Adobe Acrobat vs. PDF Studio

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Adobe Acrobat
Score 8.8 out of 10
N/A
Adobe Acrobat DC is the current version of the well-established document / PDF management solution, part of the Adobe Document Cloud (the other part being Adobe's eSign services based on technology acquired with EchoSign in 2011).
$29.99
per month per seat
PDF Studio
Score 9.1 out of 10
N/A
PDF Studio is a PDF editor that aims to provides all PDF features needed at a low cost. PDF Studio maintains full compatibility with the PDF Standard. Users can: Create PDFs from Scan, MS Word, Text and Images Annotate PDFs with Comments & Text Markups Create, Fill In & Save PDF Forms Secure Documents with Passwords and Permissions Merge, Split & Assemble Documents Apply Watermarks, Headers and Footers Create Bookmarks / Table…
$99
one-time fee
Pricing
Adobe AcrobatPDF Studio
Editions & Modules
Acrobat Pro for Individuals
$19.99
per month
Acrobat Pro for Teams
$23.99
per month per user
Acrobat Studio for Individuals
$24.99
per month
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Adobe AcrobatPDF Studio
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesNo
Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalNo setup fee
Additional DetailsEach user license key can be used on 2 computers (for the same user) on any of the supported operating system (Windows, Mac, Linux). Each user license is perpetual and allows to continue using this major version of our software (version 2018) as long as it works on your operating system. Payment is a one-time fee, with no monthly or yearly subscription or commitment. Any upgrade to future major versions is optional.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Adobe AcrobatPDF Studio
Considered Both Products
Adobe Acrobat
Chose Adobe Acrobat
Adobe Reader DC is much easier to use than PDF Studio Viewer, the menus and icons make more sense and there is much less clicking to get things done. Although Adobe charges more for their software, I believe it is well worth the extra cost. We have tried both of these software …
Chose Adobe Acrobat
I've had very little interaction with these other three, PDF Studio was probably the most I've played with. But honestly, I just wasn't impressed really. Not impressed enough to see much of a difference or improvement. Adobe has always been the chosen one for our company so …
Chose Adobe Acrobat
All the other applications in the market are replications of Adobe Acrobat and Adobe is the original one. The work on Adobe Acrobat with all the updates does not allow competition from other applications to work. Adobe Acrobat has many features in this applications that …
Chose Adobe Acrobat
Adobe Acrobat DC offers many features including ease of use and greater versatility. Adobe's feature set is great and Adobe's customer support consistently delivers good support.
Chose Adobe Acrobat
Adobe Acrobat DC has security features that are better than other products. I also like the touchscreen, tablet mode, for handwritten text integration within the PDF. Better file compression ratio as well.
Chose Adobe Acrobat
Ultimately I chose Adobe because I can access it via the cloud on all of my devices. I also chose it because I can cancel the software immediately and switch to something else if I need to. Adobe constantly has some better features and although I wish it was more intuitive, …
Chose Adobe Acrobat
Adobe is a bit more expensive than these others but for me and my company, the ease of use is why Adobe is the best.
Chose Adobe Acrobat
Adobe is widely known and is an approved software of our company
PDF Studio
Chose PDF Studio
The user interface is much easier to work with inside of PDF Studio as compared to Adobe Acrobat. Load time and ease of use is what made me select the product over Foxit Phantom PDF. The price for PDF Studio is extremely competitive and makes it the best alternative towards …
Chose PDF Studio
PDF Studio doesn't involve an expensive subscription, plus has all the features without the cluttered UI. It is intuitive to use and I prefer it to Adobe Acrobat, Foxit, PDF XChange, AcePDF, and others. Minimal design with refined tools. Frankly, I am just relieved to have a …
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User Ratings
Adobe AcrobatPDF Studio
Likelihood to Recommend
9.0
(481 ratings)
9.1
(3 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.7
(26 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
9.3
(237 ratings)
8.2
(1 ratings)
Availability
10.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
8.1
(8 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
7.8
(56 ratings)
8.5
(2 ratings)
Online Training
9.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
9.5
(9 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Configurability
8.5
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
6.0
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
9.0
(8 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
10.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
4.0
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
5.5
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Adobe AcrobatPDF Studio
Likelihood to Recommend
Adobe
When given a very creative mind, Adobe has solutions that are tailored for you, and it has spent a great deal of time in end-user focus groups and surveys to consistently improve its products. In other words, someone is thinking at Corporate! Continue to make the quality of the product a major focus, as well as SMB pricing.
Read full review
Qoppa Software
For Linux users it is without a doubt the best option and the most developed so far.
Read full review
Pros
Adobe
  • For the business account, the Adobe Acrobat rep assigned to your account will actively look for ways to save you money.
  • We have found that our rep from Adobe Acrobat Business Account reviews our usage and related apps and has offered helpful tips on better ways to complete tasks we historically undertake with their software. They have saved us a great deal of time and money. They make us efficient.
  • The apps they offer that combine with the primary program are relevant to the tasks our business performs, and they function at a high level and never fail. It's really quite remarkable.
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Qoppa Software
  • Editing PDF pages easily.
  • Organizing PDF pages quickly.
  • Adding comments to particular items within a PDF.
Read full review
Cons
Adobe
  • Fonts can default (but not always) if the designer doesn't perform due diligence before generating PDFs.
  • The one area Adobe Acrobat is not good at: generating PDFs straight from a website. The results are touch-and-go.
  • The basic nav controls take a little getting used to. What I initially expected to be in one spot could only be found elsewhere.
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Qoppa Software
  • I would like to be able to generate indexes of the documents that I am adding to a file.
  • To be able to scan a file and convert it from a PDF simply having the scan parameters.
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
Adobe
Adobe Acrobat works seamlessly with the other Adobe products we use that are industry-standard. We will certainly continue to use Adobe InDesign, Photoshop, and Illustrator, meaning it will always be convenient to work seamlessly with Adobe Acrobat for our organization. We are happy with the performance of Acrobat and it's meets our expectations.
Read full review
Qoppa Software
No answers on this topic
Usability
Adobe
The features on the desktop version are all toolbar based, which makes it a little more cumbersome on a smaller device (and much simpler on a large screen). The web forms adjust well to different screen size so work well on mobile, tablet and computer
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Qoppa Software
As I answered before, the graphical interface is the best developed of the options that exist for Linux.
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Reliability and Availability
Adobe
We have not had availability issues with Adobe Acrobat, or at least none that I am personally aware of. Some may encounter crashes of the software during outages of electricity in their city or neighborhood, which no one can plan for, but with generators in our organization, we have been lucky not to have outages
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Qoppa Software
No answers on this topic
Performance
Adobe
One of the best features of Adobe Acrobat is its speed and stability. When dealing with massive multi-page files, having to reload a crashed program over and over again would slow down progress unnecessarily. And expanding on that, having the table of contents generated allows me to skip to different pages with ease, a necessary feature with exceptionally long files. word searches are even more helpful with text recognition.
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Qoppa Software
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Adobe
For a while, Acrobat DC crashed pretty frequently. I contacted Adobe Acrobat support about the problem. At first support was unable to provide a solution. After about a month Adobe's software engineers provided a fix. I just wish it had taken less than a month to solve the problem.
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Qoppa Software
Anytime I have had questions they have been able to be found in the forums of PDF Studio.
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Online Training
Adobe
Easy to follow and understand
Read full review
Qoppa Software
No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
Adobe
I was not involved with the implementation process, so I cannot answer this question. However, when it was installed on my computer system, they did so virtually. I just sat there while they took control of my computer over the network and watch them install it, lickety split
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Qoppa Software
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Adobe
Adobe Acrobat integrated fully into our human resources processes and effectively helped consolidate multiple variations of employment documents which helped decrease HR costs and simplified recruitment. We can track the status of documents which means greater security and with the ability to sign HR documents electronically, anywhere and on any device, it gives us the speed and efficiency to process everything more quickly.
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Qoppa Software
PDF Studio doesn't involve an expensive subscription, plus has all the features without the cluttered UI. It is intuitive to use and I prefer it to Adobe Acrobat, Foxit, PDF XChange, AcePDF, and others. Minimal design with refined tools. Frankly, I am just relieved to have a perpetual license for a product that just works.
Read full review
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
Adobe
The only thing I can think of that may be helpful would be a more flexible tiered pricing options based on usage or document volume.
Read full review
Qoppa Software
No answers on this topic
Scalability
Adobe
I find that many users aren't aware of many features of the software they use, nor may they be comfortable with learning multiple-step processes. For the simplest of PDF purposes (scanning, downloading, exporting), it gets a thumbs-up. For anything involving electronic signatures, meh--causes eyes to glaze over, or forgetting what all is involved.
Read full review
Qoppa Software
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
Adobe
  • reduction of redundant tasks can be handled through Adobe Acrobat
  • esignatures save a significant amount of time when finalizing contracts versus printing, signing and faxing documents to clients or other parties
  • increased efficiencies by reviewing external document sources or images that require further analysis or repurposing.
  • improved security and compliance with the ability to redact documents and limit sharing to segmented users
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Qoppa Software
  • Allowed me to get a customer a quote faster.
  • Won business proposition due to the ability to organize and sort through customer documentation quickly.
Read full review
ScreenShots

Adobe Acrobat Screenshots

Screenshot of where to create, edit, convert, and share PDF files all from within Microsoft Teams – as part of Acrobat integrations with Microsoft 365 apps.Screenshot of Liquid Mode in Adobe Acrobat Reader mobile app, where users can read PDFs on phones and tablets without having to pinch and zoom. Navigate lengthy documents with intelligent outline and search tools, while maximizing readability and comfort with font size and line spacing that are adjustable.Screenshot of where to fill and sign PDF forms from anywhere and on any device. Here, users can collect signatures, digitally track progress, and automatically archive the signed document.Screenshot of the Adobe Scan mobile app, used to capture and convert documents into high-quality, interactive PDF documents that can be filled out, signed, and shared. This eliminates the hassle of finding a printer, filling a form by hand, and scanning it again.

PDF Studio Screenshots

Screenshot of Screenshot of Screenshot of Screenshot of Screenshot of Screenshot of