Are you looking for the best Adobe Acrobat alternatives in 2021? This article will have you sorted. When it comes to PDFs, Adobe Acrobat is the first stop for many.
This software has been around for years and developed the PDF format, and its applications have become the standard that other software solutions orient themselves around. However, there is at least one Adobe Acrobat alternative out there, and you might be surprised to discover how effective these applications are for home use or small businesses.
Adobe Acrobat DC Alternatives
Adobe Acrobat DC is described as ‘Adobe Acrobat is a family of application software and Web services developed by Adobe Systems to view, create, manipulate, print and manage files in Portable Document Format (PDF)’ and is a very popular PDF Editor in the Office & Productivity category.
Adobe Acrobat is a product family for PDF solutions. For a long time, anyone who wanted to use the tools to their full extent had to buy the rather expensive complete version of the product. In the meantime, a subscription system was introduced that lowered the price. For large business customers, this is a practical solution since updates and support are included.
Other important factors to consider when researching alternatives to Adobe Acrobat DC include the user interface. We have compiled a list of solutions that reviewers voted as the best overall alternatives and competitors to Adobe Acrobat DC, including Microsoft Word, Foxit PDF Editor, PDFelement, and Nitro PDF Productivity.
For private users who only want to read PDFs or create them from other formats, a free PDF reader is often sufficient. Office programs are now equipped with plugins that convert documents to PDF by default. Readers also usually have commenting functions included. If you want the full range of functions, go for standard or professional versions.
Foxit PDF
Like Adobe, Foxit has been offering PDF tools for decades, and users can take confidence from the many high-profile endorsements proudly listed on the Foxit site, with the likes of Amazon, Google, Dell, and Intel among them.
The company’s top product is PhantomPDF, which not only edits PDFs but offers dozens of useful features besides.
Features
- This includes watermarking, adding headers and footers,
- tailoring password permissions, creating templates, and converting other documents to PDFs.
- One neat feature is being able to drag files of other formats—such as Excel spreadsheets or PowerPoint slideshows—over the PhantomPDF icon to immediately convert them into PDFs.
- Users can enjoy a free trial by simply downloading PhantomPDF from the Foxit website. I
- ts Standard 10 version is tailored to Windows devices, with its Mac 4 version designed for Apple. Both are available for a one-off payment of $166.47, an annual payment of $118.56, or a monthly subscription of $17.95.
Wondershare
Wondershare is a software tool that makes creating, editing, converting, and signing PDF files easy. It runs on both Windows and Mac operating systems. There are three plans: 1) Individual 2) Team and 3) Education.
Features:
- You can control your PDF file with no hassle.
- This software provides a simple way to distribute forms and combine them for analysis.
- Protect your file from unintended access.
- Collaborate your team efficiently using a comment feature.
- Express yourself verbally and visually word processor so that you can easily edit PDFs.
Nitro Pro
Nitro Pro is a replacement for Adobe PDF Editor. This software allows the business team to work in a better way with various documents and each other. This software comes with an OCR engine for scanning paper documents. It makes working with digital documents stress-free.
Features:
- Helps you to convert PDF to Excel and PowerPoint faster.
- Quickly share documents securely via the cloud.
- Access and share file quicker with your colleagues.
- It is an excellent alternative to printed documents.
- Multitasking feature allows you to modify PDF files easily
- Provides a simple way to verify digital signatures.
Foxit PhantomPDF is a PDF creator, editor, and reader that’s got all of the tools, but none of the bloat. Like Foxit’s other PDF apps, Foxit PhantomPDF is a lovely program to use. It’s light on resources and quick to install. Once it’s up and running, there’s a tutorial and a welcome wizard, as well as lots of help and online resources. Thanks to this ease of use and excellent planning, using Foxit PhantomPDF is a really pleasant experience.
Features:
- Easy to create and edit fillable forms and documents
- It allows adding headers, footers, and exporting PDF documents
- Easy to collaborate with the team
- It helps you to protect your content in a better way
- It offers ECMs and cloud storage facilities to share your documents
Sejda PDF Editor
Sejda is a web tool suite comprising tools to convert, merge or split, and compress PDF documents from other formats. As an alternative to Adobe Acrobat, the suite is suitable if you want to do simple tasks like these. The program, which you can also download as a free desktop version, offers limited editing tools, as well as password protection and access management.
If you use the program only rarely for individual tasks, it remains free of charge. If you exceed the daily limit (up to three tasks per hour), you get referred to the subscription or purchase licenses. The developers have transferred the exact design of the web application to the desktop program. The only difference: Sejda PDF Desktop processes all tasks locally on your PC whereas Sejda Cloud stores documents on the Sejda servers and deletes them automatically after two hours.
The range of functions is quite adequate for a free tool. The user interface is well organized. At the top of the screen, you can see the main page, where all functions are sorted by topic. Clicking on one of the buttons takes you to the respective task area. For example, if you select the PDF editor, you will be prompted to load a PDF file. For editing, you can then use limited functions such as markups (highlight and strikethrough), redaction (without deleting metadata), signatures, or inserting text. However, the abundance of tools on the homepage is no longer there.