Adobe Acrobat Reader provides many essential PDF functions for free, including viewing, printing, commenting, filling forms, and signing PDFs. However, some of you may need capabilities beyond those basic tasks or prefer a lightweight PDF reader. In the following content, we’ll compare 8 Adobe Acrobat Reader alternatives, including free desktop applications, built-in PDF viewers, and PDF utilities. Now, let’s get started!

Quick Comparison of the Best Adobe Reader Alternatives

Before learning each alternative one by one, you can read the table below to have a quick overview.

8 Best Adobe Reader Alternatives in Detail

In this section, I will introduce you to 8 reliable alternatives to Adobe Acrobat Reader in detail. Here, let’s check them one by one.

1.      JOPDF – Best Free Desktop Adobe Reader Alternative

JOPDF is a free offline PDF tool for Windows, macOS, and Linux. It is worth considering if you want an alternative to Adobe Reader that combines PDF viewing with document editing, annotation, protection, and page management.

Key features:

• Open and read PDF documents on a desktop computer with several read modes.
• Edit and annotate PDFs by editing text and links as well as highlighting important information.
• Password-protect PDFs and watermark PDFs.
• Organize PDFs by merging, splitting, or extracting PDF pages.

Pricing: Free

Best for: Students, office workers, and individuals who want a free desktop PDF solution for everyday reading, editing, annotation, and document management.

2.      SwifDoo PDF – Best Adobe Reader Alternative for PDF Editing and Conversion

SwifDoo PDF is a cross-platform PDF editor available on Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and iOS. It is a good choice if you need more than basic document viewing. It combines PDF reading with editing, annotation, conversion, OCR, and document management features. More importantly, its AI-powered feature, SwifDoo AI, can enhance your reading experience.

Unlike Adobe Acrobat Reader, SwifDoo PDF provides a broader set of tools for modifying and processing documents. To some degree, SwifDoo PDF is also a good alternative to Adobe Acrobat.

Key features:

• Edit PDF text and images with various features.
• Provide OCR to recognize text in scanned PDFs and make them searchable and editable.
• Use SwifDoo AI to read PDFs aloud and translate PDFs into a familiar language for smooth reading.
• Annotate PDFs via highlighting text, adding comments, or inserting shapes.
• Convert PDFs to Word, Excel, CAD, and other supported formats.
• Fill out and sign PDF forms.

Pricing: Offers a 7-day free trial. For detailed pricing information, refer to: https://www.swifdoo.com/pricing 

Best for: Students, office workers, and professionals who need PDF editing, OCR, conversion, and document management in one application.

3.      SumatraPDF – Best Lightweight Adobe Reader Alternative

SumatraPDF is a lightweight, open-source document reader for Windows. If you value speed and simplicity rather than an extensive collection of editing tools, it is a good choice. In addition to reading PDFs, SumatraPDF also supports several other document formats, making it useful if you frequently open ebooks or technical documents alongside PDFs. What’s more, its minimalist interface is particularly appealing if you want to open a file and start reading without navigating a large toolbar.

Key features:

• Offers lightweight PDF viewing.
• Provides page navigation and zoom controls.
• Supports text searching and document navigation.
• Supports multiple document formats

Pricing: Free and open source

Best for: Windows users who primarily read PDFs and want a lightweight application.

4.      PDF-XChange Editor – Best for Advanced PDF Tools on Windows

PDF-XChange Editor is a Windows PDF application with viewing, annotation, and document-processing capabilities. When you need detailed control over document review and want access to a larger set of tools than a basic reader provides, PDF-XChange Editor is particularly useful. If you are looking for an Adobe Reader alternative for advanced PDF tools, PDF-XChange Editor is worth considering.

Key features:

• PDF viewing and navigation.
• Includes highlighting, commenting, and other annotation tools.
• Provides OCR and text-recognition functions for scanned PDFs.
• Offers document editing and page-related tools.

Pricing: A single license for 1 year is $62; for more pricing information, refer to: https://www.pdf-xchange.com/product/pdf-xchange-editor/pricing 

Best for: Windows users who need advanced PDF annotation and document tools.

5.      Okular – Best Open-Source PDF Reader

Okular is an open-source document viewer associated with the KDE software ecosystem. It is particularly relevant to Linux users. Here, you need to note that Okular's availability on other desktop platforms depends on the distribution and the current release. For detailed information, you can refer to: https://okular.kde.org/download/

Additionally, Okular's annotation features are useful for reading research papers, reviewing course materials, and adding notes to documents.

Key features:

• Read PDFs with useful navigation tools.
• Offers tools to select and search text.
• Supports annotation and markup.
• Supports additional document formats in addition to PDF.

Pricing: Free and open source

Best for: Linux users and people who prefer open-source document software.

6.      Apple Preview – Best Built-in PDF Reader for Mac

Apple Preview is a PDF viewer built into macOS. You can use it to open and work with PDFs without installing another application. In addition, Preview supports document viewing, markup, annotation, form filling in supported PDFs, and electronic signatures.

Key features:

• Open and read PDF documents.
• Highlight, annotate, and mark up PDF files.
• Fill out PDF forms and add electronic signatures to a PDF.
• Perform selected page-management tasks.

Pricing: free

Best for: Mac users who need basic PDF reading, markup, and form-filling functions.

7.      Microsoft Edge PDF Reader – Best for Reading PDFs in a Browser

Microsoft Edge includes a built-in PDF viewer, allowing you to open PDF files directly in the browser. This is convenient when you need to read a downloaded document or view a PDF from a website without installing additional software. Additionally, you can also edit PDFs in Edge.

Key features:

• Open and read PDFs directly in the browser.
• Navigate pages and search for text.
• Includes highlighting and markup functions.
• Integrates PDF viewing into an existing browser workflow.

Pricing: Free as part of Microsoft Edge

Best for: Users who read PDFs occasionally and prefer working in a browser.

8.      PDF24 Creator – Best Free Offline PDF Utilities

PDF24 Creator is a free Windows PDF tool that offers a collection of PDF utilities. If you want to perform document-management tasks regularly in addition to reading PDFs, it is quite useful. For instance, you can use it to merge PDFs, split PDF pages, compress PDFs, and carry out other common PDF operations.

Key features:

• Merge and split PDF files.
• Reduce PDF file size.
• Perform page-management tasks.

Pricing: Free

Best for: Windows users who need free PDF utilities for routine document processing.

How to Choose the Best Adobe Reader Alternative

When you make the final choice, you need to consider the tasks you perform most. Here’s a quick choice table for your reference.

Conclusion

No matter what reason you have for needing a suitable alternative to Adobe Reader, this article can meet your needs. If you mainly read documents, SumatraPDF, Apple Preview, and built-in browser viewers can be convenient choices. If you need more annotation, editing, or document-management features, consider a dedicated PDF tool, such as SwifDoo PDF, JOPDF, or PDF-XChange Editor. Finally, I hope this article is helpful to you.