Capture One 21 was recommended by another member here when I posted my search for a processing and library solution that meets my current and expected needs. Having tried everything else I decided to give this a go despite the high price.
Pricing
I dislike subscription models, but that does seem the best option here as the stand alone version is £299 versus £19 a month. Stand alone pays for itself in 16 months as long as there are no major upgrades at cost within that time. There is a price penalty of about 25% for being a Canon user as it is cheaper for Nikon, Sony and Fuji. Students get a 35% discount. You get two "seats" which is fine for me as laptop and desktop.
No storage. Unlike adobe which has 1TB built in or 20Gb if you choose the same price Photography package.
I am already familiar with Lightroom having used it for years until June 2020. I had tried to use a legacy version I already have on a different computer but it crashed constantly on OSX Big Sur. To overcome this I downloaded the free 7 day trial from Adobe. Unlike every other free trial I have tried in the past week, Adobe make you pay up front with credit card details or PayPal and will then charge you if you have not take positive action to cancel within 7 days. Sharp practice in my view. Lightroom charge £10 a month for the base subscription, but if you want extra cloud storage it is £10 per Tb. That's crazy expensive given that I can buy 10TB from iDrive for £6.25 a month.