Free Adobe Acrobat DC AlternativesPDF Readers & PDF Editors like Adobe Acrobat DC

The best free alternative to Adobe Acrobat DC is PdfCraft, which is also Open Source. 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 PDF-XChange Editor, PDFgear, Stirling PDF and PDF24 Creator.

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Most Adobe Acrobat DC alternatives are PDF Editors, but you can also narrow the list to PDF Readers or Document Managers. Other popular filters are Open Source, Free, Mac and Windows. You can also filter for EU-based alternatives if you prefer software from the European Union.

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Adobe Acrobat DC alternatives page was last updated Oct 22, 2026

PdfCraft
43 likes
Read, organize, combine, split and secure PDFs in a fast, native app written in Rust from the ground up. No account, no telemetry, no cloud.
87 PdfCraft alternatives
Cost / License
Free
Open Source (Apache-2.0)
Application typeApplication types
PDF Reader
PDF Editor
Origin
United States
Since
New
Platforms
Windows
Mac
Linux
Online
United States
+1
Good alternative?Is PdfCraft a good alternative to Adobe Acrobat DC?

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1comment
PdfCraft vs Adobe Acrobat DC Comments
Positive comment by IM2MikeJones · Oct 22, 2026
PDF Craft is only in alpha, but it has already replaced Adobe Acrobat in our business. PDF Craft has the exact same interface as Adobe Acrobat, so there is no learning curve.
1 of 1 comments
PdfCraft is Free and Open SourceAdobe Acrobat DC is Paid and Proprietary
PdfCraft is LightweightAdobe Acrobat DC is not according to our users
PDF-XChange Editor
178 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.
203 PDF-XChange Editor alternatives
Cost / License
Freemium
Proprietary
Application typeApplication types
PDF Editor
PDF Reader
Origin
Canada
Since
Since 2013
Platforms
Windows
PortableApps.com
Wine
Canada
+3
Good alternative?Is PDF-XChange Editor a good alternative to Adobe Acrobat DC?

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16comments
PDF-XChange Editor vs Adobe Acrobat DC Comments
Positive comment by Beorleif · Sep 10, 2026
It can open large PDF without crashing or lagging
Positive comment by Alternative User · Oct 27, 2024
Adding signature and adding text is available for free.
Positive comment by gilles1394 · Sep 6, 2024
Powerful features, tolerable price
3 of 16 comments
PDF-XChange Editor is Freemium and ProprietaryAdobe Acrobat DC is Paid and Proprietary
PDF-XChange Editor is a PDF Editor Adobe Acrobat DC is a PDF Reader
PDF-XChange Editor is Customizable, Lightweight and Privacy focusedAdobe Acrobat DC is not according to our users
PDFgear
80 likes
Read, edit, convert, merge, and sign PDF files across devices, for completely free and without signing up.
119 PDFgear alternatives
Cost / License
Free
Proprietary
Application typeApplication types
PDF Reader
PDF Editor
Origin
Singapore
Since
Since 2023
Platforms
Windows
Mac
Online
Android
iPhone
iPad
Android Tablet
Singapore
+2
Good alternative?Is PDFgear a good alternative to Adobe Acrobat DC?

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4comments
PDFgear vs Adobe Acrobat DC Comments
Positive comment by Shaz Shah · Dec 10, 2024
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
Negative comment by Ahmed Gamal · May 13, 2025
The app does not support the Arabic language.
Positive comment by Guest · Jun 12, 2026
Professional standard pdf editors & tools.
3 of 4 comments
PDFgear is Free and ProprietaryAdobe Acrobat DC is Paid and Proprietary
PDFgear is LightweightAdobe Acrobat DC is not according to our users
Ad
PDF Agile
PDFagile is a fast, lean alternative to Adobe Acrobat and Foxit. It offers a smaller memory footprint and a clutter-free UI without sacrificing pro features. Enjoy high-fidelity conversion, OCR, and batch processing with professi...

https://www.pdfagile.com
Learn More
Stirling PDF
73 likes
Locally hosted web application offering an interactive GUI to merge, split, reorganize, convert, compress, watermark, secure, sign, flatten, repair, extract images, detect blanks, apply OCR, set permissions, and enable file processing or API integration for PDFs.
145 Stirling PDF alternatives
Cost / License
Freemium
Open Source
Application typeApplication types
PDF Editor
PDF Reader
Origin
United States
Since
Since 2023
Platforms
Windows
Mac
Online
Self-Hosted
Cloudron
Docker Hub
United States
+2
Good alternative?Is Stirling PDF a good alternative to Adobe Acrobat DC?

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1comment
Stirling PDF vs Adobe Acrobat DC Comments
Negative comment by KimiBCN · Oct 16, 2025
It lacks many features and has bugs. The PDF open button sometimes disappears.
1 of 1 comments
Stirling PDF is Freemium and Open SourceAdobe Acrobat DC is Paid and Proprietary
Stirling PDF is a PDF Editor Adobe Acrobat DC is a PDF Reader
Stirling PDF is Privacy focusedAdobe Acrobat DC is not according to our users
PDF24 Creator
156 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.
226 PDF24 Creator alternatives
Cost / License
Free
Proprietary
Application typeApplication types
PDF Editor
PDF Reader
Origin
Germany
EU
Since
Since 2009
Platforms
Windows
Germany
EU
Good alternative?Is PDF24 Creator a good alternative to Adobe Acrobat DC?

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3comments
PDF24 Creator vs Adobe Acrobat DC Comments
Positive comment by zlelmefs · Jul 1, 2025
It's actually free and has done everything I've needed it to do.
Positive comment by G Downs · Mar 23, 2025
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!
Positive comment by Guest · Jan 15, 2020
PDF editing features also available!
3 of 3 comments
PDF24 Creator is Free and ProprietaryAdobe Acrobat DC is Paid and Proprietary
PDF24 Creator is a PDF Editor Adobe Acrobat DC is a PDF Reader
PDF24 Creator is LightweightAdobe Acrobat DC is not according to our users
PDF-XChange Viewer
371 likes
A discontinued Windows PDF reader for viewing and annotating documents. It supports text, sticky notes, markup, bookmarks, search, thumbnails and saved annotations, while built-in OCR can make scanned or image-based PDFs searchable for easier document navigation.
93 PDF-XChange Viewer alternatives
Cost / License
Freemium
Proprietary
Application type
PDF Reader
Origin
Canada
Since
Since 2009
Alerts
Discontinued
Platforms
Windows
PortableApps.com
Canada
Good alternative?Is PDF-XChange Viewer a good alternative to Adobe Acrobat DC?
BentoPDF
25 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.
107 BentoPDF alternatives
Cost / License
Free
Open Source (AGPL-3.0)
Application typeApplication types
PDF Editor
PDF Reader
Origin
India
Since
Since 2025
Platforms
Online
Self-Hosted
India
Good alternative?Is BentoPDF a good alternative to Adobe Acrobat DC?
LEKTRA
20 likes
High-performance viewer for documents and images offering split tabs, customizable single or book layouts, portals for side-by-side sections, instant search, line highlight, annotation tools, link hints, searchable highlights, session management, and TOML config.
Cost / License
Free
Open Source (AGPL-3.0)
Application typeApplication types
PDF Reader
Ebook Reader
Origin
Spain
EU
Since
Since 2026
Platforms
Windows
Mac
Linux
Spain
EU
Good alternative?Is LEKTRA a good alternative to Adobe Acrobat DC?
Master PDF Editor
74 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...
175 Master PDF Editor alternatives
Cost / License
Freemium
Proprietary
Application typeApplication types
PDF Editor
PDF Reader
Origin
Russia
Since
Since 2012
Platforms
Windows
Mac
Linux
Flathub
Russia
Good alternative?Is Master PDF Editor a good alternative to Adobe Acrobat DC?

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4comments
Master PDF Editor vs Adobe Acrobat DC Comments
Negative comment by Guest · Mar 8, 2017
Free version for windows will include watermark on saved documents.
Positive comment by Guest · Dec 6, 2018
Has all the basic features such as merge, split, delete and it is in active development and it is available for LINUX :)
Positive comment by Guest · May 1, 2017
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.
3 of 4 comments
Master PDF Editor is Freemium and ProprietaryAdobe Acrobat DC is Paid and Proprietary
Master PDF Editor is a PDF Editor Adobe Acrobat DC is a PDF Reader
Sejda
40 likes
Sejda helps with your PDF tasks: edit existing text, split, merge, extract, compress, export to other formats and more.
197 Sejda alternatives
Cost / License
Freemium
Proprietary
Application type
PDF Editor
Origin
Netherlands
EU
Since
Since 2015
Platforms
Windows
Mac
Linux
Online
Google Chrome
Flathub
Flatpak
Netherlands
EU
+2
Good alternative?Is Sejda a good alternative to Adobe Acrobat DC?

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1comment
Sejda vs Adobe Acrobat DC Comments
Positive comment by Interstellar_1 · Jan 25, 2024
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.
1 of 1 comments
Sejda is Freemium and ProprietaryAdobe Acrobat DC is Paid and Proprietary
Sejda is a PDF Editor Adobe Acrobat DC is a PDF Reader
GImageReader
77 likes
gImageReader is a simple Gtk/Qt front-end to the Tesseract OCR Engine.
125 GImageReader alternatives
Cost / License
Free
Open Source
Application type
Screenshot Capture
Origin
Switzerland
Since
Since 2014
Platforms
Windows
Linux
Switzerland
Good alternative?Is GImageReader a good alternative to Adobe Acrobat DC?

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1comment
GImageReader vs Adobe Acrobat DC Comments
Negative comment by KimiBCN · Oct 16, 2025
It's not an alternative to Acrobat Pro; it lacks many features.
1 of 1 comments
GImageReader is Free and Open SourceAdobe Acrobat DC is Paid and Proprietary
GImageReader is a Screenshot Capture Adobe Acrobat DC is a PDF Reader
Smallpdf
64 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.
247 Smallpdf alternatives
Cost / License
Freemium
Proprietary
Application typeApplication types
PDF Editor
PDF Reader
Origin
Switzerland
Since
Since 2013
Platforms
Windows
Online
Software as a Service (SaaS)
Android
iPhone
iPad
Android Tablet
Switzerland
+1
Good alternative?Is Smallpdf a good alternative to Adobe Acrobat DC?

12 of 302 Adobe Acrobat DC alternatives

Free Adobe Acrobat DC AlternativesPDF Readers & PDF Editors like Adobe Acrobat DC

Alternatives list

PdfCraft

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PDF-XChange Editor

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PDFgear

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Stirling PDF

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PDF24 Creator

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PDF-XChange Viewer

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BentoPDF

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LEKTRA

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Master PDF Editor

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Master PDF Editor vs Adobe Acrobat DC Comments

Sejda

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GImageReader

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Smallpdf

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