Adobe Acrobat Pricing In 2025 | Why I Regret Buying It

I know, guys, Adobe Acrobat’s pricing seems too expensive, yet you feel like there is no other alternative. Or this is how I felt at least a couple of years back. Honestly, it was one of the dumbest ways I lost my money.

However, after I jumped into the software review space, I realized that it was simply not true. There are some PDF editors on the market that are better and cheaper than Adobe Acrobat.

And I spent some months discovering these alternatives and helping you save time and money. So, after I guide you through Adobe Acrobat’s pricing plans, I will also reveal some top alternatives that you can try instead of Adobe.

Let’s dive in!

Adobe Acrobat Pricing Plans: A Quick Look

What is Adobe Acrobat?

I think we all know or have used Adobe Acrobat in our lives. It is a PDF editor developed by Adobe Systems. Adobe Acrobat allows you to create, view, manipulate, print, and manage PDF files.

It has features for editing PDFs, using annotations, creating and filling out forms, and converting PDF files into other formats. Adobe Acrobat has different versions, including Acrobat Reader (free for viewing PDFs), Acrobat Standard (some essential features included), and Acrobat Pro (it has advanced PDF editing tools).

Let’s jump into Adobe Acrobat pricing!

Adobe Acrobat pricing structure

Adobe Acrobat offers individual and team subscriptions as well. Moreover, you can try Adobe Acrobat Pro’s plan with a seven-day free trial.

Here, I will break down each pricing plan so you can get a better understanding of Adobe Acrobat’s pricing.

Adobe Acrobat Reader (Free plan)

The free version of Acrobat is also available on desktop and mobile apps. With the Adobe Acrobat Reader, you can read and overview PDF documents for free.

Furthermore, you can store and access files in Adobe online with 5GB of free storage, use the Fill & Sign tools to sign documents and fill forms, and easily share large files with others.

Nevertheless, Adobe Acrobat Reader does not offer PDF editing solutions, so it is only recommended for those who only read PDFs.

Adobe Acrobat Standard for Individuals

With Adobe Acrobat Standard, you can edit text and images and organize pages in your PDF document. Also, it allows you to convert documents and export them to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint formats.

In addition, it offers an e-signature solution and you can protect your PDF documents with passwords. What is more important is that Adobe Acrobat Standard has some annotation features as well, such as highlighting or commenting tools.

Essentially, the Adobe Acrobat Standard includes some essential editing, collaboration, and e-signature tools. Nevertheless, you can not access advanced tools to edit your PDF files.

If choosing the annual, billed monthly plan, it will cost $12.99 monthly. So, you have to pay a one-time fee of $155.88 every year to use its features.

In the case of monthly billing, the Adobe Acrobat Standard is $22.99 per month. So, the annual cost should be $275.88 per user.

You can cancel after 14 days with a full refund if it does not fit you.

Adobe Acrobat Pro for Individuals

To access all the advanced tools to edit, create, and sign documents, you need to buy the Adobe Acrobat Pro plan. With this plan, you access the OCR tools to turn scanned documents into editable PDF documents.

Furthermore, it allows you to compare two versions of PDF files so you can review the differences more easily. When it comes to PDF editing, you can add audio, video, and interactive objects to PDFs and bates numbering.

The Adobe Acrobat Pro is $19.99 monthly in case of the annual, billed monthly plan. If we consider a year, the annual cost is $239.88 per user.

Nevertheless, if you want to choose the monthly billing, it is $29.99, so the annual cost of this subscription is $359.88.

Similarly to the Adobe Acrobat Standard, you can cancel after 14 days with a full refund if the Pro version is not suitable for you.

Adobe Acrobat Standard for Teams

The annual business license is $14.99/year per license for teams if choosing this Adobe Acrobat subscription with monthly billing. It means that the annual cost of this Adobe Acrobat subscription is $179.88 per license.

With the Adobe Acrobat Standard plan, you will access the same features like in the one that is offered for individuals. You can cancel within 14 days for a full refund.

Adobe Acrobat Pro for Teams

The annual subscription of Adobe Acrobat Pro is $23.99 monthly per license. Therefore, the total cost of the annual subscription is $287.88 per license.

This subscription covers the same features as the same version offered to individuals.

Adobe Acrobat Pro for Teams 5 Pack

If you have a team of more than 5 people, this Adobe Acrobat subscription could be ideal. It has the same features as the Adobe Acrobat Pro, but you can get it for $22.19 monthly per license. This way, the annual cost is $266.29 yearly per license.

Acrobat AI assistant

You can get an AI assistant for Acrobat for an extra $59.88 per user. They offer the same price for individuals and businesses as well.

Adobe Acrobat Discounts

Adobe Acrobat offers a discount for students and teachers for the first year.

Eligible students (13 and older) and teachers can purchase an annual membership to Adobe Creative Cloud for a discounted price of $19.99 per month for the first year. After the first year, the subscription will be automatically billed at the standard subscription rate.

The Adobe Creative Cloud includes Acrobat Pro, plus 20+ apps, including Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere Pro, and InDesign.

My Thoughts on Adobe Acrobat Pricing after testing +30 PDF editors

After spending +200 hours testing and reviewing PDF editors, I can safely say that Adobe Acrobat is a very expensive option. While you might think expensive means premium features as well, that is not the case. I will tell you more about it in my experiences section.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnxIyMkKnMo&ab_channel=Thebusinessdive

Compared to other PDF editors with similar and even more advanced tools, Adobe Acrobat is 2 to 3 times pricier. And this price is simply not justified for me based on the features and experience it offers for users.

Given that the Adobe Acrobat Standard has a limited feature set, you probably need to purchase the Pro version for $239.88 at least. For individuals, it is an extremely high price for a PDF editor. Nevertheless, it’s even more expensive for businesses, as they need to pay at least $287.88 per license annually.

My Experience with Adobe Acrobat

During my Adobe Acrobat review, I had mixed experiences with it. I used Adobe Acrobat Pro and tried all the features.

I experienced that the Pro version has massive PDF editing features that are ideal for most of your PDF needs. I especially loved that it has easy-to-use PDF signing and form-filling features.

However, Adobe Acrobat was quite slow for me, particularly if I opened a large PDF file. At first, I believed it was just me, but after reading several reviews, many users experienced the same.

Overall, Adobe Acrobat’s pricing made this PDF editor a no-go for me. It is overpriced compared to other PDF editors.

This should not be a huge problem if it had a decent free version. Nonetheless, Adobe Acrobat Reader has limited features, and it is only ideal for reading PDFs.

You can read the full review here: Adobe Acrobat Review: What Nobody Tells You (2025)

Adobe Acrobat’s Alternatives: My TOP Picks

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. Here, you can find my top picks:

Best Easy-To-Use Adobe Acrobat Alternative

Wondershare PDFelement is a full-featured PDF editor with an intuitive interface. You can edit documents easily, use PDF annotation, and supercharge your productivity with its AI tools. PDFelement has a desktop app and also works on mobile devices.

If you are looking for a more intuitive Adobe Acrobat Pro alternative, PDFelement might be the best PDF editor for you.

PDFelement’s pricing

PDFelement pricing for individuals looks like this:

You can get the yearly plan for $79.99 per user for a single platform. A cross-platform individual plan is $89.99 per user yearly, and you can use PDFelement on various platforms.

The yearly plan, regardless of whether you buy it for a single or cross-platform, includes no watermark, 1-year access to all features, 1-year of PDFelement updates, and Free 20GB PDFelement Cloud storage. These plans also cover free customer support.

In addition to the yearly plan, you can purchase a 2-year plan for $109.99 for a single platform and for $119.99 for cross-platform. With the 2-year plan, you can get the latest version of PDFelement for 2 years, 2-year access to all features, and 100GB PDFelement Cloud storage.

You can also buy the perpetual license, which costs a one-time fee of $129.99. With the perpetual license, you get access to all features, as well as 20GB of PDFelement Cloud storage. However, if there are updates in the future for the next versions, you need to pay to get all the new features.

For businesses, PDFelement offers the following plans:

The annual plan for one user is $109.9, while the lifetime license is $139. If you want to purchase PDFelement for more than 10 users, I recommend reaching out to them, as they may give you volume discounts.

Based on a common practice in the PDF editor space, if you want to use the AI tools without limits, you need to buy it for $3.99 / month. There are also discounts for students.

Full review here: My Honest Wondershare PDFelement Review (2025)

Best Adobe Acrobat Alternative For Individuals

UPDF is a versatile PDF editor that allows you to view, edit, sign, protect, translate, and manage your PDFs. One of the huge pluses of UPDF is that it allows you to use it on multiple devices with one license. You can use it on a desktop, but it also has mobile support.

After reviewing many PDF editors, I realized that UPDF currently has the most powerful AI features, such as generating mindmaps. With its affordable pricing, extensive AI tools, and solid PDF editing features, UPDF is the best alternative to Adobe Acrobat for individuals.

UPDF’s Pricing

UPDF has three plans. The pricing structure changes whether you are an individual, student, or enterprise client.

The free version includes limited AI assistant features (i.e., Analyze three files, ask 30 questions) and two file conversions per day. While you can use many editing features, UPDF will add watermarks to your document.

The UPDF Pro license is $39.99 yearly, you can access all the editing features without watermarks. If you are not interested in AI features, a lifetime license is an ideal option, and it is $69.99.

If you want to use the AI tools, opt for the UPDF with AI plan. Using this UPDF license, you can utilize all the editing and AI features without limits.

Full review here: UPDF Review: Is It The Best PDF Editor In 2025? (REAL Experience)

Best Budget-Friendly Adobe Acrobat Alternative

EaseUS PDF is an affordable PDF editor software for Windows. It has all the editing capabilities you might need to manage PDF documents effectively. Whether you are a Windows or Mac user, EaseUS PDF editor can be an ideal alternative to Adobe Acrobat for saving money.

EaseUS’s pricing

EaseUS’s monthly plan is €19.47, while the yearly plan is €46.95. 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. Compared to Adobe Acrobat’s pricing, EaseUS is a five times cheaper alternative.

A Good Overall Adobe Acrobat Alternative

Foxit is a PDF editing software that offers many features, such as text editing, image manipulation, page organization, and outstanding annotation tools. Foxit is currently one of the best alternatives to Adobe Acrobat. It is cheaper and faster than Adobe Acrobat, yet offers the same or more value.

Foxit’s 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.

Full review here: My Honest Foxit Review After Trying +30 PDF Editors (2025)

Best Adobe Acrobat Alternative For Mac

PDF Expert is a lightweight PDF editor for Mac and iOS devices. Compared to Adobe Acrobat Pro, it is way faster, has better reading options, and is a more straightforward PDF app.

PDF Expert’s pricing

PDF Expert offers two paid plans.

You can get a lifetime subscription for a one-time fee of €149.99. 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 €63.74 for the first year and €84.99 for the remaining years. It 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.

Related articles:

• The 7 Best Adobe Acrobat Alternatives: 30+ PDF Editors Tested
• 8 Best PDF Editors For Windows in 2025 | +2 Years Testing
• Adobe Acrobat Vs PDFelement: Which One Is Better In 2025?
• Adobe Acrobat Vs Foxit: I Tried Both and Found The BEST (2025)

Summary: Adobe Acrobat’s Pricing

Adobe Acrobat is a good PDF editor? Yes. Is Adobe Acrobat worth it? No.

The way I see it, Adobe Acrobat is a decent PDF editor that offers valuable features for editing text and images and working with PDF documents. However, the pricing for Adobe Acrobat is extremely high for individuals and businesses as well.

After my Adobe Acrobat review, I was not convinced that such a high price was worth for this PDF editor. So, if you are interested in purchasing Acrobat, my recommendation is to check other alternatives, as there are better and cheaper alternatives on the market.

As always, I will update the Adobe Acrobat pricing article over time so you guys have up-to-date information about this PDF editor.

Frequently asked questions

Can you buy Adobe Acrobat permanently?

There is no perpetual version of Acrobat, so you need to purchase the subscriptions every year. There is only one way to avoid subscription payments.

Adobe offers a 3-year term license called Adobe Acrobat Pro 2024 that you can not renew, and you have to pay upfront. It has all the features of Acrobat Pro 2020, plus some additional updates. Nevertheless, this version does not cover the Adobe Document Cloud services.

Why is Acrobat so expensive?

Essentially, Adobe Acrobat is the default PDF editor, which they factor into their pricing structure. It was also one of the first PDF editors, and its target market is businesses.

Is Adobe Acrobat still free?

Adobe Acrobat offers a free version for reading and signing documents. Nevertheless, it has limited PDF editing tools. If you need a solution with advanced tools to edit, convert, and annotate PDF documents, you need to buy its paid version or check its alternatives.

Is it worth paying for Adobe Acrobat?

Personally, I think Adobe Acrobat is not worth it. After my Adobe Acrobat review, I discovered that there are better and cheaper alternatives, and its pricing structure is not justified.

Is Adobe Document Cloud secure?

After doing research and checking the available reports, I found that Adobe Document Cloud is completely secure.

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, may earn a small commission. Read the full privacy policy here.