Adobe Acrobat Reader vs. Adobe Acrobat Sign

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Adobe Acrobat Reader
Score 8.3 out of 10
N/A
Acrobat Reader is a PDF viewer and converter, available as a free download from Adobe. Users can view, sign, collaborate on and annotate PDF files, or edit and convert PDFs into file formats like Excel and Word.N/A
Adobe Acrobat Sign
Score 8.4 out of 10
Mid-Size Companies (51-1,000 employees)
Acrobat Sign is an e-signature solution that combines simple and secure e-signatures with Adobe Acrobat. With Acrobat Sign, the user can create, sign, send for signature, manage, and track documents from one Adobe platform. The user can create signing experiences for customers and teams by enabling them to sign documents on any device or browser – anytime, anywhere. No additional software download or accounts are needed. As Microsoft’s e-signature solution, Acrobat Sign…
$14.99
per month license
Pricing
Adobe Acrobat ReaderAdobe Acrobat Sign
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Acrobat Standard DC for teams
$14.99
per month license
Acrobat Pro DC with advanced e-sign
$16.99
per month license
Acrobat Sign Solutions
Call 800-685-4192 for pricing
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Adobe Acrobat ReaderAdobe Acrobat Sign
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoYes
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup fee$34.99 license per month
Additional Details——
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Adobe Acrobat ReaderAdobe Acrobat Sign
Considered Both Products
Adobe Acrobat Reader

No answer on this topic

Adobe Acrobat Sign
Chose Adobe Acrobat Sign
We utilize DocuSign over Adobe Acrobat Sign for e-signature purposes. The functionality of DocuSign is much greater in its' self-contained application; usability appears superior, and, to my knowledge, costing is more beneficial for the total value package.
Chose Adobe Acrobat Sign
Adobe Acrobat Sign is convenient if you need someone to sign documents but they don't have access to a printer. If you need to track timestamps or signatures, it works well for that, too. Adobe Acrobat Sign allows you to digitally sign and send documents without ever needing a …
Best Alternatives
Adobe Acrobat ReaderAdobe Acrobat Sign
Small Businesses
PDFfiller
PDFfiller
Score 9.1 out of 10
PDFfiller
PDFfiller
Score 9.1 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
PDFfiller
PDFfiller
Score 9.1 out of 10
MSB Docs
MSB Docs
Score 9.4 out of 10
Enterprises
Adobe Acrobat
Adobe Acrobat
Score 8.8 out of 10
DocuSign
DocuSign
Score 8.5 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Adobe Acrobat ReaderAdobe Acrobat Sign
Likelihood to Recommend
9.2
(74 ratings)
7.9
(227 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
7.2
(2 ratings)
8.0
(30 ratings)
Usability
9.0
(1 ratings)
8.1
(193 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(5 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(4 ratings)
Support Rating
-
(0 ratings)
7.4
(164 ratings)
Online Training
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
Implementation Rating
10.0
(1 ratings)
8.0
(7 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(3 ratings)
Ease of integration
-
(0 ratings)
5.0
(2 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(3 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(2 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(2 ratings)
User Testimonials
Adobe Acrobat ReaderAdobe Acrobat Sign
Likelihood to Recommend
Adobe
This is a useful tool for anyone who downloads and uses PDFs in the day-to-day operations of their role. It has many functionalities like PDF to word documents, e-signatures, commenting, and printing PDF documents. You can annotate PDFs from anywhere, store files on the cloud, and ultimately it makes it easier to collaborate with colleagues. It would be best for e-signatures and editing PDFs, but mainly the program is used for doing anything you like to a PDF.
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Adobe
Acrobat Sign isn't quite as user friendly as other E-Sign platforms I have used. However, it offers a wide range of features that provide convenience and efficiency. For example, I can have multiple people receive the same document separately, or I can have multiple people receive and review the exact same document. I also like that I can choose to set a signing order or not, this is important for when I send Offer Letters and other things that require order of approvals.
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Pros
Adobe
  • It has all the tools that individuals need for reading/doing light editing of PDF files.
  • It is the most secure PDF reader on the market, and it tends to get patched with timely updates on a regular basis.
  • It usually works very well, as far as the software itself. It doesn't crash a lot, or is particularly an error prone software platform.
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Adobe
  • Adobe Acrobat Sign tracks whether or not a signer has viewed a document
  • Adobe Acrobat Sign tracks when a signer has signed, and the document has been sent to the next signer
  • Adobe Acrobat Sign sends you confirmation emails and progress update emails along the way
  • Adobe Acrobat Sign provides a "confirmation of signing" page at the end of the document package you put together, to prove the signatures are authentic
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Cons
Adobe
  • Being able to add image "stamps" to a document is a little tricky as the stamp has to already be in PDF format (at least on Mac) to work. This mean you have to convert the image to PDF before you can use it as a stamp.
  • Being only able to save one signature and one set of initials is a bit of a pain but you can actually use stamps if you need different versions frequently used scribbles for various reasons. The stamp won't secure the document and prevent future changes the same way the signature would though.
  • All of the other features you might want to use are only included with Acrobat Pro but the options are all displayed in the Reader app. When clicked they will offer the free trial that leads to a paid subscription. This is more of an annoyance but you can't fault Adobe for trying to make a sale.
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Adobe
  • Builds on Adobe platform so it is easy to utilize, but many features require enterprise subscription.
  • Integrations available but your CRM integration is only available with enterprise license.
  • Lots of templates but there are additional templates with enterprise only and there was no drag and drop editor.
  • Adobe captures some analytical metrics but many of the analytics we required were not available - specifically metrics related to how the tool converts and reduces use time by our team and the impact on clients.
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Likelihood to Renew
Adobe
To be honest, I do not have any say in the renewal of Adobe Acrobat Reader DC. It is managed at an enterprise level, and the decision to renew or not renew is handled well above my pay grade as an external consultant.
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Adobe
It is by far the easiest service we have used to obtain digital signatures from employees. In the past we had done it by hand (a process I would not recommend for 1500+ employees) and with another company that would not allow us to create our own forms and would charge us for each form.
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Usability
Adobe
The main issues or limitations with Adobe Acrobat Reader DC usually stem from the device or OS rather than the software or document. Complaints typically arise when contributors use a different app to view or edit, which is understandably outside of Adobe's control. It would be helpful if the ability to open and fill a PDF was built into the OS, but that's more of a licensing issue than anything else.
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Adobe
I've had very little trouble with it in all my uses with it. I do wish the text boxes you add wouldn't cut off the text if you entered too many words and that it would adjust it's size to fit within the space you've provided. However, that just takes a little refining in the initial set up of the document before you send it out.
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Reliability and Availability
Adobe
No answers on this topic
Adobe
I would have rated this a 9 or greater had they not had had such critical outages. They have taken steps to resolve this so I may come in and revise this
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Performance
Adobe
No answers on this topic
Adobe
The Adobe Acrobat Sign's performance are excellent.
When we send electronic document by email for signature all the customers receive it regularly, nobody has any issue to open it and the signature phase was very easy. The user-friendly aspect of this product reduce or reset the call for IT support
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Support Rating
Adobe
No answers on this topic
Adobe
It is a great tool to get signatures from the client and has reduced a lot of overhead that was caused before resulting in very long delays. With the integration of Adobe Acrobat Sign, we have reduced this delay making the process much smoother and more efficient.
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Online Training
Adobe
No answers on this topic
Adobe
The best types of training are well integrated into the product and Echosign does this well. As mentioned earlier in my review - there are some areas of functionality that can be difficult to understand ("only I sign") for the novice user. Other areas such as macro usage, bulk signature and so on were easily learned and understood via the online tools.
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Implementation Rating
Adobe
The application is pretty much "plug and play"
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Adobe
We did not use it in the manner that most companies do, so I am pleased with how our company handled implementation. We will be pushing the full company over into Echosign for various processes which will incorporate more of an implementation effect.
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Alternatives Considered
Adobe
We have reviewed DocuSign in comparison to [Adobe] Acrobat Reader [DC's] e-sign capabilities. We found that DocuSign has more robust options when creating contracts and consent capabilities. DocuSign's online UI is much more suited to this type of task as well. However, we decided to stick with [Adobe] Acrobat Reader DC because of the price (DocuSign is more expensive) and we felt we didn't need all of the bells and whistles for contract signature and consent.
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Adobe
They are just different. Adobe's number one feature that puts it above it's competitors is that your document, the signing process, all of it exists within Adobe. There is no need to go from Word, to Adobe, to DocuSign. It saves you time and makes life easy for you (and for your clients).
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Scalability
Adobe
No answers on this topic
Adobe
At the beginning we assigned Adobe Acrobat Sign just to Purchase Office Department because at that moment we needed a tool that supported us to avoid manual signature and was compliance with remote working.
Now we are using it also in other situation because it help us with time and we can also reduce cost
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Return on Investment
Adobe
  • It's available for free, so there is no excuse to not install
  • Contains features that you would normally have to pay for in competitor software, so it has a positive impact on ROI
  • Reduces the amount of printing
  • Decreases the amount of time spent on regulatory and governance documentation
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Adobe
  • Significantly reduced the time required for document signing processes reducing wasted time and effort
  • Cost savings since there is no longer any need to print and post/scan traditional signed paper-based documents
  • Faster decision-making since time-sensitive decisions and approvals can now be processed much more quickly by using e-signatures.
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ScreenShots

Adobe Acrobat Sign Screenshots

Screenshot of Send, sign, manage and archive documents with 100% legal e-signatures. Collecting e-signatures is as easy as swipe and tap with Adobe Sign. Sign from any device. Legally binding. Works with multiple apps. extremely cost-effective.Screenshot of Easily send e-signature requests to multiple recipients using Send in bulk feature.  Send a document to multiple people with one click, and every recipient gets their own personalized form ready to sign.Screenshot of Track and manage signatures with Adobe Acrobat Sign.  Get real-time visibility for every document out for signature, and receive notifications when documents have been signed.Screenshot of Create an online web form with Acrobat Sign.  It allows your recipients – whether they’re your employees or customers – to quickly access, complete, and sign critical documents without printing or mailing anything.  You will also get immediate access to the data and signatures.