Adobe Acrobat Sign vs Dropbox Sign
We give Adobe Acrobat Sign a 1.6 GPA and Dropbox Sign a 2.0, out of 4.0. Adobe Acrobat Sign grades higher on value for money. Dropbox Sign grades higher on the free plan and ease of use. They get the same grade on features and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Adobe Acrobat Sign
Adobe's e-signatures, sold inside Acrobat plans or on their own
Dropbox Sign
E-signature app from Dropbox with unlimited requests on paid plans
How we grade them
| 1.6GPAAdobe Acrobat SignWeak | 2.0GPADropbox SignFair | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | CAbout $51 a month for three on Acrobat Standard for teams, at $16.99 a licence on the annual plan billed monthly. That's the dearer end of this category, but it includes a full PDF editor and uncapped e-signatures. Bulk send and branding need Pro at $23.99. | D$75 a month for three on Standard, billed yearly ($25 a head, $30 monthly). That's this category's dearest tenth. To be fair, requests are unlimited with no overage fees, so a busy month never costs more. One person alone pays $15 on Essentials. |
| Free plan and trial | DNo free plan. There's a 14-day trial of Pro or Studio for teams, but it runs on into a yearly commitment: cancel more than 14 days after it ends and you pay half of what's left. | CA free plan for one sender and 3 signature requests a month. Fine for the odd lease, nowhere near 20 contracts a month. There's also a 30-day free trial of the paid plans. |
| Features | CSend from Acrobat, several signers at once, tracking, audit trails, web forms and branding, plus the PDF tools. But Adobe itself says the signing in Acrobat Standard and Pro doesn't reach the compliance level of Acrobat Sign Solutions, which is sold through sales. | CUnlimited requests, templates and template links, field validation, signer attachments, reminders, and bulk send and branding on Standard. The gaps: Standard stops at 15 templates, and SMS authentication, SSO and Salesforce all need Premium, sold through sales. |
| Ease of use | F2.2 from about 650 App Store ratings for the Acrobat Sign app, by far the lowest in this category. You can send from Acrobat on a computer instead, but on a phone this is the app. | CNo store rating on record, so this rests on the listing. It's a web app where you drag fields onto each document and build your templates, so there's a bit of setting up. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb, desktop Acrobat and iPhone, with Word, Teams, Salesforce, Workday, Box, Dropbox, Google Drive and OneDrive. No Android app is listed, so it misses an A. | BWeb only, but it sends from Dropbox, Google Drive, Microsoft Word, HubSpot and Slack, and there's an API, priced separately from these plans. No phone or desktop app is listed. |
| Best for | teams that need Acrobat's PDF tools anyway | unlimited signature requests from a familiar name |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: Adobe Acrobat Sign and Dropbox Sign. How we grade
Price against what you get
Adobe Acrobat Sign starts at $16.99 a month for each person and scores 1.7 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. Dropbox Sign starts at $15 a month and scores 2.3.
Dropbox Sign scores higher and starts $1.99 a month lower. Of the other e-signature and proposal tools on the chart, 10 score higher than Adobe Acrobat Sign for less, and 6 score higher than Dropbox Sign for less.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
Where they differ
- Adobe Acrobat Sign starts at $16.99 per license / month, annual plan billed monthly. Dropbox Sign starts at $15 per month, billed yearly ($20 billed monthly).
- Dropbox Sign has a free plan. Adobe Acrobat Sign does not, though it has a free trial.
- Only Adobe Acrobat Sign lists an iOS app.
- Adobe Acrobat Sign also covers forms.
- Dropbox Sign also covers templates.
At a glance
| Adobe Acrobat Sign | Dropbox Sign | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free trial | Free plan |
| Starts at | $16.99 per license / month, annual plan billed monthly | $15 per month, billed yearly ($20 billed monthly) |
| Free plan | None | One sender and up to 3 signature requests a month. |
| Free trial | 14-day free trial of Acrobat Pro or Acrobat Studio for teams, for up to 10 licenses | 30-day free trial of the paid plans |
| Web | ||
| iOS | ||
| Made by | Adobe | Dropbox |
| Price read from | adobe.com | sign.dropbox.com |
| Checked | Oct 17, 2026 | Oct 17, 2026 |
Who each one suits
Adobe Acrobat Sign
- Teams that already need Acrobat for PDF editing and want e-signatures included
- Businesses that send a high volume of agreements, since team plans have no e-signature cap
- Large companies that need Adobe's enterprise e-signature compliance, via sales
Dropbox Sign
- Freelancers and small teams who send many agreements and want no per-envelope limit
- Dropbox users who keep their contracts in Dropbox already
- Anyone who signs only now and then: 3 requests a month are free
Worth knowing
Adobe Acrobat Sign
- Small teams cannot buy Acrobat Sign on its own: it comes inside an Acrobat for teams plan, and the standalone Acrobat Sign Solutions is sold only through sales.
- Plans are annual commitments paid monthly; cancelling more than 14 days after the trial ends costs half the remaining commitment.
- Adobe says the e-signature features in Acrobat Standard and Pro do not offer the compliance level of Acrobat Sign Solutions.
- The Acrobat AI Assistant is a paid add-on on Standard and Pro and is included only in Acrobat Studio.
Dropbox Sign
- Standard covers 2 to 5 users; more than five senders means the Premium plan, priced by quote.
- SSO, SMS authentication, the Salesforce integration and data residency are Premium only.
- Dropbox storage plans include unlimited self-signing but only 3 signature requests a month.
- The Dropbox Sign API is priced separately from these plans.
Key features
Adobe Acrobat Sign
- Send from Acrobat
- Request e-signatures directly from Acrobat on desktop, web or mobile, with no usage cap on e-signatures in Acrobat for teams plans.
- Several signers at once
- Send one document to multiple signers, each of whom gets a personal copy; Acrobat Pro adds bulk sending.
- Tracking and audit trails
- Real-time status and notifications for documents out for signature, with audit trails kept for completed ones.
- Web forms and branding
- Turn PDFs or Word files into fillable forms, post signable web forms on a website and add your logo to agreements.
- PDF tools in the same plan
- The Acrobat plans also edit, convert, combine, password-protect and, in Pro, compare and redact PDFs.
- Cloud storage and app links
- Store signed files in Box, Dropbox, Google Drive or OneDrive, and send from Microsoft Word, Teams, Salesforce or Workday.
Dropbox Sign
- Unlimited signature requests
- Paid plans charge per user, with no monthly cap on the number of documents sent for signature and no overage fees.
- Templates and template links
- Save a prepared document as a template, or turn it into a link to share by email or on a website. Essentials allows 5 templates, Standard 15.
- Signer fields with validation
- Drag on signature blocks, text fields, checkboxes and dates, and add rules that check what signers type as they go.
- Audit trail and reminders
- Every request carries a time-stamped audit trail, and automatic email reminders chase signers who have not finished.
- Team admin and bulk send
- Standard adds an admin console with team roles, company branding, reporting and bulk send to a list of recipients.
- Integrations
- Send from Dropbox, Google Drive, Microsoft Word, HubSpot and Slack; the Salesforce integration needs Premium.
Plans
Adobe Acrobat Sign
Acrobat Standard for teams$16.99
per license / month, annual plan billed monthly
Acrobat plan with PDF editing and conversion that can request e-signatures and track them; the AI Assistant is an add-on.
Acrobat Pro for teams$23.99
per license / month, annual plan billed monthly
Adds bulk send, brand customization, PDF comparison and redaction, plus 24x7 support; the AI Assistant is an add-on.
Acrobat Studio for teams$29.99
per license / month, annual plan billed monthly
Everything in Acrobat Pro plus PDF Spaces, the Acrobat AI Assistant and Adobe Express Premium.
Acrobat Sign SolutionsCustom
The standalone e-signature product, sold through sales, with unlimited seats, deeper integrations and compliance features.
Dropbox Sign
Free$0
One sender and up to 3 signature requests a month.
Essentials$15
per month, billed yearly ($20 billed monthly)
One user, unlimited signature requests, 5 templates, data validation, signer attachments and template links.
Standard$25
per user / month, billed yearly ($30 billed monthly)
2 to 5 users and 15 templates, with an admin console, team roles, branding, bulk send and reporting.
PremiumCustom
Sold through sales for 5 or more users: unlimited templates, SSO, SMS authentication, Salesforce, data residency and multi-team admin.
Ways to pay less
Adobe Acrobat Sign
No public discounts listed.
Dropbox Sign
- Annual discount
Lower price with yearly billing
Essentials is $15 a month billed yearly ($180) against $20 monthly, and Standard $25 per user a month yearly against $30 monthly.
