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How To Buy Acrobat Pro as a One Time Purchase (Mac & PC)

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Adobe Acrobat Pro is the best PDF editing software out there but not everyone needs or wants to pay a subscription for it.

Although there are other options out there, we found that Acrobat Pro is the best one time purchase PDF editor available which is no surprise since Adobe invented the PDF format.

However, there is a catch to be aware of when buying Adobe Acrobat Pro with a perpetual license on both Mac and Windows as we’ll explain.

Acrobat Pro 2020 For Mac & Windows

The bad news is that the latest version of Adobe Acrobat Pro DC is only available on subscription.

The good news however is that you can still buy the older version of Acrobat Pro 2020 with a lifetime license.

Adobe Acrobat 2020 offers pretty much all of the features of Acrobat Pro minus the Adobe Document Cloud integration (hence the lack of “DC” in the name).

Acrobat Pro 2020 For Mac costs $538.80 for a lifetime license.

adobe acrobat 2020
Adobe Acrobat Pro 2020 For Mac.

Adobe Acrobat Pro 2020 works on both Intel and M-series chip Macs thanks to Rosetta in macOS which translates Intel only apps like Acrobat 2020 to work with Apple Silicon.

Acrobat Pro 2020 For Windows is also available for $538.80 from Adobe with a lifetime license.

adobe acrobat pro 2020 windows one time purchase
Adobe Acrobat Pro 2020 for Windows.

Acrobat Pro 2020 for Windows is compatible with all recent versions of Windows including Windows 11, 10, 8.1 and 8.0.

Acrobat Pro 2020 For Teachers & Students

Students and teachers can get Adobe Acrobat Pro 2020 even cheaper for just $142.99 for a lifetime license.

However, it seems that students and teachers can no longer get this offer from Adobe but you can still purchase the Acrobat Pro 2020 Student Edition from Best Buy.

Acrobat Pro 2020 For Mac Student and Teacher Edition is available with a lifetime license as a digital download for $142.99:

adobe acrobat pro mac 2020 student teacher edition
Adobe Acrobat Pro 2020 for Mac Student & Teacher Edition.

Acrobat Pro 2020 For Windows Student and Teacher Edition is also available on digital download with a lifetime license for $142.99:

adobe acrobat pro windows 2020 student teacher edition
Adobe Acrobat Pro 2020 For Windows Student & Teacher Edition.

It’s important to be aware however that Adobe Acrobat 2020 does not include any quarterly Acrobat feature updates.

It also does not allow you to access premium Adobe Document Cloud (DC) services such as Adobe Sign via web browser or mobile device.

For more on the differences between the two products check out our look at Adobe Acrobat Pro 2020 vs Acrobat Pro DC.

Acrobat Standard 2020 (Windows only)

Windows users can also purchase Adobe Acrobat Standard 2020 with a lifetime license for $358.00 but the Standard version is not available to Mac users.

acrobat standard 2020
Adobe Acrobat Standard.

Is It Better To Buy Adobe Acrobat Pro On Subscription?

Over the short term, it’s better to subscribe to the latest version of Adobe Acrobat Pro DC because one year at $19.99 will cost $239.88 annually compared to $538.80 for a lifetime license.

However, over two years a subscription will have cost you $479.76 which is close to the price of a one-off purchase of Acrobat Pro 2020.

So as long as Adobe 2020 still works on future versions of Windows and macOS in two years time, you’ll save money over the long time by buying it.

An Adobe Acrobat Pro subscription does have other advantages though including integration with Adobe Document Cloud and Adobe Creative Cloud which Acrobat Pro 2020 does not.

Adobe Document Cloud integration (hence the “DC”) includes Adobe Sign for legally binding document signing and document management in Adobe Cloud.

Bear in mind, Acrobat Pro 2020 will probably require security and feature updates to work with future versions of macOS and Windows and there’s no guarantee Adobe will issue these for what is now a legacy product.

Can You Still Buy Adobe Acrobat Pro 2017?

You can still download Adobe Acrobat Pro 2017 but it’s no longer available for purchase.

Adobe discontinued Adobe Acrobat 2017 in June 2022 so you cannot buy it with a perpetual license anymore.

End of support means that Adobe will no longer issue security fixes, technical support or bug fixes for Acrobat 2017.

For Mac users, Adobe Acrobat 2017 also only works up to macOS 12 Monterey. It does not work on any version of macOS later than this including macOS Ventura and Sonoma.

Alternative PDF Software With Lifetime Licenses

If this all comes as a disappointment, there are other PDF software with perpetual licenses you can consider as an alternative to Adobe Acrobat Pro.

Examples include PDF Expert, Foxit PDF Editor and Nitro PDF Pro all of which can be purchased with a lifetime license.

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