Adobe Acrobat
Adobe Acrobat is a PDF editor that handles document review, redaction, Bates numbering, OCR and electronic signatures. It is mainly used for document-heavy office and legal work where PDFs must be edited, signed and archived.
#5 in Document & File ToolsPDF EditorsFree plan
Who it's for
Best for
Law firms that need Bates numbering, redaction and e-signatures in one app.
Enterprise teams that manage document workflows, forms, and e-signatures.
Not for
People who only read and print PDFs and want something fast and light.
Teams running shared document reviews on a network drive.
Features
AI Assistant
The Acrobat section links to a "Try AI Assistant" option, pointing to AI tools layered on top of PDF documents inside the application.
Free trial
Acrobat appears in the main product navigation with a free trial link, so the editor can be evaluated before a subscription is bought.
Acrobat Reader
Acrobat Reader is listed among Adobe's featured products, sitting next to Firefly, Express and Photoshop as one of the company's core apps.
PDF product category
Adobe groups Acrobat under a dedicated PDF category in its product menu, kept separate from the photography, video and design families.
What users say
Pros
- Converts 800MB of scanned pages into a 70MB searchable PDF, and scanned textbooks came out accurate.
- Bates numbering for discovery and e-signature collection for retainers and settlements both work in the desktop app.
- Redaction genuinely strips the underlying text, leaving no copyable data behind the black box.
Cons
- Freezes and crashes strike basic tasks such as rearranging pages, adding text boxes and saving files.
- Opening a file or searching a few dozen pages takes many seconds, even on high-spec workstations.
- AI Assistant banners, sidebars and pop-ups interrupt simple jobs such as filling in a form.
- A shared network drive can no longer be configured for shared reviews in the newest version.
- Update and installer files pile up, with one Windows machine holding 250GB of orphaned patches.
- The interface is far worse than Acrobat XI, with menus rebuilt for casual reading over production work.
A selection of the review sources we used:
Summarized from public user reviews and community discussions. View details
Global Traffic Rank
Top 1k
Alternatives
Rank#5 in category#4 in category#7 in category#10 in category
Free planYesYesYesYes
ProAccurate OCR, real redaction, Bates stamping, exact searchNo sign-up, clean interface, finishes jobs reliablyNo account needed, fillable forms, fair free tier, niche PDF toolsFast conversions, password removal, no signup, corrupt-file rescue
Weaker atEditing existing text and adjusting document layout directly inside the file.