Acrobat alternative
A free alternative to Adobe Acrobat.
The tabbed workspace, All tools panel and shortcuts you already know, without the subscription, the sign-in prompts or the upsells.
Paperwing and Acrobat Pro, side by side
| Paperwing | Acrobat Pro | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free, forever | Subscription |
| Account required | No | Yes |
| Works offline | Yes1 | Partly |
| Upsell and AI pop-ups | None | Frequent |
| Open source | Yes, AGPL-3.0 | No |
| Portable, no install (Windows) | Yes | No |
1 A few tools fetch their engine once on first use. See Privacy.
What feels the same
- A tabbed workspace with Home, recent and starred files.
- The All tools panel and the Edit, Convert and E-Sign tabs.
- The floating quick-action toolbar: select, comment, highlight, draw, text box, sign.
- A right-hand rail with comments, bookmarks, thumbnails and find.
- Acrobat’s keyboard shortcuts, including H, V, S, U, D and X.
What’s different
- It’s free. Every tool, with no trial and no paid tier.
- No account. Nothing to sign in to, ever.
- Offline. Your files are processed on your computer and never uploaded.
- No pop-ups. No cloud nags, AI overlays or paywalled buttons.
- Open source. The code is on GitHub under the AGPL-3.0 licence.
What Acrobat has that Paperwing doesn’t
To be fair about it: Acrobat includes Adobe’s cloud storage and document sharing, mobile apps, integrations with other Adobe and Microsoft products, an AI assistant, and a signed, notarized installer. If you rely on those, Acrobat may still be the right fit. If you mostly edit, sign, convert and organize PDFs on your own computer, Paperwing does that for free.
Questions
Is Paperwing a full replacement for Adobe Acrobat?
For editing, signing, converting, organizing, compressing, OCR, redaction and forms, yes, and it’s free. Acrobat still has things Paperwing doesn’t, such as cloud storage and sharing, mobile apps, and Adobe’s AI assistant.
Can I open the PDFs I made in Acrobat?
Yes. PDF is an open standard, and Paperwing opens, edits and saves standard PDF files, including forms and digitally signed documents.
Will my Acrobat shortcuts work?
Yes. Paperwing mirrors Acrobat’s default shortcuts, including the single-key tool accelerators (H, V, S, U, D, X), and they’re on by default.
Is Paperwing made by Adobe?
No. Paperwing is an independent open-source project and isn’t affiliated with or endorsed by Adobe.
Paperwing is an independent project and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Adobe. Acrobat is a trademark of Adobe.
Open your next PDF
in Paperwing.
Free for Windows and macOS. No account, no subscription, nothing to sign up for.