Replacing Adobe Acrobat

[Marcooooo]

Hi,

Replacing my Adobe applications to use Affinity's one, I'm looking for an application for Adobe Acrobat. I do not want anymore yearly subscription, but a lifetime licence. Does anybody can give me some advice?

Thanks and have a beautiful day!

[PaulEC]

It all depends on just what you need to do. Like most Adobe apps, Acrobat has many features that many people will never need (and probably don't even know about). There are several PDF editors around that sell for anything between about £30 and £200+, depending on the various functions they can perform. Personally, after years of using Acrobat Pro for my job, I now find that the free PDF24 (https://www.pdf24.org/en/) does everything that I need for personal use, but, as I said, it really depends on what you need to be able to do with PDF files.

[Pšenda]

13 minutes ago, PaulEC said:

it really depends on what you need to be able to do with PDF files.

... for basic operation ASuite (APublisher). 

[PaulEC]

3 minutes ago, Pšenda said:

... for basic operation ASuite (APublisher). 

True. But it is very limited as a PDF editor. The problem is that it doesn't actually edit the PDF! It opens it as a document and then it has to be resaved as a new PDF. This can cause all sorts of problems with the layout etc, (especially as APub can't cope with embedded fonts). Some PDFs are fine, others are completely messed up as soon as you open them in APub!

[GarryP]

Marcooooo: A quick search of the forums for replace acrobat will get you lots of advice, for example:
https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/79594-can-anyone-recommend-an-acrobat-pro-alternative/
https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/14439-adobe-acrobat-replacment/
https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/90574-adobe-acrobat-replacement/
...and others.

Searching before asking may save you time and effort when you need answers.

[Marcooooo]

1 hour ago, PaulEC said:

It all depends on just what you need to do. Like most Adobe apps, Acrobat has many features that many people will never need (and probably don't even know about). There are several PDF editors around that sell for anything between about £30 and £200+, depending on the various functions they can perform. Personally, after years of using Acrobat Pro for my job, I now find that the free PDF24 (https://www.pdf24.org/en/) does everything that I need for personal use, but, as I said, it really depends on what you need to be able to do with PDF files.

Thanks for the reply! PDF24 looks cool... but I forget to mention I'm on mac os... But it's exactly what I need!

[Sam Neil]

I use Nitro PDF and been using it for years.

 

https://www.gonitro.com/

[lacerto]

7 hours ago, Marcooooo said:

I do not want anymore yearly subscription, but a lifetime licence

If you are otherwise happy with Adobe Acrobat and use frequently its features like form creation, commenting, OCR, make editing, etc., and, especially, if you need to check and/or change print/press related properties (do preflight, make color fixes, convert color spaces, check ink usage and examine total coverage colors, etc.), you might be interested in knowing that Adobe still sells Acrobat Pro (version 2020) perpetual licenses (including upgrades from Acrobat Pro and Standard 2017). One never knows how long anything works on macOS, but Acrobat X Pro (and probably some versions earlier than that) still operate without problems on Windows 11 (over a decade after its release), but as Adobe Acrobat Pro 2020 is 64-bit, and it does not seem that Intel based apps cease to be supported on Silicon based macs any time soon, it probably becomes much more economical to purchase a perpetual license than paying for a subscription.

[firstdefence]

Most PDF creators/editors that come fairly close to the features of Adobe Acrobat aren't going to be cheap, you are probably looking at around £100+ plus you have to consider major update costs or the discontinuation of the software to favour subscription models. Apps like Wondershare PDFElelment Pro is quite a comprehensive PDF App, so to is Kdan PDF Reader which is also an editor.

[Komatös]

Are you looking for a free alternative to Adobe Acrobat? Then Stirling PDF (https://www.stirlingtools.com) might be just the thing.
Alternatively it is possible to host the Stirlingtools in your own network. However, this requires some knowledge of Docker to host the Stirlingtools on your (home) network. All you need is a single board computer like the Raspberry Pi (4GB or more) or similar.

I run the tools in a Docker container on a Synology Diskstation.

Follow the link to the projects github page: https://github.com/Frooodle/Stirling-PDF