Adobe Acrobat Pro
6 free alternatives
Top pick:Stirling-PDFLicense: Open source
Saves $240 USD a year
PDF tools
Edit, convert, OCR, merge, compress and annotate PDF files.
Paid apps and their free alternatives
Open one to see every alternative, ranked.
Free PDF tools
Every free tool in this category, by name.
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5 alternatives
Okular
Free KDE document viewer for PDF, EPUB and other formats, with annotations and verification of PDF signatures.
License: Open source- Windows
- Linux
Status: Unknown- PDF: opens and saves, partial fidelity. Opens PDFs and saves annotations into a copy; it does not edit existing text or pages
This replaces Adobe Acrobat Pro
PDF24 Creator
Free Windows toolkit for merging, splitting, compressing, converting and OCR-scanning PDFs offline.
License: Freeware- Windows
Status: Verified- PDF: opens and saves, full fidelity
- DOCX: opens and saves, partial fidelity. The converter handles other formats; Word output was not confirmed
This replaces Adobe Acrobat Pro
PdfCraft
Open-source Acrobat-style PDF workbench written in Rust, with page tools, forms, signing and redaction.
License: Open source- Windows
- macOS
- Linux
- Self-hosted
- Command line
Status: Unknown- PDF: opens and saves, partial fidelity. Opens and saves PDFs; the project has not yet compared its rendering with Acrobat
- DOCX: saves only, partial fidelity. Word export is shipped; Office import is missing
This replaces Adobe Acrobat Pro
PDFgear
Free PDF editor and converter with text editing, OCR, signing and form filling, no sign-up needed.
License: Freeware- Windows
- macOS
- Web
- iOS
- Android
Status: Verified- PDF: opens and saves, full fidelity
- DOCX: opens and saves, partial fidelity. PDF to Word conversion is offered; layout fidelity was not tested
- XLSX: saves only, partial fidelity. The vendor lists conversion to other formats; Excel output was not confirmed
- PPTX: saves only, partial fidelity. The vendor lists conversion to other formats; PowerPoint output was not confirmed
This replaces Adobe Acrobat Pro
Stirling-PDF
Open-source PDF toolkit with 50+ tools for merging, OCR, redaction and signing, as a desktop app or a self-hosted server.
License: Open source- Windows
- macOS
- Linux
- Self-hosted
Status: Unknown- PDF: opens and saves, full fidelity
- DOCX: opens and saves, partial fidelity. Convert tools exist; layout fidelity was not tested
This replaces Adobe Acrobat Pro
Paid apps with no free alternative yet
No free tool ranks Strong for these yet. Each page says what a free version would need.
Bluebeam Revu
License: PaidNo free option listed yet
Enfocus PitStop Pro
License: PaidNo free option listed yet
Quite Imposing Plus
License: PaidNo free option listed yet