Adobe Acrobat vs. Wondershare PDFelement

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).
$19.99
per month
Wondershare PDFelement
Score 5.0 out of 10
N/A
PDFelement is a document management solution from Wondershare Software headquartered in China.
$79.99
per year per user
Pricing
Adobe AcrobatWondershare PDFelement
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
PDFelement
79.99USD
per year per user
PDFelement
129.99USD
one-time fee per user
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Adobe AcrobatWondershare PDFelement
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalNo setup fee
Additional DetailsFor Individuals: Yearly Plan: $79.99/user; 2-Year Plan: $109.99/user Perpetual Plan(one-time): $129.99/user For Teams: Yearly plan starts at $109/year for 1 user For Education: Yearly Plan: $47.99/user; Perpetual Plan(one-time): $99.99/user
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Adobe AcrobatWondershare PDFelement
Considered Both Products
Adobe Acrobat
Chose Adobe Acrobat
We like the interoperability between Microsoft Word and Adobe Acrobat. Their is native support to export from or to either format, but Adobe Acrobat Reader is free & everyone can view & print PDF documents free of charge.
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 …
Chose Adobe Acrobat
I got Adobe Acrobat for free
Chose Adobe Acrobat
Adobe Acrobat is an amazing tool. I chose this one because I did not see any others that I had enough knowledge to give a true review. I am more of a creative user when it comes to Adobe. I am new to marketing.
Chose Adobe Acrobat
Only used once, free version. Not nearly as helpful.
Chose Adobe Acrobat
Adobe InDesign, Adobe Illustrator CC, Adobe PhotoShop and Adobe Premiere Pro
Chose Adobe Acrobat
Well, Mac Preview is a default app on the Mac. It just works. It comes pre-installed and it is also used for images and various things. The UI, the graphics, the ux, the functionality all seem seamless. The application also feels very light, works very fast and it is easy to …
Chose Adobe Acrobat
Better for designers and people that care about layout
Chose Adobe Acrobat
My concern with ChatGPT is that it's harvesting all the data of the documents I send it.
Chose Adobe Acrobat
I actually prefer other products over Adobe Acrobat. I think Figma's worst thing ever was actually selling to you guys.
Chose Adobe Acrobat
I can easily edit my files from any of the other products with Adobe Acrobat, and it allows for great time management.
Chose Adobe Acrobat
Adobe PhotoShop, Adobe InDesign and Adobe Illustrator CC
Chose Adobe Acrobat
Really easy and straightforward functions for all users
Chose Adobe Acrobat
For Foxit, the OCR feature enabled me to edit the text within them. However, the accuracy was not always reliable. Personally, I found Adobe Acrobat to be more effective for this purpose, but that's just my preference. For PDF Fusion, did not like support/help/instructions and …
Chose Adobe Acrobat
I have not used any products that is similar to Adobe Acrobat.
Chose Adobe Acrobat
Bottomline is Adobe Acrobat is the standard and full implementation of all that PDF should have. I tried different apps for different reasons to like Apple Preview for quickly viewing the document. However, for final assessment I always prefer to use Acrobat and check if all …
Chose Adobe Acrobat
Preview is a great, quick tool for viewing docs or images but doesn't always show PDF files as they are intended as it doesn't have all the features that Adobe Acrobat does and nor does it attempt to. I't merely a quick route to checking something out for me. I wouldn't use …
Chose Adobe Acrobat
In terms of comparisons, the simple fact is that Adobe Acrobat is known and trusted by clients and print providers throughout industry. Third party PDF editors are often more lightweight but also don't have all the features of Adobe Acrobat, so there is the inevitable point …
Chose Adobe Acrobat
It's secure and easy to use for the user.
Wondershare PDFelement
Chose Wondershare PDFelement
PDFelement is more intuitive, and snapper, with more wow factors.
Chose Wondershare PDFelement
PDFelement is the ideal solution for Adobe Acrobat because of its small size, clean interface, quick start, strong features, light system resource usage, and low pricing.
Chose Wondershare PDFelement
They are doing quite aggressive marketing, therefore it is very present everywhere. Pricing is in the range for private users. If features are improved, I probably would buy it again, otherwise think next time would try the competition (e.g., Nitro).
Chose Wondershare PDFelement
I used Adobe Acrobat for around 15 years in different large scale companies. But it is too expensive for single users or small enterprises and Adobe offers only yearly subscription which I personally do not like.
Chose Wondershare PDFelement
Both of the programs mentioned above have worked much better for my needs.
Chose Wondershare PDFelement
We selected PDFelement because it did the job well and at the lowest cost of our options.
Chose Wondershare PDFelement
I don't even remember the name of the products I tried, but none of them worked right. PDFelement does the job and does it well.
Chose Wondershare PDFelement
We haven't used any other similar products, and don't feel any desire to stop using PDFelement.
Chose Wondershare PDFelement
The experience is different. From a cost perspective, PDFelement is more cost effective and can get things done.
Chose Wondershare PDFelement
Adobe PDF is the alternative for me but much more expensive. It has more features but I don’t need them. For a small business PDFelement's affordability makes it a cost effective option.
Chose Wondershare PDFelement
I didn't try or buy other programs, but did a good bit of research on them. I went with PDFelement because of the lower pricing, and because of the rich features I learned it had.

I also appreciated the great customer service I received from reps in the community forums, which …
Chose Wondershare PDFelement
I have evaluated Acrobat but found it less user friendly than PDFelement and very expensive on a product to product comparison
Chose Wondershare PDFelement
PDFelement has among the several options available in the market, a productivity solution with relevant acquisition costs associated with the benefits offered. Among the functions available in the application, other companies have the same function with lower performance and …
Chose Wondershare PDFelement
The quality of the images was better (I need to print an A2 or A1 poster)
Chose Wondershare PDFelement
I have not used anything else other than Adobe Acrobat and PDFelement meets all my needs and is easier to use.
Chose Wondershare PDFelement
Just as good, and just as clean; but easier to use. Just as many options and an easy to use format and layout.
Chose Wondershare PDFelement
I haven't used any other product besides PDFelement. I found a product that I love and I'm sticking with it. I will say that I went with PDFelement based on reviews and based on the features that this product supplies vs. the others. I trust the company behind PDFelement (been …
Chose Wondershare PDFelement
PDFelement is superior to PDFzilla and comparable in features to Adobe and a better price.
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User Ratings
Adobe AcrobatWondershare PDFelement
Likelihood to Recommend
8.9
(0 ratings)
9.1
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.0
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Usability
9.3
(0 ratings)
8.6
(0 ratings)
Availability
9.1
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Performance
5.4
(0 ratings)
7.5
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
9.5
(0 ratings)
8.4
(0 ratings)
Online Training
9.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
9.8
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Configurability
7.9
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
8.0
(0 ratings)
7.5
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
7.1
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
1.0
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
1.0
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Adobe AcrobatWondershare PDFelement
Likelihood to Recommend
When preparing artwork for print production from an application like Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, or InDesign, the best way to preview and preflight the work is to export to PDF and use Adobe Acrobat's output preview to check process colors, spot colors, dielines, and any special requirements, like foil stamping or varnish. Adobe Acrobat is also where you make any needed final adjustments to ensure correct reproduction on press. Documents intended for screen viewing must be exported to PDF and edited in Adobe Acrobat so as to add and edit needed accessibility features critical for legislative compliance.
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PDFelement Pro is well suited for all of our needs and our clients' needs. I bought the Windows version and liked it so much that I purchased the Mac version at the discount that I was offered at checkout. It performs well and is easy to learn and use. Companies could save so much money by using PDFelement instead of Adobe Acrobat Standard/Pro
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Pros
  • For the business account, the Adobe Acrobat rep assigned to your account will actively look for ways to save you money.
  • We have found that our rep from Adobe Acrobat Business Account reviews our usage and related apps and has offered helpful tips on better ways to complete tasks we historically undertake with their software. They have saved us a great deal of time and money. They make us efficient.
  • The apps they offer that combine with the primary program are relevant to the tasks our business performs, and they function at a high level and never fail. It's really quite remarkable.
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  • It does a great job of turning paper forms into digital documents via the advanced OCR technology.
  • The price point of PDFelement is extremely competitive considering that it is feature rich.
  • The available support from documentation and videos make PDFelement a tool that is quick to implement.
Read full review
Cons
  • 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.
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  • I wish there was a lighter program for just reviewing a document and then to transition seamlessly to an editing mode. It takes a few seconds longer to load than Preview on my Mac, and based on that frustration, I use Preview to view documents.
  • A lower price for upgrades.
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Likelihood to Renew
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.
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Excellent, easy to use product
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Usability
It’s a very easy app to learn and software is essential. I feel like the app could load a bit faster but overall, is one of my go to apps. Makes reading and editing pdfs easy and I enjoy the usability of the app. It is definitely something I make sure to have downloaded on any computer I’m working from
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I am a novice and I am using it like a pro because it is so easy to work with
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Reliability and Availability
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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No issues. Works perfect
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Performance
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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There is a lot of learning. Although some of the functions you can probably pick up relatively quickly, some of them, including compressing the size or using a different language, remains a myth to me.
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Support Rating
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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Recently I have had a problem with introducing another laptop to the same license. I wrote an email to the Support Team of Wondershare Software and they successfully fixed the issue in less than 24 hours. Very unusual and impressive.
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Online Training
Answered basic questions.
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No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
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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Just pay, download, activate and start using it
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Alternatives Considered
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 document editing, OCR, and signature without stitching multiple products together
Read full review
I haven't used any other product besides PDFelement. I found a product that I love and I'm sticking with it. I will say that I went with PDFelement based on reviews and based on the features that this product supplies vs. the others. I trust the company behind PDFelement (been using Wondershare Ultimate Video Converter for years), so I trusted the name
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Scalability
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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Super easy Word style layout and format.
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Return on Investment
  • Again, the ability to make multiple versions of a PDF has helped speed up getting them to the warehouse and making it easier to print for them!
  • In marketing, there are multiple uses of Adobe Acrobat where it speeds up our process making us more efficient.
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  • Positive impact. PDFelement is one of my principal tools for the visualization and editing of any kind of PDF documents.
  • Size optimization of documents is also a very good tool, it helps me to send presentations in an adequate size, especially for top customers.
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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.

Wondershare PDFelement Screenshots

Screenshot of AI-powered support for chatting with PDFs/summaring/proofreading/rewriting/explaining/translating the PDF file content.Screenshot of file conversion to and from PDF format in high quality.Screenshot of PDF generation, which can be done from images, Word documents, and various formats, including batch create.Screenshot of certificate-based legal signatures, and documents can be sent to bulk signers, and signatures collected and tracked from anywhere, on any device.Screenshot of text recognition, from scanned PDFs and images.Screenshot of the PDF text editor, with images, forms, and pages.