Adobe PDF Editor Alternatives?

J

JWC86

Joined
Jul 11, 2021
Messages
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I'm currently paying $40CAD a month for Adobe Acrobat Pro, it started around $15/month in 2017 and has slowly gone up. At this point I'm wondering if there is a better option for less money or maybe free.

I use it for:
Viewing PDFs(daily)
Combining PDFs(daily)
Editing PDFs(occasionally)
Scan Docs with phone and convert to PDF
eSign

I need a PC program, not a web based thing as sometimes I done have internet.

Thanks in advance for any input.
 
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Foxit is more reasonably priced, $110/yr and I use it at work. PDFgear is free and open source, but I don't have any first hand experience with it.
 
We use Tungsten Power PDF as an Adobe replacement. It used to be Nuance, then Kofax, now renamed to Tungsten. But at $129 for the basic version is still a steep price imo for a consumer PDF program.

There's also Foxit, very similar to Power PDF in UI and function and same price too.
 
I've been using PDF Expert on and off for almost 10 years. Recently, I've switched back to it because I got tired of Adobe's prices. Plus, I use an iPad Pro, which doesn't work well with Adobe DC. At around $49 a year, PDF Expert is good enough for my needs, even though it's not as robust as Adobe Pro/DC. 🤷‍♂️
 
Look into PDFtk, PDFBox, or Nitro Pro and see if any of them will work for you.

I use.. no, I LIVE in Adobe Acrobat Pro, but my company pays for it. They are always pushing us to to use the least expensive option but I've always whined enough to get Adobe since I know it inside out and backwards and prefer not to switch.
 
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kschachn said:
How come you are paying $40 a month? Are you bundling it with another app?

Paying yearly helps with the cost as well.
Click to expand...
It's bundled with about 20+ other apps but the only one I use is Adobe Scan which lets me scan docs with my phone and easily convert them to PDF.

I'm only seeing one option with yearly pay and it says I can combine PDFs but doesn't look like I can edit them and no Scan app for the phone, its only $160CAD a year thou. But without edit and scan it's no good to me...
 
So it looks like I can get FOXIT PDF Editor Plus for $220/year which is half of what I'm paying now and it appears to do everything I need and more.

Has anyone made the switch from Adobe Acrobat Pro to FOXIT? Any complaints?
 
Admittedly these are USD prices, but you don't have an option like this?

1725560799848.jpg
 
JWC86 said:
So it looks like I can get FOXIT PDF Editor Plus for $220/year which is half of what I'm paying now and it appears to do everything I need and more.

Has anyone made the switch from Adobe Acrobat Pro to FOXIT? Any complaints?
Click to expand...

PowerPDF is $129 and no subscription. The user interfaces are nearly the same, except Foxit used to be some sort of pink/purple while PowerPDF is more blue/Office365 looking. No complaints from the few of our users who still have Foxit on their PCs though. Only 3 of my users have Adobe, the cost is getting ridiculous.
 
Pew said:
PowerPDF is $129 and no subscription. The user interfaces are nearly the same, except Foxit used to be some sort of pink/purple while PowerPDF is more blue/Office365 looking. No complaints from the few of our users who still have Foxit on their PCs though. Only 3 of my users have Adobe, the cost is getting ridiculous.
Click to expand...
PowerPDF looks like a great option! Only thing I'm not seeing is the mobile option to scan a document with a phone and concert to PDF.

Maybe I could go with a separate app for that since I always just email them to myself anyways, I never use Adobe's "clould".
 
JWC86 said:
PowerPDF looks like a great option! Only thing I'm not seeing is the mobile option to scan a document with a phone and concert to PDF.

Maybe I could go with a separate app for that since I always just email them to myself anyways, I never use Adobe's "clould".
Click to expand...

The mobile app is called Kofax Mobile Capture but I've only used it once to test out. None of my users use it either but it does have some options and it will email you from the kofax servers. It does require you to login but I believe that's from whatever email you used to register Kofax with.

One thing I do dislike about PowerPDF is it's horrible OCR and poor ability to "auto-detect" a fillable form. Adobe excelled at this so good that I used a 2014 version of Acrobat X to fill out forms. The e-signature is kind of clunky too compared to Adobe but manageable - only takes a few more steps to create one. You can also opt for a yearly maintenance plan for updates and upgrades - but there hasn't been any improvements I've seen in the past 4 years.

1725570130840.jpg


1725570174172.jpg
 
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JWC86 said:
It's bundled with about 20+ other apps but the only one I use is Adobe Scan which lets me scan docs with my phone and easily convert them to PDF.

I'm only seeing one option with yearly pay and it says I can combine PDFs but doesn't look like I can edit them and no Scan app for the phone, its only $160CAD a year thou. But without edit and scan it's no good to me...
Click to expand...
TurboScan for phone costs under $10 once iPhone or Android and does the scan to pdf multiple pages with ease. Easily can email or save to cloud drive for it.
 
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