The Best Free Adobe Acrobat DC AlternativesTop PDF Readers & PDF Editors like Adobe Acrobat DC

The best free alternative to Adobe Acrobat DC is PDF-XChange Editor. If that doesn't suit you, our users have ranked more than 100 alternatives to Adobe Acrobat DC and loads of them is free so hopefully you can find a suitable replacement. Other interesting free alternatives to Adobe Acrobat DC are PDF24 Creator, PDFgear, Master PDF Editor and Stirling-PDF.

filter to find the best alternatives

Adobe Acrobat DC alternatives are mainly PDF Editors, but if you're looking for PDF Readers or Document Managers you can filter on that. Other popular filters include Open Source, Free, Linux, Windows + Free, Windows, Windows + Open Source and Mac. You can also filter by region, for example EU-based alternatives if you prefer software developed in the European Union. These are just examples - use the filter bar below to find more specific alternatives to Adobe Acrobat DC.

More about Adobe Acrobat DC

Adobe Acrobat DC alternatives page was last updated Feb 13, 2026

PDF-XChange Editor
173 likes
Feature-rich PDF editor offering direct content editing, ABBYY OCR, viewing, annotation, form filling, PDF merging, compression, and encryption. Operates efficiently offline, requiring no registration and no ads, while providing privacy-focused features and convenient portability.
155 PDF-XChange Editor alternatives
Cost / License
Freemium
Proprietary
Application types
PDF Editor
PDF Reader
Origin
Canada
Platforms
Windows
PortableApps.com
Wine
+3
Is PDF-XChange Editor a good alternative to Adobe Acrobat DC?

|
15comments
PDF-XChange Editor vs Adobe Acrobat DC Comments

Top Positive Comment
munteanzeno
May 13, 2020
3
Can make small edits for free (comments, extra text). Search bar is simple and works well.
Top Negative Comment
Guest
Jul 9, 2024
0
A lot of things that you can't do. Didn't worked well enough for me at all.
Review by a new / low-activity user.
Alternative User
Positive commentOct 27, 2024
0
Adding signature and adding text is available for free.
Review by a new / low-activity user.
3 of 15 comments
PDF-XChange Editor is Freemium and ProprietaryAdobe Acrobat DC is Paid and Proprietary
PDF-XChange Editor is Customizable, Lightweight and Privacy focusedAdobe Acrobat DC is not according to our users
PDF24 Creator
149 likes
PDF24 Creator is free and feature-filled PDF creation, merging and conversion tool for Windows. Its unique feature among the free PDF printer tools is an editor, which allows to easily assemble, create and modify PDF files with Drag & Drop.
183 PDF24 Creator alternatives
Cost / License
Free
Proprietary
Application types
PDF Editor
PDF Reader
Origin
Germany
EU
Platforms
Windows
Is PDF24 Creator a good alternative to Adobe Acrobat DC?

|
3comments
PDF24 Creator vs Adobe Acrobat DC Comments

zlelmefs
Positive commentJul 1, 2025
0
It's actually free and has done everything I've needed it to do.
G Downs
Positive commentMar 23, 2025
0
PDF Creator is a great alternative to Adobe Acrobat DC. It has all the tools that the Adobe has but does it without trying to put a hole in your head! A great piece of work!
Guest
Positive commentJan 15, 2020
3
PDF editing features also available!
Review by a new / low-activity user.
PDF24 Creator is Free and ProprietaryAdobe Acrobat DC is Paid and Proprietary
PDF24 Creator is LightweightAdobe Acrobat DC is not according to our users
PDFgear
62 likes
Read, edit, convert, merge, and sign PDF files across devices, for completely free and without signing up.
60 PDFgear alternatives
Cost / License
Free
Proprietary
Application types
PDF Reader
PDF Editor
Origin
Singapore
Platforms
Mac
Windows
Online
Android
iPhone
Android Tablet
iPad
+2
Is PDFgear a good alternative to Adobe Acrobat DC?

|
3comments
PDFgear vs Adobe Acrobat DC Comments

Shaz Shah
Positive commentDec 10, 2024
0
It does an excellent job of converting my M$ docs. The OCR capabilities are really good and the ability to arrange pages (including splitting and merging with other PDFs) is another bonus. The install is lightweight in comparison to Adobe Acrobat and I've not had any stability issues... yet
Ahmed Gamal
Negative commentMay 13, 2025
0
The app does not support the Arabic language.
Review by a new / low-activity user.
Guest
Positive commentJan 15, 2025
0
Faster. No pop-ups trying to sell add ons.
Review by a new / low-activity user.
PDFgear is Free and ProprietaryAdobe Acrobat DC is Paid and Proprietary
PDFgear is LightweightAdobe Acrobat DC is not according to our users
Ad
LightPDF
Cloud PDF toolkit provides over 20 tools for editing, conversion, OCR, merge, split, annotation, batch processing, and signatures, with free online access, cross-platform usability, no watermarks, no size limits, and options for ...

https://lightpdf.com
Learn More
Master PDF Editor
72 likes
Master PDF Editor is complete solution for editing PDF and XPS files. You can insert, edit, remove, copy, add images or graphics. Export, import, remove and change page layouts. Also Master PDF Editor provides full functionality for changing PDF information, including author...
140 Master PDF Editor alternatives
Cost / License
Freemium
Proprietary
Application types
PDF Editor
PDF Reader
Origin
Russia
Platforms
Mac
Windows
Linux
Flathub
Is Master PDF Editor a good alternative to Adobe Acrobat DC?

|
4comments
Master PDF Editor vs Adobe Acrobat DC Comments

Guest
Negative commentMar 8, 2017
24
Free version for windows will include watermark on saved documents.
Review by a new / low-activity user.
Guest
Positive commentDec 6, 2018
4
Has all the basic features such as merge, split, delete and it is in active development and it is available for LINUX :)
Review by a new / low-activity user.
Guest
Positive commentMay 1, 2017
-1
It has more festures in the payed version and thus suites my usecase and it actually works on linux and does not just say it does and then it doesnt, at least that was the case with pdfsam in the extended version.
Review by a new / low-activity user.
3 of 4 comments
Master PDF Editor is Freemium and ProprietaryAdobe Acrobat DC is Paid and Proprietary
Stirling-PDF
56 likes
locally hosted web application that allows you to perform various operations on PDF files.
97 Stirling-PDF alternatives
Cost / License
Freemium
Open Source
Application types
PDF Editor
PDF Reader
Origin
United States
Platforms
Mac
Windows
Online
Self-Hosted
Cloudron
Docker Hub
+1
Is Stirling-PDF a good alternative to Adobe Acrobat DC?

|
1comment
Stirling-PDF vs Adobe Acrobat DC Comments

KimiBCN
Negative commentOct 16, 2025
0
It lacks many features and has bugs. The PDF open button sometimes disappears.
Stirling-PDF is Freemium and Open SourceAdobe Acrobat DC is Paid and Proprietary
Stirling-PDF is Privacy focusedAdobe Acrobat DC is not according to our users
BentoPDF
16 likes
BentoPDF is a PDF Toolkit that works fully offline with no sign ups. It's fast, secure and forever free. In an era where data is a commodity, we take a different approach. All processing for BentoPDF tools happens locally in your browser.
74 BentoPDF alternatives
Cost / License
Free
Open Source (AGPL-3.0)
Application types
PDF Editor
PDF Reader
Origin
India
Platforms
Online
Self-Hosted
Is BentoPDF a good alternative to Adobe Acrobat DC?
Sejda
36 likes
Sejda helps with your PDF tasks: edit existing text, split, merge, extract, compress, export to other formats and more.
146 Sejda alternatives
Cost / License
Freemium
Proprietary
Application type
PDF Editor
Origin
Netherlands
EU
Platforms
Mac
Windows
Linux
Online
Google Chrome
Flathub
Flatpak
+2
Is Sejda a good alternative to Adobe Acrobat DC?

|
1comment
Sejda vs Adobe Acrobat DC Comments

Interstellar_1
Positive commentJan 25, 2024
2
You get a limited amount of file edits per day, and the app is just an electron wrapper of the website, but it works well.
Sejda is Freemium and ProprietaryAdobe Acrobat DC is Paid and Proprietary
Smallpdf
60 likes
Smallpdf is the first PDF Software you will actually like. The perfect gateway to productive, portable and cost-efficient document management solutions in your everyday life.
188 Smallpdf alternatives
Cost / License
Freemium
Proprietary
Application types
PDF Editor
PDF Reader
Origin
Switzerland
Platforms
Windows
Online
Android
Software as a Service (SaaS)
iPhone
iPad
Android Tablet
+1
Is Smallpdf a good alternative to Adobe Acrobat DC?
GImageReader
74 likes
gImageReader is a simple Gtk/Qt front-end to the Tesseract OCR Engine.
96 GImageReader alternatives
Cost / License
Free
Open Source
Application type
Screenshot Capture
Origin
Switzerland
Platforms
Windows
Linux
Is GImageReader a good alternative to Adobe Acrobat DC?

|
1comment
GImageReader vs Adobe Acrobat DC Comments

KimiBCN
Negative commentOct 16, 2025
1
It's not an alternative to Acrobat Pro; it lacks many features.
GImageReader is Free and Open SourceAdobe Acrobat DC is Paid and Proprietary
Sioyek
24 likes
Sioyek is a PDF viewer with minimal interface optimized for reading research papers and technical books.
43 Sioyek alternatives
Cost / License
Free
Open Source (GPL-3.0)
Application type
PDF Reader
Origin
United States
Platforms
Mac
Windows
Linux
+2
Is Sioyek a good alternative to Adobe Acrobat DC?

|
1comment
Sioyek vs Adobe Acrobat DC Comments

Guest
Positive commentDec 17, 2022
0
I love Sioyek because it has blazingly fast update time when a pdf modified. very suitable for latex with (n)vim/emacs user.
Review by a new / low-activity user.
Sioyek is Free and Open SourceAdobe Acrobat DC is Paid and Proprietary
Sioyek is LightweightAdobe Acrobat DC is not according to our users
Paperwork
41 likes
Paperwork is a personal document manager for scanned documents (and PDFs).
37 Paperwork alternatives
Cost / License
Free
Open Source
Application types
Document Manager
Document Scanner
Origin
France
EU
Platforms
Windows
Linux
Flathub
+1
Is Paperwork a good alternative to Adobe Acrobat DC?
PaperKnife
6 likes
Privacy-first PDF utility (Zero-Server Architecture). Merge, split, compress, and edit PDFs 100% locally on your device. No uploads, no servers, no tracking.
55 PaperKnife alternatives
Cost / License
Free
Open Source (AGPL-3.0)
Application type
PDF Editor
Platforms
Android
F-Droid
Online
Is PaperKnife a good alternative to Adobe Acrobat DC?

12 of 240 Adobe Acrobat DC alternatives

The Best Free Adobe Acrobat DC AlternativesTop PDF Readers & PDF Editors like Adobe Acrobat DC

Alternatives list

PDF-XChange Editor

Cost / License

Application types

Origin

Platforms

PDF-XChange Editor vs Adobe Acrobat DC Comments

PDF24 Creator

Cost / License

Application types

Origin

Platforms

PDF24 Creator vs Adobe Acrobat DC Comments

PDFgear

Cost / License

Application types

Origin

Platforms

PDFgear vs Adobe Acrobat DC Comments

Master PDF Editor

Cost / License

Application types

Origin

Platforms

Master PDF Editor vs Adobe Acrobat DC Comments

Stirling-PDF

Cost / License

Application types

Origin

Platforms

Stirling-PDF vs Adobe Acrobat DC Comments

BentoPDF

Cost / License

Application types

Origin

Platforms

Sejda

Cost / License

Application type

Origin

Platforms

Sejda vs Adobe Acrobat DC Comments

Smallpdf

Cost / License

Application types

Origin

Platforms

GImageReader

Cost / License

Application type

Origin

Platforms

GImageReader vs Adobe Acrobat DC Comments

Sioyek

Cost / License

Application type

Origin

Platforms

Sioyek vs Adobe Acrobat DC Comments

Paperwork

Cost / License

Application types

Origin

Platforms

PaperKnife

Cost / License

Application type

Platforms