Best PDF Editor Software

pdfFiller vs. Adobe Acrobat Pro DC

Are you deciding between pdfFiller and Adobe Acrobat Pro DC? This in-depth, feature-by-feature breakdown will help you select the best PDF editor tool to help you create, edit, convert, and manage your PDFs

Individuals, SMBs, and enterprises use PDF editors to create, edit, and convert PDFs. In a market filled with many different types of PDF editors, it can be difficult to choose the best one for you or your business.

We’ve written this guide to help you understand the main differences between pdfFiller vs. Adobe Acrobat Pro DC. Below, we describe how each solution differs in terms of features, pricing, usability, and the customer type each is best suited for.

All of our recommendations are based upon extensive research, and dozens of hours spent hand-testing the leading PDF editor software platforms. The details of our research process can be found on our PDF editor category page.

Comparison Summary

pdfFiller and Adobe Acrobat Pro DC are two well-known PDF editor solutions. We rated pdfFiller 89 out of 100, and Adobe Acrobat Pro DC 91 out of 100, respectively.

Adobe Acrobat Pro DC was rated higher than pdfFiller because its platform is more robust in features and its features are more advanced. pdfFiller was rated lower because it is less feature-rich.


This breakdown shows our review criteria and the ratings that pdfFiller and Adobe Acrobat Pro DC received for each category.

CriteriaAnalyst RatingFeaturesUsabilityPricingCustomer Support
pdfFiller8998.7598.75
Adobe Acrobat Pro DC91108.58.58.5

Compared to Adobe Acrobat Pro DC, pdfFiller is technically more affordable than Adobe Acrobat Pro DC. However, pdfFiller’s most basic plan costs $20 per user per month, whereas Adobe Acrobat Pro DC’s most expensive plan costs $24.99.

pdfFiller and Adobe Acrobat Pro DC offer standard and advanced PDF editor features. This includes tools for PDF creation and conversion, content editing, and PDF review and annotation. Overall, Adobe Acrobat Pro DC offers higher-quality features in all of these categories, but is less feature-rich than pdfFiller when it comes to review and annotation tools.

Overall, pdfFiller is better for those with a larger budget, who need an advanced platform with a wide range of review and annotation tools. We also recommend it to those who use signNow.

Overall, Adobe Acrobat Pro DC is better for larger businesses who have a large budget. Its platform is more feature-rich and its features are of higher quality. We also recommend Adobe Acrobat Pro DC to those who use other Adobe products.

Here’s a few key differences between the solutions to determine which is best for you:

You'll prefer pdfFiller if:

  • You use signNow
  • You want to create PDF templates
  • You want freehand drawing and callout boxes as review and annotation tools

Try pdfFiller Today

You'll prefer Adobe Acrobat Pro DC if:

  • You prefer an advanced, all-in-one solution
  • You want a robust mobile PDF editor
  • You want to include personalized headers and footers

Try Adobe Acrobat Pro DC Today


Table of Contents

pdfFiller & Adobe Acrobat Pro DC Price Comparison

Overall, pdfFiller is more affordable than Adobe Acrobat Pro DC. pdfFiller cheapest plan costs $20 per user per month. In contrast, Adobe Acrobat Pro DC’s cheapest plan costs $24.99 per user per month.

pdfFiller Pricing Details

pdfFiller’s pricing ranges from $20 to $50 per month. You can also save 67% if you purchase an annual plan. pdfFiller also offers a 30-day free trial for each paid plan.

PlanPricing
Basic (1 user)$20 per month
Premium (Up to 5 users)$40 per month ($8 per user)
airSlate Business Cloud (Minimum 5 users)$50 per user per month

Adobe Acrobat Pro DC Pricing Details

Adobe Acrobat Pro DC’s pricing ranges from $14.99 to $24.99 per month depending on if you purchase an individual or a business plan. You can save up to ~43% if you purchase an individual Acrobat Pro DC or Acrobat Standard DC plan. Adobe Acrobat Pro DC also offers a 7-day free trial of each of its Acrobat Pro DC.

PlanPricing
Individuals
  • Acrobat Standard DC: $22.99 per month
  • Acrobat Pro DC: $24.99 per month
Business
  • Acrobat Standard DC for teams: $14.99 per license per month
  • Acrobat Pro DC for teams: $16.99 per license per month

pdfFiller & Adobe Acrobat Pro DC Feature Comparison

pdfFiller and Adobe Acrobat Pro DC offer standard and advanced PDF editor features. This includes creating and converting, content editing, and reviewing and annotating PDFs.

As shown below, pdfFiller offers more review and annotation tools and Adobe Acrobat Pro DC offers more PDF creation and conversion tools and security features.

For a full analysis of each solution’s features, read our pdfFiller review and Adobe Acrobat Pro DC review.

As you can see below, pdfFiller is much more feature-rich.

FeaturepdfFillerAdobe Acrobat Pro DC
Callout boxesYesNo
Freehand drawing toolsYesNo
PDF template libraryYesNo
Creating PDFs from scratchNoYes
Scanning documents into PDFsNoYes
StampsNoYes
Merging PDFsYesYes
Splitting PDFsYesYes
Converting PDFs into Word documents, PowerPoints, and Excel spreadsheetsYesYes
Editing & Resizing textYesYes
Editing & Resizing imagesYesYes
Adding e-signaturesYesYes
Requesting e-signaturesYesYes
Tracking e-signaturesYesYes
CommentingYesYes
HighlightingYesYes
WatermarksYesYes
Password protectionYesYes
Redacting sensitive informationYesYes
Mobile PDF editorYesYes
IntegrationsYesYes

pdfFiller & Adobe Acrobat Pro DC Top Feature Comparison

Below we analyze in-depth the three main PDF editor feature categories included in pdfFiller and Adobe Acrobat Pro DC – creating and converting, content editing, and reviewing and annotating PDFs. Overall, Adobe Acrobat Pro DC is more robust in all of these categories, but less feature-rich in review and annotation tools.

Creating & Converting PDFs

It’s crucial that you can create and convert your PDFs within one platform. This is especially true if you manage a larger number of PDFs at the same time. Overall, Adobe Acrobat offers a wider range of PDF creation tools than pdfFiller.

adobeacrobat-create-export

Adobe Acrobat Pro DC and pdfFiller both let you merge PDF files, split PDFs into separate files, and convert PDF files into Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, and PowerPoints. However, Adobe Acrobat Pro DC also lets you create new PDF documents by scratch and scan documents to create PDFs.

pdffiller-create-convert

Content Editing PDFs

Content editing a PDF involves editing its text, images, including headers and footers, and including e-signatures. Overall, Adobe Acrobat Pro DC is more robust for all of these features.

Text Editing

It’s important that your PDF editor platform accommodates your text editing needs. Overall, Adobe Acrobat Pro DC’s text editing features are more advanced than pdfFiller’s text editing features.

adobeacrobat-text

Both pdfFiller and Adobe Acrobat Pro DC let you adjust the font, color, and size on your text. However, unlike pdfFiller, Adobe Acrobat Pro DC lets you rotate your text boxes, create bulleted or numbered lists, and use numbers to adjust your font.

A major advantage of Adobe Acrobat Pro DC is that you can also adjust a text box’s line and paragraph spacing. These allow you to further customize your text to match the aesthetic of your PDF.

pdffiller-templates

An advantage of pdfFiller though is that you can use its platform to create templates of your most used PDFs. This capability saves you time and provides consistency in your PDFs.

Image Editing

You can use images to enhance the readability of your PDF documents. They offer visual breaks and help support specific sections of text. Overall, Adobe Acrobat Pro DC’s image editing features are more robust than pdfFiller’s.

Images enhance the readability of your PDF by offering visual breaks and supporting certain sections of text. Overall, Adobe Acrobat Pro DC’s image editing features are is more feature-rich for image editing than Adobe Acrobat Pro DC.

Adobe Acrobat Pro DC image

Both platforms let you resize your images. However, Adobe Acrobat Pro DC also offers advanced image editing features including:

  • Replacing images
  • Rotating images
  • Arranging whether an image sits in front or in the back of another image or text
  • Aligning images based on their left or right side or top or bottom
pdfFiller images

Electronic Signatures

Some PDF editors let you insert, request, and track electronic signatures into your PDFs. Overall, both platforms are great for electronic signatures, but Adobe Acrobat Pro DC is slightly more robust.

Adobe Acrobat Pro DC electronic signature

Both pdfFiller and Adobe Acrobat Pro DC let you insert, request, and track e-signatures. However, Adobe Acrobat Pro DC lets you send reminders to those you’ve requested signatures from.

pdffiller electronic signature

Page Organization

Page organization can influence how those who read your PDF interpret your content. Overall, Adobe Acrobat Pro DC offers more robust page organization features.

Adobe Acrobat Pro DC page organization

Both Adobe Acrobat Pro DC and pdfFiller let you drag & drop your pages to reorder them, and insert, rotate, and duplicate pages. However, Adobe Acrobat Pro DC also lets you insert page numbers and replace pages without it disrupting the flow of your PDF.

pdfFiller page organization

Reviewing & Annotating PDFs

After you’ve finished editing the content of your PDF, you’ll likely need to review and annotate it. Overall, Adobe Acrobat Pro DC offers higher quality commenting and highlighting tools, but pdfFiller offers a wider variety of review and annotation tools.

Commenting

Commenting is an easy way you and those in your organization can collaborate on a PDF. Overall, Adobe Acrobat Pro DC’s commenting feature is more advanced than pdfFiller’s commenting feature.

adobeacrobat-comment

Both Adobe Acrobat Pro DC and pdfFiller let those in your organization reply to comments made on a PDF. However, Adobe Acrobat Pro DC’s commenting feature lets you @mention people. This helps ensure that certain people see the comments they need to see.

pdffiller-comment

Highlighting

You can use Adobe Acrobat Pro DC and pdfFiller to highlight certain text within your PDF to indicate important information. Overall, Adobe Acrobat Pro DC’s highlighting feature is more convenient to use.

adobeacrobat-auto-highlighting
adobeacrobat-freehand-highlighting

Adobe Acrobat Pro DC and pdfFiller both let you highlight text that you’ve inserted either using the platform or text that is already embedded in your uploaded PDF document.

However, Adobe Acrobat Pro DC lets you double click or freehand highlight the text in your PDF. pdfFiller only lets you highlight text by clicking and dragging a highlighted box over the desired text. This becomes tedious and the process wastes time, especially if you need to highlight sentences that continue onto a new line.

pdffiller-highlighting

Callout Boxes

Unlike Adobe Acrobat Pro DC, pdfFiller offers callout boxes as a review and annotation tool. Callout boxes help important pieces of information visually stand out, more so than highlighting. Overall, this feature is easy-to-use and the callout boxes are very noticeable visually.

pdfFiller callout boxes

Freehand Drawing Tools

Freehand drawing tools are helpful if you want to hand write notes and marketings on your PDF. pdfFiller is superior to Adobe Acrobat Pro DC for this feature because Adobe Acrobat Pro DC does not offer it. Overall, this feature is very useful in pdfFiller.

pdfFiller freehand drawing

pdfFiller’s freehand drawing tool is advantageous because after you’ve written your notes and markings you can resize them. This is useful because you can adjust your notes to fit the margins of the text in your PDF document.

Bottom Line

Overall, pdfFiller is best for those who need an advanced PDF editor platform and prioritize having a wide range of review and annotation tools. We also recommend it to those who use signNow and prefer their PDF editor to be a web application, rather than a download software application.

In contrast, Adobe Acrobat Pro DC is best for those who need an advanced, all-in-one platform with highly robust features. We recommend it to larger companies who have a large budget, and use other Adobe products, like Adobe Sign and Adobe Scan.

If you’re interested, visit pdfFiller or Adobe Acrobat Pro DC today to get started.

Amy Yang

Amy Yang is a Junior Research Analyst at SoftwarePundit, where she conducts in-depth analyses on software markets and products. Amy has expertise in content production and managing digital and social platforms. She has a Bachelor of Science in Communication & Media, and a Minor in Web Programming and Applications from NYU. You can connect with Amy on LinkedIn.

Amy is an expert in several software categories including:

  • Course creation software
  • Electronic signature software
  • Social media software
  • Website builder software

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