help you do anything that you want to do.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Why / what is the need to upgrade PS Elements unless prompted by technical need?

Valid reasons: Documented OS incompatibility. Documented performance improvement. Tangible and necessary new software capability. Necessary RAW support for new camera models.

Questionable reasons: passage of time. discount codes. email advertisements. UHH chit chat.

I say this as a 'happy' PSE-10 user, software that dates to 2011. I've migrated the software across multiple windows-based desktops and laptops, now operating on two Win10 computers. The software gets a little funky when left open for days at a time and / or working on multiple images for detailed pixel-level efforts. Just closing and restarting the software resolves the issue.

DickC Loc: NE Washington state

I've been using PS Elements for about 5 years after my computer burnt up and took PS CS6 with it, not having replacement money I tried the Elements for 30 days and then bought it, it does everything I did on PS, so I'm happy with it!!

kotography4u

Thanks for the detailed explanation, as always!