Free Alternatives to Acrobat Reader for Mac Adobe's Acrobat Reader is a really great solution for viewing and editing PDF documents, but the company has a nasty habit of overpricing its products, which can be quite annoying.

Talk of PDF (portable document files) software and the first name that crosses our mind is Adobe Acrobat. This is one of the many software that is a must-have for all desktop and laptops these days. Creating PDFs, editing, and even sharing them is a breeze with this software. While this software is undoubtedly one of the best PDF software around, it is still not affordable for many due to it’s high price tag. Moreover, it’s quite complex for the first timers.

Read More:Top 15 Best Free software to Watermark your PDF File

Considering the high price and complexity, there are many who look for easy and cheaper alternatives to Adobe Acrobat. Fortunately, there are many alternatives available for the Acrobat that helps people edit PDFs at a much cheaper price. There are umpteen such PDF software available online and each of one of them claim to be the best. So, to clear your confusion, we have created this list of the best Adobe Acrobat alternative for PDF that can will help you to choose the one that suits you the best.

Sumatra PDF

Sumatra PDF is a trimmed down, open source and free software that supports a whole lot of other formats also along with PDF such as DjVu, EPUB, XPS, CHM, CBR, CBZ, MOBI for Windows. It emphasizes on simplicity and minimalistic design more than having a lot of features. Designed for portable use, it comes with just a single file with no external support that helps it to work via the external USB drive.

Supported Platforms: Windows XP and later

Price: Free

Get it here: https://www.sumatrapdfreader.org/

iSkysoft PDF Editor 6 Professional for Mac

iSkysoft helps you to convert PDF files into Word files, Excel, HTML, PPT, EPUB, photos and more. What we like about this software is the interface which is easy to use making it effortless even for the beginners. Within a few minutes, you will be an expert in editing and altering PDFs.

It also comes with a bonus feature named Redaction. This helps redact/edit texts and images in PDF files and can even allow you to limit access. Using this feature, you can block private information on PDF files from unwanted access.

Supported Platforms: Windows and Mac OS

Price: Free trial available; Upgrade starts at $89.95

Get it here: https://pdf.iskysoft.com/pdf-editor-6-pro-mac.html

Foxit Pjantom Pdf

Also known as the PhantomPDF, it’s available in business, standard, and education versions. It’s a free and lightweight, cross platform PDF document viewer that suits the need for business, consumer, government agencies and even educational organizations. It’s a compact yet super-fast software that helps you to open, view, sign and get a print of any PDF file. What’s interesting is that it’s the only PDF reader that offers a full creation solution in high volume while offering the PDF creation facility for all desktops. What’s more? It also comes with a complete protection against any security concerns, helping to keep your system safe.

Supported Platforms: Mac OS X, Windows, Linux, Android iPhone, iOS

Price: Free

Get it here: https://www.foxitsoftware.com/

Nitro Pro 9 (Windows)

Nitro PDF is a lot similar to the Acrobat PDF reader and is perhaps one of the best alternatives to Adobe Acrobat. It allows you not just to create PDF, but also to add, shuffle, and delete pages. You can also create bookmarks and links helping you fill forms. Bonus – it allows you to add comments and different other markup options to the documents. You can even secure your PDF using a digital id.

Once installed, this software adds a PDF printer to the printers list in the PC automatically thereby, making the PDF creation as easy as printing a file. Nitro comes equipped with some of the pro features that are available only in the paid version of Acrobat. It’s an easy to use and easy to understand software especially for the people familiar with MS Office.

Supported Platforms: Windows 10, 8.1, 7, XP.

Price: Free version available; pro version starts at $$159/user

Get it here: https://www.gonitro.com/pdf-reader

Evince

Evince document viewer is especially targeted for GNOME, however, it’s also available for Windows 10. While it allows to create PDF, it also supports multiple document formats like DVI, PostScript, djvu, TIFF, XPS, cbr, cbz, and more. The aim is to change the document viewers on the GNOME desktop to only one application. Some of its great features are the capability of displaying, adding, and editing PDF annotations.

The software is primarily written in C++ and it’s USP is its interface which is clean and clutter-free. Bonus – you can also customize the toolbar with individual tools.

Supported Platforms: Windows 10, 8.1, 7, XP

Price: Free (Open Source)

Get it here: https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Evince/Downloads

Wondershare PDFelement

If you are a looking for aa premium alternative to Acrobat reader then, Wondershare PDFelement can be your choice. It’s a feature packed software boasting multiple features on a single platform. PDF viewing, editing, and printing are some of the usual features to name a few. What’s interesting is that it these features are integrated with advanced features like PDF creation, conversion, and making the documents searchable using OCR. It also allows you to work on forms and templates within the software.

Among its many advantages are, different editing modes helping you to edit PDF documents easily, offering OCR function in over 20 languages enabling edit scanned PDF, and getting data from multiple duplicate PDF forms into one Excel sheet and making it accessible in seconds.

Supported Platforms: Windows and Mac

Price: Free Trial available; Pro version starts at $79.95

Get it here: https://pdf.wondershare.com/

Best Alternative To Adobe Acrobat Pro For Mac

ApowerPDF

ApowerPDF is equipped with all the must-have features of a reliable PDF editor. You can use this software to create or modify any already existing PDF files or forms. It also allows you to manage PDF pages and so, you can remove, extract, crop, or even rotate a certain section of the PDF document.

Bonus – it allows users to add passwords and signature PDF file thus, securing the document. Moreover, it comes with OCR technology that allows each user to edit any PDF that’s been scanned and is photo based. Not just that, it also allows you to change a document into an editable version in formats like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

Supported Platforms: All versions of Windows

Price: Free Trial available; Upgrade starts at $39.95

Get it here: https://www.apowersoft.com/pdf-editor

PDF Architect

If you are looking for an affordable alternative to Acrobat Adobe then PDF Architect can be your best bet. Although it lacks the user-friendly approach and some advanced features, it’s still a good option for those with a budget. This helps you create PDF, edit and even convert the files. Given that it’s an economical software, you can purchase the products that you would use most often.

You have to download and install the software on your desktop. It can then combine with multiple cloud services that allows you to access files from different location over the cloud.

Supported Platforms: Windows 10 (Desktop App), Windows 8 (Desktop App), Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP

Price: Free version available; Upgrade starts from $49

Get it here: https://www.pdfforge.org/pdfarchitect

PDF-Xchange Viewer

Also known as PDF-Xchange Editor, it allows you to view PDFs and even annotate them. best part is, you can also add text to your PDF file, sticky notes and other types of annotations and then save them to the file. This saved file works with the standard version of Adobe Acrobat Reader.

As a bonus, it also helps you convert those PDF files that are non-text searchable to text-searchable.

Supported Platforms: Windows XP or later

Price: Free version available; Pro version starts from $93.50

Get it here: https://www.tracker-software.com/product/pdf-xchange-viewer

PDF Studio (Mac, Windows, Linux)

PDF Studio is an easy to use software and a great alternative to Adobe Acrobat that’s priced half of the Adobe PDF. It offers all the required features of a good PDF application, while it meets the compliance standards of the PDF document. Among its features are annotation of PDF, apart from being able to create PDFs out of Word documents, texts and images. It also supports document format in the form of Google Drive SharePoint.

Supported Platforms: Windows, Linux, Mac OS, Unix

Price: Free Trial available; Pro version starts at $89

Get it here: https://www.qoppa.com/pdfstudio/

PDFescape Dektop

Cnet

PDFescape Desktop is another alternative to Adobe Acrobat that offers some of the features identical to Acrobat. For instance, the ability to add, modify, remove, and crop the PDF pages. As a bonus, it also offers security for your PDF contents by allowing you to password lock the file. You can also change the information tag of the PDF and use scanned signature to sign the PDF files.

If you just want to do some basic modifications within the PDF file, this software is perfect for you. For the desktop version, you need to upgrade to the premium version and then use the services.

Supported Platforms: Windows® 7 / 8 / 10

Price: Free version available; Get quote for premium version and up

Get it here: https://www.pdfescape.com/what/desktop/

Nuance Power PDF Advanced

This is an affordable alternative to Adobe Acrobat and comes with 95% features of the Adobe. Nuance Power PDF Advanced comes at with a user-friendly interface and offer pretty good support for creating, securing, and manipulating PDFs. It also enables to create forms and collect data for analysis. Moreover, you can also add notes from Dragon Notes. But, you cannot convert the PDF to ePubs. However, it allows you to convert scanned files and several other documents to PDF and ice a versa. Additionally, you can also integrate files, add videos conveniently, create interactive PDFs using Javascript and add multiple markups.

Supported Platforms: All versions of Windows

Price: Free trial available; Upgrade starts from $99

Get it here: https://www.nuance.com/

Okular

A universal document viewer, Okular is designed by KDE. This software works with all platforms making it easier for you to convert PDF files on any OS. It features some excellent functionalities while supporting multiple document formats for example, PDF, ePub, CHM, Postscript, XPS, DjVu, and more.

Supported Platforms: Linux, Windows, Mac OS X, *BSD, etc.

Price: Free

Get it here: https://okular.kde.org/

PDFpen Mac

PDFpen is a PDF editor that’s for the Mac OS users. It offers fundamental features of a PDF editor that includes functionalities like modifying typo errors in text documents, adding images, signatures, and texts. It also supports OCR technology that helps users to transform images into editable text document.

Supported Platforms: Mac

Price – Free trial available; upgrade starts at $30

Get it here: https://smilesoftware.com/pdfpen

Mac Preview

This one is again especially for the Mac users. which is a lot identical to Adobe Acrobat. Preview is a PDF editor that’s developed for the convenience of Mac users and is perfect for creating and editing new PDF documents. This program allows you to modify several different sections of a PDF text and even crop at the same time. You can even label different pages together.

The functions are fast and easy to use that makes it an able substitute of Acrobat.

Supported Platforms: OSX

Price: Free]

Firefox PDF Viewer

PDF Viewer by Firefox is the latest ground-breaking tool that utilizes web-based technologies. This allows you to display nearly all PDF files found on the web within Mozilla Firebox web browser without the need of any plugin.

Supported Platforms:

Price: Free (open source)Mac, Windows, Linux, Chrome, Firefox, Opera

Get it here: https://mozilla.github.io/pdf.js/

MuPDF

MuPDF is a light PDF and XPS viewer with no frills. It comes with absolutely no frills means there is no need of editing, skip to pages, or printing, and best of all, there’s not even an interface! All you need to do is to double click the mupdf.exe and search for the file you want to open. You can simply scroll or navigate from page to page using the arrow key. While having no feature usual features of a regular ODF editor is indeed a setback for many, but in a market where the primary focus is on loads of features, MuPDF does stand out with its minimalistic approach.

Supported Platforms: Windows, Linux, Android, iOS

Price: Free (open source)

Get it here: https://mupdf.com/

While there are many more alternatives to Adobe Acrobat out there in the online market with the features like creating, modifying and sharing PDF files, there are only few that stand out in the competition with some distinctive features. So, choose your program based on your requirement and create great PDFs.

IT organizations are being asked do to more with less, as tight budgets get stretched ever tighter. Ask yourself a basic question: Can you get the same capabilities from an Adobe Acrobat alternative but at much lower cost? There are some compelling reasons for companies to consider Foxit PhantomPDF as your Adobe Acrobat alternative solution.

• Better value: Adobe Acrobat costs over 3 times more. With so many similar functions and uses at a much lower price, it's easy to see why PhantomPDF is the best Adobe Acrobat alternative.
• Cost effective upgrade: It's more economical to purchase Foxit PhantomPDF than upgrade to the next version of Adobe Acrobat – making it the smart choice for Adobe Acrobat alternative.
• Deploy to more users: With this Adobe Acrobat alternative, robust PDF capabilities can be deployed to more users on the same budget.
• Faster: With PhantomPDF, enduring long waits to open PDFs or downloading numerous updates are a thing of the past.
• More lightweight: No bloatware here, this Adobe Acrobat alternative is easy to deploy without wasting valuable computing resources.
• Standards-compliant: PhantomPDF works with your existing PDFs. This makes replacing Adobe Acrobat very quick and easy.
• More secure: If security is a concern, Foxit's Adobe Acrobat alternative offers better protection against security vulnerabilities.
• Familiar user interface: Microsoft Office style ribbon user interface makes transitioning users easy.
• Better editing: Edit text and images like a professional, with word processing like capabilities.
• Keeps sensitive data protected: The only Adobe Acrobat alternative that integrates with Microsoft Active Directory Rights Managements Services and Azure Active Directory Rights Management.
• Get control of your content: PhantomPDF supports ConnectedPDF features, which extends the ISO PDF standard to allow each PDF to carry a unique identifier that leverages the power of cloud to keep you and your PDFs connected, and enables you to track, share, and protect your documents easily.

Now there is a quality Adobe Acrobat alternative that you can trust. If you are looking for a solution that provides similar capabilities as Adobe Acrobat but for a price that you can afford, then you are in the right place. Now is the time to evaluate Foxit PhantomPDF as your Adobe Acrobat alternative.

Features	PhantomPDF Business	PhantomPDF Standard	Adobe Acrobat DC Pro	Adobe Acrobat DC Standard
Create industry standard PDF files (PDF specification 1.7 / ISO 32000)
Create PDF from blank page
Create PDF from multiple files, file types, and scanners
High compression when creating PDF from scanners
One-click PDF creation from Microsoft Word
One-click PDF creation from Microsoft Excel
One-click PDF creation from Microsoft PowerPoint
Create tagged PDF when creating from Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint
Keep layers when combining multiple PDF files
PDF/A, E, and X file validation
Create PDF/A compliant files from other file formats
Convert PDF file to industry standard PDF A/E/X
Provides PDF creation by converting emails to PDF directly from the Microsoft® Outlook® application
One-click PDF creation from IE, Chrome, and Firefox
Create PDF portfolios
Export to text files
Export to Word, PowerPoint, and Excel formats
Export to RTF format
Export to HTML format
Export to image formats
Export PDF to word and keep the fonts and layouts intact - including bullets and tables
Export selected area to Microsoft® Office, RTF, HTML formats
Export PDF to accessible text
Export PDF to XML 1.0

Features	PhantomPDF Business	PhantomPDF Standard	Adobe Acrobat DC Pro	Adobe Acrobat DC Standard
Edit and reflow PDF text
Reflow editing
Search and replace
Edit text font (type, style, size, color, and effect)
Edit portfolios
Recognize and remove web links
Modify text alignment (left, center, or right)
Modify text line spacing
Move and resize paragraphs
Link and join text
Add, edit, delete and manage headers and footers, backgrounds, and watermarks
Define a navigational path for articles in PDF that span multiple columns and/or across several pages
Add, edit, delete and manage hyperlinks and bookmarks
Cut, delete and move multiple bookmarks at a time
Add, edit, delete and manage video
Add, edit, delete and manage images annotations
Add, edit, delete and manage drawings
Add graphic and image objects
Move, resize, rotate, delete, cut, copy and paste graphic and image objects
Advanced PDF editor, including adding shading object, converting text to path, editing image and path objects
Run spell-check on your entire document and correct typos
PDF size optimization
Allow users to change the page size
Add custom properties
Action wizard
Create named positions
Delete and reorder layer
Import as Layer/Merge Layers/Flatten Layers/Edit Layer Properties

Features	PhantomPDF Business	PhantomPDF Standard	Adobe Acrobat DC Pro	Adobe Acrobat DC Standard
Initiate a Shared Review to include PhantomPDF, Foxit Reader, and MobilePDF users through email, a network folder, or a SharePoint workspace
Send documents to internal server for shared review
Send documents for email review
Track documents that have been sent out for review
Highlight area
Add, manage, view and navigate document comments
Comment, markup, and drawing tools
Export highlighted text
Import/export comments data
Print with comments for efficient review
Attach a file as a comment
SharePoint Integration
Epona DMSforLegal Integration
Integrates with ndOffice, iManage WorkSite, and OpenText eDOCS
Alfresco integration
Evernote Integration
Dropbox integration
OneDrive and Google Drive integration
OneDrive for Business integration
Organize and manage a library of stamps
Copy, cut and paste Annotations
Summarize comments
Measuring tool for distance, perimeter and area measuring

Features	PhantomPDF Business	PhantomPDF Standard	Adobe Acrobat DC Pro	Adobe Acrobat DC Standard
Manage pages in a document (delete, add, swap, flatten, crop, and extract pages)
Reorder pages from dropping and dragging thumbnails to other documents
Drag and drop to reorder PDF pages in one file or multiple files
Merge multiple files into a single PDF document
Merge opened PDF files
Insert pages of the current PDF into other files
Insert pages from scanner
Bates numbering

Features	PhantomPDF Business	PhantomPDF Standard	Adobe Acrobat DC Pro	Adobe Acrobat DC Standard
Scan to create new PDF
Scan to insert into existing PDF
OCR to create selectable, editable, and searchable text
Find OCR Suspects and edit the recognition results
Scan presets
Scan to Save Multiple Files

Features	PhantomPDF Business	PhantomPDF Standard	Adobe Acrobat DC Pro	Adobe Acrobat DC Standard
Fill in and save forms (Acroforms and XFA)
Auto-completion support
Form Designer (text fields, buttons, drop-down lists, check boxes, radio buttons and digital signature fields)
Automatic form recognition
Auto design assistant to recognize and create form fields
Import/Export form data, reset form fields
JavaScript support
Edit static XFA form
Enables 2D barcode generation from Ultraforms® enabled fillable PDF forms
Combine forms to a CSV file
Page template

Is There An Alternative To Adobe Acrobat Pro

Features	PhantomPDF Business	PhantomPDF Standard	Adobe Acrobat DC Pro	Adobe Acrobat DC Standard
Quick PDF Sign using your handwritten signature
Place PDF Sign signature on multiple pages in the same position
DocuSign Integration for eSignatures
Add, edit, delete, verify, and manage digital signatures
Place digital signature on multiple files in batch
Add trusted time stamps to digital signatures or documents
Redaction to permanently remove sensitive content
Use the Whiteout feature to apply redaction with one-click to simply and securely erase any content to white background
RMS redaction in Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Excel
Add, edit, delete and manage passwords secure encryption and permission controls to PDF files
Add, edit, delete and manage certification secure encryption and permission controls to PDF files
Add, edit,delete and manage security policies
Microsoft Active Directory Rights Management Services (AD RMS) integration
AD RMS dynamic security watermarks
Log the usage of AD RMS secured documents
Certify document and set permitted actions after certifying
Password and certificate encryption
Safe mode to control unauthorized actions and data transmissions
Removes undesired information from your document before publishing, like metadata, comments, hidden data from previous saves, hidden layers, overlapping objects, and more
Microsoft Windows Information Protection (WIP) Support

Features	PhantomPDF Business	PhantomPDF Standard	Adobe Acrobat DC Pro	Adobe Acrobat DC Standard
Allows users to create new tabs or customize current tabs in a ribbon based toolbar
View PDF documents and forms
Touch screen support
Open, view, edit and save PDFs in OneDrive and Google Drive through the PhantomPDF window
View PDF portfolios
Print PDF documents and forms
Print pages from selected bookmark(s)
Text viewer
Multi-tab/document view
Side-by-side document comparisons
Read out loud
Microsoft Office 2013 style ribbon toolbar
Magnifier
Loupe tool
View and navigate page thumbnails and bookmarks
Grids and custom drawing guides to help positioning objects in the PDF
Search including bookmarks and comments
Open and decrypt RMS encrypted PDF documents
Reflow view

Features	PhantomPDF Business	PhantomPDF Standard	Adobe Acrobat DC Pro	Adobe Acrobat DC Standard
Allows the Windows indexing service and other Windows search technologies to index PDF files
Create and search a full-text index

Features	PhantomPDF Business	PhantomPDF Standard	Adobe Acrobat DC Pro	Adobe Acrobat DC Standard
Convert PDF to ConnectedPDF
Convert other formats to cPDF when creating to PDF
Clone a document
Enable document enforced tracking
Track any access to cPDF documents
Show usage data in document homepage
Register and upload a new version of cPDF document
Send update notification when registering a new version
Enable non-Foxit application to receive update notification
Online ConnectedPDF protection
Permission configuration
Dynamically approve and revoke document permission
Dynamically request document permission and response to the changes of document permission
Join Connected Review
Initiate/End Connected Review
Document locator and request

Features	PhantomPDF Business	PhantomPDF Standard	Adobe Acrobat DC Pro	Adobe Acrobat DC Standard
Accessibility full check and check report
Fix failed parts after accessibility check
Touch up reading order to add and edit tag
Autotag document and tag report