Top 10 Adobe Acrobat alternatives

There likely isn’t a single internet user who hasn’t used Adobe technology at some point. If you’ve never used Photoshop or Workfront, we’re willing to bet you’ve digitally signed a document or read an e-book using Adobe — unknowingly or not.

Adobe may be the most popular, but it certainly isn’t the only PDF tool in town. Let’s take a look at what makes Acrobat so beloved and which alternatives are worth a try.

What is Adobe Acrobat?

To answer this, we should first answer, “What is a PDF?” The portable document format (PDF) file is Adobe’s open standard file format that allows for the sharing of documents in their original layout, regardless of software, hardware, or operating system.

Adobe Acrobat is the set of applications and web services that let users create, manage, and edit said PDF files.

The best features of Adobe Acrobat

There’s a reason it’s a favourite for both professional and personal use. Beyond Acrobat’s ability to create a PDF file from a Word document, the tool also allows users to

• Generate a PDF from web pages, PowerPoint presentations, or scanned documents and images. 
• Combine files to create a single PDF from multiple sources.
• Leave comments in the sidebar, similar to Microsoft Office comments.
• Leave sticky notes right on the document itself.
• Use markup functions like strikethroughs, underlining, or audio comments.
• Sign important documents electronically.

Adobe Acrobat pricing

Adobe offers a number of different pricing options for individuals:

• Acrobat Standard: Allows you to create and export PDFs, sign digital signatures, edit documents, and more, for just $12.99 per month.
• Acrobat Pro: Offers all the features Standard offers as well as the ability to create editable and searchable PDFs from scanned documents, redact sensitive information, compare PDF versions, add your logo, and create web forms from uploaded PDF files. It’s priced at $19.99 per month.

Teams can expect many similar capabilities:

• Acrobat Standard: Offers users the same features as the software for individuals, plus some additional features like Sharepoint integration and a web-based admin console to manage licenses — for $14.99 per month per license.
• Acrobat Pro: Offers all the Standard and Pro features for individuals, plus 24/7 technical support. This will set you back $23.99 per month per license.

Adobe also offers two plans for students and teachers:

• Acrobat Pro: Includes all the features of Acrobat Pro for individuals, costing $19.99 per month. 
• Creative Cloud All Apps plan: Includes Acrobat Pro plus access to Photoshop, InDesign, Adobe Premier, and Adobe Illustrator from $59.99 per month.

Why choose an Adobe Acrobat alternative?

While Adobe is certainly popular, its high price point can be offputting — particularly when factoring in multiple licenses or team members. Even if you can get over the price, the product’s technicality presents a fairly steep learning curve for new users.

It’s also important to remember that Adobe Acrobat may not have all the features you need, which could leave you paying extra for some capabilities you’ll never even use. Just one of these reasons is enough to leave consumers looking for an alternative.

10 alternatives to Adobe Acrobat

But before you take a chance on the first tool you find, consider the pros, cons, and pricing information of the following ten alternatives.

1. Nitro

• Key features: Nitro has a PDF Pro tool that’s comparable to Adobe Acrobat, and it’s marketed to individuals and teams. You can also create, edit, convert, and sign secure PDF files.
• Pros: Nitro offers a one-time price to avoid subscription payments. It also integrates with a long list of platforms.
• Cons: Support is only available with a subscription plan — similarly just three integrations (Sharepoint, iManage, and Azure) are included in the one-time price plan.
• Pricing: The subscription plan is $14.99 per user per month. The one-time plan provides a lifetime license that costs $179.99. 

2. PDF24

• Key features: PDF24 is a free PDF editor that lets users create, edit, annotate, compress, merge, and convert PDF files. It also allows for securing and e-signing PDF files, as well as creating PDFs from image files and vice versa.
• Pros: It’s a desktop installation, so works offline. Plus it’s free and unlimited, with all features included.
• Cons: It’s a Windows-only tool, and can be resource-intensive on your PC.
• Pricing: Completely free with no feature restrictions.

3. Foxit

• Key features: Foxit’s PDF Editor offers watermarking, headers and footers, PDF templates, optical character recognition (OCR), and the ability to convert numerous document types to PDFs with a handy drag-and-drop tool.
• Pros: It has an easy-to-use interface and shares many features with Acrobat Pro. It can also work on Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android.
• Cons: It only offers annual subscription plans.
• Pricing: Two annual subscription plans. The Nitro Pro plan is $179.88 per user per year, or $250 per year per license.

4. DocHub

• Key features: DocHub comes complete with a full PDF editor, PDF reader, a PDF signature app, and form tools, as well as Google Drive and Dropbox cloud storage integrations. 
• Pros: It offers a free trial and is reasonably priced compared to Adobe.
• Cons: It doesn’t integrate with Creative Cloud apps.
• Pricing: Available in two tiers. The Free tier provides access to most but not all features, and it heavily restricts how many features you can use per month. The Pro plan is $10 per month, and most features are unlimited or have very high thresholds.

5. PDF Expert

• Key features: PDF Expert comes with all the tools you’d expect in a PDF editor, such as the ability to edit text and images, conversion tools for Word, Powerpoint, and Excel, and OCR. Plus, you can add e-signatures to a PDF. 
• Pros: It has a rich feature set, and you can draw directly on a PDF.
• Cons: It’s an Apple-only tool.
• Pricing: Offers two pricing plans — Yearly and Lifetime. The Yearly plan is full featured and comes in at $7.08 per month (or $84.99 per year). The Lifetime plan is a single payment of $149.99, but it excludes updates, a version for mobile devices, and AI chat.

6. pdfFiller

• Key features: pdfFiller is a web-based PDF editor that offers a suite of features such as PDF creation and management, as well as support for fillable forms, electronic signatures, and payments. The software also offers encryption features for securing files containing sensitive data.
• Pros: iOS and Android apps are available.
• Cons: It’s web-based only on desktop, so it won’t work offline.
• Pricing: Features three pricing tiers. Basic ($8 per month for an annual subscription, $20 month-to-month) offers editing and annotating functionality along with support within 24 hours. The Plus plan at $12 per month, offers all basic functionality plus templates, version control, document tags, and a 30-minute support service level agreement. The Premium plan at $15 per month offers all Basic and Pro functionality, plus a legal forms library, e-signing, and instant chat support.

7. Sejda

• Key features: Sejda is available either online using local files or cloud storage or as a desktop installation. One of Sejda’s unique benefits is their automation capabilities that allow you to link its tools together to perform automated tasks on PDF files.
• Pros: Access easily online and via desktop versions. Volume discounts are also available for licensing.
• Cons: The free version is heavily restricted, while the unrestricted desktop version is only available on the highest pricing tier.
• Pricing: The free plan allows you to perform three tasks per day and work on one document at a time, and your file sizes can’t exceed 200 pages or 50 MB. The paid plans are a Web Week Pass at $5 for seven days, a Web Monthly plan at $7.50 per month, and a Desktop+Web Annual plan for $63 per year. Features are the same for all three plans. 

8. pdfforge

• Key features: pdfforge offers users comparable features to Adobe Acrobat, including PDF creation for Microsoft Office docs and the ability to merge and move files, as well as rearrange pages. Advanced features include annotations, collaboration tools, and OCR.
• Pros: You can convert MS Office docs to PDFs and back again. It offers competitive pricing to Adobe when broken down by month.
• Cons: Forms are only available in the top two price tiers, and there are no e-signing options.
• Pricing: The Free plan allows for basic creation of PDFs from Word, Excel, and PowerPoint source files, as well as page ordering features. There are three paid plans offering additional services — the Standard plan starts at $69 per user per year, the Professional is $89 per user per year, and the Pro+OCR is $129 per user per year. Volume discounts are available for five or more licenses. 

9. Qoppa

• Key features: Qoppa offers a Java-based PDF solution with a wide array of tools for creating, editing, manipulating, organizing, and optimizing PDFs. I
• Pros: It features an extensive library of tools organized by function and relevant industry. There’s a single license fee instead of a subscription model, and volume license discounts are available.
• Cons: There’s a steep learning curve due to its huge customizability.
• Pricing: PDF Studio has a one-time single license fee of $149. The more licenses you buy, the lower the price drops.

10. Jotform

• Key features: Jotform gives you the ability to convert PDF forms to web forms. Jotform Smart PDF Forms allows you to view and convert your PDF forms easily. You can also e-sign compatible PDFs, convert fillable PDFs into online web forms, and track responses with Jotform Tables.
• Pros: Jotform gives you functionality extending beyond PDFs. 
• Cons: It’s a pricier option than Adobe Acrobat, but think of it as a long-term investment.
• Pricing: Jotform’s pricing plans start with the Free plan that gets you five forms, 100 submissions per month, and 100 MB of storage space. The Bronze, Silver, and Gold plans are billed yearly at $34, $39, and $99 per month respectively, each offering more forms and storage as you increase in price.

Exceed the limits of Adobe Acrobat with Jotform

While Adobe Acrobat is the most popular tool on the market, it still comes with limitations. Jotform goes far beyond simply making PDFs editable.

With over 10,000 free form templates, hundreds of available integrations, and a mobile app, you can unlock the power of a digital form builder. Start using it for free today.

Photo by Karolina Grabowska