Best PDF Editor Software

PDFelement Competitors & Alternatives

Are you considering using PDFelement to manage your PDF documents? Before choosing a software, it’s important to learn about other PDF editor software platforms for small businesses. The top four alternatives are listed below, along with valuable insights about their features, pricing, and usability.

The information in this article is based on our research, interviews with customers, as well as dozens of hours hand-testing PDF editor software. The details of our review process and research methodology can be found in the Why You Should Trust Us section on our PDF editor category page.

PDFelement is a well-rounded, intermediate PDF editor platform. Overall, it’s best for those who prefer a semi-robust solution for personal use. We also recommend it to those who prefer to purchase a plan on an annual basis.


There are four PDF editor solutions that are worth considering before you purchase PDFelement. They primarily differentiate based on the features offered and ease of use. Understanding these differences will help you determine which platform will work best for your business.

  • If you prefer an advanced, all-in-one PDF editor and also use other Adobe products like Adobe Sign and Adobe Scan, then we recommend Adobe Acrobat
  • If you need a solution with a wide range of review and annotation tools, currently use signNow, and have a larger budget, then we recommend pdfFiller
  • If you need a beginner platform and have a smaller budget, then we recommend Smallpdf
  • If you prefer an intermediate solution with high-quality customer support tools, then we recommend PDF Expert

Here’s a breakdown of our review criteria. We rate each piece of software based on its features, usability, pricing, and customer support availability. Here is how PDFelement and its competitors rank in each category.

Software CompanyAnalyst RatingFeaturesUsabilityPricingCustomer Support
PDFelement86898.759.5
pdfFiller8998.7598.75
Adobe Acrobat Pro DC919.59.589
Smallpdf8479.59.58.5
PDF Expert82898.57

In this article, we’ll provide an overview of PDFelement as a PDF editor platform. Afterwards, we’ll compare and contrast PDFelement against its top competitors. If you’d like a full description of PDFelement, check out our in-depth PDFelement review.

Table of Contents

PDFelement Top Features

PDFelement offers standard and advanced features that help individuals, SMBs, and enterprises create, edit, review, and overall manage their PDFs. This includes tools for PDF creation and conversion, content editing, and PDF review and annotation. Below we describe the 13 most important features in PDFelement.

PDFelement FeatureDescription
PDF CreationPDFelement offers multiple methods for creating a PDF. You can create blank PDFs, scan your documents into PDFs, and merge and split your PDFs.
PDF ConversionPDFelement lets you convert your PDFs into multiple document types. This includes Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, JPEGs & PNGs, PowerPoints, and text files.
Text EditingText is one of the most important components of your PDF, therefore it’s important that your PDF editor can accommodate your text needs. PDFelement lets you change the font, color, size, and typographical emphasis of your text.
Image EditingImages enhance the readability of your PDF documents by providing visual breaks and supporting certain sections of text. PDFelement lets you rotate, crop images, and even replace images with other images.
Electronic SignaturesSome PDF editors will let you insert, request, and track electronic signatures in your PDF document. PDFelement lets you insert standard electronic signature fields – including signature, text, checkbox, and dropdown. PDFelement is best if you only require one signer.
Page OrganizationPage organization can affect how people interpret your PDF’s content. PDFelement lets you drag & drop your pages if you need to reorder them. You can also insert, rotate, and extract pages to save or delete, and split PDFs to save into separate files
HighlightingHighlighting is an easy way to indicate important information. In PDFelement, you can only highlight text that you’ve embedded using the platform.
Freehand DrawingFreehand drawing lets you write handwritten notes and markings on your PDF. PDFelement lets you adjust the color, size, and opacity of your freehand drawing tool.
Callout BoxesCallout boxes make important pieces of information visually stand out, more so than highlighting. An advantage of PDFelement’s callout box feature is that you can resize your callout boxes and adjust the positioning and length of their arrows.
Mobile PDF EditorA mobile PDF editor lets you create, edit, review, and manage your PDFs anywhere. With PDFelement, you can insert text, post-it notes, stamps, and your electronic signature, freehand draw, and search within your document
Security FeaturesProper security and data protection for your PDFs is critical for your PDF editor. PDFelement offers a wide variety of security features — including stamps, watermarks, password protection, and sensitive information redaction.

PDFelement Competitor Overview: Features

The chart below shows you the main features found in PDF editor software, and ones offered by each solution. You’ll notice that many solutions offer the same features, therefore it’s important that when analyzing each option, you focus on the quality of each feature.

PDFelement feature comparison chart vs. competitors

PDFelement Competitor Overview: Pricing

PDFelement’s pricing depends on whether you are an individual, business, or purchasing for education, or a bundle pack. It also depends on whether you are purchasing a yearly, half-yearly, or perpetual license for PDFelement products.

However, right now you can save up to 50% if you purchase PDFelement products. PDFelement also offers a limited free version of its PDF editor.

PDF editor SoftwarePlan Pricing
PDFelement
Plan TypeYearly Plan PricingPerpetual License
Individual
  • PDFelement Pro Half-yearly plan: $49.99 per half-year
  • PDFelement Pro Yearly plan: $79.99 per year
PDFelement Pro: $129.99
TeamPDFelement Pro: $109 per yearPDFelement Pro: $139
Education
  • PDFelement Standard: $34.50 per year
  • PDFelement Pro: $64.50
  • PDFelement Standard: $39.50
  • PDFelement Pro: $79.50
Bundle
  • Windows + IOS + Cloud: $129.99 per year
  • Mac + IOS: $99.99 per year
  • Mac + IOS + Cloud: $129.99 per year
  • Windows + IOS: $99.99 per year
  • Windows + Mac: $139.99 per year
  • Windows + Cloud: $99.99 per year
  • Windows + IOS + Cloud: $179.99
  • Mac + IOS: $159.99
  • Mac + IOS + Cloud: $179.99
  • Windows + IOS: $159.99
  • Windows + Mac: $219.99
  • Windows + Cloud: $159.99
pdfFiller
PlanPricing
Basic (1 user)$20 per month
Premium (Up to 5 users)$40 per month ($8 per user)
airSlate Business Cloud (Minimum 5 users)$50 per user per month
Adobe Acrobat Pro DC
PlanPricing
Individuals
  • Acrobat Standard DC: $22.99 per month
  • Acrobat Pro DC: $24.99 per month
Business
  • Acrobat Standard DC for teams: $14.99 per license per month
  • Acrobat Pro DC for teams: $16.99 per license per month
Smallpdf
PlanPricing
Free$0 per month
Pro$12 per month
Team$10 per license per month
BusinessContact Smallpdf
PDF Expert
PlanPricing
Monthly$12.49 per month
Lifetime$99.99 one-time payment

Top PDFelement Competitors

PDFelement is a well-rounded, intermediate PDF editor platform. It’s best for individuals who prefer a slightly more robust solution for personal use. It is the most similar to PDF Expert in terms of platform advancedness.

The top PDFelement competitors are:

  • Adobe Acrobat Pro DC
  • pdfFiller
  • Smallpdf
  • PDF Expert

1. Adobe Acrobat Pro DC

Adobe Acrobat Pro DC is a feature-rich, advanced PDF editor. Compared to PDFelement, Adobe Acrobat Pro DC is better for large businesses who primarily need a PDF editor for team collaboration and have a larger budget. We also recommend it to those who also use Adobe products like Adobe Scan and Adobe Sign.

You'll prefer Adobe Acrobat Pro DC if:

  • You prefer an advanced, all-in-one solution
  • You want a PDF editor that integrates with Microsoft 365, Google Drive, Dropbox or Zapier
  • You want to insert e-signature fields into your document
You'll prefer PDFelement if:

  • You want a free PDF editor plan
  • You want to create PDF templates
  • You want freehand drawing and callout boxes as review and annotation tools

2. pdfFiller

pdfFiller is an advanced PDF editor solution that offers a wide range of review and annotation tools. Compared to PDFelement, pdfFiller is more robust and feature-rich, but also slightly more expensive. We recommend it to those who need a robust solution for personal use, and also use signNow.

You'll prefer pdfFiller if:

  • You prefer an advanced solution
  • You want a PDF editor that integrates with Microsoft 365, Google Drive, Dropbox or Zapier
  • You want to assign e-signature fields in your PDF
You'll prefer PDFelement if:

  • You want a free PDF editor plan
  • You want access to a free template library
  • You want to insert personalized headers and footer

3. Smallpdf

Smallpdf is a basic PDF editor solution that works well for beginners. Compared to PDFelement, Smallpdf is more affordable and more user-friendly. However, PDFelement as a platform is slightly more robust.

You'll prefer Smallpdf if:

  • You have a small budget
  • You are a beginner when it comes to PDF editors
  • You want to insert and track electronic signatures
You'll prefer PDFelement if:

  • You prefer an intermediate solution
  • You want to insert personalized headers and footers
  • You want to scan documents into PDFs

4. PDF Expert

PDF Expert is an intermediate PDF editor solution. Compared to PDFelement, PDF Expert is the most similar in terms of feature richness and robustness, however, PDFelement is slightly more intuitive to use.

You'll prefer PDF Expert if:

  • You want to create PDFs from a variety of document types — Word document, JPEGs, and PNGs
  • You prefer to pay a monthly subscription
  • You want to replace images in your PDF without it interfering with the rest of your content
You'll prefer PDFelement if:

  • You want a free PDF editor plan
  • You want to create PDF templates
  • You want to convert your PDFs into Word documents, PowerPoints, or Excel spreadsheets

Amy Yang

Amy Yang is a Junior Research Analyst at SoftwarePundit, where she conducts in-depth analyses on software markets and products. Amy has expertise in content production and managing digital and social platforms. She has a Bachelor of Science in Communication & Media, and a Minor in Web Programming and Applications from NYU. You can connect with Amy on LinkedIn.

Amy is an expert in several software categories including:

  • Course creation software
  • Electronic signature software
  • Social media software
  • Website builder software

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