Adobe Acrobat vs. Formstack Forms

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Adobe Acrobat
Score 8.8 out of 10
N/A
Adobe Acrobat DC is the current version of the well-established document / PDF management solution, part of the Adobe Document Cloud (the other part being Adobe's eSign services based on technology acquired with EchoSign in 2011).
$12.99
per month
Formstack Forms
Score 8.6 out of 10
N/A
Formstack is an online form building solution. Its drag-and-drop web form creator gives digital marketers a tool for online data collection and engagement. Users can collect payments and pass form data to popular marketing apps through third-party integrations. With Formstack, users can capture responses, store the information and share it with their teams.
$50
per month
Pricing
Adobe AcrobatFormstack Forms
Editions & Modules
Acrobat Standard for Individuals
$12.99
per month
Acrobat Standard for teams
$14.99
per month per user
Acrobat Pro for Individuals
$19.99
per month
Acrobat Pro for Teams
$22.19
per month per user
Acrobat for Enterprise
Contact sales team
Enterprise
Contact sales team
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Adobe AcrobatFormstack Forms
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesNo
Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalNo setup fee
Additional DetailsPlans start at $50/month (billed annually), including: 20 Digital Forms 1,000 Submissions Per Form 14,400 API Calls Per Day Drag-and-Drop Form Builder Custom Themes Payment Integrations Salesforce Integration SSO User Management Form Prefill
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Adobe AcrobatFormstack Forms
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
Adobe AcrobatFormstack Forms
Survey Format & Appearance
Comparison of Survey Format & Appearance features of Product A and Product B
Adobe Acrobat
-
Ratings
Formstack Forms
6.0
61 Ratings
25% below category average
Survey templates00 Ratings9.053 Ratings
Themes00 Ratings4.656 Ratings
Custom logo/branding00 Ratings4.558 Ratings
Survey Content
Comparison of Survey Content features of Product A and Product B
Adobe Acrobat
-
Ratings
Formstack Forms
7.7
58 Ratings
10% below category average
Changes to live survey00 Ratings6.453 Ratings
Question design help00 Ratings8.01 Ratings
Multiple question types00 Ratings8.858 Ratings
Survey Logic
Comparison of Survey Logic features of Product A and Product B
Adobe Acrobat
-
Ratings
Formstack Forms
7.3
58 Ratings
12% below category average
Survey logic flexibility00 Ratings7.358 Ratings
Survey Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of Survey Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
Adobe Acrobat
-
Ratings
Formstack Forms
9.3
59 Ratings
14% above category average
Response tracking00 Ratings10.01 Ratings
Data export00 Ratings9.159 Ratings
Standard reports00 Ratings9.056 Ratings
Custom reports00 Ratings8.648 Ratings
Analytics00 Ratings10.01 Ratings
Survey Administration & Security
Comparison of Survey Administration & Security features of Product A and Product B
Adobe Acrobat
-
Ratings
Formstack Forms
8.7
57 Ratings
5% above category average
Access controls00 Ratings8.855 Ratings
Compliance00 Ratings8.550 Ratings
Survey Distribution
Comparison of Survey Distribution features of Product A and Product B
Adobe Acrobat
-
Ratings
Formstack Forms
8.0
1 Ratings
1% below category average
Vendor-offered crowdsourcing00 Ratings8.01 Ratings
Respondent restrictions00 Ratings8.01 Ratings
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User Ratings
Adobe AcrobatFormstack Forms
Likelihood to Recommend
8.9
(474 ratings)
7.2
(74 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
(11 ratings)
9.1
(12 ratings)
Usability
8.6
(232 ratings)
6.9
(6 ratings)
Availability
10.0
(2 ratings)
10.0
(2 ratings)
Performance
9.9
(7 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.1
(52 ratings)
3.3
(5 ratings)
Online Training
9.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
7.5
(4 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Ease of integration
10.0
(6 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
9.7
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Adobe AcrobatFormstack Forms
Likelihood to Recommend
Adobe
If your organization uses PDFs frequently, then Adobe Acrobat feels like must-have. I could not imagine our organization not using it. The ability to create, organize, and edit PDFs easily and intuitively are the main reasons my organization uses it. The other additional functions and features are "nice to haves", but ultimately, don't impact our day-to-day
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Formstack
Formstack makes it easy to create a variety of forms. I have used it for event interest and registrations, email list sign-ups, and surveys. I have found it easy to customize, and easy to export data for import into other systems (e.g., CRM).
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Pros
Adobe
  • Easy to understand- the program has a very intuitive layout that is great for people who doesn't use the product very much
  • Includes all features you might need. There are many features I didn't even think we would need that they have included.
  • They have a very recognizable name so my clients feel they can trust what they are being asked to open/sign since the Adobe name is next to it.
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Formstack
  • Allows for unique situations. As a school, we don't have the luxury of being cookie cutter. Neither do our forms.
  • Support. If we don't know how to do it, their support team has been very helpful and actually attempts to understand the issue on hand.
  • User friendliness. In our field we have a phrase: "what if you get hit by a bus?" With Formstack, you can "get hit by the bus" and someone else can jump in and still keep things running (this is used as a phrase for illness, not termination).
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Cons
Adobe
  • It would be good if Adobe Acrobat could utilize less system resources. I have had crashes due to memory and CPU load this week
  • Quicker load times from a cold launch
  • Easier collaborative commenting for offline documents - knowing where and who wrote what
  • Ensuring documents don't have issues where text cannot be copied before publishing
Read full review
Formstack
  • Setting up our multi-step form took some getting used to. Some of the branching logic configuration wasn't as intuitive as would be ideal.
  • Since we were pushing data directly into Hubspot, I found it cumbersome to deal with data storage limits within Formstack. I would get frequent notices that new responses were not being stored in Formstack and that I needed to upgrade or delete data. I got tired of that.
  • More/easier support for custom fonts would have been a huge plus. We were able to customize the form's appearance, but had to make some concessions in that regard.
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Likelihood to Renew
Adobe
I bought a perpetual license to Acrobat some time ago, but if the software ever stopped being supported in my version of windows or other solution that makes me need to buy another license I would not hesitate to do so since it saves me a lot of headaches. There are workarounds to merge files and edit pdfs with an online interface but I dont think those are a good usage of time when Acrobat exists.
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Formstack
Our user base has come to rely on Formstack to get forms done. The Formstack tools make it easy to start from scratch or copy an existing form to "quick start" a new, similar form. The price is right and frees up IT staff to do more transformative work.
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Usability
Adobe
My overall experience with Adobe is great because because the it has almost all of the tools in one place and it can be used it for most of my work without going anywhere else. Because the tools are available right there in the main interface, it makes it very easy to use.
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Formstack
I give it this rating because Ali feel like just about anyone can use this. Now with 7 billion people in the work I understand that’s not the case but I feel like Formstack get it pretty simple where a majority of humans could use it and navigate through. The only reason I didn’t give it a higher rating is because I think Google Forms is a little easier to use and that it’s pretty much impossible for any product to get a 10 on usability in my opinion.
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Reliability and Availability
Adobe
Pretty much always there for my business and personal needs.
Read full review
Formstack
No answers on this topic
Performance
Adobe
One of the best features of Adobe Acrobat is its speed and stability. When dealing with massive multi-page files, having to reload a crashed program over and over again would slow down progress unnecessarily. And expanding on that, having the table of contents generated allows me to skip to different pages with ease, a necessary feature with exceptionally long files. word searches are even more helpful with text recognition.
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Formstack
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Adobe
Because I don't need it. Used it years ago for account management/billing issues but they have changed the user experience so more of that can be managed online. If I have a question the knowledge base or a video that Adobe has posted answers
Read full review
Formstack
The agents in the original group, especially the ones in cahoots with the developers, are really solid and know what they're talking about--I'm looking at you, Collin. The 'Tier 1' support agents that typically reply to the tickets are really spotty. If you have an overly technical question, i.e. bugfix, or describe a feature from a few years back that randomly disappeared, these agents typically will give you what feels like a generic reply and not know what you're talking about.
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Online Training
Adobe
Answered basic questions.
Read full review
Formstack
No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
Adobe
Works well with JamF and SmartDeploy. These are our Enterprise imaging solutions for Mac's and PC's. The Enterprise installer is required when pushing out this app.
Read full review
Formstack
We implemented on one of the earlier versions. Through continuous engineering improvements, the interface keeps getting easier and more intuitive. Therefore, later implementations keep getting easier and better.
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Alternatives Considered
Adobe
There really is no comparison. Although we use other PDF programs, we mainly utilize Adobe. Not only because we find it to be a better program but also because everyone is more familiar with it. However, the other products are implemented for various reasons, such as a feature or 2 that we find necessary to use at times.
Read full review
Formstack
Drupal is a much more customizable platform, however you must have someone build the forms first and then you can work with them if you do not have the programming knowledge. If you have any changes to make, it can sometimes be both a time consuming and difficult process. Formstack is much more efficient if you do not have an in house programmer.
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Scalability
Adobe
I find that many users aren't aware of many features of the software they use, nor may they be comfortable with learning multiple-step processes. For the simplest of PDF purposes (scanning, downloading, exporting), it gets a thumbs-up. For anything involving electronic signatures, meh--causes eyes to glaze over, or forgetting what all is involved.
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Formstack
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
Adobe
  • Adobe Acrobat has improved the security of our documents, resulting in less risk, as protecting documents is essential to ensure compliance with privacy laws.
  • It saves our company money, as the product makes it easier for our employees to complete their jobs.
  • The product assists our employees with providing quality work product.
Read full review
Formstack
  • Positive - ability to analyze submission trends - e.g. when a marketing email is sent, looking at increased form viewing and submissions in relation to the sending of the campaign.
  • Immediate response - those that submit forms receive immediate response that their form has been submitted.
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ScreenShots

Adobe Acrobat Screenshots

Screenshot of Create, edit, convert, and share PDF files all from within Microsoft Teams – as part of Acrobat integrations with Microsoft 365 apps.Screenshot of With Liquid Mode in Adobe Acrobat Reader mobile app, users can read PDFs on phones and tablets without having to pinch and zoom. Navigate lengthy documents with intelligent outline and search tools, while maximizing readability and comfort with font size and line spacing that are adjustable.Screenshot of Fill and sign PDF forms from anywhere and on any device.  Collect signatures, digitally track progress, and automatically archive the signed document.Screenshot of With Adobe Scan mobile app, capture and convert documents into high-quality, interactive PDF documents that can be filled out, signed, and shared.  Eliminates the hassle of finding a printer, filling a form by hand, and scanning it again.