Adobe Acrobat vs. Foxit PDF SDK

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).
$29.99
per month per seat
Foxit PDF SDK
Score 9.0 out of 10
N/A
Foxit PDF SDK offers high performance pdf libraries to help developers build pdf technology. According to the vendor, key features include: Render PDFs: High performance PDF libraries to render PDF pages, page objects, annotations, and forms the way they were intended to be viewed: sharp, clear, accurate, and easy to read. Allows applications to view, zoom in, zoom out, and print PDF documents and forms. Reflow: PDF is a fixed-layout flat document format, it cannot…
$3,000
per platform/per year
Pricing
Adobe AcrobatFoxit PDF SDK
Editions & Modules
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
Licensing PDF SDK
$3,000.00
per platform/per year
Foxit.NET PDF SDK
Contact sales team
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Adobe AcrobatFoxit PDF SDK
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesYes
Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalRequired
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Adobe AcrobatFoxit PDF SDK
Considered Both Products
Adobe Acrobat
Chose Adobe Acrobat
Foxit does have a better interface then Adobe Acrobat but sense we started out with Adobe Acrobat, Adobe Acrobat was the one we went ahead with the fully unlocked pdf reader.
Chose Adobe Acrobat
Honestly, the main reason Adobe wins is that it's often installed on my workspace.
Chose Adobe Acrobat
Now Foxit works great, but there are features Adobe Acrobat DC has that Foxit didn't. When I first got it, it was a free trial. I miss doing mobile editing, and that's why I suggest that it be a standard feature. I'm in the midst of expanding the business. As I researched both …
Chose Adobe Acrobat
Adobe Acrobat is an integrated tool, which captures open/view, edit and sign/stamp features all together in a single software without adds or advertisements. When cloud feature is added then it becomes an essential tool for the office work. Mobile version is a good plus to …
Chose Adobe Acrobat
The majority of our “power users” - users that work heavily with PDF documents - were much more comfortable using Adobe Acrobat over Foxit and Nitro, so in the end we decided to go with Adobe Acrobat to make our users happy and ease the learning curve versus the other competing …
Foxit PDF SDK
Chose Foxit PDF SDK
Foxit PDF was cheaper from a licensing perspective. It was easy on the budget and will not be getting more expensive for enterprise licenses. FoxIt also came with the same features when compared to Adobe and it was much easier to install in our environment. Being that it was …
Chose Foxit PDF SDK
We have used Adobe for years but then it started to give us some trouble, so we had to opt for an alternative. However, it proved to be a good fit for our company as it is more user-friendly and has a lot of options.
Chose Foxit PDF SDK
Cost-effective and integrated functionalities in Foxit PDF SDK. Options to have lightweight SDK. Web as well as Windows-based solution. Foxit PDF SDK Provides add-ons such as OCR scanning which helps to convert the scanned document to text pdf. Foxit PDF SDK is also trusted by …
Chose Foxit PDF SDK
I can get the same results at a quarter of the cost with Foxit PhantomPDF, and I'm more comfortable without having Adobe products on my PC. Despite their identical feature sets, Foxit is both more user-friendly and simpler for new staff to learn. I've been using Adobe for a …
Chose Foxit PDF SDK
Foxit is number 1, not only for the quality of the product but the pricing is 60% less expensive. It is a great product. Thank you, Foxit.
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User Ratings
Adobe AcrobatFoxit PDF SDK
Likelihood to Recommend
8.9
(839 ratings)
7.9
(17 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.2
(41 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
9.3
(250 ratings)
8.0
(2 ratings)
Availability
9.3
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
6.3
(10 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
9.0
(63 ratings)
8.0
(3 ratings)
Online Training
9.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
9.7
(15 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Configurability
8.0
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
6.0
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
9.0
(9 ratings)
7.0
(1 ratings)
Product Scalability
7.1
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
4.0
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
5.5
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Adobe AcrobatFoxit PDF SDK
Likelihood to Recommend
Adobe
I would recommend to my peers if they are signing paperwork as it makes it super easy. I would also recomned it if somebody was trying to make an editable PDF or fill in paper document to be able to share across multiple platforms and emails at a timely manner
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FoxIt Software
Where FoxIt suites best is if you need an alternative to the big-name PDF editors. It's pretty easy to use and it's comparable to Adobe or any other document editor. It is best used when mocking up proposals for work, creating employee handbooks, putting together offer letters, and essentially any other important document. This is not suitable for creating brochures or pamphlets.
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Pros
Adobe
  • Ability to manipulate a PDF in various ways.
  • Print production is incredibly helpful for checking off and making sure PDFs are ready for print.
  • Commenting in Adobe Acrobat is awesome! So nice to be able to hand off a PDF and get it back with edits that are easy to navigate and resolve!
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FoxIt Software
  • It is a very cool development kit to integration different PDF functions.
  • It is user-friendly and convenient to work with.
  • It has great functionality for text. For example: adding quick markup, highlighting the text, underlining, and doing strikethrough, and adding signatures is pretty easy.
  • It offers to do encryption and add passwords for security.
  • Great search capability that helps finding the text without hassle.
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Cons
Adobe
  • More printing settings, like being able to adjust the margins and place the print area on the page when the file size is larger than the page, and I only want to print one section. Illustrator has this feature. Often, we print from Illustrator instead, because of this limitation.
Read full review
FoxIt Software
  • Combine multiple PDFs into one PDF
  • File explorer preview is not good
  • In the C# SDK, which is a wrapper of native C++ code. We need to be extra careful in coding and protecting the calls, because it can be very easy to crash the application in case of errors.
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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.
Read full review
FoxIt Software
No answers on this topic
Usability
Adobe
I've only used it on Mac desktops, so I am giving this a neutral rating right down the middle. I've not used a mobile version of Adobe Acrobat for cell phone or for a tablet (like an Apple iPad). I've also not used Adobe Acrobat on a PC, although Acrobat Reader, yes. (But that's not the point of this review.)
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FoxIt Software
Our whole takeoff department uses the Foxit PDF SDK. To read plan files, produce pdf files, and take notes, we utilize it in conjunction with other tools. We may utilize the Foxit PDF SDK to read, edit, markup, print, and produce PDF files for internal use or to distribute to clients. Some of our users adore the software, but others choose to use alternative programs because they believe Foxit PDF SDK is too restrictive.
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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
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FoxIt Software
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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FoxIt Software
I rated this software very high on performance because it is really very quick on my Windows system. It can create any type of PDF files in seconds. It also gives good upload speed when I try to modify my documents for inserting digital signature space. It also gives very good encryption speed to secure my documents.
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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.
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FoxIt Software
I would give it this rating because I personally have never had to contact support regarding Foxit PDF SDK or anything I am trying to do within the program. As I mentioned before, it is very user-friendly and easy to navigate. I think the program in itself lends support to the user because it is so user-friendly and has an easy to use interface.
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Online Training
Adobe
Easy to follow and understand
Read full review
FoxIt Software
No answers on this topic
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
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FoxIt Software
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Adobe
In my opinion, both complement each other. Microsoft clearly has with Copilot the AI Edge. However, the visual dynamics of Adobe Creative are Outstanding and provide a balanced approach to creativity, utilizing both Excellent, user-friendly Tools.
Read full review
FoxIt Software
Adobe Sign can be really frustrating and difficult to log into, renew subscription, and other background functions. Tech support is between useless and non-existent. On the other hand, there is better control over when recipients have been contacted. Overall, Foxit PDF SDK is a much better product, especially for smaller businesses or ones which don't use it consistently every day, year-round (if that's you, you will get used to Adobe, and it will be less annoying.)
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Contract Terms and Pricing Model
Adobe
The only thing I can think of that may be helpful would be a more flexible tiered pricing options based on usage or document volume.
Read full review
FoxIt Software
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.
Read full review
FoxIt Software
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
Adobe
  • Adobe Acrobat has saved us time in managing documents. In this day, everything is fast, moves fast, and keeping up with that pace demands software that functions at the same level. Adobe Acrobat does that. It has streamlined the steps I need to take to edit and create documents we need to manage our customers.
  • Adobe Acrobat removes the worry and stress associated with managing a large influx of documents. Something as simple as a document featuring an image that was sent to us upside down. Using the old method, I would have to open other software, click 'Edit', find the 'Rotate Image' button, click it a couple of times, save it as a JPEG, then attach it to Word, and finally save it as a PDF. It was a grueling process that consumed a great deal of time. Now, I simply open the image, and Adobe automatically recognizes it is upside down and fixes it for me. I can save and move on; it literally takes me seconds. Amazing.
  • Adobe Acrobat is intuitive and easy to use, and the additional apps are relevant to the needs that come up. If I have an idea, I can go to the available apps and find exactly what I need. Impressive and speaks to the years of experience this company has had to fine-tune its product and make it obvious that it is aggressive in staying on top.
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FoxIt Software
  • Saves time by being able to edit text in pdf instead of copy/paste into a .doc and then re-formatting the whole thing
  • Able to create fillable forms that are easy to use and to send out to customers
  • Bargain compared to Adobe product
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ScreenShots

Adobe Acrobat Screenshots

Screenshot of where to create, edit, convert, and share PDF files all from within Microsoft Teams – as part of Acrobat integrations with Microsoft 365 apps.Screenshot of Liquid Mode in Adobe Acrobat Reader mobile app, where 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 where to fill and sign PDF forms from anywhere and on any device. Here, users can collect signatures, digitally track progress, and automatically archive the signed document.Screenshot of the Adobe Scan mobile app, used to capture and convert documents into high-quality, interactive PDF documents that can be filled out, signed, and shared. This eliminates the hassle of finding a printer, filling a form by hand, and scanning it again.

Foxit PDF SDK Screenshots

Screenshot of Foxit PDF SDK for AndroidScreenshot of Foxit PDF SDK for iOSScreenshot of Foxit PDF SDK for UWPScreenshot of Foxit PDF SDK for WindowsScreenshot of Foxit PDF SDK for Linux