Adobe Acrobat Pro DC Competitors & Alternatives
The information in this article is based on our research, interviews with customers, as well as dozens of hours hand-testing PDF editor software. The details of our review process and research methodology can be found in the Why You Should Trust Us section on our PDF editor category page.
Adobe Acrobat Pro DC is our highest rated PDF editor platform. It is an advanced, all-in-one solution that is best suited for large businesses with larger budgets. Its features are robust, but do have a bit of a learning curve. We also recommend it for those who use other Adobe products like Adobe Sign and Adobe Scan.
There are four PDF editor solutions that are worth considering before you purchase Adobe Acrobat Pro DC. They primarily differentiate based on the features offered and ease of use. Understanding these differences will help you determine which platform will work best for your business.
- If you need a solution with a wide range of review and annotation tools, currently use signNow, and have a larger budget, then we recommend pdfFiller
- If you need a semi-robust platform that is priced reasonably for those who want to long-term invest, then we recommend PDFelement
- If you need a beginner platform and have a smaller budget, then we recommend Smallpdf
- If you prefer an intermediate solution with high-quality customer support tools, then we recommend PDF Expert
Here’s a breakdown of our review criteria. We rate each piece of software based on its features, usability, pricing, and customer support availability. Here is how Adobe Acrobat Pro DC and it’s competitors rank in each category.
| Software Company | Analyst Rating | Features | Usability | Pricing | Customer Support |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adobe Acrobat Pro DC | 91 | 9.5 | 9.5 | 8 | 9 |
| pdfFiller | 89 | 9 | 8.75 | 9 | 8.75 |
| PDFelement | 86 | 8 | 9 | 8.75 | 9.5 |
| Smallpdf | 84 | 7 | 9.5 | 9.5 | 8.5 |
| PDF Expert | 82 | 8 | 9 | 8.5 | 7 |
In this article, we’ll provide an overview of Adobe Acrobat Pro DC as a PDF editor platform. Afterwards, we’ll compare and contrast Adobe Acrobat Pro DC against its top competitors. If you’d like a full description of Adobe Acrobat Pro DC, check out our in-depth Adobe Acrobat Pro DC review.
Table of Contents
- Adobe Acrobat Pro DC's Top Features
- Adobe Acrobat Pro DC Competitor Overview: Features
- Adobe Acrobat Pro DC Competitor Overview: Pricing
- Top Adobe Acrobat Pro DC Competitors
- Bottom Line
Adobe Acrobat Pro DC Top Features
Adobe Acrobat Pro DC offers standard and advanced features that help individuals, SMBs, and enterprises create, edit, review, and overall manage their PDFs. This includes tools for PDF creation and conversion, content editing, and PDF review and annotation. Below we describe the 10 most important features in Adobe Acrobat Pro DC.
| Adobe Acrobat Pro DC Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| PDF Creation | Adobe Acrobat Pro DC offers a wide range of methods for creating a PDF. This includes creating a blank one from scratch, uploading Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, and text files, and merging, and scanning documents into PDFs. |
| PDF Conversion | Adobe Acrobat Pro DC lets you convert your PDFs into multiple document types. This includes Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, PowerPoints, Images, and HTML web pages. |
| Text Editing | Text is one of the most important components of your PDF, therefore it’s important that your PDF editor can accommodate your text needs. Adobe Acrobat Pro DC lets you change the font, color, size, and typographical emphasis of your text. You can also rotate your text box, create bulleted and numbered lists, and adjust your line and paragraph spacing. |
| Image Editing | Images enhance the readability of your PDF documents by providing visual breaks and supporting certain sections of text. Adobe Acrobat Pro DC lets you rotate, crop, and replace images within your PDF. You can also adjust the orientation, arrangement, and alignment of your images. |
| Electronic Signatures | Some PDF editors will let you insert, request, and track electronic signatures in your PDF document. Adobe Acrobat Pro DC lets you perform all of these actions, as well as insert signature, email, date, and check box fields, and send reminders to those who need to sign. |
| Page Organization | Page organization can affect how people interpret your PDF’s content. Adobe Acrobat Pro DC lets you drag & drop pages to reorder them, insert page numbers, split and extract PDF pages into separate files, and replace pages. |
| Commenting | Commenting is one of the easy ways you can collaborate on a PDF document. Adobe Acrobat Pro DC’s commenting feature lets you reply to other comments and @mention those in your organization. This helps ensure that those who need to see certain comments see them. |
| Highlighting | Highlighting is an easy way to indicate important information. Adobe Acrobat Pro DC offers a freehand and automatic highlighting tool. With auto-highlighting, all you have to do is double click your text to highlight it. With freehand highlighting, you can easily highlight text that’s already been embedded into your document. |
| Integrations | Adobe Acrobat Pro DC lets you integrate with third-party platforms to expand the functionality of your PDF editor. Adobe Acrobat Pro DC integrates with applications like Zapier, Dropbox, Google Drive, and Microsoft 365. |
| Mobile PDF Editor | A mobile PDF editor lets you create, edit, review, and manage your PDFs anywhere. With Adobe Acrobat Pro DC, you can edit, convert, compress, and combine PDFs. You can also set a password for your PDFs, and annotate them with comments and highlights. |
| Security Features | Proper security and data protection for your PDFs is critical for your PDF editor. Adobe Acrobat Pro DC offers a wide variety of security features — including stamps, watermarks, password protection, and sensitive information redaction. |
Adobe Acrobat Pro DC Competitor Overview: Features
The chart below shows you the main features found in PDF editor software, and ones offered by each solution. You’ll notice that many solutions offer the same features, therefore it’s important that when analyzing each option, you focus on the quality of each feature.
Adobe Acrobat Pro DC Competitor Overview: Pricing
Adobe Acrobat Pro DC is very robust and feature-rich. It is also one of the more expensive solutions available — it costs $24.99 per user per month. Overall, Adobe Acrobat Pro DC’s pricing is reasonable considering the quality of its platform.
| PDF editor Software | Plan Pricing | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adobe Acrobat Pro DC |
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| pdfFiller |
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| PDFelement |
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| Smallpdf |
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| PDF Expert |
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Top Adobe Acrobat Pro DC Competitors
Adobe Acrobat Pro DC is an advanced, all-in-one PDF editor solution. It’s best for large businesses with a larger budget. Overall, it is the most similar to pdfFiller in terms of platform cost and advancedness.
The top Adobe Acrobat Pro DC competitors are:
- pdfFiller
- PDFelement
- Smallpdf
- PDF Expert
1. pdfFiller
pdfFiller is an advanced PDF editor platform that offers a wide range of review and annotation tools. Compared to Adobe Acrobat, pdfFiller ranks slightly lower in terms of robustness and feature-richness, but is still a high-quality platform. We recommend it for larger businesses and those who also use signNow, an electronic signature platform.
- You use signNow
- You want to create PDF templates
- You want freehand drawing and callout boxes as review and annotation tools
- You prefer an advanced, all-in-one solution
- You want a robust mobile PDF editor
- You want to include personalized headers and footers
2. PDFelement
PDFelement is a well-rounded, intermediate PDF editor solution. Compared to Adobe Acrobat Pro DC, PDFelement is better suited for individuals and SMBs who need a PDF editor for personal use. PDFelement is also slightly more affordable and offers more review and annotation tools.
- You want a free PDF editor plan
- You want to create PDF templates
- You want freehand drawing and callout boxes as review and annotation tools
- You prefer an advanced, all-in-one solution
- You want a PDF editor that integrates with Microsoft 365, Google Drive, Dropbox or Zapier
- You want to insert e-signature fields into your document
3. Smallpdf
Smallpdf is a basic PDF editor solution that is best suited for beginners. Compared to Adobe Acrobat Pro DC, Smallpdf is much more affordable and more user-friendly. However, Adobe Acrobat Pro DC’s features are higher in terms of quality and the platform itself is much more robust.
- You are a beginner when it comes to PDF editor solutions
- You need a more affordable solution
- You want freehand drawing as a review and annotation tool
- You prefer an advanced, all-in-one solution
- You want a robust mobile PDF editor
- You want to include personalized headers and footers
4. PDF Expert
PDF Expert is an intermediate PDF editor solution. Compared to Adobe Acrobat Pro DC, PDF Expert is more affordable and better for personal use. It’s best for smaller businesses who prefer a more basic tool.
- You prefer a more affordable solution
- You are an individual or small business
- You want free-hand drawing as a review and annotation tool
- You prefer an advanced, all-in-one solution
- You want a solution that lets you request electronic signatures
- You need to convert your PDFs into Word, Excel, or PowerPoint files