Pricing and what is free
Pricing and what is free
Adobe's pricing page lists Acrobat Standard at $14.99 a month on an annual plan billed monthly, or $24.99 month-to-month; Pro at $19.99 or $29.99; and Studio at $24.99 or $34.99. Team licenses cost more per seat. Cancelling an annual plan billed monthly after the first 14 days can cost up to half of the remaining commitment. The AI Assistant is a $4.99 monthly add-on unless you are on Studio. Adobe's Pro trial lasts 7 days and asks for payment details up front.
Adobe's free options are Acrobat Reader for viewing, commenting, filling and signing, and online tools such as compress, convert and merge that Adobe describes as free with limited use. A free Adobe account can send 2 signature requests every 30 days.
PDFBetter's browser tools (merge, split, rotate, images to PDF and similar) run on your device and download free without an account. Downloading a document you edited in the editor needs a free account; the Free plan includes 3 such downloads a month with no watermark, plus 3 signature requests, 1 live form with 50 responses, 20 OCR pages and 20 AI credits. Pro costs $15 a month, or $10 a month billed yearly, and a $6 Day Pass gives 24 hours of Pro without a subscription.
Editing, OCR and redaction
Editing, OCR and redaction
Acrobat Standard edits text and organizes pages; OCR, redaction, comparing files and web forms start at Pro. Acrobat's redaction removes the marked content when applied and saved, and a separate Sanitize command strips hidden data such as metadata.
PDFBetter includes text editing, OCR, compare and redaction on every plan, with OCR metered by page (20 pages a month on Free, 1,000 on Pro). Its redaction rewrites the page so the text and images under each box are removed, not covered. Acrobat's desktop app handles very large files and complex layouts with a mature engine; PDFBetter caps file size by plan (250 MB on Pro) and works best on digitally created PDFs.
Signing and forms
Signing and forms
Acrobat Standard can request signatures; Pro adds reusable signing templates, bulk send and web forms that collect responses. Adobe's help pages describe per-transaction limits on signers and file size, so check them if you send large packets.
In PDFBetter, Free includes 3 signature requests a month and Pro is unlimited, with signing order, reminders and a completion certificate. Every signer signs with their own cryptographic key. Every completed PDF is digitally sealed and independently time-stamped, with the evidence built into the file. Change one byte and Acrobat and other PDF readers show it. The seal certificate comes from PDFBetter's own certificate authority, which is not on Adobe's trust list yet, so Acrobat shows the signer identity as not verified; change detection still works. Reusable templates are on every account plan, bulk send is on Business, and fillable forms can be published as a link, QR code or embed that collects responses.
Professional output: print, archiving and accessibility
Professional output: print, archiving and accessibility
This is where Acrobat Pro has no equivalent in PDFBetter. Acrobat Pro's preflight tool checks and fixes files against print-production profiles, and it can save and validate PDF/X, PDF/A and PDF/E files. It also includes accessibility checking tools. Designers, printers, archivists and teams publishing documents for public bodies often depend on these.
PDFBetter does not offer preflight, PDF/X or PDF/A output, or an accessibility checker. If your workflow requires them, Acrobat Pro is the better choice.
AI and where files are processed
AI and where files are processed
Acrobat's AI Assistant summarizes documents and answers questions with cited answers; it is a paid add-on except in Studio. Adobe says its online tools process files on Adobe's servers and delete them unless you sign in to save them, while the desktop app works with files on your computer.
PDFBetter includes AI credits in every plan (20 on Free, 500 on Pro), shows the cost of each action, and cites page numbers in its answers. Its browser tools process files on your device without uploading them; editor documents, Office conversions and OCR run on PDFBetter's servers.