A mate of mine runs a small accountancy firm in Manchester. Three people, home office setup, clients mostly small businesses and sole traders. He was paying for three Adobe Acrobat Pro licenses — £179.88 per user per year. That’s nearly £540 a year just so his team could merge PDFs and get clients to sign documents.
He asked me if there was anything cheaper. I said there’s free options that do 80% of what Acrobat does. He didn’t believe me until I showed him. His firm’s been Acrobat-free for 6 months now and nobody’s missed it.
If you’re a UK small business paying for Acrobat and wondering if you actually need it — here’s what I found after testing a bunch of alternatives.
What UK small businesses actually use Acrobat for
I asked around. Talked to accountants, solicitors, estate agents, a few freelancers. Nobody’s using Acrobat’s advanced features. Here’s what they actually do:
- Merge documents — client files, tax returns, supporting docs into one PDF
- Compress files — HMRC submissions, email attachments, portal uploads
- Fill and sign forms — HMRC forms, client agreements, NDAs
- Split PDFs — extract specific pages from bank statements or reports
- Add page numbers — before filing or sharing multi-page documents
- Convert images to PDF — receipts, invoices, scanned post
That’s it. Nobody’s using Acrobat’s 3D PDF features. Nobody’s doing advanced form creation. Nobody needs preflight or colour management. They’re paying £180/year per seat for merge and compress.
The alternatives I tested
iLovePDF
What it is: Online PDF toolkit. Probably the most popular Acrobat alternative worldwide.
The good: Clean interface. Fast. Has every tool you’d need — merge, split, compress, convert, edit, sign, watermark, page numbers, rotate. It just works. My accountant mate used this for a month and had zero complaints about functionality.
The not great: Free tier limits you. You get a certain number of operations per hour — my mate hit the limit during tax season when he was merging 15+ client files in one sitting. Had to wait or pay. The premium plan is £48/year which is way cheaper than Acrobat but still a cost.
Privacy: Files upload to their servers. They say files are deleted after 2 hours. For most documents that’s fine. For sensitive client financial data? His firm’s compliance officer wasn’t thrilled about it.
Best for: Businesses that need occasional PDF work and don’t handle highly sensitive documents. The paid plan at £48/year is reasonable if you hit the free limits regularly.
SmallPDF
What it is: Another popular online PDF toolkit. Swiss company, been around since 2013.
The good: Very polished interface. Probably the best-looking PDF tool out there. Desktop app available. E-signature feature built in. Has a Chrome extension which is handy.
The not great: Free tier is really limited — 2 tasks per day last I checked. That’s basically unusable for a business. The Pro plan is about £90/year. Better than Acrobat but not exactly cheap for a small firm.
Privacy: Files upload to their servers. Swiss data protection laws are strong which is a plus. They also offer a desktop app that processes locally for Pro users.
Best for: Businesses willing to pay for a polished experience. The desktop app with local processing is a good option for firms with compliance requirements.
PDF24
What it is: Free online and desktop PDF toolkit. German company.
The good: Actually free. No limits. No watermarks. Has every tool. Desktop version available for Windows. German-made so the engineering is solid. The desktop app is particularly good — works offline, handles large files well.
The not great: The interface looks dated. It works but it looks like it was designed in 2012. Also the online version uploads files to their servers. Desktop version processes locally though.
Privacy: Online version uploads files. Desktop version is fully local. GDPR compliant since they’re German.
Best for: Windows-only businesses that want a free desktop tool and don’t mind the older interface. The desktop app is genuinely good once you get past the looks.
ConvertKr
What it is: Free online and desktop PDF/image toolkit. Full disclosure — this is mine. I built it. So take this section with appropriate scepticism.
The good: Everything processes in your browser — files never upload anywhere. No account. No limits. No watermarks. 27+ tools online. Desktop app available for Mac, Windows, and Linux. Works completely offline.
The not great: Can’t edit existing text in PDFs (you can add text on top but not modify what’s already there). No OCR yet. No advanced form creation. The editor is basic compared to Acrobat. If you need power features, this isn’t enough.
Privacy: Files never leave your device. Everything runs client-side. You can verify by turning off your internet after the page loads — the tools still work. This is the main reason I built it, specifically because I didn’t want my own documents on someone else’s server.
Best for: Businesses that handle sensitive client data and want zero cloud exposure. Also good for teams that need basic PDF tools without any per-seat licensing.
LibreOffice Draw
What it is: Part of LibreOffice, the free open-source office suite. Can open and edit PDFs.
The good: Free. Open source. Desktop application. Can actually edit existing text in PDFs — something most free tools can’t do. Good for making changes to documents you originally created.
The not great: It’s not really a PDF tool — it’s a document editor that happens to open PDFs. Complex PDFs often look wrong when opened. Layout shifts, fonts change, images move. It works for simple documents but breaks on anything fancy. Also no merge, split, or compress — it’s an editor only.
Best for: When you genuinely need to edit text inside a PDF and don’t want to pay for Acrobat. Keep expectations realistic — simple documents only.
Honest comparison for UK small businesses
Here’s what actually matters if you’re running a small business:
Cost per year for a 3-person team:
- Adobe Acrobat Pro — £540/year
- SmallPDF Pro — £270/year
- iLovePDF Premium — £144/year
- PDF24 — Free
- ConvertKr — Free
- LibreOffice — Free
Do files leave your device?
- Adobe Acrobat (desktop) — No
- SmallPDF (desktop Pro) — No
- iLovePDF — Yes, uploaded to servers
- PDF24 (desktop) — No
- ConvertKr — No (browser and desktop)
- LibreOffice — No
Works on Mac and Windows?
- Adobe — Yes
- SmallPDF — Yes (web), desktop is Windows + Mac
- iLovePDF — Yes (web)
- PDF24 — Windows only for desktop
- ConvertKr — Yes (web + desktop for Mac, Windows, Linux)
- LibreOffice — Yes
My recommendation by business type
Accountancy firms handling client tax documents: ConvertKr or PDF24 desktop. Client financial data shouldn’t be on third-party servers. Free, local processing. If you need e-signatures, add a separate tool like DocuSign for that specific purpose — still cheaper than full Acrobat licenses.
Solicitors and legal practices: Same as above but stricter. SRA requires reasonable data protection measures. Local processing only. ConvertKr desktop or PDF24 desktop. If budget allows, Acrobat is still the safest bet for legal work.
Estate agents: iLovePDF free tier is probably enough if you’re not processing huge volumes. Property documents are sensitive but not regulated like financial or medical data. If you hit the free limits, their paid plan at £48/year is fair.
Freelancers and sole traders: ConvertKr web version. No install needed. No cost. You’re mostly merging invoices and signing contracts. Don’t pay for Acrobat.
Teams that need advanced PDF editing: Bite the bullet and get Acrobat. If you’re doing complex form creation, advanced OCR, redaction with audit trails, or professional prepress — no free tool matches Acrobat. The cost is justified for heavy use.
The GDPR angle
Quick note for UK businesses. Post-Brexit you’re under UK GDPR which is basically the same as EU GDPR. If you’re processing client personal data through an online tool, that tool is a data processor. You technically need to ensure they comply with data protection requirements.
iLovePDF and SmallPDF both have GDPR compliance pages and data processing agreements. They’re legitimate companies. But the simplest way to comply is to not send client data to any third party in the first place. Process locally and the question doesn’t arise.
I’m not a lawyer. If data protection is critical for your business, get proper legal advice. But from a practical standpoint, local processing is the path of least resistance.
FAQ
Will my clients notice I’m not using Acrobat?
No. The PDFs produced by any of these tools are standard PDF files. There’s no “made with Acrobat” stamp. A merged PDF from ConvertKr looks identical to one from Acrobat. Nobody will know or care.
What about OCR for scanned documents?
If you regularly scan paper documents and need searchable text, Acrobat’s OCR is still the best. ConvertKr has a basic OCR tool. PDF24 has one too. For occasional use they’re fine. For high-volume scanning, Acrobat or a dedicated OCR tool like ABBYY FineReader is worth the money.
Can I cancel Acrobat mid-subscription?
Adobe charges an early termination fee on annual plans — usually 50% of the remaining months. Check your specific plan terms before cancelling. Monthly plans can be cancelled anytime but cost more per month.
Want to try the free alternatives? ConvertKr (browser + desktop) | iLovePDF | PDF24