The 8 Best Adobe Acrobat Alternatives: 30+ PDF Editors Tested
I understand you. Adobe Acrobat is too expensive, and yet you are unsure whether there are alternatives. I also had the same feeling, so I decided to find the best Adobe Acrobat alternatives in 2026.
I invested over 200 hours in this project and tested more than 30 PDF editors to discover the best Adobe Acrobat alternatives.
And I have good news for you! I found some PDF editing software that is better and cheaper than Adobe.
In this article, I will share the best Adobe Acrobat alternatives you can find in 2026.
Let’s dive in!
Quick Picks: Best Adobe Acrobat Alternatives
🤖 Best for AI + OCR workflows: Tenorshare PDNob
📄 Best for everyday PDF editing: EaseUS PDF Editor
🖥️ Best lightweight PDF editor for Mac: PDF Expert
🌍 Best for browser-based PDF editing: Smallpdf
🏢 Best for enterprise PDF workflows: PDF-XChange
🆓 Best free PDF editor: PDFgear
📂 Best for document workflows & e-signatures: pdfFiller
⚙️ Best for advanced PDF editing: Foxit
How I Tested Adobe Acrobat Alternatives
To keep our reviews and final scores fair and consistent, we evaluate every PDF editor using a standardized testing framework built on over 3 years of hands-on experience testing these tools in real-world scenarios.
I specifically evaluated how each PDF editor stacks up against Adobe Acrobat in editing, OCR, AI features, pricing, performance, and usability.
Our scoring breakdown after testing 30+ PDF editors:
🛠️ Features & functionality — 60%
🖥️ User interface — 10%
🔐 Security — 10%
💰 Pricing — 10%
👥 Real-world experience — 10%
Want a detailed breakdown of how we test each category?
Learn exactly how we test tools → Review methodology
Compare the Best Adobe Acrobat Alternatives
|
Adobe Acrobat alternatives |
Ideal for 🎯 |
Key advantage over Adobe ⚡ |
Biggest limitation⚠️ |
Pricing starts 💰 |
Review score ⭐ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Best for AI + OCR workflows |
Powerful AI features and accurate OCR |
No Android version |
Free plan + paid from $49.99/year (4.8x cheaper than Adobe) |
4.6/5 |
|
|
Best for everyday PDF editing |
Better value for everyday editing |
No built-in AI features |
Free plan + paid from $49.95/year (4.8x cheaper than Adobe) |
4.6/5 |
|
|
Best for lightweight Mac editing |
Faster and cleaner experience for Mac |
Platform support |
Free plan+ paid from $79.99/year (2.99x cheaper than Adobe) |
4.4/5 |
|
|
Best for browser-based PDF editing |
Works in browser + Google Workspace integration |
Limited annotation tools |
Free plan+ paid from $120/year (1.99x cheaper than Adobe) |
4.4/5 |
|
|
Best for enterprises |
More advanced annotation, security, and review tools at a lower one-time cost |
Windows only |
Free plan + paid from $62 (One-time purchase vs Adobe subscription) |
4.3/5 |
|
|
Ideal for free PDF editing |
Free editing features |
Privacy concerns |
Free |
4.1/5 |
|
|
Best for document workflows & e-signatures |
Full document workflow + advanced e-signature tools |
Lacks advanced PDF reading features |
Free trial+ paid from $96/year (2.49x cheaper than Adobe) |
4.1/5 |
|
|
Best for advanced PDF editing |
Advanced editing features with lower long-term cost |
Higher pricing than budget tools |
Free plan+ paid from $129.99/year (1.84x cheaper than Adobe) |
4.1/5 |
Detailed Reviews of the Best Adobe Acrobat Alternatives
Let’s see the list of the best Adobe Acrobat Alternatives in 2026!
Tenorshare PDNob
PDNob combines accurate OCR, AI-powered document tools, and simple PDF editing in a beginner-friendly interface for Windows, Mac, and IOS. It is a strong alternative to Adobe Acrobat for users who want a budget-friendly PDF editor with solid features, though the lack of an Android version may be limiting for some users.
Quick verdict
Professionals handling OCR-heavy PDF workflows
Users need to edit a PDF on Android
One of the most accurate OCR engines I tested
No Android version
🏷️ Pricing starts at: $49.99/year + free plan available (~4.8x cheaper than Adobe Acrobat Pro)
My take after using PDNob for 3 years
After I tested PDNob, it became my default PDF editor, so needless to say, it performed well during testing. But let’s break it down.
PDNob PDF editor offers a wide range of PDF editing and annotation tools. With its easy-to-use tools and user-friendly interface, I had almost zero learning curve with this PDF editor.
It has one of the most accurate OCR engines, and its advanced PDF reading capabilities make it easy to read long PDF documents.
During my Tenorshare PDNob review, I especially loved the AI features. Based on my experience testing numerous PDF editors on the market, I think PDNob’s AI features are among the fastest.
Besides that, I received relevant and accurate answers to my questions. So, it helped me a lot to extract insights from my PDF files and save time.
To summarize, I had an absolutely positive experience with the PDNob PDF editor, and I recommend it to those who need a simple yet effective solution for PDF management. Compared to Adobe Acrobat or Foxit, PDNob offers a similar feature set but at a more affordable price.
Who gets the most value from PDNob
When PDNob might not work for you
Use the above link and the discount code TS-TBD-20 to get 20% OFF from the paid plans.
Key features
PDF reader: PDNob has the essential tools to read your PDFs easily.
PDF editing tools: When editing your PDFs, PDNob uses a drag-and-drop system. With this PDF editor, you can make changes to the text, pictures, and more. If you select a text box, you can move it around, change the font type, adjust the alignment, and more. Nevertheless, you can insert images and add or remove watermarks and backgrounds, so you have many possibilities to work with your PDF document.
Optical character recognition: PDNob offers an optical character recognition feature as well to edit and convert scanned PDFs. You can find the OCR feature on the top sidebar. Overall, the OCR was quite accurate, and I was satisfied with this feature when testing.
Convert PDFs: Using PDNob, you can convert PDF format into Excel, PowerPoint, images, Word documents, and more. The conversion takes 10-15 seconds, and you can work on the document in the desired format.
Annotate PDFs: Using this PDF editor, you can easily add annotations, for example, comments, text highlights, and more. Similar to the editing features, annotating PDFs is very simple with PdNob.
Organize PDFs: If you select the Page tab on the top tools, you can access PDNob’s tools to organize your PDF pages. You can select the pages’ order, insert a new one, rotate, split, and replace them if you want.
PDF compress: You can compress your PDF files with the PDNob. If you select high quality, you can reduce the file size without losing quality. It is very accessible, as you can find this feature under your home tab.
Password protection: If you click on “Protect,” you can easily add password protection to your PDF files and restrict access to more sensitive data. When restricting access to PDF documents, PDNob provides numerous options. For instance, you can only allow others to print but do not allow editing.
AI tools: One of the best features of the PDNob PDF editor is the AI-powered tools. You can ask the AI assistant to summarize your PDF document in seconds. Moreover, you can chat with your PDFs and get instant answers about your PDF documents. Lastly, you can ask AI to translate, rewrite, or explain the PDF for you.
What does it cost?
To try out PDNob, you get a one-week free trial, so you can test everything before committing.
If you want to use the advanced features on an ongoing basis, PDNob currently costs $49.99 with a promotion, while the regular price is $159.98 per year, which is still significantly cheaper than Adobe Acrobat.
Furthermore, you can buy the lifetime license for $64.99 and access unlimited AI features for $39.99.
Tenorshare PDNob’s pros and cons
After comparing PDNob directly with Adobe Acrobat, these were the most important pros and cons I discovered.
Tenorshare PDNob’s pros
Tenorshare PDNob’s cons
🔎Read my full review: Tenorshare PDNob Review 2026 | My Unfiltered Opinion
Use the above link and the discount code TS-TBD-20 to get 20% OFF from the paid plans.
EaseUS PDF Editor
EaseUS PDF Editor offers one of the best balances of features, usability, and pricing among the PDF editors I tested. It works on Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android and combines solid editing with accurate OCR. While I missed the built-in AI features, it is an excellent alternative to Adobe Acrobat for everyday use.
Quick verdict
Individuals who need a budget-friendly PDF editor with an extensive feature set
Large organizations
Affordable pricing plans
AI features
🏷️ Pricing starts at: $49.95/year + free plan available (~4.8x cheaper than Adobe Acrobat Pro)
My hands-on experience with EaseUS PDF Editor
EaseUS PDF has an intuitive interface and some useful tools for editing and reading PDF files. This tool is very simple.
You can find all the tools you need, whether it is OCR or annotation tools, in seconds. When testing EaseUS PDF Editor, I did not notice any performance issues even when I worked with larger PDF documents.
The features that mostly stand out for me were the editing, OCR, and encryption tools. I only missed the built-in AI tools when using EaseUS PDF Editor’s desktop version.
To summarize, I had an excellent experience with EaseUS PDF, and it is ultimately an affordable alternative to Adobe Acrobat for small and mid-sized businesses and individuals.
Who should use EaseUS PDF Editor
Who should NOT use EaseUS PDF Editor
Key functions
PDF reader: EaseUS PDF offers two view options: single and two-page views. You can decide between scrolling the pages or automatically jumping to the next page once you reach the end of the PDF page.
PDF editing tools: With EaseUS PDF editor, you can edit all the elements of the PDF files, including text, images, shapes, and shades. Just select the “all options” tab, and with this function, you can edit all the items you click on. Ultimately, it provides a straightforward way to edit PDF text and images.
Annotate PDFs: You can highlight text, use underline, or strikethrough, but there are also other options. For example, you can add sticky notes and callouts, or you can even draw.
Organize PDFs: Using the Page Tab, you can rearrange your PDF pages, merge, crop, delete, split, and extract pages. So, it has all the tools you need to smoothly organize your PDF pages.
PDF forms and signatures: EaseUS PDF offers simple solutions for creating and filling out forms. When creating a form, you can choose from inserting a text field, checkboxes, drop-down menus, and more. You can also create your signature with one click.
Convert PDFs: You can convert your PDF documents into Word documents, Excel, PPT, image files, TXT, or HTML formats.
Optical character recognition: EaseUS PDF also has a CR tool that recognizes text and converts image files to PDF documents.
Password protection: It also has security features, so you can protect your PDF files with passwords.
AI tools: Although it does not have an in-built AI assistant yet, you can use the online PDF editor version, where you can access this tool. Apart from this aspect, it works like the other AI assistants.
If you think you may need the advanced features, use the above link for signup and enter the code THEBUSINESSDIVE20 to receive 20% OFF if you fall in love with EaseUS PDF later.
Pricing overview
EaseUS’s monthly plan is $19.95, while the yearly plan is $49.95. They include one license for one computer and 1-year free upgrades.
If you go for the lifetime upgrades, it will cost you $79.95.
Overall, EaseUS is currently one of the cheapest PDF editors on the market.
EaseUS PDF editor’s pros and cons
To summarize my experience, these are the biggest wins and compromises of switching away from Adobe Acrobat to EaseUS PDF Editor.
EaseUS PDF Editor’s pros
EaseUS PDF Editor’s cons
🔎Read my full review: EaseUS PDF Editor Review 2026 | My Unfiltered Opinion
If you think you may need the advanced features, use the above link for signup and enter the code THEBUSINESSDIVE20 to receive 20% OFF if you fall in love with EaseUS PDF later.
PDF Expert
PDF Expert delivers a smooth experience with fast performance, excellent reading tools, and a clean interface that never feels overwhelming. Compared to Adobe Acrobat, it feels lighter, easier to use, and significantly more affordable for Apple users, although its biggest limitation is the lack of Windows and Android support.
Quick verdict
Individuals who need an intuitive and fast PDF editor for Mac
For those who need need a PDF editor for more platforms
Smooth PDF reading
Supports only Mac
🏷️ Pricing starts at: Free plan+ paid from $79.99/year (~2.99x cheaper than Adobe Acrobat Pro)
My real-world experience with PDF Expert
PDF Expert is a straightforward, fast, and reliable PDF editor for Apple devices. I mostly used its Mac version, and I was 100% satisfied with what I saw. While it offers numerous tools for your PDF documents, I did not feel that it was overwhelming.
Compared to Adobe Acrobat Pro, it’s not only substantially cheaper, but also feels that it has more accessible PDF editing features, and offers a much better experience performance-wise. That said, I did not have to wait long when opening large PDF documents; there were no crashes, and so on.
Additionally, PDF Expert has an intuitive, user-friendly interface that is often simpler than Adobe Acrobat’s more complex design. For me, these are the most crucial aspects when ranking PDF editors.
So, if you are considering whether to choose PDF Expert or Adobe Acrobat Pro, my obvious answer is PDF Expert, especially if you work within the Apple ecosystem. It is ideal for individuals and small businesses.
Nevertheless, if you need a PDF editor for mid-to-large-sized businesses, PDF Expert will likely be limited in terms of features. For enterprise use, I found Tungsten Power PDF and Nitro to be a more suitable choice.
Who should choose PDF Expert over Adobe Acrobat?
When PDF Expert may not replace Adobe Acrobat for you
Core features
PDF reader: You can use a one-page or two-page layout. Also, you have the option to view two pages vertically next to each other or horizontally after each other. PDF Expert offers three themes when viewing your PDF documents. It allows you to choose day, night, or sepia mode to reach maximum eye comfort.
PDF editing tools: PDF Expert is a simple tool for PDF editing. You can easily add, replace, and resize images and text boxes in your PDFs. I loved that you can easily insert links in the PDF document that point to external websites or to other pages in the document.
Annotate PDFs: You can highlight text, comment, draw, and add stickers and shapes. It is very cool that you can leave audio comments in the PDFs. This feature could be especially valuable when reviewing PDF documents and collaborating with others.
Organize PDFs: It is super easy to rotate, add, reorder, and remove pages from your PDFs. With a few clicks, you can combine multiple PDFs into one or split a PDF into multiple documents.
PDF forms and signatures: With PDF Expert, you can easily fill out PDF forms. You can add text boxes, number fields, checkboxes, and places for signatures. To use the signing tool, just type your name, and PDF Expert will transform it into a handwriting format.
Convert PDFs: It is also a PDF converter that allows you to convert PDFs to and from Word, Excel, PowerPoint, JPG, PNG, and more.
Optical character recognition: PDF Expert has a built-in OCR technology, so it recognizes the font type and seamlessly inserts the new text in the same format.
Password protection: You can set passwords to your PDF files in a quite straightforward way.
AI tools: It has an AI assistant to generate summaries and list the main points. This helps to digest PDF files faster.
Pricing structure
PDF Expert offers two paid plans.
You can get a lifetime subscription for a one-time fee of $139.99. While it includes almost all the features except the PDF Co-pilot, you have to pay for the updates, and you will not have access to the iPhone and iPad versions.
The annual subscription is $79.99 and includes the updates, iPhone and iPad versions, and the PDF Co-pilot.
All in all, PDF Expert is way cheaper than Adobe Acrobat and an affordable PDF solution on the market.
PDF Expert’s pros and cons
Switching from Adobe Acrobat can save money and make PDF editing smoother with PDF Expert, but here are the trade-offs you should consider with it.
PDF Expert’s pros
PDF Expert’s cons
🔎Read my full review: PDF Expert Review 2026 | Is it REALLY the best for Mac Users?
Smallpdf
Smallpdf combines browser-based PDF editing, powerful AI tools, and Google Workspace integrations in one intuitive platform. It is a solid alternative to Adobe Acrobat for users who want a lightweight PDF solution. However, if you need advanced PDF reading or annotation features, desktop-focused PDF editors may be a better fit.
Quick verdict
Teams & individuals who need a versatile online PDF editor
Users who need a desktop PDF editor
You can use it inside your Google Workspace and Dropbox
Does not support too many PDF reading functions
🏷️ Pricing starts at: Free plan+ paid from $120/year(~1.99x cheaper than Adobe Acrobat Pro)
What I learned using Smallpdf over time
When testing Smallpdf, I used its online version. With its intuitive user interface, it was super easy to access all the features I needed.
During the Smallpdf review, I had a feeling that it was more than just a PDF editor; it was rather a document management solution. It supports various formats and offers many tools to manage your documents.
When editing PDFs, Smallpdf adopted a drag-and-drop functionality, which made it easy to edit PDFs quickly and smoothly. Furthermore, Smallpdf offers advanced PDF organization, conversion, and AI features.
I also appreciated the option to add team members. With its discounted pricing for teams, Smallpdf is an ideal solution for teams as well.
Overall, I had an absolutely positive experience with Smallpdf, and I think it is among the best PDF and document management solutions.
Best use cases for Smallpdf
Where Smallpdf falls short
Features Worth Highlighting
PDF reader: Smallpdf allows you to smoothly read your PDF documents and zoom in and out. Also, you can select whether you want to fit the page to height or width.
PDF editing tools: If you double-click on the text you want to edit, you can use different font types for the text, adjust the size, and change color and alignment. In addition to editing existing text, you can add new text boxes to your PDF documents. Apart from adding new text boxes, you can insert image files into PDF documents using Smallpdf. Once you have inserted the image files, you can smoothly move them and change their size and opacity level.
Annotate PDFs: Using Smallpdf, you can add text, drawings, shapes, and highlights. If you click on the highlight option, you will access some additional tools like text underlining, strikethrough, and squiggle.
Organize PDFs: With this PDF tool, you can merge, split, rotate, delete, and extract pages. You can combine multiple PDFs into one longer document, which makes it easy to read and review everything in one file. Smallpdf’s splitter feature helps you extract, split, and save pages as separate documents. It is an easy-to-use feature that also lets you drag and drop pages and reorganize your PDF documents. Moreover, I tried the PDF extract tool as well during my Smallpdf review, and it worked great. Essentially, it lets you select and save pages as a new document in seconds.
Signatures: You can either draw, type, or upload the signature you want to use to sign PDFs. Once you have your signature, you only need to insert it in the place where you need to sign the PDF, and that’s it.
Convert PDFs: You can convert PDFs into Excel, images, PowerPoint, and Word files. It works vice versa, so you can convert the supported file formats into PDF documents.
Optical character recognition: Smallpdf offers OCR tools as well, which allow you to convert scanned documents and images into editable and searchable text. The OCR is particularly useful when you work with printed materials or older documents that you want to digitize.
Password protection: Using Smallpdf, you can set passwords for your PDFs and other formats, too. Moreover, it has an Unlock feature, so you only need to upload your file, enter the password, and download your unrestricted document.
PDF compression: With Smallpdf, you can compress PDFs easily. Simply drag-and-drop the file, and select your preference, whether you need standard or lower resolution (the file size will change accordingly), and Smallpdf will do the rest.
AI tools: Smallpdf has massive AI features, as you can use it to chat, summarize, and translate your PDF documents. Also, it has a feature to generate questions about the PDF file you uploaded.
Cost breakdown
With the free version, you can access all the basic tools for document management. It covers compression, PDF conversion tools, passwords, a PDF editor, and e-signature features. Nevertheless, the Free Plan has a daily download limit for these features.
The Pro Plan is excellent for professionals who need unlimited downloads and access to all the Pro features. The Pro version of Smallpdf starts at $10 per month when billed annually. Alternatively, if you want to pay monthly, you can use its monthly plan for $15.
With the 7-day free trial, you can test Smallpdf’s Pro features for yourself before buying. The Pro Plan includes all the features of the free version without limits, plus access to additional advanced features.
SmallPDF has a dedicated plan for teams. The Pro for Teams Plan ($8/month per seat) is perfect if you and your team need access to advanced features and faster support, and want to save a bit more compared to individual subscriptions.
Pros and cons of Smallpdf
Compared to Adobe Acrobat, here are the features that stood out most positively in Smallpdf, along with the limitations you should know about.
Smallpdf’s pros
Smallpdf’s cons
🔎Read my full review: Smallpdf Review 2026 | The Top Lightweight PDF Tool
PDF-XChange
PDF-XChange is a feature-rich Windows PDF editor with advanced annotation, security, OCR, review, and batch-processing tools, making it a massive Adobe Acrobat alternative for organizations. It offers enterprise-level functionality at a lower one-time cost than Adobe. Still, its busy interface, confusing pricing structure, and lack of built-in AI tools create a steeper learning curve.
Quick verdict
Enterprises that need a massive feature set
Beginners wanting a lightweight PDF editor
Security features
Overwhelming interface
🏷️ Pricing starts at: Free plan+ paid from $62 one-time fee (~3.86x cheaper than Adobe Acrobat Pro)
My real-world experience with PDF-XChange
PDF-XChange is one of the most powerful PDF editors I’ve tried so far. In addition to Nitro PDF, Tungsten Power PDF, and Adobe Acrobat, it offers an extensive feature set ideal for business use.
Whether we talk about PDF editing, reading, annotating, security, or converting documents, PDF-XChange is a top PDF software. The one feature I missed here is an in-built AI assistant to summarize my documents.
The main limitations I found during my PDF-XChange review are its pricing model and user interface. The pricing page is simply confusing.
Although it offers a reasonable price, it’s just tough to see what the paid plans include and what features they offer. Also, it only offers a perpetual license, which may not be ideal for many of you.
Regarding its user interface, I think it is just too “busy”. You will see icons, functions, and options everywhere, which make the learning curve longer.
After my PDF-XChange review, I realized that it is one of the most powerful PDF editing software programs currently. If you can get used to its overwhelmed user interface and pricing model, it can be a top choice, especially for businesses.
When to choose PDF-XChange
When you should skip PDF-XChange
Top features
PDF reader: In addition to the regular tools, you can use multiple layout options to read your PDF documents. Also, it provides night mode, transparency grid, page translations, and a dedicated reader feature.
PDF editing tools: Using PDF-XChange, you can edit text, images, and other elements in your PDF document. It has one of the most advanced PDF editing features I’ve tried so far (style copying, extensive customization, etc.). Compared to Adobe Acrobat, PDF-XChange feels like an upgrade for enterprise use cases.
Annotate PDFs: Besides the basic tools like callouts, sticky notes, and highlighting, you can utilize advanced features as well. You can leave sound comments, video files, 3D annotations, and more.
Organize PDFs: You can insert, move, extract, delete, split, and duplicate pages. However, you will find more options, such as replacing, cropping, or adding a watermark.
PDF forms and signatures: You can insert text boxes, buttons, check boxes, radio buttons, drop-down menus, and more for form creation. Moreover, you can sign your documents easily with digital signatures.
Convert PDFs: With PDF-XChange, you can convert your PDF documents into images, Word, Excel, and PPT easily. The conversion is fast and accurate.
Optical character recognition: It supports over 150 languages, and its batch OCR feature enables rapid processing of multiple PDF files simultaneously. I found the OCR mostly accurate and fast, though it did not make my list of best OCR tools.
Password protection: PDF-XChange offers one of the most robust PDF redaction and password or certificate security.
Available plans
The PDF-XChange Editor plan includes the essential features to manipulate your PDF document for $62 per user.
PDF-XChange Editor Plus. The difference between the Plus version and the simple PDF-XChange Editor is that this plan covers fillable forms, enhanced OCR, and dynamic stamps. You can get this plan for $79 per user.
Pros and cons of PDF-XChange
If you are considering switching from Adobe Acrobat to PDF-XChange, these pros and cons should help you make a decision more quickly.
PDF-XChange’s pros
PDF-XChange’s cons
🔎Read my full review: My Unfiltered PDF-XChange Review 2026
PDFgear
PDFgear is a free PDF editor that offers editing, OCR, annotation, conversion, and AI-powered tools. It is one of the best free alternatives to Adobe Acrobat for personal use, but it lacks some advanced PDF editing tools, and there is an ongoing privacy debate.
Quick verdict
If you need a completely free Adobe Acrobat alternative
User seeking advanced editing features
100% free
Concerns about privacy
My experience with PDFgear
Straight to the point: PDFgear is currently the best free PDF editor. It offers solid editing, annotation, AI, and conversion features for free, while these features are normally included in paid plans.
During my PDFgear review, I experienced smooth performance, and especially enjoyed using the PDFgear Copilot feature that works like a personal assistant.
As for drawbacks, I would appreciate more powerful editing features or password protection. Furthermore, there is still debate about PDFgear’s security, which poses a potential privacy risk (more information on the debate in the review article).
While I think it’s a safe PDF editor based on my experience, since I used it numerous times in the past three years, there is a data risk, particularly if you use it in your business.
Would I recommend it to my friend?
Yes, if he wants to use it as an individual. If he were to use it for business purposes, I would recommend safer alternatives such as EaseUS PDF Editor or Xodo PDF Studio.
Who should use PDFgear
Who should stay with Adobe Acrobat
Feature breakdown
PDF reader: You can read PDF files with PDFgear easily. This free PDF editor offers single and double-page view options, and it also has an auto-scroll tool. So, it is similar to Adobe Reader.
PDF editing tools: This alternative to Adobe Acrobat has all the essential tools you might need to work with PDFs. You can edit text, adjust fonts, color, and size, and make it bold or italic. Although it does not have as many editing tools as other PDF editors, it does include some useful tools for editing PDF documents.
Annotate PDFs: You can access valuable collaboration tools using this free PDF editor. You can highlight, underline, and strike through text. I loved that you can highlight areas of your pages. Besides these options, you can add notes, shapes, and text boxes.
Organize PDFs: You can extract, delete, insert, and rotate pages, and if you want to move them, just drag and drop the page thumbnails. Organizing your PDF pages is super easy with PDFgear.
PDF forms and signatures: PDFgear only has the basic features to create and fill forms. However, you can create your digital signatures and sign digital documents.
Convert PDFs: You can convert files into many other formats, such as Microsoft Word files or pictures, and vice versa.
Optical character recognition: You can find the OCR tool on the homepage, so you can quickly extract text from scanned files.
Password protection: PDFgear allows you to control who can open the PDF file with the password. Nevertheless, there is no option to restrict the editing or printing of the PDF files.
AI tools: When opening up the AI co-pilot, you will get some sample prompts you can use to interact with your PDFs. It is also great that you can not just chat but also add commands to AI, for example, protect the PDF with a password or convert the PDF into another format.
Explore our Apps directory
A curated directory of software tools we’ve independently reviewed, with links to full reviews, comparisons, and category guides.
Pricing
PDFgear is a free PDF editor. The reason behind this is simple: they are just starting out.
The business is currently in a stage where it focuses on growth and acquiring users. So, they will introduce some advanced features in the future and offer paid plans for that.
But for now, it is a completely free online PDF editor that also has a desktop version.
Pros and cons of PDFgear
To wrap up my experience, these are the biggest wins and compromises of switching away from Adobe Acrobat to PDFgear
PDFgear’s pros
PDFgear’s cons
🔎Read my full review: My Honest PDFgear Review 2026 | What They Don’t Tell You
pdfFiller
pdfFiller combines PDF editing, e-signatures, collaboration tools, reusable templates, and document management in one place, making it one of the best Adobe Acrobat alternatives for teams that need a cloud-based PDF editor. Nonetheless, it lacks OCR and advanced PDF reading features, and it does not offer a permanent free plan.
Quick verdict
Individuals & teams need an all-in-one cloud solution
If you need a free PfoxDF editor
Offers many tools for document management
Less advanced PDF reading tools than Adobe Acrobat Pro
🏷️ Pricing starts at: Free trial+ paid from $96/year (~2.49x cheaper than Adobe Acrobat Pro)
My experience with pdfFiller
After testing 30+ PDF software, I found pdfFiller is an outstanding alternative to Adobe Acrobat Pro DC. During my review, I discovered that it has advanced document management, team collaboration, and e-signature features.
That said, pdfFiller is more than just a PDF editor; it’s an all-in-one solution for managing your documents. Thanks to its team collaboration features, it is among the best Adobe Acrobat Pro DC alternatives for teams.
Who pdfFiller is best for
When pdfFiller is not the right choice
Features worth highlighting
PDF reader: pdfFiller has the basic functionality to read PDFs. After you uploaded the file from your local drives, Google Drive, Dropbox, and OneDrive.
PDF editing tools: When it comes to editing PDFs, pdfFiller has a wide range of features. You can change the font type, opacity, move text boxes around, and more. In terms of images, you have plenty of options to move them around, change the size, flip, rotate, crop, erase, and adjust them. Overall, I found pdfFiller’s editing features more convenient than Adobe Acrobat Pro DC’s features.
Annotate PDFs: With pdfFiller, you can add comments, sticky notes, draw, and more. It also offers redaction tools to remove sensitive data from your PDFs. I loved that all the annotation tools are highly customizable.
Organize PDFs: pdfFiller allows you to rearrange or delete pages with a few clicks. On the left side, just click the three dots to delete, add, duplicate, or move pages around.
PDF forms and signatures: Using pdfFiller, you can create form fields easily. You can drag and drop checkboxes, dates, text boxes, etc. It is an enterprise-grade esignature solution that offers SOC 2 Type II & ISO 27001 certifications for trust and legal validity.
Convert PDFs: With this Adobe Acrobat alternative, you can convert PDF files into many file types like JPEG, Excel, PPT, and Word documents. Nevertheless, it works both ways, so you can convert these file formats to PDFs.
Password protection: Thanks to pdfFiller’s security tools, you can protect your documents with passwords.
Document management: Compared to Adobe Acrobat Pro DC, pdfFiller feels way more advanced in terms of document management. With this PDF editor, you have custom labels and folders to organize and structure your PDFs. Moreover, it has an extensive document library with numerous customizable government, legal, and business forms. Lastly, you can create reusable templates to prepare repetitive documents faster.
Team collaboration tools: pdfFiller provides shared workspaces, centralized user controls, role-based access, and audit trails to help teams collaborate on documents.
AI tools: pdfFiller’s AI features are designed to automate and streamline document workflows, including chatting with PDFs, summarization, translation, AI-powered document generation, and so on.
Pricing
Although pdfFiller does not have a free version, it has a 30-day free trial, so you can test it for yourself. As for the pricing plans, you can choose from 3+2 paid subscription options.
With the Basic Plan, you can edit, fill, draw, and rearrange pages, as well as convert your PDF documents into Word files, and get customer support within a day. It is $8 per month with annual billing or $20 per month with monthly billing.
If choosing the Plus Plan, it is $30 month-to-month or $12 per month with an annual commitment. It offers some advanced features like smart document tags and folders, password protection, and allows you to create reusable templates and add basic fillable fields.
pdfFiller’s Premium Plan is $40 monthly or $15 per month with an annual billing for more advanced features. With this plan, you can sign documents, access the US legal forms library, use custom branding on your documents, and more.
Finally, pdfFiller offers two business plans, starting with a minimum of 10 users.
pdfFiller’s pros and cons
Before replacing Adobe Acrobat with pdfFiller, these are the pros and cons I think you should know about.
pdfFiller’s pros
pdfFiller’s cons
🔎Read my full review: pdfFiller Review 2026: Here is what surprised me
Foxit
Foxit offers a similar feature set to Adobe Acrobat Pro, with more advanced PDF editing, and at a lower price. It works on Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, and Online as well.
Quick verdict
Advanced PDF editing
Casual or occasional users
Wide range of PDF editing features
Some features locked behind higher tiers
🏷️ Pricing starts at: Free plan+ paid from $129.99/year (~1.84x cheaper than Adobe Acrobat Pro)
Testing Foxit in everyday use
Foxit PDF Editor has features similar to Adobe Pro, but it is significantly cheaper. Another difference I noticed is how fast this PDF editor is. Even when I opened up large files, I did not have an issue with the loading time I experienced with Adobe Acrobat DC.
Nevertheless, some users mentioned in my reviews to me that they experienced performance issues, so the above was only my experience.
Foxit implemented a smooth drag-and-drop function when editing text or image formats. It makes it super convenient to edit or create PDFs quickly.
Who gets the most value from Foxit
When Foxit might not work for you
Main features
PDF reader: Foxit has a great PDF reader mode. You can change to night view if you want to protect your eyes and choose from many view options.
PDF editing tools: Of all the PDF editors, Foxit adopted the smoothest drag-and-drop function when editing PDF files. You can add images, text, or links and edit the existing ones. It is a powerful PDF editor that allows you to choose from many font types for the text, adjust the size, and change the margins of a content block and paragraph alignment and spacing.
Annotate PDFs: I enjoyed using Foxit’s annotation tools during testing. You can use many options when it comes to highlighting text, adding callouts, or notes. It is great that when you add one of these elements, you can customize them further using the window on the right.
Organize PDFs: Foxit is 5/5 in PDF management. You can reorder, delete, insert pages, swap, flatten, crop, extract, and split them in seconds.
PDF forms and signatures: It has easy-to-use tools to create or fill forms within a PDF document and electronically sign documents.
Convert PDFs: With Foxit, you can convert PDFs into many file formats, such as Microsoft Office formats or image files.
Optical character recognition: Foxit has super OCR tools, so you can easily make scanned files searchable and editable.
Password protection: We all know that PDFs can include sensitive data. Fortunately, with a few clicks, you can add passwords to your PDFs and restrict access.
AI tools: Foxit implemented AI technology as well. Using these tools, you can ask questions about the PDFs or ask the AI assistant to summarize the document.
Pricing
Using Foxit’s free version, you can view and read your PDFs and utilize its PDF reader tools. Besides the free version, Foxit offers two plans.
The PDF editor includes the essential features to edit PDF files for $129.99. By choosing this plan, you can create documents, edit them, fill out forms, add security, and more.
Essentially, you can have many advanced features with this plan; the real limitations of this plan are the limited AI credits and signing tools.
Nevertheless, if you need the eSign, smart redact features, and want to use Foxit on your mobile, you must go with the PDF Editor+. You can get this plan for $172.79 per year and access all the advanced features of Foxit.
Lastly, if you want to add AI Assistant, which includes 2000 credits per month, that is an extra $49.99/year.
Pros and cons of Foxit PDF Editor
Here’s a quick breakdown of what this Adobe Acrobat alternative does really well and where it could improve.
Foxit’s pros
Foxit’s cons
🔎Read my full review: My Honest Foxit Review After Trying +30 PDF Editors (2026)
Related readings:
- The 8 Best PDF Editors In 2026 | 30+ Personally Tested PDF Tools
- Adobe Acrobat Vs Foxit: I Tried Both and Found The BEST (2026)
- I Tested +30 PDF editors for Windows | Here Are The 8 Best
Summary: Best Adobe Acrobat Alternatives in 2026
While I think Adobe Acrobat DC and Pro are still reliable options, they are too expensive, considering what other PDF editors can offer. One thing is sure: no matter which Adobe Acrobat alternatives you try from this list, they will be among the best PDF editors in 2026.
Related articles:
- The 6 Best PDF Readers For 2026 (Only FREE Options)
- 5 Best Foxit Alternatives 2026 (#1 Will Surprise You)
- Adobe Acrobat Pricing In 2026 | Why I Regret Buying It
- 6 Best PDF Converter For 2026 | 30+ Personally Tested Tools
I hope I was able to find the best alternatives to Adobe Acrobat DC and Pro in 2026. As always, I will keep updating this list to ensure it reflects reality.
Looking for similar tools?
Visit our library of PDF editors to explore other apps we’ve reviewed in this space and how they compare.
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Frequently asked questions
Is there an alternative to Adobe Acrobat that is free?
The best alternative to Adobe Acrobat DC and Pro version that you can get for free is PDFgear. It has all the editing and annotation tools you need to manage your PDFs effectively.
Can you edit PDF files without Adobe Acrobat?
There are many other alternatives on the market for PDF editing needs. I recommend trying PDFelement, Foxit PDF Editor, SmallPDF, Nitro PDF Pro, and UPDF, as they have more advanced PDF editing features than Adobe Acrobat DC and Pro.
Who is the biggest competitor of Adobe?
The biggest competitors currently are Foxit and Nitro PDF Pro. Nevertheless, there are always new competitors, such as PDFgear.
Disclosure: I only recommend products I would use myself and all opinions expressed here are our own. This post may contain affiliate links that at no additional cost to you, I may earn a small commission. Read the full privacy policy here.
Hey there! I am Aron, the founder of Thebusinessdive. I have been testing productivity apps for almost three years now. I reach 25.000 -50.000 people monthly with the mission to help you find the perfect productivity apps. Subscribe to my YouTube channel, newsletter, and social media to hear more about the best productivity tools. Let’s dive in!