Adobe Acrobat is the standard tool everyone reaches for when they’re authoring or editing PDFs. However, I’ve started using a privacy-first alternative that allows me to do everything I need with PDFs—all without a subscription fee or a login.
It can even be self-hosted to give everyone on my network access to PDF editing tools.
I finally ditched Adobe Acrobat
$180 per year is too much
Bertel King / How-To Geek
I’ve been intermittently using Adobe Acrobat for years, but like with so many other services, I’m always looking for free or self-hosted alternatives.
Adobe Acrobat costs at least $15 per month, and if you opt for Acrobat Pro or Studio, you’re on the hook for $20 or $25 respectively. Over the course of a year, that is a minimum of $180. If you opt to pay monthly payments, it’ll be significantly more.
Considering that I don’t use it very often, it just doesn’t make sense to pay for a subscription. Unless you’re regularly working with PDFs in general, it doesn’t really make sense for anyone.
Additionally, I have a hangup with Adobe’s cloud-first approach to their software. The few PDFs I do work with usually contain sensitive information—like a social security number or tax information. Acrobat won’t force you to use the cloud service, but it will push you towards it.
I wanted a cheaper, simpler, and more private solution, so that’s why I finally abandoned Acrobat.
BentoPDF is a free and open-source alternative to Acrobat
No subscription fee in sight
BentoPDF is an all-in-one replacement for Acrobat, but the way it works is quite different.
Acrobat is an application you install on your computer, while BentoPDF runs in your browser. Critically, it doesn’t upload your data to their servers; all the processing done by the program takes place locally on your PC using your browser.
I expected to dislike the browser-based application, but after working with it for a few days, I’ve found I actually like it. It works on any operating system on any device, which isn’t universally true for applications that you need to install to use.
BentoPDF does everything I need
I haven’t missed Acrobat once
Many free PDF tools are fine for simple jobs, but they’re not really viable replacements if you need everything Acrobat offers. BentoPDF is different.
It has all the essential functions— the ability to merge files, split documents, rotate pages, and compress PDFs—are included, and they work quickly and reliably, even under heavy load. It even includes optical character recognition (OCR) and PDF comparison, which are handy features if you’re working with scanned documents or documents that have multiple versions.
The editing tools are similarly great. I can highlight text, add comments, draw directly on a document, even insert images or watermarks, all without any noticeable lag, though that’ll depend on the resources available PDF.
To round out its already-great set of features, BentoPDF is fully compatible with every format you might want to use. It can turn PDFs into Word documents, images, or plain text, or convert files in the other direction if needed.
I don’t feel any need to go back to Acrobat.
No subscription fee pays for your home server
BentoPDF is a fully free and open-source program. You can use it via the website, or, if you’d prefer, you can download the code and run it in a Docker container or on another server platform of your choice.
Of course, self-hosting comes with its own costs. You need hardware and electricity, but considering that Adobe Acrobat alone costs upwards of $180 per year, it’d pay for a modest home server in just a few years, even if you only use Acrobat. If you cut other services, like Microsoft Office, OneDrive, or some streaming services, the math becomes even more favorable.
The interface is very different
One quirk in an otherwise great program
The only slight snag that comes with BentoPDF is the user interface. Acrobat features an interface that is quite similar to most word processors, which makes it relatively easy to pick up and use, even if you’re a beginner.
BentoPDF eschews the user interface choices you’ll find across Adobe’s software lineup in favor of a large set of buttons that each perform a dedicated function. It is very different, and it took me a few minutes to get used to the layout.
On the other hand, BentoPDF’s layout is also clear and simple—you’re never going to look at a button and wonder what clicking it would do.
The free option is good enough for most people
Acrobat isn’t going to be replaced by BentoPDF in professional environments, but if you’re a casual user that just needs to edit or sign a PDF, it is a fantastic alternative. It’ll wind up becoming a permanent part of my homelab setup going forward.
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