Adobe Acrobat review

Adobe Acrobat is still the reference PDF editor, and many offices standardize on it because the format began at Adobe. The free Acrobat Reader already covers a lot: Adobe's App Store listing says you can open, read, fill in and sign PDFs for free, highlight text, add comments and open files from Google Drive, OneDrive or Dropbox. Paid Acrobat plans add the tools people usually want an editor for: creating PDFs from photos and Office files, editing text and images, converting to Word, Excel or PowerPoint, combining and compressing files, reorganizing pages, OCR for scans and password protection. The AI Assistant can summarize documents and answer questions with citations, and Adobe labels it a paid feature that is free for a limited time. Adobe's pricing pages returned an access error from our location, so we could not verify a US price and score its value conservatively. If you only fill and sign forms, the free Reader may be all you need.

Who it is for

Offices that exchange PDFs with clients on Acrobat and want the most complete feature set.

Price

See vendor pricing (USD check pending).

US price check pending. See the vendor pricing page.

Key features

• Free Acrobat Reader to open, read, fill in, sign and comment on PDFs
• Paid plans edit text and images and convert PDFs to Word, Excel or PowerPoint
• Combine, compress, split, reorder and crop pages
• OCR turns scanned documents into searchable, editable text
• AI Assistant answers questions about PDFs and writes summaries

Strengths and weaknesses

• Strength: The free Reader handles reading, filling and signing with no subscription
• Strength: The widest feature set of any editor here
• Strength: Reader has more than 635 million installs, so recipients rarely need a different app
• Weakness: Adobe's pricing pages blocked our location, so we could not confirm a US price
• Weakness: Adobe no longer sells perpetual Acrobat licenses to new customers, according to Foxit
• Weakness: The AI Assistant is a paid feature after its free period

Key facts

• Free option: Acrobat Reader: read, fill in, sign and comment
• Free trial: 7 days of Acrobat Premium in the mobile app
• Installs: More than 635 million (Acrobat Reader mobile)
• Paid editing: Text and image editing, conversion, OCR, combine and compress
• Platforms: Desktop, iPhone and iPad

Where it ranks

Adobe Acrobat is No. 4 in our Best PDF Editors verdict.