01What Acrobat charges for, free in Inkvolt PDF
From Adobe's own pages in October 2026; the full comparison adds Foxit, PDF-XChange and PDFgear, with sources.
| Feature | Inkvolt PDF | Acrobat Reader (free) |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free, open source | Free; editing from $14.99 a month (Standard, Pro) |
| Edit text and images on the page | Yes | Paid (Standard, Pro) |
| Organize, merge, split pages | Yes | Paid (Standard, Pro) |
| Export to Word and Excel | Yes, on your PC | Paid (Standard, Pro) |
| OCR for scanned pages | Yes, on your PC | Paid (Pro) |
| Create form fields | Yes | Paid (Standard, Pro) |
| Redaction that removes the content | Yes, with a check afterwards | Paid (Pro) |
| Compare two versions | Yes | Paid (Pro) |
| Fill and sign, comments | Yes | Yes |
| Usage data collection | None | – |
| Native on ARM64 (Snapdragon) PCs | Yes | No, emulated |
A dash means we could not confirm it from the vendor's pages.
02What's different
Your files stay on your PC
No cloud service, no account, no telemetry. The few things Inkvolt PDF does online happen on your action and are listed in the privacy policy: a timestamp server when you ask for a timestamp, a web page you turn into a PDF, links you click.
AI only if you bring it
Acrobat's AI Assistant runs on Adobe's servers. Inkvolt PDF has no AI of its own; if you want one, connect a model on your PC (Ollama, LM Studio) or a service with your own key, and it shows exactly what text goes where before anything is sent. Off by default.
Open source
AGPL-3.0, with the full history on GitHub (opens in a new tab). You can read what the app does, build it yourself and see exactly what talks to the network.
Redaction you can verify
After redacting, Inkvolt PDF checks the whole file for anything left: under boxes, in other pages, comments, fields, metadata, attachments and earlier versions. It checks files redacted elsewhere too.
What's in This PDF
One report of everything a file carries besides its pages: scripts and what they reach, addresses, attachments, metadata, earlier versions, hidden text. Sanitize removes what you choose. How it works.
Native, and fast
A Windows 10 and 11 app in .NET and WPF on the MuPDF engine, native on x64 and ARM64; a Swift app on the same engine on the Mac. Big documents open at once, in tabs, and reopen where you left them.
03What Acrobat does that we don't
Being honest about it saves you a download. Inkvolt PDF leaves out, on purpose:
- Send-for-signature workflows (send, track, remind): they need a server holding other people's documents and accounts. Signing locally, handwritten and digital, is all there.
- Cloud review, shared comments and sync, for the same reason. Comments travel as XFDF or FDF through whatever you already share files with.
- Print-production preflight (PDF/X, separations, ink coverage): a narrow professional market that Acrobat and dedicated tools serve.
- XFA form design: XFA is deprecated in PDF 2.0; XFA files are filled as far as their AcroForm part allows.
And the Mac app is newer than the Windows app: see below for what is still arriving on it.
04Switching
- Install Inkvolt PDF from the Microsoft Store (opens in a new tab), or
winget install 9MXDTSFJ9W28. Updates come through the Store. - Make it the default for PDFs in Settings › Apps › Default apps › Inkvolt PDF, or leave Acrobat the default and use "Open with" when you need to edit.
- Your comments and forms come along. Inkvolt PDF reads what Acrobat wrote: comments, stamps, measurements, form fields with their calculations, digital signatures. Export Comments and Export Form Data write XFDF and FDF that Acrobat reads back.
- Find any command with Ctrl+K: type what you want to do. The start page has the twelve main tools as cards.
05
On the Mac
Inkvolt PDF for Mac is the same app written in Swift on the same engine, for Macs with Apple silicon on macOS 15 or later: reading in tabs, comments and drawing, forms and Fill & Sign, editing text and images, organizing pages, OCR with macOS's text recognition, export to Word and Excel, passwords, printing (pages per sheet, booklets, posters), scanning, redaction with the check, Sanitize and What's in This PDF. Still to come, release by release: digital signatures, compare, reduce file size, headers and footers, watermarks, PDF/A, batch and the rest of the Windows app. It is a notarized download that updates itself: download the disk image, or brew install --cask gabandres/inkvolt/inkvolt-pdf.
06Questions
Is Inkvolt PDF really free, or a trial?
Free, with no trial, no watermark, no demo stamps and no account. Inkvolt PDF for Windows and Mac is open source under the AGPL-3.0; a Pro tier for a few power features is planned for a one-time $19 and is switched off during the launch.
Does it open the PDFs Acrobat makes?
Yes: it is built on the MuPDF engine and opens any PDF, including forms with calculations, signed files and password-protected files. Comments and form data travel to and from Acrobat as XFDF and FDF.
What can Acrobat do that Inkvolt PDF can't?
Send-for-signature workflows, cloud review with shared comments, print-production preflight and XFA form design. Those need a server or serve a narrow market, and Inkvolt PDF leaves them out on purpose.
Does it run on a Snapdragon (ARM64) laptop?
Yes, natively. Acrobat runs emulated there.
Is there a Mac version?
Yes, for Macs with Apple silicon on macOS 15 or later. Some Windows features are still arriving on it, in the order above.
Adobe, Acrobat and Acrobat Reader are trademarks of Adobe. Inkvolt is independent and not affiliated with or endorsed by Adobe; the names are used only to compare. Prices are US list prices as shown by Adobe in October 2026: Acrobat pricing, Acrobat Reader, Acrobat AI Assistant data handling, Acrobat on ARM64. Something out of date? Tell us.