Portable Document Format, or PDF, was developed back in the early nineties as a way to replace a number of competing formats like DjVu, Envoy, Fallaron, PostScript etc. in the early years of the World Wide Web. With Adobe controlling it as a proprietary format until 2008, Adobe Reader has been the go-to PDF Reader on our computers for as long as most of us can remember. However, it is bloated, slow, and the paid version is too costly. So if you are looking for a free and light option, here are the top 10 Adobe Reader alternatives you can use on your Windows PC.

In this article, we have mentioned 10 apps that you can use to replace Adobe Reader on Windows 10. Below are the quick links to all the apps included in this list. You can click on the links to quickly move to the apps you find interesting.

1. Sumatra PDF

Sumatra is a free and open source PDF reader that has a simple, intuitive user-interface, and is light on your computer’s resources. The program was first released back in 2006, and is hosted on Github, like many of its open source compatriots. What’s truly remarkable is that while Adobe Reader is a massive 105MB download, Sumatra PDF weighs in at just over 4MB.

Sumatra PDF is, admittedly, a bit short on features compared to some of its rivals, but it does come with a large number of keyboard shortcuts to help users navigate pages quickly and efficiently. It also comes in both portable and installer versions, so as an user, you’re able to carry it on a USB flash drive to read documents on any computer anywhere.

Cons:

Download Sumatra PDF (Free) 

2. Foxit Reader

Foxit Reader is another top-tier alternative to the Adobe Reader, and comes with many of the features that Sumatra PDF lacks. As a trade-off, it is neither as lightweight, nor as fast, but is perhaps, the best option if you want anything more than barely opening and reading PDF documents.

Pros:

Download Foxit Reader (Free)

PDF Exchange Editor is yet another excellent choice as an Adobe Reader replacement. It comes in both paid and free avatars, and while the paid versions offer premium features, the free version is also fairly feature-packed when compared to some of the other programs in the market.

Cons:

  • Lacks modern UI

  • Download PDF X-Change Editor: Free Version

  • Download PDF X-Change Editor: Single User License ($43.50)

4. STDU Viewer

Science and Technical Documentation Utility (STDU) Viewer is a document and image viewer that comes as a tiny 2.5MB download and, supports a wide variety of file formats, ranging from PDF to TIFF and JPEG to GIF.

Download STDU Viewer (Free)

Nitro PDF Reader is a full-featured PDF viewer that, unlike PDF X-Change, allows users to also create PDF files from scratch. Like Foxit Reader, it also comes with an interface that resembles MS Office, and allows users to annotate, highlight and add sticky notes to the documents you open.

  • The paid version is a bit costly

  • Download Nitro PDF Viewer: Free Version

  • Download Nitro PDF Viewer: License (starts at $159)

6. SlimPDF Reader

As is evident from its name, SlimPDF Reader is a small and lightweight PDF reader available for desktop Windows. The program weighs in at just 1.4MB, making it, by far, the smallest actively-developed PDF viewer we know of right now.

Download SlimPDF Reader (Free) 

Evince is a free and open source (FOSS) document viewer that is available on Windows, Linux and Unix-like operating systems. It is included as the default PDF viewer in Fedora, Debian and Ubuntu. The program was originally designed for the GNOME desktop environment and, support a multitude of file formats, including PDF, PostScrip, DjVu, TIFF, XPS and DVI.

Like Nitro PDF, Evince can also display two pages at once, and supports full-screen and slide-shows. The program also allows users to select, highlight and even copy text from PDF files, provided, they include the OCR data.

Download Evince (Free)

8. PhantomPDF

PhantomPDF is a full-feature paid PDF Reader software that comes from Foxit Software, the makers of Foxit Reader. Like its free counterpart, PhantomPDF also comes with a Ribbon-based interface that resembles MS Office, and offers PDF editing and encryption features.

  • Packed with pro features
  • Supports OCR
  • Supports PDF encryption
  • Supports Multiple languages

Download PhantomPDF ($129)

pdfDocs is the second and final paid PDF reader on our list today. It is describes by its developer, DocsCorp, as a “project-centric PDF management application“, which is a way of saying that it brings many of the features that you’d expect from productivity suits like Google Docs.

Being a business-oriented software suite, pdfDocs also allows users to create electronics PDF binders that automate the process of converting a large number of documents into a single PDF file.

  • No free version availale

Download pdfDocs ($85)

This particular option wouldn’t have been a part of this article had we been compiling this list a few years ago. Over the past few years, all major browser vendors have started including a native PDF viewer with their respective web-browsers. That being the case, just about everybody already has a PDF viewer on their computers whether they realize it or not.

You may not get all the features that advanced PDF management software will bring to the table, but all these browsers will be able to render standard PDF documents quickly and correctly without putting too much of a strain on your system.

Download: Firefox / Chrome / Edge Chromium

Q. What is an alternative to Adobe Acrobat?

We have mentioned 10 good Adobe reader alternatives that you can use to replace Adobe Acrobat Reader. Depending on your usage and requirement you can choose anyone. For example, if you just want an app to read the PDF documents, you can simply use your browser. If you want something light, you can download the Sumatra PDF. Just read the article and find the one that meets your needs.

Q. Which is the best free PDF reader?

It’s hard to judge an app as the best as it depends on the users’ requirements. In general, Sumatra PDF is the best. It is free, is only 4 MB in size, and doesn’t tax your system’s resources.

Yes, Adobe Reader is free of cost. But this only lets you read PDF files. You cannot use it to edit the files.

As mentioned above, Adobe Reader is the free PDF reader made by Adobe. You can use this app to only view PDF files. If you want to manipulate and edit PDF files, you will have to buy the Adobe Acrobat software. It starts at $14.99/month.