Best PDF Editing Apps

Best PDF Editing Apps

PDF is the best file format preferred for both business and studies. To create proper PDF documents, we need PDF editors with lots of advanced features. For instance, the best PDF editor should allow you to add and remove text, add images, convert PDF to other formats, highlight the texts, and more. 

When deciding which of the best PDF editing apps to download and use, first consider which bits of your PDF file you need to change. If you’re just trying to add information to a form digitally, you’ll just need a basic editor that supports text insertion.

However, if you need to change the content of a PDF substantially, you’ll require a more powerful PDF editing app that can make modifications to text or images already stored in the file. 

If you want to edit PDFs on your mobile, these are the best PDF editing apps that can take the hassle out of making changes to PDF files.

Adobe Acrobat Reader

1. Adobe Acrobat Reader

Adobe Acrobat Reader - 5 star rating

(Android, iPhone, iPad)

Adobe Acrobat Reader is one of the most popular PDF editors on iOS and Android. This app comes with great features to manage PDF files. With this editor, you can fill forms, sign documents, set passwords, annotate PDF files when you read, and highlight a PDF file.

Basic PDF editing is free. The tools for drawing on the page, highlighting, underlining or striking through text, adding sticky notes with comments, adding new text fields or signing with your finger are very well designed for touch.

You can also fill out forms for free via the separate Fill & Sign app. Again, this is well designed and easy to use. You start with an existing PDF. Then type into fields or autofill with saved text like your address, and sign with your finger or stylus (you can save both your signature and initials).

You can open and save PDFs from a wide range of cloud services -- iCloud, Google Drive, Dropbox, Box and OneDrive -- for free, but if you subscribe to Adobe Acrobat Pro DC, you can automatically sync all PDFs you edit to all your devices.

Adobe Acrobat Reader is the original PDF tool, and it's still one of the best. If you only need to do basic reading and editing, it should cover most of what you need. Otherwise, you'll need to pay for Adobe Acrobat Pro DC, which is designed for businesses that need all the features, from editing PDF text seamlessly (including matching the font) to locking fields once a form is signed, exporting PDFs and creating PDF files from scratch.  

Available for: Android, iOS

Price: Free. Additional online features, such as the ability to export PDFs, via Adobe PDF Pack: $70 / yr. Additional online and local features via Adobe Acrobat Pro DC: $180 / yr. 


If we missed any of the Best PDF Editing Apps, tell us about them!


UPDF - Read, Scan & Sign PDF

2. UPDF - Read, Scan & Sign PDF

UPDF - Read, Scan & Sign PDF - 5 star rating

(Android, iPhone, iPad)

UPDF is a cross-platform app for working with PDFs. Everything you could want to do with a PDF is possible using the tools in this collection of apps.

As you are looking to edit your PDF documents, there is a need to have an editing tool that offers everything. With simple functionality and operations, UPDF provides an editing toolkit that makes it easy for users to manage their tasks efficiently. Rather than restricting across word processing software, UPDF provides an editing system that can help users edit the text, images, and links within a PDF.

UPDF is also a good PDF annotator. The annotation tools offered by UPDF will be very helpful for students and teachers. You can highlight, underline, and strikethrough text in PDF documents. You can also add sticky notes, text boxes, stamps, and stickers as per your requirements. It also offers a free-hand drawing tool to help you draw any shapes you like.

Available for: Android, iOS, Windows, Web Browsers

Price: Newly registered UPDF users can convert five files for free. You can subscribe to an annual plan for ongoing access and continual updates. Both provide a similar feature set and include 10GB of cloud storage.



PDFelement

3. PDFelement

PDFelement - 5 star rating

(Android, iPhone, iPad Windows)

PDFelement is an excellent document editor as this software has been widely used by users in the digital industry. Within its versatility, this PDF editor gives you a simplified experience in its interface, making it one of the best intuitively handled, offering a greater number of features that will help you modify easily, offering high quality results, with a few clicks.

Within the versions of PDFelement , there is a free pdf editor with basic solutions for everyone and a professional version focused on users with large workloads in PDF formats and a paid version for companies that integrate the use of PDF files into their processes. this format.

PDFelement is available for iOS, Android and Windows as a free pdf editor and a paid version, which will provide you with excellent management and editing of PDF files.

Available for: Android, iOS, Windows

Price: Free. PDFelement Standard costs $69/year, while the Pro version costs $79.



LightPDF

4. LightPDF

LightPDF - 5 star rating

(Android, iPhone, iPad)

LightPDF is a free PDF editor which is designed to provide people an easy way to work with their PDF documents. It includes many daily used PDF tools with a clean and easily understood interface.This free PDF editor is easy to use and offers a bunch of content editing options. You can modify the content of a PDF or adjust the images. Also, with annotating tools, you can add markups, highlight PDF and much more. 

The website allows people to convert PDF to Office formats (Word, PPT, Excel), TXT and image formats (JPG & PNG), convert Word, PPT, Excel, JPG, PNG, CAD to PDF. Other tools like editing, OCR, compressing, protecting, unlocking, signing, adding watermark, adding highlights, splitting, combing, rotating PDF are also supported by LightPDF.

Available for: Android, iOS, Windows

Price: Free. 99 cents for each additional feature, such as create PDF, create PDF from image, or access individual cloud services like Google Drive and Dropbox


Foxit PDF Editor

5. Foxit PDF Editor

(Android, iPhone, iPad)

Foxit is the best PDF editing app that offers fast, affordable, and secure PDF solutions. Foxit has long provided an alternative to Adobe's PDF tools, both for desktop and on the web.

Foxit MobilePDF, brings many of its core features to iOS and Android, with tools for easy editing and creation of PDF files. It is an easy-to-use PDF editor to quickly view and annotate the PDF files on the go. 

You can use Foxit to work on PDF forms like filling out and saving forms, importing and exporting form data, and more. In addition to this, it lets you add your handwritten signatures to the PDF, protect PDF files with password, etc.

Many of the more useful features are individual in-app purchases (at 99 cents each), like the ability to create a new PDF or turn an image into a PDF. This starts to add up if you need access to different cloud services like Google Drive and Dropbox, as you have to buy those individually; you also have to buy them separately for an iPhone and iPad. With the paid version, you can also work on XFA forms. You can add bookmarks to most accessed documents for easy access.

Available for: Android, iOS

Price: Free with in-app purchases


iAnnotate PDF

6. iAnnotate PDF

iAnnotate PDF - 4 star rating

(iPhone, iPad)

iAnnotate is a full-featured PDF editor that is now available for both the iPhone and the iPad -- and if you have an Apple Pencil you can use that for annotations while you scroll with your fingers. 

There's an excellent range of annotation tools -- in addition to the usual pen, highlighter, comments, shapes and arrows, strikethrough, underline, stamps and text boxes (which can include today's date), you can insert photos and sound clips. There's a really wide range of stamps, including grades (ideal for teachers marking essays) and signature lines, and you can make your own. If you want to choose your own pen colors, iAnnotate gives you a full color mixer, similar to those offered by Photoshop and other graphics software.

There are nice touches like an optional "wrist guard" that grays out the bottom of the screen and keeps it from accepting input. You can grab web pages and annotate them as PDFs; create new PDFs with graph paper or lined backgrounds; send only the pages of a PDF that you've annotated; and flatten annotations so no one can edit them later.

There are almost more features than the simple UI can fit in; it's hard to find tools in multiple toolboxes, and it can be cramped, even on the larger screen of an iPad. However, you can drag your favorite tools onto the app's toolbar.

The app works with the usual cloud storage services (including OneDrive for Business), but the thumbnail view it uses to display cloud files means you may not see full file names, which is awkward.

iAnnotate is a useful, full-featured tool, let down by an overly complex UI and a rather high price. 

Available for: iOS

Price: $9.99


GoodReader PDF Editor

7. GoodReader PDF Editor

GoodReader PDF Editor - 4 star rating

(iPhone, iPad)

GoodReader is easy-to-use PDF reader app  allows users to read, create, and edit PDF annotations. This app excels as a pure PDF reader, especially for large documents like textbooks and software manuals. 

GoodReader is an all-in-one versatile editor made strictly for use with PDF files, making it an ideal choice for everyone who deals with plenty of PDFs daily and needs decent editing capabilities and tools.

This powerful editor can help you easily open any PDF from your mobile or iPad or web, manage all your PDFs in one place with the possibility of storing your PDFs in the cloud for extra security, convert your PDFs to any other format, and more. You can edit all your PDFs directly on an iPad with a set of tools that help you highlight, annotate, freehand write, and even digitally sign documents.

Available for: iOS

Price: $4.99


PDF Expert by Readdle

8. PDF Expert by Readdle

(iPhone, iPad)

PDF Expert includes all editing tools to ensure that you can efficiently work on PDF files using your iOS or Android device. Not only do you get to open PDFs from various sources and highlight and annotate these files in your way, but you also get to create notes as you review PDFs.

On top of that, PDF Expert allows you to work in the cloud so all your PDFs are securely stored and can be accessed via other devices, as long as you’re connected to WiFi when you are saving your PDFs.

You can even add emotion stickers to PDF files which is a rare feature to find. However, from the most standard features, you’ll probably be happy to see that you can password-protect your PDFs, edit the original text in any PDF, sign documents, and even have constructive tools to create elements within your PDF files.

Available for: iOS

Price: Free with in-app purchases


If you’re looking for a versatile PDF editor that will help you edit PDFs, write them from scratch, read and view, annotate, and even sign documents on the go, just like you can do from your computer, OfficeSuite Pro is a good choice.

OfficeSuite Pro is a PDF editor that helps you store, organize, view, reorder, edit, annotate, and even share or print your PDFs directly from your iOS or Android device.

It comes with a standard set of tools that make editing and annotating easy, but you can also merge PDFs, add new pages to existing files, and transform PDFs to other formats.

Available for: Android, iOS

Price: Free / $7.99 upgrade on Android, $4.99 upgrade on iOS to remove ads


Xodo PDF

10. Xodo PDF

(Android, iPhone, iPad)

Like Adobe Acrobat Reader, Xodo's PDF tools are available for everything from phones to web-based apps, with full editing and collaboration support. The software is quick and easy to use, with a well-designed user interface that works both as a reader and an editor -- and there's full support for styluses.

Xodo has many powerful PDF editing tools, including a form filler. Collaboration is at the heart of Xodo's PDF platform -- its Connect feature lets you quickly share documents with co-workers. You can use your Google account or an account on Xodo's own service to get started, adding collaborators via email. It's surprising to see a free app with this range of features, especially one without advertising. There are no plans to charge for the cross-platform version; Xodo's revenue comes from developing custom versions of its tools for corporate clients.

Outside of collaboration you'll find Xodo a capable and powerful PDF editing tool. There's support for all the common elements, including form filling, annotations, and signatures. Tools are easily accessible, and include the ability to reorder documents and add pages.

There's also the option to connect to other cloud services, with support for the big three of Google Drive, OneDrive and Dropbox. You'll need to install the Dropbox app before you can connect to files stored there, but the other two use service APIs, which don't restrict OS-level access to shared folders.

Xodo's mix of features and its cross-platform capabilities make it well worth using, no matter what phone, tablet, or PC you have -- and its web client also simplifies collaboration. The result is a worthy competitor to Adobe's own tools.

Available for: Android, iOS

Price: Free



Frequently Asked Questions

What is a PDF editor?

A PDF editor lets you assemble a Portable Document Format (PDF) file from scratch, as well as amend the content of existing PDF files. Most PDF editors come with the ability to convert, or batch convert, common file types such as Microsoft Office’s Word, Powerpoint, and Excel to and from the PDF format. 

Are the best free PDF editors good?

Whether or not a free PDF editor is best for you will largely depend on how you’ll use it, and where. Free PDF editors can also impose usage limits, such as the amount of files you can import, or export, per day. You'll find some have extra features, like PDF merging tools and PDF compressors.

Is there a completely free PDF editor?

PDF24 Creator is a completely free PDF editor. It's free of charge, free of spyware, and it's our pick for best free PDF editor overall. 


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