Best PDF editors 2025: Reviewed and rated

PDF files are ubiquitous in this cross-platform world, making it possible to view and share documents across a range of devices. While simply viewing or commenting on a PDF can be accomplished with free software, there are times when you might need to engage with a PDF document more extensively, such as making edits, reorganizing a file, or working with others to make changes. That’s where a a full-featured PDF editor comes in.

The best PDF editors allows you to edit, create, alter, and convert PDF files just like you would with any other text document. Adobe Acrobat is the most well-known option for most people. Its reputation is certainly deserved given its excellent feature set and overall utility. But it’s also quite expensive.

Thankfully, there’s a whole range of respectable and even great third-party PDF editors that provide less expensive alternatives to Adobe’s premier product.

Our picks below cover the gamut of PDF editing needs and budgets.

Why you should trust us: At PCWorld, we’ve been testing PC hardware and software for over 40 years. Our evaluation process is always hands-on and thorough, taking into account real-world usage needs. We don’t ever recommend something we wouldn’t be comfortable using ourselves. To learn more about our criteria for PDF editors scroll to the bottom of this article.

Adobe Acrobat Pro – Best PDF editor overall

Pros

• Easily navigable tabbed interface
• Comprehensive PDF editing features
• Streamlined sharing feature makes it easier to fill documents and get signatures

Cons

• Rich feature set can be overwhelming for new users

Price When Reviewed:

$19.90/mo I $239.88/yr

Adobe Acrobat Pro remains the industry standard for good reason. Its rich combination of creation, editing, reviewing, and security features are mimicked by the best alternative options, but we feel Acrobat still does it best. Its recent interface redesign makes it much easier to navigate through its robust toolset than the nested menus of yore, and its cloud subscription option puts its advanced features within reach of more individuals and small businesses. (See how it compares to the Adobe Acrobat Standard.)

Though many of its features are available in other, cheaper PDF editors, Acrobat is still the editor against which all others are judged. And, as of this year, it’s also the first PDF editor that we know of to incorporate AI into the feature mix. See our article on “5 ways Adobe Acrobat’s AI Assistant gives you a productivity edge.”

Read our full

Acrobat Pro DC review

Foxit PDF Editor 13 – Best PDF editor runner-up

Pros

• Multi-platform
• Business-ready capabilities
• AI integration helps with document editing

Cons

• Can be expensive depending on product license

Price When Reviewed:

PDF Reader: Free; PDF Editor: $10.99 a month; $129.99 a year; PDF Editor+: $159.99 a year

Foxit PDF Editor 13 hits all the right notes for a premium PDF editor and can even take on the formidable Adobe Acrobat. It’s packed with features that are sure to please power users—all the requisite content editing tools; review and markup features; form fill and signing support; and robust security options for sensitive documents, such as permissions, password protection, and data redaction. It supports tons of file formats, and adding hyperlinks, images, and files to a PDF is trouble-free.

Indeed, ease-of-use is one of Foxit’s great strengths. The program uses a Microsoft Office-style ribbon interface which groups tasks in a familiar and intuitive interface, making for a seamless integration with your workflow. It also provides ChatGPT integration so you can easily get help with your documents from an AI assistant. Yes, it’s priced on the higher side for a PDF editor, but with all it has going for it, Nitro PDF Pro more than earns its keep. Plus, you can try it out for free for seven days to see if you like it before making a commitment. If you’re looking for an Acrobat replacement, you won’t find many better.

Read our full

Foxit PDF Editor review

EaseUS PDF Editor – Best cheap PDF editor

Pros

• Full set of editing tools
• Annotation options enable easy collaboration
• Straightforward interface

Cons

• Windows only
• Needs subscription to remove usage limits

Price When Reviewed:

Free I $22.46/mo I $49.95/yr I $79.95/lifetime

EaseUS PDF Editor might not have the name recognition of some of the other editors on this list, but it’s more than capable of holding its own in the crowded PDF editor market. It provides all of the essential tools for managing PDF files without any of the elaborate or hard-to-understand features. It allows users to jump right in to their toolset and get straight to editing with only what they need.

While EaseUS’s features are great, they are also pretty standard fare among PDF editors. What makes it stand out is its affordable price—it’s a great value for those who regularly edit PDFs and don’t want to pay out the nose. EaseUS also offers a fully functional free version (with embedded watermarks on your edited documents) so users can take it for a spin to see if it meets their needs before they commit to paying any money.

Read our full

EaseUS PDF Editor review

PDF Candy – Best free PDF editor

Pros

• Many advanced features
• OCR capability
• Very easy to use

Cons

• No Mac support
• Free trial only offers basic features

Price When Reviewed:

Free

PDF Candy is the rare free PDF editor that offers a lot of the features you’d typically have to pay for. We’re talking scanning, multiple file-conversion options, and OCR functionality. All of this combines to make PDF Candy stand out among the multitude of lesser free PDF editors. It does have a bit of a wonky interface, but once you get the hang of it you’re off and running.

Unfortunately, while the free version has access to the expansive toolset of the paid version, you’re limited to one PDF task per hour. If you want unfettered access, you need to shell out $6 per month, or $48 per year.

Read our full

PDF Candy review

PDF Expert – Best PDF editor for Mac

Pros

• Syncs across Mac, iPhone, and iPad
• Comprehensive editing and annotation tools
• Simple, intuitive interface

Cons

• Requires annual payment
• Lifetime license enables use on Mac only

Price When Reviewed:

Free 7-day trial, then $79.99 annually

PDF Expert is an excellent editor that fits seamlessly into the Apple ecosystem, making it our pick for Macs, iPads, and iPhone users.

While macOS does include a PDF editor in its Preview app, iOS devices don’t have a native PDF editor and PDF Expert fills that gap nicely. It has a clean and intuitive interface and offers a plethora of easy-to-use editing options such as page management, converting scanned files into editable documents, and conversion to other file formats, among other things. The pricing plan is also considerably cheaper than most of the other top picks, meaning this is a no-brainer for Apple users.

Read our full

PDF Expert (iOS) review

Apple Preview PDF editor – Best free PDF editor for Mac

Pros

• Full set of PDF markup tools
• Supports form filling
• PDFs can be protected with passwords, encryption, and permission controls

Cons

• Limited native sharing options
• Only available to Mac users

Price When Reviewed:

Built into macOS

Mac users needn’t look beyond the macOS for their PDF editing needs, since there is a full set of PDF markup tools already available at their disposal in Apple Preview. It has the chops to handle most personal and business PDF editing needs, including encryption, password protection, and permissions for files.

Apple Preview’s PDF features and capabilities are impressive and should be all you need for most common editing tasks. The drawback, of course, is that only Mac users can take advantage of them.

Read our full

Apple Preview PDF editor review

pdfFiller – Best online PDF editor

Pros

• Intuitive web-based interface
• Robust security options
• Lots of business-ready capabilities

Cons

• Business features won’t be needed by some users
• Requires annual commitment to get best value

Price When Reviewed:

Basic: $8 per month; Plus: $12 per month; Premium: $15 per month. Those prices require an annual commitment. Prices start at $20 a month with no commitment.

pdfFiller is a browser-based PDF editor that allows you do to just about everything PDF-related—editing, securing, sharing, creating, and storing PDF files—all from its intuitive and simple web interface. Its design is similar to a desktop app, with the toolbar across the top, and document thumbnails along the side, so it’s very easy to select the page you want to work on and perform the desired function, be it adding, deleting, or copying/pasting text; changing font style, size, and color; and so on. A standard set of markup tools is also available. It has a surprisingly deep set of features for both personal and business use. For instance the Premium plan offers an impressive legal document library, as well as SignNow support.

While incredibly versatile, not all of pdfFiller’s advanced features will suit everyone. Fortunately, there are three subscription tiers, which gives users a way to meet their editing needs without paying extra for unnecessary features: Basic for $8/mo; Plus for $12/mo; Premium for $15/mo with an annual commitment. Month-to-month options are also available, but at a higher cost, of course.

Read our full

pdfFiller review

Other PDF editor reviews

• Swifdoo PDF for Windows: This full-featured, low-priced Acrobat alternative should serve most users well, with most everything you’d need for editing PDFs.
• MobiPDF: Budget buyers will find a lot to like about PDF Extra. It offers good basic-to-intermediate PDF functionality that will please both casual and professional users, for a fraction of the cost of pinnacle program Adobe Acrobat Pro.
• PDF24 Creator: This is a capable free editor that comes in handy for casual use, but if you need a program for more regular editing duties, PDF24 Creator has annoyances that will hinder its helpfulness.
• PDF-XChange Editor: Another full-featured PDF editor that will fulfill most editing needs for a reasonable price. It also offers a respectable free version, if you can accept its watermarks.
• Kofax Power PDF 5: This is a close alternative to Adobe Acrobat Pro with essential and advanced editing tools and lots of help resources, making it suitable for old hands and those new to PDF editing.

A word about online PDF editors

Why spend a chunk of change on a desktop editor when free online PDF editors abound? The simple answer is because you get what you pay for. Generally, free online editors will let you add text and comments, merge and split documents, and convert files to and from PDF. With rare exception, however, they won’t let you edit existing text and many have file-size and page-volume restrictions. And a lot of them will watermark your edited document. For these reasons, web PDF editors are best reserved for simple, fast editing jobs. Call in these big dogs for anything more demanding.

What to look for in a PDF editor

PDF editors come in a variety of flavors, offering varying feature sets—from basic functionality to power-user tools. It’s important to know what features best match your workflow before you commit to a PDF editor.

Create, convert, and export PDFs

The most fundamental function of a PDF editor is to make PDFs, either from scratch, scanned hard copies, or by converting digital documents. A good PDF editor should be able to transform a variety of file types—from Microsoft Office formats to images to HTML—and do so seamlessly, preserving the original formatting. It should also include OCR technology to make the PDF text searchable and editable. Likewise, a good PDF editor must be able to export PDFs into other editable formats such as Microsoft Word and PowerPoint, HTML, or plain text, maintaining the original files hyperlinks, images, and other elements.

Content editing

Another bit of magic that PDF editors unlock is the ability to modify text; insert, resize, and move images; and reorganize pages in the PDF. A good one will perform these tasks as easily as in a text document or slide deck, allowing in-line editing, dragging-and dropping graphics, and adding or removing hyperlinks.

Review and annotate

A good PDF editor should also let you or anyone else using it add comments and other annotations to PDF files during review. It should have tools to mark up both text documents and graphic-heavy files like webpages. Common options include sticky notes, callout boxes, highlighting, freehand drawing tools, and stamps with messages like “approved,” “revised,” and “confidential.”

Security

All businesses deal with documents containing sensitive data. Look for a PDF editor that includes security features that allow access for authorized eyes only. Good options will usually offer several levels of security, including password protection, permissions setting, and content redaction, which “blacks out” selected text and images. Most PDF editors will also offer one or more ways to electronically sign documents.

Mobile support

While deep PDF editing is best done on a desktop, it’s nice to be able to review and annotate files when you’re out and about. While PDFs can typically be reviewed in any PDF reader or editor, regardless of which one they were created in, consider looking for an editor that has a dedicated mobile app, is optimized for mobile devices, or allows cloud access to features through a mobile browser.

One of the great things about a PDF is that it can be read and edited in any PDF program regardless of which one it was created in. So beyond the features outlined here, let your personal preferences guide you in making your decision.