PDF Reader Comparison [old]

	A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H	I	J	K	L	M	N	O	P	Q	R	S	T	U	V	W	X	Y	Z	AA
1	Legend: * = Paid Feature Only	PDF Reader Pro	Adobe Acrobat Pro/DC	PDF Expert (v.3)	Apple Preview	PDFGear	PDF Element	Master PDF Editor	UPDF	PDF Studio Pro	Kdan PDF Reader Pro	PDF Professional	PDF Pen Pro (Acquired by Nitro)	Nitro PDF Pro	OwlOCR	OCRmyPDF	Prizmo	AvePDF	Skim	PDF Viewer Annotation Expert	Foxit PDF Editor	Highlights	PDFChef	Abby FineReader	Microsoft Edge	Google Docs	Cisdem PDF Master
2	Lifetime License:	$80.00	$538.80	$70 (50% off)	Free	Currently free	$130.00	$70.00	$50.00	$100–$140	$119.00	$29.99	$180.00	$180.00	$17.00	Open Source	$80–$120	Free Webtool	Free Open Source	N/A	N/A	N/A	$46.00	N/A	Free	Free	$90.00
3	Non-Profit/Education Pricing:	$40.00	$119.00	$40/yr	N/A	N/A	$100/yr	N/A	N/A	N/A	$60.00	N/A	$90.96	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	$40	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	20% off
4	Subscription:	N/A	$239.88	$80/yr	N/A	N/A	$100/yr	N/A	$30/yr	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	$20/yr	$130–160/yr	$30/yr	36/yr	$70/yr	N/A	N/A	$60/yr

5	Black Friday Sale:	$39.99	$15.99/month	$29.99	N/A	N/A	$90.99	N/A	N/A	$64.50	$18.00	N/A	$90.96	N/A	$6.99	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	$20.00	N/A	N/A	N/A	$29.99
6	Apple Silicon Optimized	Yes	DC Yes / Pro no	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Rosetta	Yes	Rosetta	Rosetta	Rosetta	Yes	Yes	Yes	N/A	Yes*	N/A	Yes	Yes	Rosetta	Yes	Rosetta	Rosetta	Yes	N/A	Rosetta
7	Speed	Fast	Slow	Fast	Fast	Fast	Fast	Fast	Fast	Slow	Fast	Fast	Mediocre	Fast	Fast	Fast	Fast	Slow	Fast	Fast	Fast	Fast	Fast	Slow	Fast	Slow	Fast
8	User Interface	6.5/10	7/10	10/10	7/10	5/10	6/10	5/10	7/10	8/10	5.5/10	5/10	4/10	4/10	8/10	Command Line	9/10	Web	6/10	5/10	5/10	7/10	7/10	5/10	8/10	7/10	3/10
9	Generative AI Integration	No	No	No	No	Yes, FREE	No	No	Yes, +$40/yr	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	?
10	Add Stamps/Watermarks	Yes*	Yes*	Mediocre	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes*	Yes	Yes*	Yes*	Yes*	Yes*	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	Mediocre	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No
11	Arrange/Extract Pages	Yes*	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes*	Yes	Yes*	Yes*	Yes*	Yes*	Yes	No	No	Yes*	Yes	Yes	Yes*	No	No	Yes*	No	No	No	No
12	Bookmarks	Yes*	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes*	Yes	Yes*	Yes*	Yes*	Yes*	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	No	No
13	Merge PDFs	Yes*	Yes*	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes*	Yes	Yes*	Yes*	Yes*	Yes*	Yes	No	No	Yes*	Yes	Yes, CMD Line	No	No	No	Yes*	No	No	No	Yes
14	Compress PDF	Yes*	Mediocre	Yes	Mediocre	Yes	Yes	Yes*	No, Upcoming	Yes*	Yes*	Yes*	Yes*	Yes	No	No	No	Excellent	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
15	Create Fillable Forms	Yes*	Yes*	No	No	No	Yes	Yes*	No, Upcoming	Yes*	Yes*	No	Yes*	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No
16	Crop	Yes*	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes*	No	Yes*	Yes*	Yes*	Yes*	Yes	No	No	Yes*	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
17	Dark Reading Mode	Yes*	Yes	Yes	No	Mediocre	No	No	No	No	Yes*	Yes*	No	No	No	No	Yes*	No	No	Yes	No	Yes*	No	No	No	No	No
18	Deskew	No	Yes*	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes*	No	No	Yes*	Yes	No	Mediocre	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
19	Edit Text/Objects	Yes, Text	Yes, Text+Objects*	Yes, Text	No	Mediocre	Yes, Text	Yes*	Yes	Mediocre	Yes, Text*	No	Mediocre	Mediocre	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes*	No	No	No	No
20	Fill Forms	Yes*	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes*	No	Yes*	Yes*	Yes*	Yes*	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes*	No	No	No	Mediocre
21	Flatten	Yes*	Yes	Yes	Yes, Print>Save	No	Yes	Yes*	No	Yes*	Yes*	No	Yes*	Yes	No	Yes	Yes*	Yes	Yes, Print>Save	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
22	Highlighting	Yes*	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes*	Yes	Yes*	Yes*	Yes*	Excellent*	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes, Excellent*	Yes*	No	Yes	No	Yes
23	Highlight/Note List	Yes*	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Mediocre	No	No	Mediocre	Yes*	Yes*	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes, Specialized!*	No	No	No	No	No
24	OCR	Yes*	Yes, +Vector OCR*	Yes	No	Mediocre	Yes, Abby	Yes	No, Upcoming	Yes*	Yes*	No	Yes*	Yes	Yes	Excellent	Yes*	Limited	No	No	No	Limited	No	Yes*	No	Mediocre	Mediocre
25	Password Protect	Yes*	Yes	Yes, for viewing only	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes*	Yes	Yes*	Yes*	Yes*	Yes*	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes
26	Redaction	Yes	Yes*		Yes	No	Yes	Yes*	No	Yes*	Yes*	No	Mediocre	Mediocre	No	No	No	Yes	No	Yes*	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
27	Rotate Pages	Yes*	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes*	Yes	Yes*	Yes*	Yes*	Yes*	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes*	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes*	No	Yes	No	Yes
28	Search	Yes*	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes*	Yes	Yes*	Yes*	Yes*	Yes*	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes*	Yes*	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
29	Signing	Yes*	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Mediocre	Yes*	Yes, but no import	Yes*	Yes*	Yes*	Mediocre	Mediocre	No	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes*	No	No	No	No
30	Batch Processing	Yes*	Yes*	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes*	Limited	Yes*	Yes, OCR only*	Not on mac	No	Yes	Yes*	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
31	Convert to Doc	Yes*	Yes*	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes*	Yes*	Yes*	Yes*	Yes	Yes, text file	Yes, .txt only	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes*	Yes*	Yes*	No	Yes	Yes
32	Note:	Crop mode is nice. Built in TTS.	"Editable Text & Images" OCR is best in class. Best for color rendering. Expensive.	UI is intuitive. Lifetime license is not cross-platform. Screen color rendering accuracy for print sometimes poor.	Preinstalled on MacOS. If you don't need additional features, it's great!	AI Integration to ask Questions of a PDF	Add $30 for iOS	Customizable Keyboard Shortcuts for most tools. Free version watermarks PDF files.	Free account required to stop nag screens & watermarks. No drag and drop export or merging.	Looks like MS Office. Extensive Features. High Memory Usage. OCR-Highlight Alignment Render Issues.	Free version full of ads and purchase prompts. Tacky.	Free version full of ads and purchase prompts. Tacky.	Editing text can be very patchy	Buggy on Mac. Undo edited text deletes. Crashed while highlighting.	Very Quick OCR	Free. Command Line. Decent Results.	Pro Pack option include Batch and Automator functions for $74.99	Web Tool, Keep Privacy in Mind. Useful in a bind.	Underfeatured compared to Apple Preview	Underfeatured compared to Apple Preview	Looks like MS Office. Hard to find features.	A great niche tool for extracting highlights and images. OCR extraction only.	Underfeatured compared to Apple Preview	Lots of OCR-related options for what it offers.	Only slightly better than other browsers.	OCR extracts text rather than adding an invisible layer. Seems to have a page limit.	Pixelated UI
33	Overall Rating (Subjective)	8/10	8/10	8/10	8/10	6.6/10	6.5/10	6.5/10	6/10	6/10	6/10	5/10	5.5/10	5/10	9/10	8/10	7/10	7/10	5/10	5/10	4/10	4/10	3/10	5/10	2.5/10	2/10	0/10
34	Homebrew Install Command	brew install --cask pdf-reader-pro	brew install --cask adobe-acrobat-pro	brew install --cask pdf-expert	N/A	N/A	brew install --cask pdfelement	brew install --cask master-pdf-editor	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	brew install --cask pdfpenpro	brew install --cask nitro-pdf-pro	N/A	brew install ocrmypdf	brew install --cask prizmo	N/A	brew install --cask skim	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	brew install --cask microsoft-edge		brew install --cask cisdem-pdfmanagerultimate
35
36	Best App for PDF/File Collections:		To suggest a correction, right click a cell>comment
37	DEVONthink Pro - Best search functions + ABBYY OCR.
38
39	Webtools - Possible Privacy Risk
40	iLovePDF - Various tools
41	AvePDF - Best PDF Compression
42	EasePDF - Unlock Tool
43	Sedja - Create Fillable Forms
44	DocMadeEasy - Various Tools
45
46	OCR Apps:
47	PDFify (OCR tool)
48
49	Misc. Mentions
50	NightPDF - Minimal Dark reader Only
51