Adobe Acrobat

Score8.8 out of 10

3,214 Reviews and Ratings

What is Adobe Acrobat?

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).

Categories & Use Cases

Media

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.

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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.

Most Frequent Users

Top 3 industries using Adobe Acrobat.

Based on HG Insights installation data

View all Reviews

#1 most frequent

Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services

17.4%

8,251 installations of 47,457

#2 most frequent

Manufacturing

10.9%

5,179 installations of 47,457

#3 most frequent

Educational Services

5.8%

2,750 installations of 47,457

Pros

Efficient PDF document editing
Streamlined document handling
Simple and time-saving operation

Cons

Unfriendly user interface panels
Difficulties adding text fields in forms
Slow rendering of large PDF files

J Rio Fultz View profile

CEO in Information Technology at RIO3 Consulting (1-10 employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We have used Adobe Acrobat for many years for document review, edits, and presentations. Adobe Acrobat has also been a critical for our oganizations signing and workflow of documents from contracts & proposals, to workflow. Keeping our documents secure private have also been paramount when using the Adobe suite of solutions.

Pros

Exporting individual and mult-page options
Importing of a variety of document types
OCR conversion of Word or image documents to recognize and search text
Digital signatures with date/time stamps
signature files to include your own natural signature
redaction tools for better privacy

Cons

fonts updates to match an imported document
style formatting sometimes does not work properly
smarter ai tools to read documents that many not appear "right to left"
export and importing to more data types

Return on Investment

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

Alternatives Considered

Foxit PDF Editor, PDFgear, LibreOffice and Smallpdf

Other Software Used

Action1, LibreOffice, Anthropic Claude, ChatGPT, Windsurf, Perplexity, WordPress

Bhaskar Allu View profile

Developer in Information Technology at Vardaan Data Sciences Pvt Ltd (11-50 employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I do use Adobe Acrobat for viewing pdf and also for to edit the existing pdfs etc the best part is we can make changes on the pdfs directly and can insert any text or signatures into the pdfs very easily and the best part is in the basic free version we can do all these things.

Pros

Viewing pdfs no additional pdf viewer required
Can make any changes in the pdfs directly like insert some content or add on contents
Easy to export the edited pdfs

Cons

Limited in free version
Some pdf contents from non editable pdfs is difficult.
Above stated are the major drawbacks for Adobe Acrobat apart from those always pop ups or highlights to subscription.

Return on Investment

I would say it increased productivity
Saved lot of time from converting different document from one format to other
Ease of use

Alternatives Considered

Expert PDF Reader and Easy PDF

Other Software Used

Easy PDF, All PDF Converter, CleverPDF

Steven Sheasby View profile

President in Corporate at Integrity Mortgage Licensing (11-50 employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We assist our customers with applying for licenses in different states and assist with renewals and reporting. The states require PDF forms to be emailed and uploaded to the State in order to apply for the licenses and to submit renewals and reports. We primarily used Adobe Acrobat to fill in forms, add images to forms, edit forms, email forms, upload forms, and send forms for eSignature to our customers.

Pros

Fill PDF Forms
Edit PDF Forms
Convert other File Formats to PDF

Cons

Billing is literally impossible to work with
Too many ways to type into a form. Need to all be combined into one way.
ESignature navigation needs to be improved within the desktop app

Return on Investment

There has been very little change to Adobe Acrobat for about 10 to 15 years.
The only major change has been the addition of eSignatures. This has cut down the cost and time to gather ink signatures from customers by about 90%.

Alternatives Considered

Foxit PDF Editor and Nitro Productivity Suite

Other Software Used

Foxit PDF Editor, Nitro Productivity Suite

Katie Campbell View profile

Lead teacher at Compass Child Care (201-500 employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I use Adobe Acrobat to view and edit pdfs constantly! I'm a lead teacher for Compass Childcare, so lesson planning and building my activity booklets is something I often do. I'll purchase or find materials and then incorporate or edit them with Adobe Acrobat. We also send around pdfs internally when communicating with other locations, doing training/on-going learning, or communicating with parents.

Pros

It makes it easy to edit and format pdfs.
Great at organizing multiple documents into a single file.
Perfect for creating a share-locked, sendable document to parents.
Good integration with signing tools.
Form filling is also really helpful.

Cons

I think the UI could use some updating. It would be great to have something a bit fresher.
Sometimes getting the text to appear in the same size or font is a bit troublesome.

Return on Investment

It saves a lot of time! If we couldn't get into edit pdfs, we'd have to recreate everything - what a waste!
Helps keep things secure and shareable - as well as accessible to all families - which is important to our organization.
Helps me to keep multiple documents organized into a single lesson plan, which both saves time and cuts back on clutter.

Alternatives Considered

Adobe InDesign, Adobe PhotoShop, Adobe Illustrator CC and Adobe Dreamweaver

Other Software Used

Adobe InDesign, Adobe PhotoShop, Adobe Illustrator CC

Júlio Calheiros View profile

Network Specialist in Information Technology at ALOO TELECOM (201-500 employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I use Adobe Acrobat at work to create and edit documents. It's a very useful tool for exporting files in PDF format.

Pros

Create files in PDF format
Edit files in PDF format

Cons

An interface can be cluttered, inconsistent, and intimidating to casual users.
Editing, especially layout, is notoriously problematic and counterintuitive.

Return on Investment

If you create a signature on one computer and then need to use another, there's no easy way to export/import your signature. You'll be forced to create it again.
Opening a 3MB PDF just to view or print shouldn't require starting dozens of background processes and Adobe services. This slows down the software's launch and consumes unnecessary RAM.