The top 6 applications for PDF editors in 2025

The only (free) way I could edit a PDF used to be to basically replicate the file in Microsoft Word, make any required changes, and then save it as a new PDF.

Since then, applications for PDF editors have advanced significantly. The greatest programs available today make it simple to modify all of a PDF’s components, including text and form fields, and to convert files into other formats, such as.docx,.xlsx, and.txt.
During my profession, I have evaluated several PDF editors, both free and premium. I’ve also questioned colleagues about their favorites.

The top 6 PDF editing applications that we have tested and found to be enjoyable are included here.

1.Adobe Acrobat

Adobe Acrobat is the industry standard for PDF editing software. With its extensive feature set, you may design and fill out forms, review and modify PDFs, and work together on files. Additionally, the UI has been updated in recent years, making it simpler to access all of the capabilities that were previously concealed behind nested menus.
Although editing text and graphics directly in Adobe Acrobat is quite simple, you may convert PDF files into suitable formats if you would rather edit text- or data-heavy files in other programs, including Microsoft Word or Excel.

Adobe Acrobat is the ideal choice if you work with PDF files on a regular basis, even if it has more functions than most people require. (And Acrobat Reader is a fantastic, free substitute if you don’t need to change the original text or visuals in a PDF file.)The cost of Adobe Acrobat: is $12.99/month (paid annually) for Acrobat Standard, which has all the essential functions for editing PDFs, and $19.99/month (billed annually) for Acrobat Pro, which has more sophisticated features including document comparison, searchable PDFs, and redaction tools.

Main Advantages of Adobe Acrobat:

Acrobat lets users generate PDFs from many file kinds and modify current PDFs, including text and graphics.
Acrobat provides tools to password secure PDF files, limit modification, and include digital signatures.
Users may quickly exchange PDFs, provide comments, and work together on papers with others.
Acrobat has features for gathering electronic signatures on papers.
Users may design dynamic PDF forms and get information quickly.
By verifying accessibility standards compliance, Acrobat helps guarantee persons with impairments access to PDFs.
Acrobat works well with other Adobe Creative Cloud tools and Microsoft 365 platforms.
Acrobat enables you design reachable PDFs and verify documents for accessibility.
Features such as auto-complete may save time by automatically populating form inputs.
By verifying for compliance with accessibility criteria, Acrobat guarantees everyone access to PDFs.

Available on ios and android

Preview

Mac’s secret jewel is Preview. It has all the tools you need to sign forms, rearrange and combine papers, and annotate PDFs. Additionally, you may do all of the aforementioned tasks without downloading a new program since it is free with macOS.
All of the essential tools for editing PDFs are accessible in Preview’s Markup Toolbar: make notes, highlight, underline, strikethrough, redact sensitive material, and insert new text. Additionally, you can add your signature to any PDF from inside the app.

Do you need to rearrange your PDF file? To reorganize pages, just drag & drop them into the sidebar. Additionally, you may move pages from one PDF into another by opening another in Preview. Additionally, you can choose whatever pages in your sidebar you want to export as a new file by right-clicking on your selection and choosing Export As.
Pricing preview: free for macOS

Main Advantages

Locating text in PDFs.
Creating bookmarks and looking at information.
Presenting PDFs as slideshows.
Looking at animated GIF frames.
Editing PDFs: Completing and signing PDF forms.
Text, notes, and shapes help to annotate.
Page adding, removing, and relocating.
Merging PDFs.
Rotating and cropping PDFs.
Reducing PDF file size.
Image Editing: Rotating, resizing, and cropping photos.
Changing picture file formats.
Getting rid of backdrops or extracting photos.
Using color profiles.
Employing fundamental Core Image processing technologies.
Other Features: Importing photographs from a camera.
Find out where a picture was taken.
Creating pictures and PDFs.
Protecting PDFs using passwords.
Restoring modifications to pictures and PDFs.
Modifying Preview options.
Employing keyboard shortcuts.

Available on macOS

PDFgear

Use Microsoft Edge if you’re a Windows user and you only need to annotate a PDF. It is free and pre-installed on your computer.
However, utilize PDFgear if you need to make further cuts and rearrange your PDF. All of the standard-looking features, like deleting components, changing text, splitting PDFs into several documents, merging PDF files, removing pages, adding signatures, and more, are available without cost or even without the creation of an account.
Additionally, AI-powered PDF editing capabilities are included with PDFgear. For instance, you may summarize, edit, and translate your PDF using the integrated AI. Copilot is another AI chatbot that functions similarly to other chatbots. Although all of these services are free to use for now, the business has said that it intends to charge for more sophisticated features like this in the future.
Pricing for PDFgear is currently free.

Mian Advantage

The AI-powered document discussion tool, PDFgear Copilot, is quick and accurate.
Edit a PDF as in Microsoft Word. Texts as well as pictures may be modified.
The OCR tool lets you find and extract all text from papers.
Convert PDF to many file types.
From several file types, simply create PDFs.
All-round/customized reading modes and settings will provide a nice reading experience. For an eye-caring viewing experience, dark mode is also available.
For drawing shapes, notes, highlights, remarks, or annotations and markup tools.
Accurately and methodically complete interactive PDF forms.
Just click to rotate, remove, delete, insert, and trim PDF pages.
Features for easy PDF file sharing.
Operating in batch mode, PDFgear Hyper PDF Compressor achieves a 90% compression ratio.
Manage PDFs: For simpler administration, examine and change PDF characteristics.
A trouble-free experience is guaranteed with constantly updated FAQ and rapid customer care.

Available on ios and android

Sejda

Sejda is a nice web-based tool that you may use for free if you want to rapidly annotate a PDF, sign a form, or make basic changes to the original text and graphics. Sejda isn’t the tool for you, however, if you need to do more extensive editing, such as altering lengthy passages of text or making forms with fillable fields that appear professional.
It’s also important to note that Sejda doesn’t allow you to save your changes as you go, so if you want to make a lot of changes, I would suggest switching to a different PDF editing tool. You run the danger of losing all of your work otherwise.

Sejda costs: Sejda Desktop’s free plan allows you to edit documents up to 200 pages or 50 MB, but you can only work on three projects at a time. The desktop and online pass costs $5.25/month (paid yearly) and allows you to make unlimited revisions.

Revise current content, photos, links, and notes.
Include shapes, pictures, links, text, and shapes.
Sign and fill out PDFs.
Highlight and strikethrough text with the PDF annotator.
Convert PDFs to Word, Excel, JPG, and more formats.
Combine many PDF files into one.
Divide a PDF into distinct pages.
Use passwords and rights to safeguard documents.
Eliminate passwords and limits.
Include watermarks.
Shrink PDF file size.
Fix broken PDFs.
Automatically deskew and straighten scanned PDF pages.
Include unique typefaces.
Reduce and improve photos.
Design bespoke shapes.
Run many files concurrently.
Provide team pricing including bulk savings.

Available on Desktop

PDF element

All of the sophisticated editing capabilities you would anticipate from a powerful PDF editor tool are available in Wondershare’s PDFelement. Additionally, its intuitive design makes it simple to annotate files, change original text, and replace graphics, as shown in the image above.

However, PDFelement distinguishes itself from other editing applications by providing a few AI-driven tools: AI Translate, Proofread PDF, Translate PDF, and AI Sidebar (its in-app chatbot powered by ChatGPT).
Although there are many free translation tools online and ChatGPT is accessible for free in a separate window, PDFelement offers the convenience of having all of these resources in one location. For instance, I can highlight text in a PDF using AI Translate, and the translated content will show up in the AI Translate side panel immediately.

Main Advantage

Reduce PDF size.
PDF sign.
View PDF.
Batching PDF.
Merge PDFs.
Save PDF.
Get Data.
Make PDF.

Available on android

PDf Expert

For those who often examine, edit, or fill out PDFs while on the move (on an Apple device, at least), Readdle’s PDF Expert app is a fantastic choice since it is compatible with Mac, iPhone, and iPad.
I’ll concentrate on what makes PDF Expert unique, even though it offers all the annotation and basic editing tools you would anticipate from other PDF editor apps:

characteristics driven by AI. Suppose you took a picture of a cookie recipe from a magazine, but the directions are blurry due to coffee stains and shadows. Does it read 1 tsp or 1 Tbsp of salt? Enhance Scan allows you to utilize AI to correct distortions and eliminate shadows, which makes the file easier to read.

Sync data across devices. You can access the most recent version of a document on your iPhone or iPad if you start editing it on your desktop app and want to continue on the train journey home, and vice versa. All you need to do is submit the file to your cloud storage app once, and PDF Expert will sync any further annotations automatically.
reading mode. It may be a pain to see a PDF in its original format, particularly on a mobile device. For a more enjoyable reading experience, however, you may switch to Reading Mode on the mobile app, which is comparable to what you’d find in an eBook reader.
A paid membership is required to access several of the sophisticated features, such as reading mode, password protection, and digital signatures.