First, work out which Acrobat you are paying for
If you use only one or two of Acrobat’s features, find them below, with the tool that does each one.
Just reading and filling in forms
Acrobat Reader, or your browser. Acrobat Reader is still free, and handles viewing, printing, commenting, filling in forms and signing. Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari all open PDFs too. If that is all you do, you do not need a replacement, or a subscription.
Making a PDF out of something else
Your operating system. Windows and macOS both print to PDF already: choose Print, then Microsoft Print to PDF or Save as PDF. Word, Google Docs, Pages and Canva all export one directly. CutePDF Writer is the long-standing Windows alternative if you want a named printer driver, though it is Windows only; read each installer prompt before accepting it.
Editing text that is already in the PDF
PDFgear, or LibreOffice Draw. Editing an existing PDF is the job most free tools cannot do. PDFgear edits existing text and images, does OCR and conversion, and runs on Windows, macOS, iOS, Android and the web, free and without a watermark. LibreOffice Draw will also rewrite text in a PDF and is free and open source.
A toolbox on Windows
PDF24 Creator. Compress, convert, merge, split, rotate and more, in one free Windows application. The desktop app is Windows only, though the same tools run in a browser on any machine.
Splitting and merging, nothing else
PDFsam Basic. Free and open source, no file size limit and no watermark. It does not edit content, annotate or do OCR. It does one small job without installing a suite.
One-off jobs in a browser
Sejda. Good for the occasional edit without installing anything, and it does not watermark. The free tier limits you to a few tasks an hour, so it suits the rare job rather than daily work.
Keeping files off other people’s servers
Stirling PDF. Open source and self-hosted: you run it, so documents never leave your own machine or server. Someone has to install and maintain it.
Annotating across a laptop and a phone
Xodo. Annotation, form filling and signing that syncs across devices. The heavier PDF Studio product is paid.
Two things worth checking before you switch
- Real editing, or just an overlay? Preview on a Mac and Edge on Windows will add a text box, a signature or a comment on top of a PDF. That is not the same as rewriting the text already in the file, which is what you miss when you cancel Acrobat. PDFgear, LibreOffice Draw and the paid editors do the real thing.
- Where does the file go? A browser tool usually uploads your document to process it. For a council form that is fine. For a contract with someone’s bank details in it, prefer something that runs on your own machine.
If the job is getting signatures
There is one job on that list none of these tools does well, and it is a common reason to keep an Acrobat subscription: getting a document signed by other people, in order, with a record of who signed what and when.
That is what Refrendo does. You bring the PDF, from any of the tools above, add the people who have to approve and sign it, and each of them gets a link and signs in their browser. They never install anything, never create an account and never pay. When the last signature is in, everyone is emailed a link to download the completed document and a certificate recording who signed, when, how each person was identified, and fingerprints of the file before and after.
Refrendo does not edit PDFs, and it is not trying to replace Acrobat. If you want the narrower question of how to get a single PDF signed without buying anything, that has its own page. If you are weighing up Adobe’s signing product specifically, see Refrendo vs Adobe Acrobat Sign.
These tools were checked in September 2026 and all of them change. Prices, free tiers and platform support move around, so confirm on each product’s own website before you commit to one. Adobe, Acrobat and the other product names here are trademarks of their owners, and Refrendo is not affiliated with any of them.