Buy once instead of Adobe Acrobat Pro
5 apps in the directory cover what people use Adobe Acrobat Pro for. 4 of them are a one-time purchases, and one costs nothing at all.
Adobe Acrobat Pro costs about $240 a year. At that rate TextSniper, the cheapest dollar-priced replacement at $7.99, pays for itself in under a month.
Read the catch on each one before you switch — a one-time price is not automatically the better deal, and we say so where it is not.
The replacements
PDFgear
free PDF editor for Mac with no account and no paid tier
Free Free
Closed source with no stated business model, so nothing guarantees it stays free
TextSniper
grab text out of any image, pdf or video frame on screen
$7.99 This version
Major upgrades cost extra, and the 7-day refund covers the direct purchase, not the App Store one
UPDF
one payment, four devices, Mac and phone on the same licence
$79.99 Lifetime tier
The AI Assistant is a separate US$69/year subscription, not part of the lifetime licence
PDF Expert
fast Mac PDF editor with a real one-time licence behind the plans
$139.99 Lifetime tier
Readdle states new features may cost extra, and the licence covers the Mac app only
Foxit PDF Editor 14 (Perpetual)
Acrobat-class PDF suite you can still buy outright, once
$209.99 This version
You own version 14; version 15 is a new purchase, and cloud and AI features are excluded