Last Updated on July 29, 2020 by Rick Darlinton
It doesn’t matter if you are a student or a working professional, chances are that you might be working with PDF files. Though, there are times when we wish to edit PDF documents or convert them to other formats. Since the basic feature of Adobe Acrobat does not support these features and the premium version is expensive, users often look for alternatives to Adobe Acrobat. In this post, I will list the ten best adobe acrobat pro alternative tools that you can consider trying in 2020.
PDFelement
PDFelement is a complete PDF manager that you can access on Windows and Mac systems. It provides tons of features related to PDF tools in one place.
Price: Starts from $6.99 a month
Runs on: Windows and Mac
- You can create PDF forms and dynamic documents from scratch or import files of other formats.
- It has inbuilt tools to edit your PDF files and add media components to your documents as well.
- You can annotate your PDF files, convert them to other formats, or protect your PDF files with e-signatures.
- There is an inbuilt OCR reader so that can read your PDF files and extract their texts easily.
Cons
- The features for Windows and Mac are a bit different
Sejda PDF Editor
If you are looking for an online adobe acrobat pro alternative, then you can also try Sejda PDF editor. You can access its web-based application on any device without downloading it.
Price: $7.50 per month
Runs on: Web
- The online interface lets us upload a PDF file and edit its pages using its inbuilt tool.
- You can also convert your PDF file to other formats like Word, PowerPoint, Excel, etc.
- There is also a provision to optimize the size of your PDF files or delete any unwanted part.
- Furthermore, it can be used to fill PDF forms, split a document, and merge multiple pages.
Cons
- A free version can only perform up to 3 tasks per hour
Foxit PhantomPDF
This is a popular alternative to adobe acrobat dc that you can try on your desktop. You can work on your dedicated PDF documents or use its batch processing tools.
Price: $89 one-time payment
Runs on: Windows and Mac
- You can open PDF files directly or convert files from other formats to PDF.
- There is an inbuilt OCR reader to extract textual content from an image-based PDF file.
- You can find options to edit the PDF documents and include texts, graphs, tables, etc.
- There are also additional features to collaborate with your team via its cloud-based integration.
Cons
- Limited customer support
- Expensive
PDFescape
This is a popular free alternative to adobe acrobat and it also has a premium ad-free version as well. You can go to its website to use its online tool or get its Windows application.
Price: Free or $5.99 per month
Runs on: Web and Windows
- It is a lightweight application to edit all the basic elements of a PDF file and convert it to other formats.
- You can also include your digital signatures and protect your documents with AES encryption.
- Some other features include annotation, redaction, merging, compression, and adding watermarks.
Cons
- The free version has limited features
- Not available for Mac
Nitro Pro 12
The latest version of Nitro Pro is now out and it is already used by professionals the world over. Since there are so many features in the tool, it is considered as one of best adobe acrobat alternative applications.
Price: $128 per user
Runs on: Windows
You can scan a PDF document using its OCR feature or convert files from other formats too.
- There are dedicated features to annotate and protect the documents by including our digital signatures.
- Several PDF editing, conversion, and merging processes can be done in a batch to save time.
Cons
- Not available for Mac
PDF Expert
Price: $79.99
Runs on: Mac and iOS
While there are several alternatives to Adobe Acrobat for Windows, Mac users often find it hard to edit PDF files. Now, with the help of PDF Expert, you can manage your PDF files on Mac and iPhone.
- There is a lightweight application for iPhone and a dedicated application for Mac that you can try.
- It will let you edit almost every element of a PDF file and you can further convert it to text and other supported formats.
- You can also annotate PDF documents, optimize them, merge multiple files into one, or split a document into different files.
Cons
- Not available for Windows as of now
PDF-XChange Editor
This is another powerful PDF editor that you can try on your desktop instead of Adobe Acrobat. It is majorly known for its extensive editing and conversion tools.
Price: Starts from $43.50
Runs on: Windows
- The lightweight tool has a free trial that offers basic features regarding PDF editing and conversion.
- The premium tool will let you create PDF forms, include interactive elements, and annotate your documents.
- You can create your digital signatures or import e-signatures from any other source to protect your documents.
Cons
- The free version will leave a watermark
- A bit complicated for beginners
Master PDF Editor
This is an all-in-one PDF editor that you can use on almost any platform, like Windows, Mac, or Linux. You can use it to convert PDF documents to and from different formats as well.
Price: $69.95
Runs on: Windows, Mac, and Linux
- The application will let you create PDF forms and you can also use its OCR function to read a file.
- You can also protect your files with its 128-bit AES encryption and further include your digital signatures.
- Additionally, you can redact PDF documents, annotate them, and even manage your bookmarks in PDF files.
Cons
- No cloud-based integration to collaborate with others
Nuance Power PDF
Nuance Power PDF has recently been rebranded as Kofax PDF and added tons of new-age features. There are dedicated tools for individuals and businesses alike that you can try.
Price: $129
Runs on: Windows and Mac
- You can create new PDF documents and convert Word, PowerPoint, image, or Excel files to PDF as well.
- Combine multiple files into one or split them easily, protect PDF files with e-signatures, stamp unique watermarks, and do so much more.
- The premium version lets us load our PDF documents in the cloud and work with our team.
Cons
- Expensive
- Only free trial version (with watermark)
Soda PDF
If you are a beginner, then you can try Soda PDF. It is considered one of the best alternative to adobe acrobat dc that can be accessed on the web or desktop.
Price: Starts from $48 annually
Runs on: Windows
- It is a complete PDF reader, creator, editor, and converter tool, offering a wide range of features.
- There are also features to optimize, merge, split, and compress your PDF documents.
- You can further annotate your PDF files and protect them with their digital encryption tools.
Cons
- Not available for Mac
- Only third-party cloud integration
There you go! After reading this guide, you would be able to pick the best Adobe Acrobat alternatives to work on PDF documents. As you can see, I have listed web, Windows, and Mac based alternatives for Adobe Acrobat DC. Since most of these tools offer a free trial version, you can test them on your own or let us know about any other PDF tool that we have missed in this post.
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