Comparison

Acrobat Reader vs Scan Fill & Sign PDF Documents

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Acrobat Reader

This app allows you to view, edit, and sign PDF documents on your mobile device. It offers features like text and image editing, OCR, PDF conversion, and secure storage, with advanced AI capabilities available through subscription.

Highlights
  • View, edit, and sign PDFs
  • OCR for searchable text
  • Convert PDFs to various formats
  • Merge and organize files
  • Secure document storage
  • AI-powered document summaries
  • Read PDFs aloud
Features
Read full description

Adobe Acrobat Reader is the free PDF reader for opening, reading, filling in, signing and commenting on PDFs on your iPhone or iPad. It’s the world’s most trusted PDF reader, PDF editor and PDF maker, with more than 635 million installs and an App Store Editors’ Choice award. You also don’t need a subscription to read, fill in or sign PDFs. Need to do more? With Acrobat Premium, you can create PDFs from photos and files, edit text, convert PDFs to Word, Excel or PowerPoint, combine PDFs into one file and reorder pages. Free in Acrobat Reader: PDF viewer and PDF signer • Open and read any PDF, and use Liquid Mode to fit the text to your screen • Highlight text and add comments and sticky notes to your PDF • Fill in PDF forms and sign them with your finger using Fill & Sign • Share PDFs straight from the app • Open files and PDFs from your iPhone, email, Google Drive, OneDrive or Dropbox • Store and manage files, and star important docs for quick access • Open scans from the free Adobe Scan app to fill in, sign and share • Listen to PDFs read aloud with free voices With Acrobat Premium: PDF editor and PDF converter Start with a 7-day free trial. • Create a PDF from photos, Microsoft Office files, Google Docs or web pages • Edit text and images, fix typos and add paragraphs • Convert PDFs to Word, Excel, PowerPoint or image files, keeping fonts and formatting • Merge or combine PDFs into one file, like a resume and cover letter for a job application • Make a PDF smaller so it fits an email or upload limit • Insert, reorder, rotate, delete, extract or crop pages, or split a PDF into several files • Turn scanned docs into searchable, editable text with OCR • Password-protect PDFs • Edit, compress and export files and PDFs from Google Drive • Listen with higher-quality read-aloud voices Who Acrobat Reader is made for: • Students: merge notes into one file, highlight and comment on PDFs, listen to notes, and chat with AI Assistant • Mobile pros: open contracts and forms from email, fill and sign them, and send them back • Small businesses: create PDF invoices, sign contracts, convert PDFs to Word files, create PDF Spaces for projects • iPhone and iPad users: open PDFs from Files, Mail or your browser, set Acrobat Reader as your default PDF app, and go beyond viewing with comments and more • Get PDFs read aloud through Apple CarPlay for hands-free listening on the road Adobe Acrobat AI Assistant: Paid feature*, free for a limited time. • Work across multiple files in one place with PDF Spaces. Collaborate, store and use AI Assistant across files • Use voice or text prompts with AI Assistant chatbot and have answers read aloud • Ask questions and get cited answers about info in your PDF docs, including charts, graphs and tables • Use Hands-free to keep the conversation flowing with voice only • Instantly generate summaries from your PDFs • Get content for emails, text, study notes, blogs and more What’s new in Acrobat Reader: Collaborate and share your files in PDF Spaces, and turn your document summaries into podcast-style audio in Acrobat Studio. Frequently asked questions: Is Acrobat Reader free? Yes. You can open, read, fill in and sign PDFs for free. Do I need an Adobe account? No. You can read PDFs without one. Sign in with a free Adobe account to store files in Adobe Document Cloud storage, access them across devices and use more tools. Can I turn off AI features? Yes. AI Assistant features are optional, and you can turn them off in Preferences. The Acrobat Reader mobile app is designed to work with EMM enabled. *An Adobe Acrobat AI Assistant add-on plan is available to Acrobat Individual customers. iOS 18.316 or above required. Terms & Conditions: Your use of this application is governed by the Adobe General Terms of Use http://www.adobe.com/go/terms_linkfree_en and the Adobe Privacy Policy http://www.adobe.com/go/privacy_policy_linkfree_en Do not sell or share my personal information www.adobe.com/go/ca-rights-linkfree

About

Scan Fill & Sign PDF Documents

Easily sign and fill out any document digitally using your finger or a handwritten signature. Request signatures from others, create custom stamps, and secure your documents with advanced features. Supports various file formats and cloud storage integration.

Highlights
  • Insert digital signatures with finger or handwritten scan
  • Request and track signatures from others
  • Create and add custom stamps, text, and dates
  • Import documents from cloud storage
  • Supports multiple document formats (PDF, Word, Excel, JPG, etc.)
  • Advanced security with Fingerprint/Face ID and PIN
  • Offline signing and draft saving
Features
Read full description

Sign documents yourself - Easily insert your signature to any document with your finger. Or simply take a photo of a document with your handwritten signature. Create and use digital signatures – easily add signatures to your digital documents. Sign and share documents either in-person with other people present with you or digitally send the document to other remote people for signature from wherever you are. Our customers say they are using the Fill and Sign digital signature App for the following purposes: • When you are out of the office and urgently need to sign or stamp documents but only have access to your iPhone, create custom stamps and signatures and apply them to documents • Sign your documents without printing paper • Scanning physical paper forms • Generate digital stamps and stamping documents (mandatory document authorisation in certain countries) • Electronically Stamp your documents with your company’s stamp • Import documents from your cloud storage accounts • Converting any document or file to PDF • Remote users can use our web application to sign documents without the need to download the App Fill and Sign ESSENTIAL PLAN FEATURES: Collaborate with other people to sign documents. Request and track other signatures either in person or using digital channels. Ensure a fully legal audit trail across signatories. • Wet, ink signatures - Add smooth signatures by drawing or uploading a signatures from your document(s) using our smart signature capture • Multiple signature formats - Upload an image of the signature or create a signature using templates • Import and export documents - Import documents from email, Dropbox, Box, Google Drive, OneDrive and other cloud storage • Unlimited document signatures - Sign as many documents as you need, securely store and share your signed documents • Add stamps, text and dates - Create digital stamps and easily add text, images and dates • Legally binding with audit trail - Create documents with legal signatures shared with others • Supports all popular document formats - Supports import of popular formats such as PDF, Word, Excel, Pages, JPG, PNG, etc • Advanced security features - Authenticate and protect signed documents by Fingerprint ID, Face ID or PIN • Customizable email footer - Set a custom email footer for emails sent to document recipients • Offline signing - When offline, edit and sign documents, save them as drafts SUBSCRIPTION: • Subscriptions are billed either weekly, monthly or yearly at the rate selected depending on the subscription plan • Payment will be charged to your Apple Account at confirmation of purchase • Subscription automatically renews and account charged unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24-hours before the end of the current period • Subscriptions may be managed by the user and auto-renewal may be turned off by going to your Account Settings By using Fill and Sign, you are agreeing to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use. Privacy Policy: https://www.fillandsign.net/privacy Terms of Use: https://www.fillandsign.net/terms Your subscription will automatically renew unless cancelled at least 24 hours. Disclaimer: All Fill and Sign app users will be required to sign up for auto-renewable in-app purchases before they are able to access the app.

Screenshots

Acrobat Reader4 screens
Scan Fill & Sign PDF Documents4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Scan Fill & Sign PDF Documents at 97% against Acrobat Reader's 49%. Scan Fill & Sign PDF Documents also leads on update cadence (every 2 days vs every 10 days) and iOS requirement (13.0 vs 18.3). Acrobat Reader's advantage is rating (4.6 vs 1.0) and monetization model (free with in-app purchases vs subscription). On price, ads, in-app purchases and device support there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Acrobat Reader sells 16 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month and Scan Fill & Sign PDF Documents sells 6 in-app purchases, starting at $2.49 per 7 days. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Acrobat Reader holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 1.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Acrobat Reader has 664K ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 49% of Acrobat Reader's written reviews are positive against 97% of Scan Fill & Sign PDF Documents's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Acrobat Reader ships an update every 10 days, Scan Fill & Sign PDF Documents every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on October 31, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 4 level
Acrobat Reader versus Scan Fill & Sign PDF Documents: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterAcrobat ReaderScan Fill & Sign PDF Documents
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.6 (664K ratings) — better1.0 (1 ratings)
Positive reviews49.1% of reviews96.8% of reviews — better
Number of ratings664K — better1
Update frequencyEvery 10 daysEvery 2 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases — betterSubscription
Best chart rank#2 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS18.313.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size556 MB127 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperAdobe Inc.Pasha Apps

Customer experience

Acrobat Reader

All ratings663,810 ratings
Positive91.3%
Neutral2.4%
Negative6.3%
Written reviews3,318 reviews
Positive49.1%
Neutral4.3%
Negative46.6%

Scan Fill & Sign PDF Documents

All ratings1 ratings
Positive0.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative100.0%
Written reviews31 reviews
Positive96.8%
Neutral0.0%
Negative3.2%

Bugs and requests

Acrobat Reader

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Frequent crashes and freezes
  • Inconsistent behavior when editing PDFs
  • Inability to open or save certain file types
  • Sync issues between mobile and desktop versions

Requested features

5 requests
  • Add erase tool for annotations
  • Improve palm rejection for Apple Pencil
  • Allow direct text editing in PDFs
  • Provide better cloud integration and sync
  • Offer more customization options

Scan Fill & Sign PDF Documents

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

16 purchases

Acrobat Reader

Subscriptions16
  • Acrobat Premium - Monthly$3.991 Month
  • Adobe Acrobat Premium$4.991 Month
  • AI Assistant for Acrobat$6.991 Month
Show 13 more
  • Acrobat Premium$7.497 Days
  • Acrobat Premium - Monthly$9.991 Month
  • Acrobat Premium - Weekly$9.997 Days
  • PDF Pack - Doc Creator$9.991 Month
  • Premium - Edit & Create PDF$9.991 Month
  • PDF Edit and Convert Monthly7 Days trial$12.991 Month
  • Acrobat Premium - Monthly$12.991 Month
  • Acrobat Premium - Monthly$14.991 Month
  • Acrobat Reader Plus - Yearly$19.991 Year
  • Adobe ExportPDF$23.991 Year
  • Adobe Acrobat Pro$24.991 Month
  • Acrobat Premium - Yearly7 Days trial$48.991 Year
  • Acrobat Premium - Yearly7 Days trial2 variants$69.991 Year
6 purchases

Scan Fill & Sign PDF Documents

Subscriptions6
  • Weekly$2.497 Days
  • Monthly$3.491 Month
  • Weekly - Essential Features$4.997 Days
Show 3 more
  • Monthly - Essential Features$6.991 Month
  • Yearly$14.991 Year
  • Yearly - Essential Features3 Days trial$29.991 Year

Questions

Is Acrobat Reader free?
Acrobat Reader is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Scan Fill & Sign PDF Documents free?
Scan Fill & Sign PDF Documents is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Acrobat Reader or Scan Fill & Sign PDF Documents?
Acrobat Reader is rated higher. Acrobat Reader averages 4.6 out of 5 from 664K ratings, while Scan Fill & Sign PDF Documents averages 1.0 from 1 ratings.
Do Acrobat Reader or Scan Fill & Sign PDF Documents have ads?
Neither Acrobat Reader nor Scan Fill & Sign PDF Documents shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Acrobat Reader or Scan Fill & Sign PDF Documents?
Acrobat Reader ships an update every 10 days, and Scan Fill & Sign PDF Documents every 2 days. Most recently, Acrobat Reader was updated on October 31, 2026 and Scan Fill & Sign PDF Documents on October 24, 2026.

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