A free Adobe Acrobat alternative that runs in your browser

Try it now: PDF Split Tool

Split PDFs by page, fixed batches, custom ranges, extraction, or page removal with browser-side ZIP/PDF export.

This is the real tool, not a demo. Open PDF Split Tool on its own page.

AltFTool vs Adobe Acrobat

Adobe's free online tools are a sampler for the subscription: one transaction, then a 30-day wait before the next premium tool unlocks. That is a fair trade for what Acrobat can do, and for conversion fidelity on a messy multi-column layout Adobe is still the benchmark. But a lot of PDF work is not conversion. Pulling pages 4 through 9 out of a report, or dropping a 40 MB deck to something emailable, is mechanical, and mechanical work runs perfectly well in a browser tab without an account or a clock.

Adobe Acrobat's free tier, in their own words

• Without signing in with an Adobe ID, most tools let you complete one free transaction and download the resulting file one time
• A few tools cannot be tried at all without signing in
• Signed in with a free Adobe ID, premium tools allow one free transaction every 30 days on a rolling basis — using PDF to Word on day 1 means Compress PDF is unavailable on day 15
• Fill, sign, share and comment on PDFs are free when signed in with an Adobe ID
• A password added with the free Protect PDF tool cannot be removed without a paid subscription or a 7-day Acrobat Pro trial
• File size caps: 100 MB for most tools, 200 MB for PDF to Word and PDF to PPT, and up to 2 GB for Compress PDF
• Delete, Rotate, Reorder, Extract, Insert and Crop pages support a maximum of 1,500 pages; each inserted file is limited to 500 pages
• Split PDF handles up to 1 GB and 1,500 pages, producing at most 19 files
• Merge PDFs allows up to 100 files and 1,500 total pages, with each file up to 500 pages
• Acrobat online services upload files to Adobe cloud storage; if you do not sign in, Adobe deletes the file from its servers within a short period

Paid pricing: Acrobat Express US$9.99/mo, Acrobat Standard US$14.99/mo, Acrobat Pro US$19.99/mo, Acrobat Studio US$24.99/mo (annual plans, billed monthly)

Checked on 2026-07-25 against www.adobe.com/acrobat/online.html, www.adobe.com/acrobat/pricing.html, helpx.adobe.com/document-cloud/faq/try-acrobat-online-services.html. Vendors change their plans — if something here is out of date, trust Adobe Acrobat's own page over ours.

What Adobe Acrobat does better

Plenty of people should keep paying for Adobe Acrobat, and these are the reasons why.

• Adobe invented the PDF format, and its conversion fidelity — particularly PDF to Word and PDF to Excel on complex multi-column layouts, tables and scanned pages — remains the benchmark everyone else is measured against.
• It handles genuinely enormous documents: 2 GB for compression, 1 GB and 1,500 pages for splitting, 200 MB for PDF to Word. Browser-based processing cannot realistically match that ceiling.
• Tight continuity with the Acrobat desktop app, Adobe cloud storage and Acrobat Sign means a document can move from browser to desktop to a legally binding, audit-trailed signature flow without leaving the ecosystem.
• Enterprise-grade security posture with AES-256 encryption, TLS 1.2, private-by-default file labelling and a mature published compliance program — often the deciding factor for regulated industries.

And what AltFTool does not do

• Nothing here approaches Acrobat's PDF-to-Word or PDF-to-Excel fidelity. If the output has to keep a real table structure, pay Adobe.
• Adobe's ceilings are far above ours: 2 GB for compression and 1,500 pages for splitting. Our ceiling is whatever your browser tab can hold.
• No Acrobat Sign equivalent, no cloud storage, no version history — close the tab and the working state is gone.

Visit Adobe Acrobat

Where each Adobe Acrobat job goes here

Left: what you clicked on Adobe Acrobat. Right: the tool that does the same job here.

• Split a PDFPDF Split Tool
• Merge PDFsPDF Merger Tool
• Delete, rotate or reorder pagesPDF Page Reorder
• Compress a PDFPDF Compressor
• Add a watermarkPDF Watermark
• Comment on a PDFPDF Annotation Tool
• Convert PDF to JPGPDF to Image Converter

The tools that cover Adobe Acrobat work

• PDF Split ToolSplit PDFs by page, fixed batches, custom ranges, extraction, or page removal with browser-side ZIP/PDF export.Open
• PDF Merger ToolMerge multiple PDF files quickly into a single document.Open
• PDF Page ReorderEasily rearrange, reorder, or delete pages from your PDF documents.Open
• PDF CompressorCompress PDF files to reduce file size while maintaining quality.Open
• PDF WatermarkAdd custom watermarks to PDF files quickly and securely.Open
• PDF Annotation ToolAnnotate PDF files easily with highlights and notes.Open
• PDF to Image ConverterConvert PDF pages into PNG, JPG, or WebP images in your browser.Open
• PDF Set PasswordSet password protection on PDF files to secure sensitive documents.Open

Questions people actually ask

Adobe's free Protect PDF locked my file. Can AltFTool remove the password?

Only if you know the password — our remover decrypts with the correct credential and writes an unprotected copy. It is not a cracking tool. Adobe's own help notes the password cannot be removed on their side without a subscription or a Pro trial.

Why is there no 'one transaction per 30 days' limit here?

That limit exists because Adobe pays for the server that does the work. Our tools run on your CPU, so repeated use costs us nothing beyond serving the page.

Is AltFTool a replacement for an Acrobat Pro subscription?

For page-level editing, no subscription is needed. For conversion fidelity, redaction that survives forensic inspection, PDF/A archiving or audit-trailed signatures, it is not — Acrobat Pro is doing things we do not attempt.