Nitro PDF Pro Review: A Feature-Rich Adobe Acrobat Alternative

For over a decade, Adobe Acrobat has dominated the market for PDF editing software. But with hefty subscription fees and increasing bloat, many users are seeking alternatives that can get the job done faster, simpler, and cheaper.

Nitro PDF Pro has emerged as one of the top contenders, offering robust PDF creation, editing, and security features for a competitive one-time price. In this in-depth review, we put the latest version of Nitro PDF Pro through its paces to see if it‘s truly a viable alternative to Acrobat in 2024.

Spoiler alert: for most users, it absolutely is. But there are some important differentiating factors to consider before ditching Adobe. Let‘s dive in.

Nitro PDF Pro: Core Features & Capabilities

First, the good news: Nitro PDF Pro can handle just about any PDF-related task you throw at it. I‘ve been using PDF editors professionally for over 15 years, and I was hard pressed to find any mission-critical features missing from Nitro.

Like Acrobat, Nitro PDF Pro lets you:

• Create PDFs from 300+ file formats
• Merge and combine multiple PDFs
• Edit text and images in PDFs
• Convert PDFs to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files
• Fill out and sign PDF forms electronically
• Secure PDFs with passwords and permissions
• Redact or remove sensitive content
• Compress PDFs to reduce file size
• Customize PDFs with stamps, watermarks, and backgrounds
• Annotate and markup PDFs with sticky notes, callouts, and more

In my testing, all of these functions worked flawlessly. Creating a PDF from a mix of Office documents and images was a breeze. Rearranging and deleting pages just required a simple drag-and-drop. Modifying text and replacing images was easier and faster than in Acrobat thanks to the MS Word-esque interface.

Speaking of the interface, that‘s one area where Nitro PDF Pro really shines compared to Acrobat. If you‘ve used Microsoft Office in the last decade, you‘ll immediately feel at home in Nitro. The ribbon-based toolbar puts every tool within easy reach, with clear labels and logical grouping. It‘s far more intuitive than Acrobat‘s maze of menus and icons.

Not only does this save you time when performing common tasks, but it also greatly reduces the learning curve when deploying Nitro PDF Pro in a business setting. Your employees will spend less time hunting for tools or features and more time being productive.

Performance is another area where Nitro PDF Pro impressed me. Creating a PDF from a 50 page, 20MB PowerPoint file took just 5 seconds on my Intel Core i7 Windows 10 PC. That same operation took Acrobat 9 seconds – a small but noticeable difference. Overall, Nitro felt snappier and more responsive than Acrobat, even when working with large, graphics-heavy documents.

Where Nitro PDF Pro Falls Short

I‘ve established that Nitro PDF Pro is functionally equivalent to Adobe Acrobat for the vast majority of use cases. But there are a few specific areas where Acrobat still has a leg up.

The biggest one is mobile support. Adobe offers full-featured Acrobat apps for iOS and Android that sync seamlessly with your desktop software. Nitro has a "PDF Reader" app but it‘s limited to viewing, annotating, and signing – no editing or creation capabilities. For users who need to work with PDFs on the go, Acrobat is the clear winner.

Another weakness is accessibility support. Acrobat has tools to automatically tag PDFs for compatibility with screen readers and other assistive technologies. It‘s a niche requirement but an important one for organizations that need to publish accessible documents. Nitro PDF Pro can only add tags manually, which is more time consuming.

Finally, there‘s the collaborative editing features introduced in Acrobat DC. These allow multiple users to view and edit a PDF simultaneously, with threaded comments and tracked changes. If your team frequently works together on PDF documents, this could be a major productivity booster. Nitro PDF Pro has real-time collaboration features too, but they‘re comparatively limited.

Nitro PDF Pro vs Adobe Acrobat: Pricing Comparison

Of course, all the features in the world don‘t matter if the software is too expensive. And this is where Nitro PDF Pro really stands out from Acrobat. Instead of a recurring subscription, Nitro offers a perpetual license for a one-time fee.

Here‘s how the pricing breaks down as of September 2024:

As you can see, Nitro PDF Pro is significantly cheaper than Acrobat for individual users. A perpetual license will pay for itself in just over 1 year compared to Acrobat Pro DC. And the maintenance plan, which includes unlimited upgrades and premium support, still works out to $70 per year less than Acrobat Standard.

Even for businesses, Nitro PDF Pro is likely the more economical choice in the long run. Nitro‘s $300 per user volume licensing undercuts Acrobat‘s $360-$450 per user annual team pricing, while still providing a comparable feature set.

However, there is one important caveat to Nitro‘s perpetual license. Unlike previous versions, Nitro PDF Pro 15 will require an active maintenance subscription to continue receiving updates after May 1, 2025. Users can keep using the the software without maintenance but won‘t have access to any bug fixes, security patches, or new features after that 1 year grace period.

Nitro made this change to "align with industry standards and ensure customers have the best possible experience with our products." Some users may bristle at the forced subscription, but Nitro VP of Product Kerry Freeman defends the move:

"The old perpetual model worked when software evolved slowly. But now users expect continuous updates and improvements. Moving to a subscription ensures we can invest in innovation and deliver more value to customers on an ongoing basis."

The reality is, Nitro held out longer than most competitors in offering a pure perpetual license. The new model is still more flexible and affordable than Adobe‘s all-subscription approach. Just be aware that some kind of recurring payment will be required to keep Nitro PDF Pro up-to-date long-term.

Customer Support: How Nitro Stacks Up

Investing in new software is inherently risky. That‘s why the quality and availability of customer support can be the deciding factor, especially for large or sensitive deployments. Unfortunately, this is one area where Nitro PDF Pro doesn‘t quite measure up to Adobe.

Nitro offers two tiers of support:

1. Standard – Included with all licenses. Provides access to online knowledge base, community forums, and email/ticket-based support with a 1-2 business day response SLA.
2. Elite – Requires active maintenance subscription. Adds phone support and priority email/ticket handling with a 2-hour response SLA.

In contrast, all Acrobat plans come with 24/7 phone, chat, and email support with a 4-hour callback window for critical issues. Adobe also has a larger library of self-help resources and integrates in-app support in Acrobat itself.

To be clear, Nitro‘s support is still better than many PDF editors I‘ve used. The knowledge base is extensive and well-organized, with detailed guides and video tutorials for most features. The user forums are active, with Nitro employees participating regularly.

And when I submitted a support ticket to ask about the new licensing policy, I received a helpful response in just under 4 hours. But that was as an Elite/maintenance subscriber – standard users could wait days for a reply.

Personally, I‘ve never needed to contact Adobe support for Acrobat because it‘s so mature and stable. But for organizations that want the peace of mind of instant phone/chat support, Acrobat still has the edge over Nitro – for a price.

Conclusion

So, is Nitro PDF Pro really as good as Adobe Acrobat? For the vast majority of users and use cases, I can confidently say yes. Nitro matches or exceeds Acrobat on:

• Core PDF creation & editing features
• Microsoft Office compatibility & familiarity
• Speed, stability & performance
• Overall value for money

Unless you need Acrobat-exclusive capabilities like advanced mobile apps, automatic accessibility tagging, or real-time collaboration, you‘ll be just as productive in Nitro PDF Pro for a fraction of the subscription cost. That perpetual license isn‘t quite as perpetual as it used to be, but still offers substantial savings over Acrobat.

The main caveat is in customer support, where Acrobat‘s live 24/7 global coverage is hard to beat. For mission-critical enterprise deployments, that could tip the scales back in Adobe‘s favor.

But for everyone else – individual users, small businesses, educational institutions, and even cost-conscious enterprises – Nitro PDF Pro is a compelling Acrobat alternative. You‘ll get a familiar, powerful, and professional-grade PDF editing experience without the premium price tag.

Nitro may not have the brand recognition of Adobe (yet). But after putting it through its paces, I can heartily recommend Nitro PDF Pro as the best value in PDF editing software for 2024 and beyond. The gap between Nitro and Acrobat has never been narrower.