Adobe Acrobat vs PDF.co
Adobe Acrobat and PDF.co are both PDF & document tools tools. Adobe Acrobat is aimed at enterprise and small businesses, while PDF.co is aimed at developers. PDF.co costs less, from $8.99/mo versus $14.99/mo for Adobe Acrobat. Only Adobe Acrobat has a free plan.
Adobe's PDF editor, converter and e-signature suite with AI tools
PDF API for parsing, generation and extraction
| Pricing | Freemium · $15 | Paid · $9 |
| Starting price | $14.99/mo | $8.99/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | No |
| Free trial | 7 days | — |
| Built for | Enterprise, Small businesses, Freelancers | Developers |
| Platforms | web, windows, macos, ios, android | web |
| Country | US · 1993 | US · 2016 |
| Rating | — | — |
Choose Adobe Acrobat if
Professionals and organizations that work with PDFs every day and need reliable editing, OCR, redaction and e-signatures.
- Reference implementation of the PDF format with the best fidelity
- Complete toolset from editing to OCR, redaction and e-sign
- Free Acrobat Reader covers viewing, commenting and signing
Look elsewhere if: Occasional users who only convert or compress files now and then (Smallpdf, iLovePDF, Foxit).
Choose PDF.co if
Developers and automators processing PDFs.
- Broad PDF API
- No-code friendly
- Credit-based plans
Look elsewhere if: Manual one-off edits.
Adobe Acrobat vs PDF.co pricing
Adobe Acrobat
- Acrobat Reader$0View, comment, fill and sign PDFs
- Acrobat Standard$14.99/moAnnual plan billed monthly; edit, convert, e-sign
- Acrobat Pro$19.99/moAnnual plan billed monthly; $29.99 month-to-month
- Acrobat Studio$24.99/moAnnual plan billed monthly; Pro plus AI Assistant, PDF Spaces
- Acrobat Pro for teams$23.99/license/moAnnual plan billed monthly; admin console
PDF.co
- Basic$8.99/moBilled annually ($107.89/yr); 16,500 credits/mo
- Personal$22.49/moBilled annually ($269.89/yr); 37,000 credits/mo
- Business 1$44.99/moBilled annually ($539.89/yr); 80,500 credits/mo
- Business 2$89.99/moBilled annually; 159,850 credits/mo
- Business 3$270/moBilled annually; 483,000 credits/mo
Adobe Acrobat · Key features
- Edit text and images directly in PDFs
- Convert PDFs to and from Word, Excel and PowerPoint
- OCR to make scanned documents searchable and editable
- Redaction, file comparison and PDF/A and accessibility tools
- Request e-signatures with web forms and reusable templates
- AI Assistant for summaries and questions across documents
Cons
- Expensive compared with Foxit, Smallpdf or iLovePDF
- Annual plans billed monthly carry an early cancellation fee
- Desktop app is heavy and frequently promotes upsells
PDF.co · Key features
- Table and text extraction
- Document parser templates
- PDF generation from HTML
- Form filling
- Conversion and manipulation
- No-code integrations
Cons
- Credit pricing can be confusing
- Template setup for parsing
- UI dated
Adobe Acrobat vs PDF.co: FAQ
Which is cheaper, Adobe Acrobat or PDF.co?
PDF.co starts at $8.99/mo and Adobe Acrobat at $14.99/mo. Both prices are checked on the vendors' own pricing pages.
Do Adobe Acrobat and PDF.co have a free plan?
Adobe Acrobat has a free plan. PDF.co has no free plan.
Which is better for small businesses, Adobe Acrobat or PDF.co?
Adobe Acrobat lists small businesses as a core audience, while PDF.co is aimed more at developers.