Adobe Acrobat vs signNow
Adobe Acrobat and signNow are both Contracts & e-signature tools. Here is how they compare on pricing, audience, platforms and community votes.
Adobe's PDF editor, converter and e-signature suite with AI tools
airSlate e-signature app with templates, bulk send and an API
| Pricing | Freemium · $15 | Paid · $20 |
| Built for | Enterprise, Small businesses, Freelancers | Small businesses, Enterprise, Freelancers |
| Platforms | web, windows, macos, ios, android | web, ios, android |
| Country | US · 1993 | US · 2011 |
| Community votes | 0 | 0 |
| Rating | — | — |
Adobe Acrobat
Adobe Acrobat is Adobe's software for viewing, editing, converting, signing and protecting PDF documents. Adobe invented the PDF format and launched Acrobat in 1993, and the free Acrobat Reader remains the default PDF viewer in many companies and governments. Paid plans, Acrobat Standard, Pro and Studio, run on Windows, Mac, the web and mobile.
Standard covers editing text and images, converting to and from Word, Excel and PowerPoint, combining files, filling and signing forms and requesting e-signatures. Pro adds OCR for scanned documents, redaction, file comparison, PDF/A and accessibility tools and e-sign extras such as web forms and reusable templates. Studio, introduced in 2025, bundles Pro with PDF Spaces (AI workspaces that turn collections of files into summaries and insights), AI Assistant for Acrobat and Adobe Express Premium.
Acrobat fits anyone who handles PDFs daily in legal, finance, government or publishing, where exact rendering, redaction and compliance tools matter. It is expensive compared with alternatives, and annual plans paid monthly carry an early cancellation fee. Foxit PDF Editor offers similar desktop editing for less, Smallpdf and iLovePDF handle occasional conversions in the browser, and DocuSign is stronger when signature workflows are the real need.
Pricing tip: individual Standard costs $14.99, Pro $19.99 and Studio $24.99 a month on an annual plan billed monthly, while month-to-month Pro is $29.99. Studio is only $5 more than Pro, so pick it if you want AI Assistant; for OCR, redaction and comparison alone, Pro is enough.
signNow
signNow (also styled airSlate SignNow) is an electronic signature platform owned by airSlate, a Boston-based document automation company. It was founded in 2011 in Newport Beach, California, by Chris Hawkins, bought by Barracuda Networks in 2013 and sold in 2017 to PDFfiller, which renamed itself airSlate in 2019. Its core job: send a document for signature and get back a signed copy with a full audit trail.
Beyond basic signing, signNow offers reusable templates with fillable and conditional fields, signing order by role, shareable signing links, web forms, bulk sending, payment collection, SMS delivery and password or two-factor signer authentication. Business covers core sending, Business Premium adds bulk send, signing links and payments, Enterprise adds branding, SMS and conditional fields, and the per-invite Site License adds the API, SSO and premium integrations.
signNow fits small and mid-sized businesses that send a steady stream of standard agreements and want DocuSign-level basics for much less money. It is weaker on contract lifecycle features, and the editor feels dated next to newer tools. DocuSign remains the safer choice for regulated enterprises and complex routing, Dropbox Sign has a cleaner interface and simpler API, and PandaDoc is better when proposals and quotes matter as much as signatures.
Read the invite limits before you buy. Annual plans include 100 signature invites a year and monthly plans 10 a month; extra invites are pay-as-you-go. Annual billing cuts Business from $20 to $8 a month, and the Site License starts at $1.50 per invite.