Comparison

Acrobat Reader vs PDF Tools

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 is a powerful PDF tool for viewing, editing, annotating, and signing documents. It offers AI-powered features for summarizing and interacting with PDFs, along with robust conversion and security options. Collaborate on files and access your documents from anywhere.

Highlights
  • View, edit, and annotate PDFs
  • Sign and fill PDF forms
  • Convert files to and from PDF
  • AI-powered document summarization
  • Collaborate in PDF Spaces
  • Compress and secure PDFs
  • Optical Character Recognition (OCR)
Features
Read full description

Major new updates: Collaborate and share your files in PDF Spaces, and turn your document summaries into podcast-style audio in Acrobat Studio. The world’s most trusted PDF reader, PDF editor, and PDF maker with more than 635 million installs. View, share, annotate, add comments, and sign documents - all in one app. You can store your files online and read documents anywhere. Get your 7-day free trial and try all the features of Acrobat Reader. Paid features: Adobe Acrobat AI Assistant • 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 • Ask questions and get cited answers about details in your document, including charts, graphs, and tables with Figures Q&A • Easily share the responses you get • Try voice support to ask queries and have answers read aloud. • Use new Hands-free to keep the conversation flowing with voice only • Instantly generate summaries from your PDFs with Generative AI Summaries • Get content for emails, text, study notes, blogs, and more [Adobe Acrobat AI Assistant is a paid feature*, free for a limited time] Edit PDFs • With our PDF editor, edit text and images directly in your PDF (mobile only) • Fix typos or add paragraphs with the PDF editor • Easily add, delete, or rotate any image • Use this PDF signer and PDF viewer to get your docs just right Recognize text • Optical Character Recognition (OCR) turns scanned PDFs into searchable, editable text to use in other formats Merge & organize PDFs with PDF Converter • Split or combine multiple files into one PDF with PDF converter • Use the PDF editor to insert, delete, rotate, crop & reorder pages in your PDF file Create, convert & export PDFs • Easily convert to PDF from any file type including Microsoft, Google Docs, and images • Export and convert PDFs to Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, or various image files • Convert web pages to PDFs Compress & highly secure PDFs • Compress PDF files for easy saving and sharing • Password Protect PDF documents Have your PDF read aloud • Listen to your PDFs on the go, great for reading support • Choose free voices or upgrade for high-quality options Subscribe now to access all these features and use Acrobat across mobile and web platforms. Free-to-use features: PDF signer: Fill & Sign Adobe Fill & Sign is free & available in Acrobat Reader. A form filler and PDF signer that lets you fill, sign, and send Liquid mode in the optimal PDF viewer • Get the best PDF reading experience with this PDF viewer • Search, navigate & adjust font size or spacing to fit your screen Annotate PDFs • Add sticky notes, comments, and highlight text Store & manage files • Link online storage accounts like Microsoft OneDrive, Dropbox, or Google Drive • Star files to quickly open important documents Connect the PDF viewer and reader to Google Drive • A PDF creator that lets you edit, compress, and export Google Drive files with a subscription Work with scanned documents • Access scanned PDFs from Adobe Scan in Acrobat to fill, sign, and share The Acrobat Reader mobile app is designed to work with customers who have Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) enabled. *An Adobe Acrobat AI Assistant add-on plan is available to Acrobat Individual customers. iOS 16 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

PDF Tools

Easily organize, edit, and secure your PDF documents. Add or remove passwords, reorder or delete pages, convert images to PDF, and merge or split files. Sign and annotate documents, then share them instantly.

Highlights
  • Add/remove PDF passwords
  • Reorder and delete pages
  • Convert images to PDF
  • Export PDF pages to images
  • Sign and annotate PDFs
  • Merge and split PDF documents
  • Import/export from cloud services
Features
Read full description

PDF Tools: Sign & Edit PDF app helps you organize your documents easily and quickly. You can sign and annotate your PDF document and share it with anyone in seconds. The app offers all the editing features that you might be looking for. It simplifies your day-to-day tasks and boosts your productivity. Add Password: You can add a password to your PDF document. You can also apply print and copy restrictions to it. There are two types of passwords you can use to protect the PDF file. 1) User Password: It will lock the PDF file. So the content can only be viewed after supplying a valid password to unlock it. 2) Admin Password: It will allow you to put print and copy restrictions. Remove Password: You can remove the password from any PDF file. Please note that you must supply the existing password to unlock it. Reorder & Delete Pages: The app allows you to reorder the pages via drag and drop using thumbnails. You can also delete unwanted pages. Image to PDF: You can import multiple images and convert them to a PDF document with desired page size (i.e. A4 or Letter) and orientation (i.e. Portrait or Landscape). PDF to Images: Each page of your PDF document can be exported to an image and saved to Photo Library on your device. Signature and Annotations: You can sign a PDF document and send it straight away for review to the group. The app also allows you to add annotations and markups to any page. Merge PDFs: Multiple PDF documents can be merged easily. All you need to do is import and select the documents you want to merge. Split PDF Document: You can also split a single PDF document into multiple documents. Just specify the page range and your document will be split accordingly. Import: The app allows you to import PDF documents from your device, email, WhatsApp, or any app that supports PDFs. Export: Once you're done with editing, you can export or share the PDF document to Google Drive, Dropbox, Microsoft OneDrive, Email, SMS, or any other compatible app installed on your device. Upgrade to the premium version and use all the features without any restrictions. The premium version subscription terms are specified below: - You can purchase a monthly subscription ($1.99/month) or an annual subscription ($19.99/year). - Payment will be charged to iTunes Account at confirmation of purchase. - Subscription automatically renews unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. - Account will be charged for renewal within 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 the user's Account Settings after purchase - For more information on how to cancel a subscription, please review - https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202039 - Privacy policy: http://www.svgapps.com/privacy-policy - Terms of use: http://www.svgapps.com/terms

Screenshots

Acrobat Reader4 screens
PDF Tools4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: PDF Tools at 100% against Acrobat Reader's 49%. PDF Tools also leads on rating (5.0 vs 4.6) and iOS requirement (13.0 vs 18.3). Acrobat Reader's advantage is update cadence (every 9 days vs every 16 months) and ratings volume (654K vs 11). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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 PDF Tools sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

PDF Tools holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Acrobat Reader has 654K ratings behind it against 11, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 49% of Acrobat Reader's written reviews are positive against 100% of PDF Tools's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Acrobat Reader ships an update every 9 days, PDF Tools every 16 months. The most recent releases landed on September 24, 2026 and September 13, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 5 level
Acrobat Reader versus PDF Tools: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterAcrobat ReaderPDF Tools
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.6 (654K ratings)5.0 (11 ratings) — better
Positive reviews49.2% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings654K — better11
Update frequencyEvery 9 days — betterEvery 16 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFreemiumFreemium
Best chart rank#2 — better
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS18.313.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size522 MB66 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperAdobe Inc.SVG Apps

Customer experience

Acrobat Reader

All ratings654,141 ratings
Positive91.4%
Neutral2.4%
Negative6.2%
Written reviews3,096 reviews
Positive49.2%
Neutral4.4%
Negative46.4%

PDF Tools

All ratings11 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

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

PDF Tools

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
2 purchases

PDF Tools

Subscriptions2
  • Monthly Subscription$1.991 Month
  • Annual Subscription$19.991 Year

Questions

Is Acrobat Reader free?
Acrobat Reader is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is PDF Tools free?
PDF Tools is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Acrobat Reader or PDF Tools?
PDF Tools is rated higher. Acrobat Reader averages 4.6 out of 5 from 654K ratings, while PDF Tools averages 5.0 from 11 ratings.
Do Acrobat Reader or PDF Tools have ads?
Neither Acrobat Reader nor PDF Tools shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Acrobat Reader or PDF Tools?
Acrobat Reader ships an update every 9 days, and PDF Tools every 16 months. Most recently, Acrobat Reader was updated on September 24, 2026 and PDF Tools on September 13, 2026.

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