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Free alternatives to Adobe Acrobat Pro

Top pick: Stirling-PDF. Switching saves about $240 USD a year.

Adobe Acrobat Pro, Acrobat Pro, annual plan

$239.88 USDa year

$311.88 CAD

Every pick below has a free version.

Runs on
  • Windows
  • macOS
  • Web
  • iOS
  • Android
Key file formats
.pdf.docx.xlsx.pptx

Filter alternatives

6 alternatives

Top pick

1 tool

The editor’s first choice for most people switching.

  1. Rank 1: Stirling-PDF

    Best for a free PDF toolbox on desktop or your own server

    License: Open source
    • Windows
    • macOS
    • Linux
    • Self-hosted
    Status: Active
    • PDF: opens and saves, full fidelity
    • DOCX: opens and saves, partial fidelity. Convert tools exist; layout fidelity was not tested

    Open core. Desktop apps are free; the free self-hosted server covers up to 5 users, and bigger teams, SAML SSO and audit logs need a paid plan. Free version: Desktop apps and a self-hosted server for up to 5 users are free. Team adds users and a database; Enterprise adds SAML and audit logs.

Strong

1 tool

Covers most of the same work, with trade-offs noted on each card.

  1. Rank 2: PDFgear

    Best for free text editing without an account

    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

    Free with no sign-up per the vendor. Closed source, so you cannot audit what the app sends. AI features are online.

Situational

4 tools

Right for specific needs, or not yet mature enough to recommend widely.

  1. Rank 3: PdfCraft

    Best for following an open-source Acrobat clone

    License: Open source
    • Windows
    • macOS
    • Linux
    • Self-hosted
    • Command line
    Status: Active
    • 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

    Early alpha (v0.2.1). The project rates itself at about a third of Acrobat parity and warns that fuzzing still finds crashes.

  2. Rank 4: PDF24 Creator

    Best for offline PDF tasks on Windows

    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

    Windows only. Free for personal and business use per the vendor. The online tools send files to PDF24 servers; the desktop app works offline.

  3. Rank 5: LibreOffice Draw

    Best for small text fixes in a PDF

    License: Open source
    • Windows
    • macOS
    • Linux
    Status: Active
    • PDF: opens and saves, partial fidelity. Imports PDFs as editable objects with layout shifts; exports PDF including PDF/A and fillable forms
    • VSDX: opens only, partial fidelity. Imports Visio drawings; shapes and text carry over but some stencils and styles do not
    • VSD: opens only, partial fidelity. Imports older Visio files with the same limits
    • SVG: opens and saves, full fidelity
    • CDR: opens only, partial fidelity. Imports CorelDRAW files through libcdr; effects and newer features may be lost

    Free suite for Windows, macOS and Linux. Best for single-page fixes; complex or scanned PDFs often import badly.

  4. Rank 6: Okular

    Best for reading and annotating PDFs on Linux

    License: Open source
    • Windows
    • Linux
    Status: Active
    • PDF: opens and saves, partial fidelity. Opens PDFs and saves annotations into a copy; it does not edit existing text or pages

    Free KDE viewer. Best on Linux; Windows builds come from the Microsoft Store, and macOS only has untested nightly builds.

Sponsor this page: $149 for 30 days. Sponsors appear above the ranking, labeled; the ranking itself is not for sale.

Feature parity

How each alternative covers what people use Adobe Acrobat Pro for. Numbers link to editor notes.

Feature parity with Adobe Acrobat Pro
FeatureStirling-PDFPDFgearPdfCraftPDF24 CreatorLibreOffice DrawOkular
Editing
Edit text and images in existing PDFsPartialNote 1YesNote 2PartialNote 3PartialNote 4PartialNote 5NoNote 6
Pages
Merge, split, reorder and delete pagesYesNote 7YesNote 8YesNote 9YesNote 10PartialNote 11NoNote 12
Conversion
OCR for scanned documentsYesNote 13PartialNote 14PartialNote 15YesNote 16NoNote 17NoNote 18
Export PDF to Word and ExcelPartialNote 19PartialNote 20PartialNote 21PartialNote 22NoNote 23NoNote 24
Forms
Fill forms and add signaturesYesNote 25YesNote 26PartialNote 27PartialNote 28PartialNote 29PartialNote 30
Create fillable formsNoNote 31PartialNote 32YesNote 33NoNote 34PartialNote 35NoNote 36
Security
Redact sensitive contentYesNote 37NoNote 38YesNote 39PartialNote 40NoNote 41NoNote 42
Review
Compare two versions of a PDFYesNote 43NoNote 44NoNote 45PartialNote 46NoNote 47NoNote 48
Parity score75%56%63%56%25%6%
  1. Stirling-PDF, Edit text and images in existing PDFs: Content and annotation tools exist; editing existing text is not documented, so rated partial
  2. PDFgear, Edit text and images in existing PDFs: Edits text, images, shapes and links
  3. PdfCraft, Edit text and images in existing PDFs: Added text and images stay editable; robust editing of existing text is on the roadmap
  4. PDF24 Creator, Edit text and images in existing PDFs: Edit PDF is listed as an online tool that uploads files; the offline app's editor was not confirmed
  5. LibreOffice Draw, Edit text and images in existing PDFs: Opens a PDF as editable objects; each line of text becomes its own box, so layout can shift
  6. Okular, Edit text and images in existing PDFs: Viewer; text can be selected and copied but not edited
  7. Stirling-PDF, Merge, split, reorder and delete pages: Merge, split, rotate and reorder pages
  8. PDFgear, Merge, split, reorder and delete pages: Merge and split tools plus page reordering
  9. PdfCraft, Merge, split, reorder and delete pages: Pages, combine, split, bookmarks and labels
  10. PDF24 Creator, Merge, split, reorder and delete pages: Merge and split tools
  11. LibreOffice Draw, Merge, split, reorder and delete pages: Page pane reorders and deletes pages; no dedicated merge or split tool
  12. Okular, Merge, split, reorder and delete pages: No page merge or reorder found
  13. Stirling-PDF, OCR for scanned documents: OCR tool built on Tesseract
  14. PDFgear, OCR for scanned documents: OCR converts scans to editable Word or TXT in 30+ languages; searchable PDF output was not confirmed
  15. PdfCraft, OCR for scanned documents: Searchable-image OCR for Latin script only
  16. PDF24 Creator, OCR for scanned documents: PDF OCR tool
  17. LibreOffice Draw, OCR for scanned documents: No OCR
  18. Okular, OCR for scanned documents: No OCR
  19. Stirling-PDF, Export PDF to Word and Excel: A convert tool exists; Word and Excel output quality was not checked
  20. PDFgear, Export PDF to Word and Excel: PDF to Word is confirmed; Excel and PowerPoint output was not checked
  21. PdfCraft, Export PDF to Word and Excel: Word, HTML and RTF export; Excel and PowerPoint export are missing
  22. PDF24 Creator, Export PDF to Word and Excel: A PDF converter exists; Word and Excel output was not confirmed
  23. LibreOffice Draw, Export PDF to Word and Excel: No PDF to Word or Excel export; saves back to PDF or ODF
  24. Okular, Export PDF to Word and Excel: No export to Word or Excel
  25. Stirling-PDF, Fill forms and add signatures: Fill Form tool, handwritten signatures and certificate signing
  26. PDFgear, Fill forms and add signatures: Fills forms and adds signatures
  27. PdfCraft, Fill forms and add signatures: Form filling and PAdES signing; signature timestamps are missing
  28. PDF24 Creator, Fill forms and add signatures: Sign PDF is listed as an online tool; form filling is not listed
  29. LibreOffice Draw, Fill forms and add signatures: Can add a digital signature to an existing PDF; form filling is limited
  30. Okular, Fill forms and add signatures: Annotations, PDF signing and signature verification; form filling was not confirmed on the vendor page
  31. Stirling-PDF, Create fillable forms: Only form filling is documented
  32. PDFgear, Create fillable forms: Fillable form fields can be edited; authoring options were not checked
  33. PdfCraft, Create fillable forms: Form authoring with sandboxed JavaScript
  34. PDF24 Creator, Create fillable forms: Not listed
  35. LibreOffice Draw, Create fillable forms: Form controls export as fillable PDF fields
  36. Okular, Create fillable forms: Not listed
  37. Stirling-PDF, Redact sensitive content: Redaction tool
  38. PDFgear, Redact sensitive content: No redaction tool is listed
  39. PdfCraft, Redact sensitive content: Redaction and sanitizing
  40. PDF24 Creator, Redact sensitive content: Redact PDF is listed as an online tool that uploads files
  41. LibreOffice Draw, Redact sensitive content: Redaction in Draw was not confirmed
  42. Okular, Redact sensitive content: Not listed
  43. Stirling-PDF, Compare two versions of a PDF: Compare PDFs tool
  44. PDFgear, Compare two versions of a PDF: No compare tool is listed
  45. PdfCraft, Compare two versions of a PDF: Not listed
  46. PDF24 Creator, Compare two versions of a PDF: Compare PDFs is listed as an online tool that uploads files
  47. LibreOffice Draw, Compare two versions of a PDF: No PDF comparison
  48. Okular, Compare two versions of a PDF: Not listed

Not covered by any free alternative yet: Export PDF to Word and Excel. See all feature gaps

File formats

Can each alternative open and save Adobe Acrobat Pro files?

Opening and saving Adobe Acrobat Pro files
FormatStirling-PDFPDFgearPdfCraftPDF24 CreatorLibreOffice DrawOkular
.pdfOpens and savesFull fidelityOpens and savesFull fidelityOpens and savesNote 1Partial fidelityOpens and savesFull fidelityOpens and savesNote 2Partial fidelityOpens and savesNote 3Partial fidelity
.docxOpens and savesNote 4Partial fidelityOpens and savesNote 5Partial fidelitySaves onlyNote 6Partial fidelityOpens and savesNote 7Partial fidelityNoNote 8No
.xlsxNoNote 9Saves onlyNote 10Partial fidelityNoNote 11NoNote 12NoNote 13No
.pptxNoNote 14Saves onlyNote 15Partial fidelityNoNote 16NoNote 17NoNote 18No
  1. PdfCraft, .pdf: Opens and saves PDFs; the project has not yet compared its rendering with Acrobat
  2. LibreOffice Draw, .pdf: Imports PDFs as editable objects with layout shifts; exports PDF including PDF/A and fillable forms
  3. Okular, .pdf: Opens PDFs and saves annotations into a copy; it does not edit existing text or pages
  4. Stirling-PDF, .docx: Convert tools exist; layout fidelity was not tested
  5. PDFgear, .docx: PDF to Word conversion is offered; layout fidelity was not tested
  6. PdfCraft, .docx: Word export is shipped; Office import is missing
  7. PDF24 Creator, .docx: The converter handles other formats; Word output was not confirmed
  8. LibreOffice Draw, .docx: Draw does not open Word files; use Writer
  9. Stirling-PDF, .xlsx: Excel conversion was not confirmed in the docs
  10. PDFgear, .xlsx: The vendor lists conversion to other formats; Excel output was not confirmed
  11. PdfCraft, .xlsx: Excel export is on the roadmap
  12. PDF24 Creator, .xlsx: Excel conversion was not confirmed
  13. LibreOffice Draw, .xlsx: Draw does not open Excel files; use Calc
  14. Stirling-PDF, .pptx: PowerPoint conversion was not confirmed in the docs
  15. PDFgear, .pptx: The vendor lists conversion to other formats; PowerPoint output was not confirmed
  16. PdfCraft, .pptx: PowerPoint export is on the roadmap
  17. PDF24 Creator, .pptx: PowerPoint conversion was not confirmed
  18. LibreOffice Draw, .pptx: Draw does not open PowerPoint files; use Impress

What switching saves

Switching saves about $240 USD / $312 CAD a year. Prices checked .

Based on Acrobat Pro, annual plan. Price source.

About this page

Last verified . Ranking: tier first, then the published score.

Something wrong or out of date? Report outdated info.

Adobe Acrobat Pro is a product of Adobe, named here for comparison only. Platforms listed for Adobe Acrobat Pro: Windows, macOS, Web, iOS, Android.