Adobe Acrobat vs. DocuSign

Adobe Acrobat

4,033 Reviews and Ratings

DocuSign

1,234 Reviews and Ratings

Overview
Product	Rating	Most Used By	Product Summary	Starting Price
Adobe Acrobat	Score8.7 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).	$29.99 per month per seat
DocuSign	Score8.8 out of 10	N/A	DocuSign supports transactions with document sharing and electronic signature, as well as automated and guided data collection and entry, record updating across disparate systems and payment collection upon agreement, as well as analytics and reporting.	$15 per month

Pricing

Adobe Acrobat

DocuSign

Acrobat Pro for Individuals: $19.99
per month
Acrobat Pro for Teams: $23.99
per month per user
Acrobat Studio for Individuals: $24.99
per month

Personal: $15
per month
Real Starter: $15
per month
DocuSign for Realtors: $35
per month
Standard: $40
per month
Business Pro: $60
per month
Advanced Solutions: Custom Pricing

Pricing Offerings
Adobe Acrobat	DocuSign
Free Trial
Yes	Yes
Free/Freemium Version
No	No
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
Yes	No

Optional

No setup fee

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Community Pulse
Key User Insights
	Adobe Acrobat	DocuSign
Considered Both Products	Adobe Verified User Chose Adobe Acrobat PandaDoc did not offer a time and date stamp with the signature, which is why we had to stop using their services, as it is a requirement with Social Security. Our office was using Adobe Acrobat for separate uses, and we also used DocuSign specifically for retainer documents, … Incentivized Helpful? Kaleem Ahmed Senior Software Engineer in Information Technology at Astrea IT Services (Information Technology Services, 51-200 employees) Chose Adobe Acrobat DocuSign was the main alternative we looked at seriously. The E-Signature side is comparable, but DocuSign does not give you the broader PDF editing and OCR capabilities, so you would still need another tool alongside it. Acrobat made more sense as a single tool that covered … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Chose Adobe Acrobat To me, I just feel safer using Adobe Acrobat because I've been using Adobe for so long and I have familiarity with it, but DocuSign is good too. Adobe is just like home and when I get something from Adobe I'm less skeptical it's gonna be disasterous because I trust Adobe so … Incentivized Helpful? Jennifer Blair Creative Director and Owner at Jen Blair Design (Publishing, 1-10 employees) Chose Adobe Acrobat This isn't really a good comparison, but Adobe Acrobat is more of a program that works among all of these, and I'll keep using it as long as it's a part of Adobe CC. Otherwise, I see DocuSign as suitable for secure/private documents, and Dropbox file previews allows a pretty … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Chose Adobe Acrobat DocuSign has it's perks, for sure. DocuSign is easier to integrate into websites with extensions than Adobe Acrobat is but when it came down to it, we just didn't trust the brand. We felt that using a product with the Adobe name connected with it provided necessary peace of … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Chose Adobe Acrobat Acrobat is overall, the superior PDF creator, editor and compiler. However, DocuSign is easier and more reliable as a document signing program. This tool is Acrobat is much harder to use and has caused some errors in documents in the past. It also does not work well with a … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Chose Adobe Acrobat The pricing structure is not as great with DocuSign than with Adobe Acrobat. It would be nice if the entire company could use Adobe Acrobat rather than everyone having different platforms. It would also be nice to have an account that multiple users can use without paying so … Incentivized Helpful? Hank Allan System Administrator in Information Technology at Barnstablecounty (Government Administration, 201-500 employees) Chose Adobe Acrobat AA is a close competitor to DocuSign but different use cases; the latter is more for workflow situations Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Chose Adobe Acrobat Overall, Adobe has a better reputation than Foxit PDF Editor; while many of my colleagues prefer the features of Foxit (over Adobe), Adobe remains more secure and provides our organization with a higher level of comfort. DocuSign is a great tool for requesting signatures on … Incentivized Helpful? Ehud Lehavi Quality Assurance Analyst in Quality Assurance at Precision NanoSystems Inc. (Biotechnology, 51-200 employees) Chose Adobe Acrobat In the signature collection, I find DocuSign easier to use and more friendly. Also more known for this purpose. Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Chose Adobe Acrobat In comparison to DocuSign, Adobe Acrobat has more features and functionality. DocuSign is a great resource for collecting signatures outside of the company; however, Adobe Acrobat has been great for us inhouse. Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Chose Adobe Acrobat DocuSign has more features than Adobe Acrobat DC but it costs more and we don't need those features. HelloSign is not as robust as Adobe Acrobat DC. We have yet to use a program that we were as satisfied with the results of converting documents into PDF files as we are with … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Chose Adobe Acrobat Adobe Acrobat actually surpasses all the above tools. Most of the above tools are free but they come with their own set of challenges. Issues such as security and frequent software crashes are a pain Adobe Acrobat basically outperforms all the above apps and obviously have … Incentivized Helpful? Tracy Novack Administration in Corporate at Interactive Office Systems (Business Supplies Equipment, 1-10 employees) Chose Adobe Acrobat I don't know if it's the many years of experience I have using Adobe Acrobat or that they just seem to evolve along with the industry, the other programs I have tried (not by choice) just don't seem to have the abilities I have found and used with Adobe Acrobat. Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Chose Adobe Acrobat Only used once, free version. Not nearly as helpful. Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Chose Adobe Acrobat It is easy to use when sharing documents and having signatures on the documents Incentivized Helpful? Dennis Blocker Office Manager in Human Resources at MP Healthcare Medical Supply LLC (Medical Device, 11-50 employees) Chose Adobe Acrobat We have not really worked with any other products. " If it ain't broke, don't fix it" is the old saying, and it rings true here. We love Adobe, and it does everything we need. Their engineers are always looking at the workforce to see what improvements can be made and where … Incentivized Helpful? Mark Pero Loan Officer in Sales at A+ Services (Banking, 11-50 employees) Chose Adobe Acrobat PandaDoc is less customizable for creating/editing documents, less security but is much better when sending to a client and needing them to add text since the client would a paid subscription with Adobe Acrobat if I sent it that way Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Chose Adobe Acrobat Being the industry standard, Adobe Acrobat exceeds other platforms as the common file format all parties can read and comment even with only the free reader version. Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Chose Adobe Acrobat Adobe Acrobat allows licenses to stretch across one account rather than just one device, and works across both Mac and Windows, as opposed to some of the other options. Incentivized Helpful? Rudy Fulmer IT Field Services Manager in Information Technology at Jackson Hospital (Hospital & Health Care, 1001-5000 employees) Chose Adobe Acrobat They have a superior product that works better and more reliably when it comes to working with PDF files. Adobes' Achilles heel is the restrictions and requirements imposed on the user and software by their administrative and legal teams that drag down what otherwise is a … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Chose Adobe Acrobat Adobe has more features than the others and they are included in my Adobe software. No other integrations needed Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Chose Adobe Acrobat Adobe stands out because it is a program on your computer, so you can easily upload or save documents rather than using a website that always adds an extra step. Incentivized Helpful?	DocuSign Verified User Chose DocuSign Very similar but did not have the backing of SAP SuccessFactors in terms of Integration. The Developer Environment allowed us to test and practice on very easily compared to Adobe Acrobat Sign. Both products can be connected to via Microsoft Power Platform to aid automation … Incentivized Helpful? Emily Wallace Talent Acquisition Coordinator in Human Resources at The Warehouse Group (Retail, 10,001+ employees) Chose DocuSign Adobe Acrobat Sign is less user-friendly and more suited to small scopes, or one-off documents. It lacks the use of templates that DocuSign has, which is what ultimately streamlines and delivers the consistency and efficiencies for the business. Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Chose DocuSign I don't think I've seen anything like DocuSign in the market. Well I think now Acrobat has a product similar to it, but it's not exactly same people can use it to sign. But it has come recently, not a long back. DocuSign has been in the market since long, so it still has the … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Chose DocuSign Adobe was not a good experience despite the lower cost. Constant crashing, slow to load and a simple feature like copy and pasting the same fields across pages was non existent. Our team celebrated the decision to move back to Docusign from Adobesign. We have never looked back … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Chose DocuSign I have not used any alternatives. DocuSign is the leader in this space from my opinion. Incentivized Helpful? Jeanette Carroll VP, Operations and Marketing in Professional Services at Witlon Enterprises Co. (WECO) (Human Resources, 201-500 employees) Chose DocuSign DocuSign is the one we went with because of the majority of people who use it regularly. It's the first one that comes to mind when you think of electronic signatures. We do use AdobeSign with our HR platform because that is the one that is integrated with it, but standalone … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Chose DocuSign DocuSign is far superior to anything on the market for my needs, and my needs varied in different roles across different industries: it is a better solution, and easier to use for client interaction. For statements of work, contracts, agreements of sale, commercial and … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Chose DocuSign I had used Adobe before and it is not a simple experience. The last thing you want is for your customers to have trouble signing an electronic document. It defeats the purpose. HelloSign is a nice product, but may have been a bit overkill for what our needs were. And they were … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Chose DocuSign I originally tried using just a fillable Adobe PDF document for my clients to sign...but they struggled in figuring out how to complete it and if someone didn't have Adobe installed on their computer, then it was a problem. DocuSign makes it quick and easy and anyone can … Incentivized Helpful? Thomas Riffey Counseling Therapy Intern in Human Resources at Sunbeam Family Services (Civic & Social Organization, 5001-10,000 employees) Chose DocuSign DocuSign is much better at what it does with regard to securely getting signatures on paperwork. Adobe has lots of issues and it does not always translate well with other users depending if and how the end user has their Adobe setup. It is a very clunky process and does not … Incentivized Helpful? Randi Yeaman Inside Sales Coordinator / Lab in Sales at PRIME SOLUTION INC (Machinery, 1-10 employees) Chose DocuSign None Incentivized Helpful? Andrew J. Wright Senior Solar Energy Consultant at RGS Energy in Sales at RGS Energy (Renewables & Environment, 51-200 employees) Chose DocuSign I personally have not used any other program. The decision to use DocuSign was not my choice. I am happy with the choice that was decided upon by others. Incentivized Helpful? Christopher Tung Coordinator in Finance and Accounting at Netflix (Entertainment, 1001-5000 employees) Chose DocuSign I have not used any competing software Incentivized Helpful?
	Would buy again
	97% Would buy again 898 Answers	85% Would buy again 79 Answers
	Delivers good value for the price
	95% Delivers good value for the price 769 Answers	84% Delivers good value for the price 66 Answers
	Happy with the feature set
	97% Happy with the feature set 900 Answers	88% Happy with the feature set 82 Answers
	Lived up to sales and marketing promises
	96% Lived up to sales and marketing promises 595 Answers	83% Lived up to sales and marketing promises 62 Answers
	Implementation went as expected
99% Implementation went as expected 684 Answers	87% Implementation went as expected 67 Answers

Best Alternatives
	Adobe Acrobat	DocuSign
Small Businesses	M‑Files Score8.9 out of 10	BoldSign, by Syncfusion Score10 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies	Esker Score7.4 out of 10	OneSpan Sign Score9.6 out of 10
Enterprises	Tungsten Capture Score9.6 out of 10	Conga Sign Score8.8 out of 10
All Alternatives	View all alternatives	View all alternatives

User Ratings
	Adobe Acrobat	DocuSign
Likelihood to Recommend	8.9 (968 ratings)	9.1 (161 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew	8.8 (46 ratings)	7.0 (12 ratings)
Usability	8.5 (383 ratings)	8.5 (19 ratings)
Availability	8.6 (4 ratings)	10.0 (3 ratings)
Performance	5.1 (11 ratings)	10.0 (2 ratings)
Support Rating	9.7 (64 ratings)	10.0 (46 ratings)
Online Training	9.0 (1 ratings)	10.0 (1 ratings)
Implementation Rating	9.9 (16 ratings)	10.0 (5 ratings)
Configurability	7.7 (5 ratings)	- (0 ratings)
Contract Terms and Pricing Model	3.9 (3 ratings)	- (0 ratings)
Ease of integration	8.0 (9 ratings)	- (0 ratings)
Product Scalability	7.3 (5 ratings)	10.0 (1 ratings)
Professional Services	7.3 (1 ratings)	- (0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale	6.2 (3 ratings)	- (0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale	6.3 (2 ratings)	- (0 ratings)

User Testimonials
	Adobe Acrobat	DocuSign
Likelihood to Recommend	Adobe We have found Adobe Acrobat very useful in many instances. It is a great resource for anything related to PDFs, as it is the most robust and well-known option, reducing the need for training. It is a vital component for signing documents, especially those that need extra security. Incentivized Tara Herget Finance and Administrative Officer Read full review	DocuSign This product is well suited in the use case that I provided before: when it comes to onboarding employees and providing a clear channel for decision making for human resources, this is an excellent tool to accomplish that. I would say the weak points is when you have back and forth communication with users that it might seem a little redundant to have that back and forth communication in that scenario. Incentivized Verified User Read full review
Pros	Adobe It is easy to sign and send a document. It makes it easy to scan and save a document. It is easy to add text to any document. You can create an editable PDF form for others to complete based on the questions you include. You can create and send a secure document to a client for their signature. It is easy to add photos to any document. Incentivized Dominic Liberoni Practice Manager Read full review	DocuSign Ease of sending the same document out to multiple recipients, at multiple locations, for multiple signatures Quick turnaround - once the recipient signs the document, we receive notification and the document back immediately Can resend, alter, change, and/or add to the email and/or document that is sent out very easily The recipient can save the document after signing, so they too have their own electronic copy for their records Incentivized Michele Roy Special Education Teacher Read full review
Cons	Adobe I wish the backward compatibility was a little more friendly. PDFLyer had to be updated sooner that we would like when we updated from Adobe 2017 to Adobe 2026. I wish it had list processing like Excel where it could remove duplicates, change formatting, etc. Sometimes after an update we lose our plugins and have to restablish the connection to the plugin or reinstall. Incentivized Andrew Indovina Infrastructure Support Specialist Read full review	DocuSign Tracking, particularly when collecting signatures through connected applications, such as an ATS, is not always clean or easily traceable. Formatting documents to handle electronic signature types (signatures, initials, etc.) is not always easy, and highly dependent on the partner's technology. It is not convenient to have to use DocuSign as a stand alone product if the signatures are required for 3rd party applications. It definitely excels on its own, but the scope of that usage, at least for us, is slim. Incentivized Verified User Read full review
Likelihood to Renew	Adobe Adobe Acrobat works seamlessly with the other Adobe products we use that are industry-standard. We will certainly continue to use Adobe InDesign, Photoshop, and Illustrator, meaning it will always be convenient to work seamlessly with Adobe Acrobat for our organization. We are happy with the performance of Acrobat and it's meets our expectations. Incentivized Avery Chipman Interior Designer Read full review	DocuSign I can't imagine doing business without DocuSign now. I would never want to go back to the way we used to do things. The "new way" is "the way" is "the right way." We can honestly be proud of a "one right way" process and not have to suffer through "5 ways for 5 days." Incentivized Tony Woods, PHR, CIPD Director of Human Resources Read full review
Usability	Adobe Nothing is perfect; there are a few things that still get me a little bit aggravated when using the program but that doesn't detract from it accomplishing the needs I and the organizations that I've worked for have needed from it. I've worked with Adobe Acrobat for over 20 years and its usability is second hand to me even with added features and redesigns. It's a great piece of software. Incentivized Scott Draft Senior Graphic Designer Read full review	DocuSign Generally user-friendly once you have command of the basics, but also has a lot of nuances that can make it difficult to train others on. DocuSign University is a helpful tool, but understandably a lot of content to get through to become a well-versed user. A lot of different functionalities but only a few I use on a weekly basis. Incentivized Emily Wallace Talent Acquisition Coordinator Read full review
Reliability and Availability	Adobe We have not had availability issues with Adobe Acrobat, or at least none that I am personally aware of. Some may encounter crashes of the software during outages of electricity in their city or neighborhood, which no one can plan for, but with generators in our organization, we have been lucky not to have outages Incentivized Rod Lott Manager of Marketing Strategy Read full review	DocuSign It does not go down. I have had zero issues with DocuSign, approaching 4 years. Incentivized Verified User Read full review
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. Incentivized Daniel Epstein Senior Clinical Quality Analyst Read full review	DocuSign Everything loads quickly. Reports are generated in a reasonable time. No noticeable difference in integrated software processing speeds. Incentivized Verified User Read full review
Support Rating	Adobe For a while, Acrobat DC crashed pretty frequently. I contacted Adobe Acrobat support about the problem. At first support was unable to provide a solution. After about a month Adobe's software engineers provided a fix. I just wish it had taken less than a month to solve the problem. Incentivized Bradley Pearce Managing Member Read full review	DocuSign I'd give them a 10, but there has been 1 or 2 small cases that seemed to fall to the wayside, but I was able to call them up and get them resolved. We were having a bad implementation night (after midnight) and we needed assistance from Docusign. They were able to get an engineer to help us in the early morning hours Incentivized Erik Sheafer Enterprise Development Manager Read full review
Online Training	Adobe Answered basic questions. Incentivized Michael Craven President Read full review	DocuSign Docusign is super easy to use, and apart from a few administration details, there was really nothing to train on. Post implementation, there were issues with configuration of auto-filled documents with the integrating 3rd party. That training required some time, because the DocuSign expert took the time to walk me through the 3rd party's configuration (how often does that happen?) so I could see how DocuSign should be best used to overcome weaknesses in the 3rd party platform. 10/10 expert care. Incentivized Verified User Read full review
Implementation Rating	Adobe I was not involved with the implementation process, so I cannot answer this question. However, when it was installed on my computer system, they did so virtually. I just sat there while they took control of my computer over the network and watch them install it, lickety split Incentivized Rod Lott Manager of Marketing Strategy Read full review	DocuSign Until you get the hang of it, I recommend doing several internal tests before sending a document to a client. As I mentioned earlier, you have to go through a bit of trial and error at first to verify that the workflow works as expected. Verified User Read full review
Alternatives Considered	Adobe Adobe Acrobat has the most premium features that other software can't offer. The seamless UI is consistent on any device, and the ease of use. The security and the advanced AI features are what you won't get on any other platforms or apps. Incentivized Md Ashraful Islam Senior Brand Designer Read full review	DocuSign There has never been anything that we could really compare to Docusign. We have tried sending documents in a PDF version, but that was not nearly as efficient. DocuSign saves your signature in the system and uses that as it goes through your documents. Incentivized Verified User Read full review
Contract Terms and Pricing Model	Adobe I am not responsible for sales or purchasing Incentivized Sean Moore Marketing Specialist Read full review	DocuSign No answers on this topic
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. Incentivized Jamie Caroland Independent Consultant Read full review	DocuSign In my years of using DocuSign, I have never had an outage. I haven't even encountered a bug. Incentivized Verified User Read full review
Return on Investment	Adobe Definitely a positive ROI when I can receive clear notes/direction on edits for a PDF via Acrobat's comment system, rather than chicken scratch on a printed document. The ability to password-protect my PDFs so I can make sure only the workforce I want to see the information has been priceless! As I mentioned before, a huge positive impact is the ability to edit PDFs without having to return to the original file's native software. Incentivized Mark Rhodes Communications Manager Read full review	DocuSign Less paper use, faster signature times, less time standing at the printer/scanner to send documents to yourself Security over your signature! Security over your company's signature and authorization to approve projects, cash flow etc Love audit trails and the seamless tracking of the status of the document Incentivized Matthew McGinnis Managing Partner Read full review
ScreenShots	Adobe Acrobat Screenshots	DocuSign Screenshots