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Indie alternatives to Adobe Acrobat

8 products made by independent developers and small teams that do what Adobe Acrobat does, 8 of them with a free plan. Free and open-source options come first.

At a glance

Product	Price	Open source	Self-host	Platforms
PDF24 Tools	Free	–	–	Web, Windows
PDFgear	Free	–	–	Web, Mac, Windows, iOS, Android
Highlights	Free plan	–	–	Mac, iOS
iLovePDF	Free plan	–	–	Web, Windows, Mac, iOS, Android
PDF Expert	Free plan	–	–	Mac, Windows, iOS
Sejda	Free plan	–	–	Web, Windows, Mac, Linux
Smallpdf	Free plan	–	–	Web, Windows, iOS, Android
Stirling PDF	Free plan	Yes	Yes	Web, Self-hosted

The alternatives

1. PDF24 Tools

Free online and desktop PDF tools

A free collection of PDF tools for merging, compressing, converting, editing and OCR, available online and as a Windows desktop app.

Free · Web, Windows · Website ↗

2. PDFgear

PDF reader, editor and converter

A desktop and mobile PDF app for reading, editing, converting, merging, signing and chatting with PDFs.

Free · Web, Mac, Windows, iOS, Android · Website ↗

3. Highlights

Highlight PDFs and export notes to Markdown

Highlights is a PDF reader for Apple devices that collects your highlights and annotations and exports them to Markdown, notes apps and more.

Free plan · Mac, iOS · Website ↗

4. iLovePDF

Online tools to merge, split, compress and convert PDFs

A set of online and desktop PDF tools for merging, splitting, compressing, converting, OCR and signing PDF files.

Free plan · Web, Windows, Mac, iOS, Android · Website ↗

5. PDF Expert

PDF editor and reader for Mac, iPhone and iPad

A PDF app from Readdle for reading, annotating, editing text and images, filling forms and signing PDFs.

Free plan · Mac, Windows, iOS · Website ↗

6. Sejda

Online and desktop PDF editor and toolkit

Sejda lets you edit, merge, split, compress, convert and sign PDFs in the browser or with a desktop app.

Free plan · Web, Windows, Mac, Linux · Website ↗

7. Smallpdf

Online PDF tools: compress, convert, edit and sign

A web-based PDF toolkit for compressing, converting, merging, editing and e-signing PDFs, also available as desktop and mobile apps.

Free plan · Web, Windows, iOS, Android · Website ↗

8. Stirling PDF

Open-source, self-hostable PDF toolkit

A locally hosted web app with dozens of PDF operations such as merge, split, convert, OCR, compress and sign, so files never leave your server.

Free plan · Web, Self-hosted · Website ↗

Questions

Is there a free alternative to Adobe Acrobat?

Yes. 8 of the 8 indie alternatives listed here have a free plan or are free: PDF24 Tools, PDFgear, Highlights, iLovePDF and 4 more.

Is there an open-source alternative to Adobe Acrobat?

Stirling PDF is open source.

Can I self-host an alternative to Adobe Acrobat?

Yes: Stirling PDF can run on your own server.

Which Adobe Acrobat alternatives work on Mac, Windows, iPhone or Android?

On Mac: PDFgear, Highlights, iLovePDF and 2 more. On Windows: PDF24 Tools, PDFgear, iLovePDF and 3 more. On Linux: Sejda. On iPhone and iPad: PDFgear, Highlights, iLovePDF and 2 more. On Android: PDFgear, iLovePDF and Smallpdf. On the web: PDF24 Tools, PDFgear, iLovePDF and 3 more.

What makes these alternatives to Adobe Acrobat “indie”?

They are built by independent developers or small teams rather than large companies. Each one is listed because it does the same core job as Adobe Acrobat.

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