macOS users review bomb Keynote, Pages, and Numbers after Apple adds Creator Studio ads

Apple’s iWork apps are getting hammered with one-star reviews after the company rolled out new versions that promote its Creator Studio subscription. Users on Reddit are calling it a new low for Apple, and the App Store ratings tell the story.

The drama kicked off when Apple launched Creator Studio on January 28, a $12.99/month subscription bundling Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro, Pixelmator Pro, and other pro apps. Pages, Numbers, and Keynote remain free, but the new versions now push Creator Studio features and templates constantly.

What’s really setting people off is how Apple placed these prompts. In Pages and Numbers, there’s an ad banner when you pick templates. Not great, but users could live with that. The real problem is Keynote, where Apple stuck a persistent Creator Studio promotion right in the format sidebar. You’re trying to work on a presentation, and there’s an upsell staring at you the whole time.

“Even Microsoft blushed when they saw this,” one Reddit user joked in a thread urging people to leave reviews. The post points out that all three apps crashed from nearly five stars to somewhere between 2.5 and 2.9 stars since the update dropped.

The backlash isn’t just about ads. Apple released these as entirely new apps on Mac (version 15.1 with different bundle IDs), while the old versions got bumped to 14.5 and will never see another feature update. According to MacRumors, Mac users who want any new features have to install the Creator Studio editions.

Over on the r/MacOS subreddit, users are sharing screenshots of brutal reviews.

One person wrote “This is insane” after discovering they can’t turn off the ads without paying for a subscription they don’t want. Another called out Apple for “forcing ads in a cheap application now” when Mac hardware already costs thousands.

There’s also confusion about what you get for free anymore. Some premium templates are paywalled, and AI features like “Draft Presentation” in Keynote only work if you subscribe to Creator Studio. A YouTube review testing the new features found that Keynote’s AI presentation builder mostly just pastes text into slides.

The timing makes this worse. Six Colors noted that Creator Studio had a “rough App Store roll-out,” and the review bombing proves it. Mac users still have the old ad-free versions installed, but Apple nags you with popups every time you open them. It’s a no-win situation, and users are making their frustration known the only way that might get Apple’s attention.